But, overall I can tell ya that I completely fell in love this weekend with the new Bubba Keg grill that my boy “Ogre” just had to make sure we used.  I will let ya in on a little secret and tell ya that a HankBob review of the Bubba Keg will be comin’ soon.

In the meantime just enjoy my rantings on these lime marinated scallop fiesta ho-tep taco thangs!

Just in case you were not aware, ol’ HankBob is a huge fan of Mac n’ Cheese, I’m also a huge fan of my smoker, and add to that my evercrave of bacon.  Combining all of those things have lead me down the path of smoked Mac many times over, but today I needed a new step and just had to share my joy.

I really need you to understand, this dish did not NEED to be fried, nor did it ASK to be fried.  I just decided that I wanted to see what would happen IF it was fried.  I was a little worried,  I was a little scared but true deliciousness managed to persevere.

Now that you know the story, lemme tell ya how to do it (just in case you want to try this at home).

Ingredients

• 1 lb bacon (cut)
• 1- 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 3 cloves garlic (pureed)
• 1/2 sweet onion (pureed)
• 2 tbsp salt
• 3 tbsp black pepper
• 16 oz of shredded - Parmesan, mozzarella, asiago
• 16 oz cheddar cheese (separated in half)
• 1 lb of Pene Rigate
• 1/2 cup of crumbled Cheez-Itz (I like hot and spicy)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 eggs
• A strong arm
• A desire to wash dishes
• No fear of a high caloric intake

Here is what to do!

Take the cut bacon and add to your pan and get it good and fried up (do not drain).  Once the bacon is fried go ahead and add the pureed onion and garlic to the pan.  Give that a few whisks to just get the everything blending a bit.  Now pour the heavy cream and eggs and bring to a semi-boil (I have no idea what you would really call that).

While the cream and bacon and garlic and onion is getting heated go ahead and get ready to use some cheese.  My favorite part is tasting the cheese while I’m waiting so I don’t think I ever really get 16 oz of each cheese in the pot.

We now need to go ahead and pour the cream sauce into a pot on medium low heat because you’re gonna need more room than your pan will allow unless you are using a crazy big pan.  Slowly start to add your cheese, whisking it in slowly.  You will need to continue stirring to make sure that you don’t burn the cheese to the bottom of the pot.  This is the part that will require a strong arm, keep adding and stirring until all of the cheese (only half of the cheddar) has been added and is completely melted.

Hopefully while all of that adding and stirring was going on, you were boiling up the Pene is a separate pot.  Yeah, I know, I forgot to mention this earlier but you do have to boil the noodles.  Go ahead and strain the noodles and add them to the pot of cheese sauce.

Stir all of the noodles in, let ‘em get good and covered and gooey so that every single noodle is covered.  Pour everything from the pot into a casserole dish.

Now here comes the fun part… Cover with the remaining cheddar cheese.

Place the Cheez-Itz and the butter in your food processor (if you don’t have one just use a blender) to make a nice crust, put the crust over the top of everything.

Cover and place into the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Make sure your smoker is fired up and has reached about 250 degrees, remove the dish from the oven and place in the smoker uncovered for about 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for a few minutes and the mac is ready to serve and eat…

Now, if you want to go a little crazy.  Take an extra couple of tbsp of butter and put into a pan.  Add a couple of healthy scoops of the mac n’ cheese to the pan and fry it in butter for a few minutes.  Believe it or not this totally changes the flavor, to a very nice buttery, smokey, fried, delicious wonderland of taste-bud explosion!

Hope you enjoy.

That being said, I have a friend who purchased a Brinkman Gourmet electric smoker for their parents last year and being that they are not big time BBQ folk they decided that a smoker takes too much time and didn’t want to keep it.  My fear came true when they offered this beast to me.

How could I say no?  I mean it’s  a free smoker and gives me one more reason to have to buy more meat.  I knew that I wouldn’t like using it but this would give me a chance to actually have some ammo to argue with my Dad about why to not use an electric smoker.

Well, here I am today, standing here before everyone, shouting at the top of my lungs that I am totally hooked on this thing.  I know that I run the risk of having my BBQ card pulled for saying this but I am dead serious that this was way to dang simple and the food came out pretty good.

I plugged it in, placed a nice piece of soaked pecan on the coil and let it ride.  Within a couple of seconds the smoke was surrounding me and I was hating it less and less.

Over the last weekend I wrapped a beef tenderloin in bacon, slapped it on the smoker and let it go for about 7 hours. This thing turned out perfectly delicious and tender and I just couldn’t believe what was happening.  Really, it was that easy, 1 piece of wood and I had constant smoke at a steady 200 degrees for 7 hours.  I seriously din’t need to do anything else.  Now, doing this is not as much fun as using a traditional smoker but when it is 110 degrees outside I will accept a few shortcuts to keep my sanity.

I had to make sure that this wasn’t just a fluke so I pattied out some burgers, filled with bacon and cheddar cheese.  I decided that I would smoke these burgers and see how it turned out.  Went through the same ritual, added a piece of pecan to the coil and turned it on.  In no time we were smoking again and I let the burgers go for about 3 hours until they were perfectly moist and tasty.

I really can’t get over how easy this was to use and I know that this would not be acceptable for any competition but seems to be working perfectly for me on the porch and right now that’s all that matters.

I guess the bottom line is, I am totally for using an electric smoker for home use and will definitely recommend this particular smoker to anyone who is looking.  And before you ask, because I am using real wood, slow smoked, and on a grill I will not allow this to be called faux

This gave me a chance to grill some ribs and slow cook on the grill even though I couldn’t slow smoke em.  They turned out nice and tender and tasted fantastic.

Be careful because once your tongue hits 88 bites per hour you might just travel back in time…

Watch a little bit, sit back and enjoy:

Ok, so I’ve been told that I don’t put enough healthy meals up so I decided that this was going to be my way of providing a meal that is healthier than my normal stuff.  Just because this chicken cacciatore is healthy doesn’t mean that it lacks flavor because I’m here to tell ya that this knocks my socks off every time.

In advance I want to let you know that for this meal I actually use brown rice instead of pasta and no sugar is added so technically this is also a diabetic friendly meal.  If you want to use pasta I can promise you that it will be amazing but today is about being a little healthier than normal.

Check it out, try a taste, tell me what you think, and as always remember that I am not a photographer but I think I need to hire one…

Ingredients

3 medium boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 cloves garlic (minced)

2 shallots (chopped)

12 oz sliced baby portobello mushrooms

3 tbsp olive oil

3 cans diced tomatoes (I use no salt added)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup brown rice

2 1/2 cups water

1 tbsp margarine

1 tbsp salt

Some oregano, this part isn’t exact

Some black pepper, also not exact

What to do!

Since the rice takes the longest to complete go ahead and get 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Add 1 tbsp butter and salt and then stir in the brown rice.  Lower heat to a simmer, cover and let simmer for 45 minutes.

While the rice is cookin, season your chicken however you would like (personally throw garlic salt and black pepper on it) and grill it until it’s done.  I guess this is the easy part because you just have to grill the chicken.

Once the chicken is done bring it in the house and cut it into smallerish chunks.

On medium heat add olive oil, garlic and mushrooms to a pan and start those a cookin, make sure to stir regularly to keep from burning.  After these have been going for a few minutes, add the chicken and balsamic vinegar and allow to cook for about 2 minutes.

Now the time has come to add the tomatoes, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and oregano to the pan and mix everything together.

Cover and lower the temp and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Once everything is done, top the rice with the cacciatore and go to town.  This will feed 3-4 normal eaters lol.

Initially I had planned to do a BBQ Lasagna that would be grilled and then I realized that Smoke In Da Eye BBQ has already done that.  Not only has Smoke In Da Eye BBQ done it, I think they have actually perfected the stuff, you can read about it here on their blog.  So, I decided to give credit where credit is due and congratulate Smoke In Da Eye BBQ on the best sounding recipe for BBQ Lasagna that I have ever seen.  (Eventually I will make one of my own anyway haha)

So, that being said, I decided to just go old school and make a standard lasagna with a little twist.  The flavors came out incredible and even though I made two large pans I ended up with no leftovers, I guess it was purty good.

I know the title of this dish is kind of scary but I have to admit, I don’t think I have ever had anything that tasted this good in my life.  It has to bad for you since it tastes so freakin good so I couldn’t resist the title.

Every once in a while I make a meal to share with everybody that is soooo good that I get people offering to pay ridiculous amounts of money for me to make it again.  At this time I don’t have a restaurant and just enjoy cookin for my friends.  But the more times that I get offered money the harder it is for me to turn em down.

Eh, that’s enough about my internal wars lol.  Take a look at this recipe, try it out, and fall in love with Lasagna all over again.  Garfield never had any lasagna this good.

Ingredients:

1 Box Lasagna Noodles (you can use ready for the oven noodles and save a step of boiling the noodles)

2 8 oz packages shredded parmesan cheese

1 8 oz Ricotta Cheese (I use Sergento)

2 8 oz packages shredded mozzarella cheese

2 eggs

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

1 jar alfredo sauce

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

chopped oregano

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground hot italian sausage

Preparation:

If you decide you want to boil the noodles I’m pretty sure now would be the time to get that started.  While the noodles are boiling go ahead and put the ground beef and ground sausage in a pan to brown also add the garlic at this point.  Once completely browned, drain and set aside.  (Remember, you also have sausage in this pan so make sure to cook fully.)

While browning get the cheese spread ready.  In a large bowl, add the ricotta cheese, 1 package of the parmesan cheese, and two eggs.  Mix until completely mixed.

Start with a 13×9 inch lasagna pan and coat the bottom of the pan with a liberal dose of pasta sauce.  Then layer your noodles until you cover the entire bottom of the pan, and let the layering begin…

This is the order that I go, but you can choose your own adventure if you’d like:

First, cover the noodles with sauce, then I had 1/2 of the browned ground meat, then I add 1/2 of the cheese mixture.  I spread each to make sure that I have completely covered all of the noodles.  I then top that layer with mozzarella cheese, and then a new layer of noodles.  And repeat the steps to make another layer.

On top of the third layer of noodles, pour the alfredo sauce and spread to cover all the noodles.  Use the second bag of parmesan cheese to cover all of the alfredo.  Add the chopped oregano.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and let cook uncovered for 1:15 which should leave you with a nice cheesy crust on top.

Remove from oven and let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

I will tell you, this so freaking good and different enough from the norm that it will blow minds so be careful who you let try it.

All of this food was cooked for a Toga party that I had at the house and the food was magnificent the outfits were phenomial, the beer was cold and the ladies were super hot.  It was definitely some good fun, maybe I’ll get some pics up one of these days.

Once again Spicy Guy came through for me with his Rowdy Rub and I can’t say enough about how awesome these rubs are.

Well, I figured ribs would be a perfect addition to everything else that I was making and boy was I right.  I actually did three different styles of ribs.  I did my regular old sweet BBQ ribs, the Apple Chipotle ribs for those who like a little kick in the pants, and a dry rib and I honestly can’t tell ya which one was better.  They were all devoured.

So, now that I have combined two of my favorite things ribs and Apple Chipotle BBQ, check out the recipes and put them together for an amazging time.

Ribs Hankbob Style

Then brush the ribs with:

Apple Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Now, you don’t have to do what I do, but this is not grilled chicken.  This chicken was done slow and low for 5 hours on the smoker and was the most tender, juicy, amazing chicken you could ever have.  Okay, okay, enough of my rambling about how amazing the chicken was, now it’s on to what you guys need to do to make this perfect chicken.

First, if you want to know how to make the sauce, check it out here Apple Chipotle BBQ Sauce.

Now for the Chicken.

Curry Chicken with Apple Chipotle BBQ Sauce

Curry Chicken

Now I like to mix and match a few seasonings and I think that’s what gave this chicken the perfect savory-ness that is needed to match this sauce.

10 lbs of chicken leg quarters (look I’m poor and this stuff is cheap)
black pepper
garlic salt
curry powder
ground cumin
onion powder

Hate me all you want but this next part really isn’t an exact science.

cover the chicken with black pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, cumin and finally curry powder.  When cooking chicken I would normally add a little cayenne pepper to the mix but trust me you really won’t need it.

Now, let the chicken sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes just to let those seasonings settle.  And put those bad boys on the smoker and let roll at 200 – 250 degrees for about 5 hours.  Keep and eye on em, you don’t want em blackened.  About every hour brush a healthy about of sauce on the chicken and keep doing that until you are ready to take them off.  I personally like to give em one more splash of sauce right at the end as I’m taking them off the grill.

If you have apple wood this would really set it of but this time I used a little hickory and it came out perfect.

Try it out, lemme know what you think, if you like it then just tell people where you got it from hahaha.

Well, sorry I don’t have a picture of this stuff cookin but I guess I’ll just have to get over it and give you the recipe and show you some foods that were made with it in a few other posts.

Apple Chipotle BBQ Sauce

1 bottle of ketchup
1/4 cup mustard
1/2 cup of cider vinegar (you might add more to taste later)
4 tblsp worchestesire sauce
1/2 cup apple jelly
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (comes in the can that way)
1 beer (darker the better) or wine if you prefer

That is what you’ll need to make your base now my personal touch.

Sautee up:
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 sweet onion (finely chopped)
with 1 tblsp olive oil.

Once they start to get a little color add your beer (or wine if you prefer whatever you have on hand)

While this is going put the chipotle peppers in a blender and add water until the blender is 2/3 full and puree until it is a nice paste.

In the sautee pan now add all of the ingredients together and stir.  Let it simmer on medium heat remembering to stir regularly until you get a light boil.  Taste at this point and you may need to add more mustard and vinegar but it should have a nice bite to it.

If you want it hotter use 2 cans of chipotle peppers.

You are going to let this simmer for about 3 hours so the alcohol will cook out but it will have a really nice flavor at the end.