Birthdays only come once a year, and milestone birthdays only happen once in a lifetime. It just so happens that I recently passed one of those milestone birthdays and ticked over into the big 30′s. Some people like to spend these occasions relaxing on a beach, or sulking about father time catching up with them, but I saw this as a prime opportunity to expand my barbecue horizons into a category of cooking that every great pitmaster must dabble in. So I treated myself to a pre-birthday present by purchasing a La Caja China roasting box and set out on my first pig roast!

Click to continue reading about La Caja China

This weekend I was watching reruns of Alton Brown’s Good Eats (one of my all time favorite cooking shows), and I caught an episode that was completely dedicated to cooking with alcohol…well, mainly wine and beer. Lately I have taken an even more increased interest in incorporating these flavors into my own cooking, so I quickly hit the record button on my DVR. Coincidentally, Alton proceeded to breakdown the science behind two specific recipes that I have been experimenting with extensively myself; wine marinated lamb steaks and beer bread. But that wasn’t the nugget of information that piqued my interest.

Click to continue reading about cooking with alcohol

With its great taste and second-to-none versatility, you can’t go wrong with pork on the grill – especially now that the USDA has lowered pork cooking temperature guidelines to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, followed by a three-minute rest time – resulting in a juicier, tender, medium-rare grilled masterpiece.

To help ignite your inspiration, the National Pork Board and Guy Fieri are excited to offer a “Summer Grilling Essentials” prize pack to giveaway to one lucky visitor of our BBQ Addicts community. The lucky winner will be hooked up with everything you need to kick your outdoor cooking into high gear for the second half of the summer grilling season.

Click to continue reading about Guy Fieri

Father’s Day was last weekend, and I spent the day with my dad doing what fathers and sons do best…grilling steaks! My entire family is hooked on Fast Eddies Steak Seasoning, so our rib eyes were simply prepared with a dusting of this magical blend of herbs and spices. No marinades, no sauces, no toppings, just perfectly seared beef seasoned to perfection! Toss in some grilled balsamic grilled asparagus spears and a few roasted red peppers, and you’ve got a meal worthy of holiday!

Click to continue reading about Food Photography

Last Tuesday marked the paperback release of our book BBQ Makes Everything Better. To celebrate this occasion, and help raise some money for local children, we’re teaming up with Sam’s Club to put on a fund raising barbecue event at their store in Independence, MO. To help fill the bellies of all the BBQ Addicts strolling through that day, our friend Todd Johns of the famed Pork Pullin’ Plowboys barbecue team (ahem…2009 American Royal Grand Champion) will be on site serving up pulled pork, ribs, hot dogs, and brats featuring his line of Plowboys Rubs topped off with our Burnt Finger BBQ sauce.

Click to continue reading about our book signing

In it’s purest form, a fatty is most easily described as those sausage chubs that you can find at most grocery stores. The brands can vary (especially when dealing with smaller local markets), but some of the most common national brands are Jimmy Dean, Bob Evans and Hormel. The concept is simple, but extremely effective. Carefully remove the plastic sleeve leaving the “chub” shape intact, season with your favorite barbecue rub, and toss it on the smoker. Sound familiar? Well, this is the technique that inspired our Bacon Explosion recipe.

Our friend Ron Lewen has recently devoted himself to a world-wide campaign dedicated to “Saving the Naked Fatty”. As much as we enjoy the extravagant bacon wrapped and cheese stuffed fatties that are floating around the interwebs these days, we wanted to pay tribute to Ron’s efforts and dish up our version of the fore-father to the Bacon Explosion. Those of you that are fans of our BBQ Addicts Facebook page got a sneak peek of this recipe over the weekend, but now we’re rolling out the entire process with even more pictures!

Click to continue reading about Smoking Fatties

Every year for St. Patrick’s Day I load up the smoker with corned beef brisket to make homemade pastrami. Being Irish, this is the perfect meal that combines my heritage with my passion for barbecue. This year’s pastrami smoke-out took place a couple weekends ago, and was once again a huge success. But now that I’ve been eating sandwiches for the better part of two weeks, it’s time to throw a little variety into the mix. My buddy, and Burnt Finger BBQ teammate, Gish was having a grilled pizza party for March Madness, so we packed up the pastrami fixins to test out our new grilled Reuben pizza recipe for our leftovers.

Click to continue reading about Leftover Recipes

When thinking of Seattle, BBQ normally isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Most people probably conjure up images of Starbucks coffee, rainy afternoons, or an endless crowd of grungy flannel shirts. While each of those have certainly cemented their place in the city’s ever changing pop-culture, we’ve got our taste buds locked on a new line of BBQ rub that’s looking to re-brand the upper Northwest as the new BBQ hotbed.

Click to continue reading The Monthly Rubdown

Back in December we received the news that our book BBQ Makes Everything Better had been selected as the USA winner in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards “Best Barbecue Book” category. As part of that honor, our book advanced to the next level in the competition as the USA representative for “The Best Barbecue Book in the World” award. There were 12 total barbecue books representing their respective countries, of which the top 4 finalists (including us) were invited to Paris to take part in the formal awards ceremony on the first day of the Paris Cookbook Fair. And on the evening of March 3rd, 2011 at the historical Theatre des Folies Bergère in Paris, France in front of over 1,200 publishers, authors, chefs, journalists, foodies and spectators, BBQ Makes Everything Better was officially named “The Best Barbecue Book in the World”!!!

Click to continue reading about the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

Issuing a proclamation of “monumental flavor” is a tall order for any product to live up to. Only a brand hailing from our nation’s capital that’s been produced and distributed by ex-politicians would issue such a promise to the citizens of the United States. Luckily these politicians are originally from Missouri, so they’ve got a true barbecue agenda that can’t be swayed by lobbyist kickbacks or political bribery. We’ve been sampling their products for a few weeks now, and we can confidently confirm that you can take these politicians for their word with their Pork Barrel BBQ products!

Click to continue reading about Pork Barrel BBQ on The Monthly Rubdown