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Grilled Slaw Is A Thing

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Spring is here and the grill is out!!!  I was recently at my friends apartment that I spend a good amount of time at.  We BBQ a lot in the warm months of the year and are always trying new things on the grill.  Last weekend we grilled cabbage to make a grilled coleslaw.  It was tremendous!!!   But as most of you know I will through anything on the grill.  Grilled celery anyone?  Don’t knock it till you try it.   I’m sure there a lot’s of people who feel the same way I do about grilling everything and anything.  So I am sure you will have no problem with this warm version of slaw.  We used only red cabbage instead of the usual red and green.  I cut the red cabbage lengthwise, about 1/4 – 1/2 inch slices, with the core to keep the slices intact.  I left the carrots whole, peeled and cut the onion into rings.  When everything was done I did a rough chop of the veggies, giving them a rustic feel.  When grilling just use a small amount of olive oil on the cabbage.  This makes it so you won’t have to use a lot of mayo, which is usually essential in a good slaw.  We used a garlic mayo and minced capers for our dressing.  You could also leave out the capers, squeeze a lime and chop some cilantro with the garlic mayo for a different version.  Even add a little red pepper flakes for some heat.  Or whatever your heart desires.  I find grilling things opens my creative mind to different ways of preparing and eating food.  I hope this inspires you to explore and start grilling in different ways!!!

 

 

Grill Slaw Is A Thing
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This is a great way to have a healthier side dish but keeping a bbq staple that everyone loves.
Ingredients
  • 1 Head red cabbage
  • 1 Onion - white, yellow or red
  • 2-3 Large carrots
  • 2-3 Tbsp of Garlic Mayo
  • A Handful of Capers
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Cut cabbage length wise and keep core intact about ¼-1/2 inch thick.
  2. Peel and slice onion into rings.
  3. Wash carrots thoroughly, and dry them.
  4. Lightly coat onions, carrots and cabbage with olive oil, salt and pepper.
  5. Carrots take a little while so start them first.
  6. Grill veggies till desired doneness.
  7. I usually only flip the onions and cabbage once during grilling.
  8. Gives them a nice grilled sear marks.
  9. While veggies are cooking mince the capers.
  10. When done, cut core out of cabbage and trough away.
  11. Then give a rough chop to all veggies.
  12. I still like to cut the carrots in strings but am not so precise with the chopping.
  13. Toss with mayo and capers.
  14. Salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
The grilling time is approximate. It all depends on your grill and how cooked you want the veggies.

Sweet Tart Deviled Eggs

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Every once in a while we have some free time at work and I like to make something out of what’s around.   As most of you know, see this is one of my favorite things to do.   We always have a few ingredients lying around, buy information pills like dough, medications onions, eggs, among other random items.  So on this rare slow day, I decided to put some of these ingredients to use.  Well, we did plan this the day before, as we needed a few extra ingredients, but you get the picture.  It turned out so good, my colleague’s said I had to write about it.  As usual I didn’t really measure, but don’t let that stop you, it’s quite easy to make.  This is a recipe for two tarts. We make dough in huge quantities so if you only want one tart cut recipe in half, but use one whole onion.  Also, I don’t know how much commercial store bought dough makes, so use your best judgement.  Of course homemade dough is best!

 

 

Spinach And Onion Tart With Cherry Tomatoes
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Ingredients
  • 1 round of pastry dough devided into two
  • 2 packages of frozen spinach
  • 1½ large onions
  • 1 package of grape tomatoes
  • 1 8oz package of Gouda cheese
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • Salt and pepper
  • Milk or egg for wash on crust, or combine and use both.
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Thaw spinach and squeeze out the liquid
  3. Roll dough into a rectangle like shape and place on parchment baking sheet, put in fridge
  4. In large skillet melt butter
  5. On medium heat sauté onion with salt and pepper
  6. Cover for about 20 minutes till you get some browning
  7. Chop garlic and separate the cloves
  8. Rinse and chop tomatoes in half, set to the side.
  9. Grate cheese
  10. Add spinach, garlic salt and pepper and sauté till ingredients are incorporated
  11. Grab dough and sprinkle a little bit of cheese on dough
  12. Then place spinach, onion in center of dough
  13. Spread it out leaving about an inch of dough for a crust
  14. Add tomatoe halves and sprinkle rest of cheese on top
  15. Fold edges of dough around the mixture.
  16. Doesn't have to be pretty, just make it so nothing will flow over.
  17. Egg or milk wash the crust.
  18. Back for 25-30 minutes.
  19. Check after 25 minutes
  20. You want a golden crust and bottom of tart to cook but don't burn it.
  21. Let cool before cutting and serving.

 


My dear friend Shawn made the most incredible deviled eggs.  Well, clinic to be fair, sickness
his deep fried deviled eggs are the most incredible.  One day I will get that recipe!  This recipe is a close second, more about
if I do say so myself.  He used our hot sauce, some butter and turn deviled eggs on their head, again.  Here is what he did:

Sweet Tart Deviled Eggs

 

He hard boiled eggs, mixed equal parts room temperature butter with the egg yolks, added sautéed garlic, salt and pepper to taste.  Grilled the egg whites in the pan that he sautéed the garlic in.   Then, put mixture back in egg whites and sprinkled the plate with our Sweet Tart hot sauce to dip the deviled eggs into.  Simple but, incredible.

Summer Traditions

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Famous cole slaw and potato salad

 

It’s summer and that means sun, visit this site sand and lots of sweat.  Summer in New York has always had an unpredictable beginning, also known as June.  Then it’s hot, humid and lots of sweat.   This year has been a wet summer.  Not bad,  but definitely not normal.  It means our beach camping days have been limited and bbq’s few.   That doesn’t mean we havent been doing both.   That would be silly .  What it does mean, is a change in what we pack for the beach and keeping our bbq’s a little more simple.  For camping we’ve been making our vegetarian chile and chicken mole for dinners and spam musabi’s for lunches.  These have become our staples.  We’ve also been making our famous cole slaw, corn salad and curried corn for BBQ’S.  I always feel a little guilty bringing these out but a friend said, “don’t,  these have become tradition. We want these side dishes at your bbq’s”.  That was a huge compliment and humbling moment.   I’m always happy when someone likes what we cook, who doesn’t?  But to be starting a tradition is something completely different.   To me that is a true testament to home and comfort.  I’m glad we can bring a little of both to our friends and our home.   Here’s to traditions, summer, friends and comfort food.  Now go out and make a tradition of your own!

What To Do With Your Hot Sauce!

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Chile smashing! image

 

As you all know we are now making hot sauces. What started out as Christmas gifts has blown up to be a part time business. Hopefully this year we can make it a full time job. But in the meantime people keep asking us what we use our hot sauce for? Well we like to put it on anything that will stand still. But not everyone is like us, shop so here are a few of our favorite things…

Deviled eggs
Who doesn’t love deviled eggs??? What we do is instead of mustard we add a little hot sauce in the mayonnaise and egg yolk mixture to give it a little kick and a drop on top for decoration.

Hot wings
The Super Bowl favorite or an Oscar guilty pleasure. If you’ve made hot wings at home you can just imagine what out hot sauce will do to those little bits of mouth watering chickadees. Yum!

Pasta salad
Just like the deviled eggs, add a little to your potato salad for a nice punch and an unexpected heat that your guests will love and wonder how you did it.

Chicken salad
This is one of my favorites. I mix this with chicken, mayonnaise, a dash of mustard, celery, carrots and red onions, sometimes a little cilantro, and presto you have the beginning of a great salad or wrap or sandwich.

There are so many things you can do with our hot sauces. Treat them like an ingredient in your kitchen arsenal. Let your imagination go wild. That’s what we do! We hope you like the tips and will use them and create your own fun dishes. Till next time, spicy love to all!!

Canning Is Here…!!!

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String beans and hello beets Dilly string beans

 

Canning is a tradition that has been going on for centuries.  People have preserved everything they could from salting meat and fish, advice to veggies and fruit, rx even burying them in the ground for months on end.  It’s a way to preserve the harvest, or it was.  Most people don’t need to can or ferment vegetables or salt there meats to last on long boat rides to foreign lands or the harsh winter months.  We started a couple years ago when I bought Jason some canning books for Christmas.  We had been making beer and I felt it was the natural progression.  So we filled our cupboards with all kinds of canned food.  After a couple years and the renovation of the kitchen/Lab earlier this year, we noticed we still had a lot of left over and started to use our canned goods as appetizers and side dishes.  Soon we were running out of our supply.  And like our hot sauce people wanted to take some home.  So this fall we have been canning freaks.  Also the local CSA has helped us with more food then we can eat. We’ve canned everything from apples, pestos, soups, made preserves and our very popular chile peppers.  The latest is dilly string beans and yellow beets.  Come February and March we will gorging on our hard work this fall.  Hopefully we can save some for summer BBQ’s!

Pumpkin and Potato Soup

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Pumpkin and Potato Soup - based on Mum's yellow potatoes
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Ingredients
  • 1 small sugar pumpkin (3.5 - 4lbs)
  • 4-5 medium potatoes
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • ½ cup vegetable stock
  • House of Zeta Homewrecker Hot Sauce (or similar earthy smoked hot sauce)
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Cut pumpkin in quarters and de-seed
  2. Cut pumpkins one more time in half
  3. Peel potatoes and cut into chunks
  4. Steam both separately
  5. When done drain and let cool
  6. Scrape pumpkin into bowl
  7. Add potatoes, and cream, butter.
  8. Mash together adding some salt and pepper
  9. Place mash mix in blender add stock and blend until smooth
  10. Add two or three dashes of the hot sauce to taste
  11. Salt and pepper to taste of needed
  12. Reheat and serve.
Notes
Ratio of pumpkin to potato should be ⅔ pumpkin to ⅓ potato. Keep this in mind when making soup.

 

 

Pumpkin and Potato Soup

 

Is Pumpkin and Potato soup your new staple for this fall and winter? We think so, and here’s why. Jason and I received an invite to our friends annual pumpkin party this last weekend and were told to make something with pumpkin. It was requested that I make Paula Deens pumpkin gooey cake. No problem. I love it and it’s become a staple in our Thanksgiving meals. It even replaces the pumpkin pie! But we also wanted to bring a savory dish as well. Our first thought was pumpkin and potato mash. A side dish Jason grew up with. But as we cooked every thing and started to put it together we noticed that it was looking and tasting like a great soup. So we added some vegetable stock to thin it out a bit and next thing you know we had an amazing soup! Jason also added a bit of our Home Wrecker hot sauce for a little surprise. At the party people were practically licking their bowls, or was that just us?! We recreated the recipe here. It’s easy and very un-fussy. The hardest part is cutting up the pumpkin. But it’s worth it as you get to roast the seeds! With fall and winter settling in remember your new best friend, pumpkin and potato soup. It’s the perfect starter or side dish with a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich.

Hot Salsa? Yes Please

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Salsa

 

Our newest hot sauce is more of a salsa but not quite.  We added tomatoes so you can really sink your chips into it.

Also we don’t put this one threw a sieve but if you want a smoother sauce than you can.  With a heat most hot sauce lovers can handle this one will disappear fast!

 

 

Hot Suff
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Recipe type: Condiment
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 2 packages of grape tomatoes
  • 1 chipotle chile
  • 3 mulatto chili's
  • 1¾ habanero chili(deseeded and destemmed)
  • 4-5 garlic cloves
  • Small handful of cilantro
  • ½ cup vinegar
  • * Splash of chili water
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Soak your peppers in hot water for 30 minutes
  2. Either in a bowl weighed down so chili's are submerged or in a ziplock bag
  3. When chili's are done pull off stems and discard
  4. Also discard any seed and veins that come with stems
  5. Combine all ingredients into a blender and blend till smooth
  6. Serve immediately.
Notes
If your worried about it being too hot, generic add some lime juice and or decrease the amount of Habanero peppers.

* Chili water is the water you soaked the chili's in.

It’s Getting Hot in Here

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It’s hot sauce mania here at The Lab.  We have been obsessed you could say.  It all started with Christmas and has spilled over.  Our latest sauces have been gobbled up by everyone and it seems there is not stopping us or them.  I can’t believe it started with just wanting to make something nice for Christmas that wouldn’t break my bank account.  We are really honing our skills, patient and what we want out of the sauces.  From mild and smokey, order to oh my god get me a bucket of water!  Our latest is a smoked red pepper hot sauce that has that sweetness of peppers and heat from some red Jalapeño’s.   It was inspired by a restaurant in LA that makes the most amazing yellow pepper dipping sauce.   One day I will crack that recipe!  Here is one of the new ones, enjoy!  Oh and don’t forget the homemade corn chips!!!

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Red Hot Red Pepper Sauce
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Recipe type: Sauces
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Ingredients
  • 6 red peppers
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 red Jalapeño
  • ¼ white onion
  • Small handful of cilantro
Instructions
  1. Slice peppers in half lengthwise.
  2. Place on shallow pan in broiler, skin side up.
  3. Or line bottom of broiler with foil.
  4. Cook peppers til skin is black on most of the pepper.
  5. Check regularly so as not to burn peppers or housed down!
  6. When peppers are done place on plate to cool.
  7. In the meantime, Chop onion, garlic, jalapeño, cilantro and put in blender or food processor.
  8. Peel skin off peppers and put them with the rest of the ingredients.
  9. Blend till smooth
  10. Salt and pepper to taste.
  11. Serve warm or cold.
Notes
You can also roast peppers directly on stove tops open flame, but this is only for experienced cooks.

 

Teriyaki. Simple & easy. So why does everyone screw it up?

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I’ve been making Teriyaki sauce for years now.  I learned it from my old roommate Lisa.  We were living together when she was in college and she used to make all kinds of amazing food.  Thanks to her and her fried rice, Spam will forever have a place in my pantry, along with Panko.  I used to watch her in fascination as she took ordinary ingredients and turned them into amazing meals.  In a way it helped reignite my love of cooking.  I got disenchanted for a brief moment when I went vegan.  At that time soy products sucked.  So I left my Veganism behind and dove back into carnivore land.  Just in time to enjoy some Hawaiian/Japanese comfort food.  There was was Ramen with an egg dropped in, Spam fried rice, Coroke, and my favorite Chicken Teriyaki.  I have been making these dishes ever since, especially the Chicken Teriyaki.  It has become a staple in my dinner party cannon.

Once you try this you will never order it in a restaurant again.  I have ruined many a persons teriyaki experience with this recipe.  In a good way.  You can change it to your taste, sweet, salty, garlicky, gingery.  What ever way you want to go.  I tend to go heavier on the soy sauce and ginger and garlic.  I don’t like super sweet teriyaki sauce.  When I make for friends I make it how I want it and they usually have that moment of, why does everyone make such a sweet sauce? So here is what I do.  Be adventurous and don’t be scared it’s easy.

Ingredients:

Soy Sauce

Brown Sugar

Garlic(fresh)

Ginger(fresh)

I start with soy sauce and add brown sugar (remember we want a savory sauce so more soy then sugar).  I then add chopped garlic and chopped ginger.   Simmer for a few minutes to thicken and then place the chicken in a baking dish, add sauce on bottom of dish and on top of the meat and bake for about 45 minutes, turning a couple of times.   I use chicken thighs, they soak up the sauce best.   Cook rice and some veggies and you have an amazingly easy dinner.

 

 

 

 

July the 4th & then some!

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The weekend started with a bang.  It being 4th of July and all.  It was our friend Kirks Birthday and I attended his celebratory bbq bash where he made his Great Grandmas Fire Engine Red Cake and we enjoyed fireworks through a chain link fence. Only in New York can this be enjoyed.  Well not entirely enjoyed but the company was wonderful.  I then went home and took the late morning train to meet up with the beach crew for the rest of the weekend.

As usual we hit the beach bar for a quick arrival drink, abortion then headed for camp.  The weather was amazing and for lunch I brought egg salad sandwiches.  Great for the first day.  The rest was spent soaking in the sun, swimming in the ocean and playing the ukulele.  When dinner came around we were very excited to bust out the newest crazy meal we had thought up.  Meatloaf sliders. Yes that’s what I said.  They were a huge hit!! And really worked out great on the beach.  We accompanied them with coleslaw.  Which didn’t work out as well.  But you can’t win them all.

The next day was the usual breakfast, eggs, bacon and potatoes.   What wasn’t the usual was that our friend Naoum decided to join us.  We were beyond thrilled.  We picked him up a the dock and sang the New Zealand welcome song Haere mai.  He arrived just in time for lunch which was our Spam musubis.   We then constructed a kite made from the mylar balloons we found on the beach.   It took a while but well worth the effort.  For dinner we went for a classic, bacon wrapped hot dogs and macaroni salad.  needless to say there was nothing left.  The night was spent having cocktails and playing our favorite card game.

Our last day was lazy and spent doing what we do best.  Breakfast, swimming, sunning, playing the ukulele and making beach  pizzas for lunch.  Sadly it had to end so we packed up, flew the kite one last time, hit the ferry,  grabbed the train and headed home for Chinese food and a movie.

 

 

Meatloaf Sliders
Author: 
Recipe type: BBQ
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 Pound of ground beef and ground pork combined
  • 1 Small green pepper chopped
  • 1 Small onion chopped(yellow or white)
  • 1 Egg
  • ¼ Cup of quick oats or bread crumbs
  • A couple splashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • A little bit of catchup
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl
  2. Mix with hands(my favorite part!)
  3. Make slider size loaf patties
  4. Grill till done all the way through
  5. Serve with your favorite burger toppings
  6. Best with potato slider buns

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