Family BBQ

Often on summer nights we will fire up the grill and have a little family BBQ. My dad grilled up some ribs tonight, and I have to say that they were really good. We had peas and potato chips on the side. I'm hoping that maybe next time I can make some potato salad. The latest issue of Food Network Magazine came the other day, and it has 50 different recipes for potato salad. I hope to try it out soon.

This was actually the first time we had a real BBQ. Normally when we grill we usually have hamburgers or hot dogs. Sometimes we also grill chicken or steaks. We usually don't grill ribs. However, I will say that if you want to have a good BBQ, you have to have a good BBQ sauce. Unfortunately most BBQ sauces contain wheat or something else that I can't have. So I decided to make my own. It actually turned out pretty good.

Ellen's Sweet BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
dash A1 Steak Sauce

Directions:
Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Serve.

To be honest, this is something that I sort of just threw together. I used dark brown sugar because that was what we had. You can use light brown sugar if you want. I'm not sure it will make a big difference.

I hope that we get to have more BBQs later this summer. I'm planning an Asian BBQ for Friday. It's going to be a blast.

End of the Year

Hey guys,

Yes I know it's been awhile since I last posted. That's because I've been very busy with school lately. 3 honors courses and after-school activities have taken up a lot of my time, so I haven't really been able to do a whole lot of cooking. However, the school year is almost over. The last day is on Friday, and I hope that I'll be able to start posting my favorite recipes again.

So with that said, I have some things to share. First of all, I am now on Twitter, so feel free to tweet me with suggestions for new recipes or any questions related to this blog. Second,  I have managed to track down some new recipes that I hope to share with you.

By the way, remember that Super Bowl Party that I did for my final exam in my foods class. Well here's the video of the pictures.

Well that's all for now. Hope I can share some recipes with you soon.

Pumpkin Marathon

So as you know, yesterday was Thanksgiving. One big classic is pumpkin pie. However, I ended up with more pumpkin than I needed. So today I'm going to make a bunch of recipes to use up all that extra pumpkin. I'll also include my version of pumpkin pie. So here's today's lineup for the pumpkin marathon.

Pumpkin Bars
Pumpkin Muffins
Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Busy, Busy Days

It was the second day of school for me, and things get really busy, really fast. I got homework yesterday, and more homework today. Classes are starting to get rolling. I'm taking a foods class and we're still learning about classroom procedures. But everything else is busy, busy, busy. Between homework and extracurricular activities, I have very little time. So I need to be able to make something quick and easy for really busy days. You may think this is impossible because recipes take so long to make. The answer is the crock pot. It's a slow cooker, so the food cooks for hours. But don't be fooled. It's actually quite easy. All you have to do is simply put the ingredients into the crock pot, set the timer, and it will cook for the rest of the day. Once the timer goes off, the crock pot will keep the food warm until it is ready to serve. So it is ideal for days when you are really busy and don't have time to cook. In my house, we have a lot of crock pot meals when we are busy. You too will find it is the perfect way to make sure you have a delicious home-cooked meal, even when you don't have time to cook.