Bar-B-Quest

This week I was challenged by the letter “B”. I was still feeling the massive caloric intake from last week’s apple crisp, so I wanted to do something salty instead of sweet ( and possibly fewer calories). And what’s a better B dish than good ole fashioned BBQ!

To be honest I almost didn’t fulfill my cooking obligation. I had worked a 70 hour work week and, coupled with two nights of minimal sleep, I was pretty sleepy to say the least! But I knew I would let my blogging audience (Jilly and Gracie and possibly my mom) down, so it was off to the grocery store!

I decided on two dishes: BBQ sandwiches and baked beans. Now if you are anything like me, the most I know about cooking baked beans are the commercials for Bush’s baked beans with the amazing talking dog that gives away all the “family secrets”. But I found this amazing recipe on Allrecipes that was super easy and they were sooo good!!!

Baked Beans


Ingredients
2 (15 ounce) cans baked beans with pork
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
2 slices bacon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a 9x9 inch baking dish, combine the pork and beans, brown sugar, onion, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with the bacon slices.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until sauce is thickened and bacon is cooked.

Here's what it looks like before I put it in the oven...



I took the advice posted online and cut the brown sugar in half. I learned that most baked beans already come in a sweetened sauce. And I also did not use the bacon, because I normally only eat turkey bacon and I didn’t think it would have the same effect.

The sandwiches proved to be a tiny bit more difficult. The ingredients are as follows:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large (about 2 cups) thinly sliced onion
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup water
4 cups (about 1 pound) leftover chopped cooked turkey breast
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 (1 1/2-ounce) Kaiser rolls or hamburger buns, split and warmed
Dill pickles (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)

Now the recipe was designed for people who had leftover turkey in their fridge. I, however, never have leftover anything because I am out of town every week so I actually had to cook the turkey patties. The challenge here was the fact that I had two (essentially three including the beans) things cooking at the same time! I noticed when I was melting the butter that it was burned a little bit. I remembered from my rice krispie treat phase that once the butter burns nothing will turn out! So I had to start over to cook the onions.





Preparation
1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt; cook, stirring frequently, until soft (about 7-9 minutes). Add vinegar, barbecue sauce, and 1/2 cup water; simmer 5 minutes. Add turkey to sauce mixture, and stir until thoroughly heated (about 3-5 minutes). Add pepper, taste, and season with additional salt, if needed.

2. Arrange turkey evenly on bottom halves of buns; top each portion with additional sauce. Cover with bun tops; serve with pickles and hot sauce, if desired.

Here is an aerial shot of the burgers cooking on the stove!


The sandwich recipe I got out of Health Magazine, and it turned out really well! See below:



Hope everyone is having a great week! Letter C coming soon!