Rhubarb Pie

3 cups of chopped rhubarb
1 cup of chopped strawberries
1 Tbs of lime juice
½ cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
½ tsp of chinese five spice
2 9 inch pie crusts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Mix Rhubarb, strawberries, lime juice, flour, sugar, and spice together and let sit for 20 min.
Unroll pie crust in ungreased 9 inch pie pan.  Place fruit mixture in pie crust.  Unroll second pie crust on top of fruit.  Pinch crusts together, and place slits in top off cust.  lightly brush the top of crust with butter, and sprinkle crust with sugar.  Cover outside crust edge with foil to keep from burning.(Remove foil after 25 minutes). Bake for 45 to 50 min.

Mother of Vinegar Week 2

Well it's week two for my vinegar experiment.  I have my bottle hanging in a tree in my back yard.  There's no bugs floating yet.

Mother of Vinegar

For you who have never had the chance to try home made vinegar.  You are missing out.  Here is a quick and fun way to start your very own Mother of Vinegar.  We are looking to collect some acetic acid bacteria which is an air born natural forming bacteria.  Acetic acid bacteria turns alcohol into vinegar.  So we need to collect some of these bacteria.  Here comes the fun part.  We need an empty 2 liter soda bottle, one banana peel, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of water and a table spoon of vinegar.  Stuff the banana peel in the bottle and add the two cups of sugar, water and the table spoon of vinegar.  Use a funnel you'll get less sugar on the fool and more in the bottle.  Now we have to go find a nice shady spot to hang our bottle.  You can hang it off a tree branch using a piece of string, or wire.  Make sure you keep the lid off of the bottle we want to get as much air in there as possible.  Don't worry about bugs and such we can pick them out later.  Here comes the part I'm no good at, waiting.  It will take two to three weeks for us to get a good supply of acetic acid bacteria.  It's still fun to check every day to see what kind of critters you trapped in the bottle.  After three weeks you will see a white cloudy mass in the bottom of your bottle.  It looks like someone blew their nose in it.  Now we want to prepare our incubator.  Get a can of beer and pour it in a glass mason jar.  Let it sit for an hour so all of the carbonation has gone.  OK  back to the bottle.  With a knife cut the top of your soda bottle off.  This is not time to be a little princess reach in there and grab a piece of that snot looking goo, and drop it into your jar with beer.  You just need a little bit this stuff produces like the Duggar's.  You want to put the lid on the mason jar very loose and find a dark cool place to put it for the next two weeks.  You can watch your Mother grow it will create a white ooze that floats on the top of the beer.  Now all you have to do is add the mother you grew to a gallon of beer for malt vinegar, wine, or hard cider.  Make sure what ever you add it to has no preservatives this will keep the mother from growing.  That's how you get a vinegar starter of Mother of Vinegar.  After you have a good mother you will never have to buy vinegar again.

Cheers, and Happy Hunting

Hot Dogz

3 pounds short ribs without bones

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon pink curing salt

1 cup ice water

• Grind beef, and mix in salt and water.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 days.

10 feet of natural casings Medium to Small.

1 tablespoon Coleman’s dry mustard

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 tablespoon garlic, minced

2 teaspoons liquid smoke

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

• Mix spices and corn syrup with meat.

• Spread meat on baking sheet and place in freezer for 30 min.

• Prepare your casings. rinse casings inside and out soak in clean luke warm water for 30 minutes changing the water half way through.

• Remove meat from freezer and grind a second time.

• Place meat in food processor and puree.  Do one half of mixture at a time.

• Stuff meat into casings.

• Cure in oven or on stove until internal temp reaches 150 degrees.

• Cool in ice water, and freeze or eat.

Hickory Dick's Smoker

I finally got the smoker in place and smoked a small batch of sausage this evening.

Central North Eastern Southern Fried Chicken

Ingredients
2 -3lbs Unfrozen Chicken parts
4 Cups Butter Milk
4 Tbsp Hot sauce (Franks, Red Hot, or Louisiana Hot work the best)
2 cups four
2 Tbsp corn meal
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp paprika
dash of salt and pepper
Peanut Frying oil ( I’d rather use lard but the Mrs. says no)

Directions
Rinse, and pat dry your chicken parts.  Put your chicken in an air tight container, add the butter milk and hot sauce to the chicken.  Mix well, and make sure your chicken is completely covered.  Place in refrigerator over night.   Preheat oil to 360 degrees.  Make sure to use a thermometer.  Remove your chicken from the buttermilk/hot sauce.  In a large bowl mix your flour, corn meal, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper.  Completely coat your chicken parts in the flour mixture. and place gently in preheated fryer.  Fry in the oil until brown, and crisp.  Fry dark meat for 13 minutes, and white meat for 8 minutes.