Southwestern Pub Fries.

I thought I would post this recipe that is great for tailgating, home, or perhaps at a bar. I’ve gotten inspired with this recipe when it came to eating “Cowboy” Nachos. The first time I’ve made it, I used all jar foods. This time, I’m just going to switch things up with a homemade Queso cheese. If you want to use jar Queso-Blanco dip, that is fine. Skip this step. But before you do anything, take a cast iron skillet and place it in the oven for 250 degrees.  If you do not have a cast iron skillet, you can use a baking pan.

Zesty Queso Sauce

        1 cup of heavy whipping cream

        4 slices of Colby-Pepper Jack Cheese

        1 block of Jalapeño Mexican dipping cheese

        ¼ Block of Queso, Quesadilla Cheese.

        1. 4.25 oz. can of Green Chiles.

        1 teaspoon of crushed black pepper.

        1 teaspoon of Chili powder.

        1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

        1 tablespoon of your favorite hot sauce

In a medium pot, pour your cream. Add in your Chiles, seasoning, and give it a stir. Once your cream is warm, stir it up so that it’s not foaming or bubbling. Next, add in your cut up cheeses, and let it sit for a while so that it can melt. Continue to stir until it has fully melted. If it appears to be thick, add more cream. Next, add in a tablespoon of your favorite hot sauce, and the Worcestershire sauce. Stir it well. When the cheese is done, set aside off the heat to avoid thickening.

Chicken

What also comes with this is chicken. You can grill your own chicken breast /thigh meat if you want to, but I simply just use frozen, Tyson Fajita Chicken. Place the chicken in a pan, and allow them to cook as directed on the package. For a quick method, heat them in the microwave.

Bacon

Take five slices of bacon, and cook those in a medium-hot pan. You can cook the bacon however you would like to. In my opinion, I usually cook it to where it’s cooked all the way, but still soft and chewy. When the bacon is done, chop it up, and set aside.

Fries

You can use steak fries, regular fries, or golden crinkles. I enjoy the Ore-Ida Golden Crinkles, extra crispy. Fry one bag full in a deep fryer according to package.  When the fries are done, drain them on a paper towel. When they are drained, season your fries with season salt and red chili powder. (In the future, I will give my French fry seasoning.)

Once everything is all cooked, take your cast-iron skillet out of the oven.

Putting it all together

Step One: Coat a thin layer of your Queso sauce at the bottom of the skillet.

Step Two: put an even layer of fries on top of the Queso.

Step Three: layer your fries with chicken and the bacon.

Step Four: Top it off with shredded Mexican-Four Cheese.

Step Five: Place your skillet back in the oven for five minutes, or until your cheese is melted.

Step Six: Top it off with chopped green onions, and sour cream.

Enjoy them plain, or with your favorite condiment. 

Happy Cooking!!

Ronald's Saturday Off: Bacon Burger Dogs, and Quick Cobbler.

Ronald’s Saturday Off: Bacon Burger Dogs.

Remember back in the early days of growing up watching The Cosby Show, and we would often hear the term “Bacon Burger Dog”? Well, I often heard about them as well, but I had never quite put my head around what they truly were.  Before I started college, a video surfaced on YouTube from The BBQ Pit Boys. What it appeared to be is the “Bacon Burger Dog”. Long recipe short, you’re taking the ground beef, wrapping it around a hotdog, and then wrapping bacon around it.

I find that these are perfect for tailgating, and I’m sure many people have been making these. What I usually see is people would often take regular hotdogs, and wrap them in bacon. However, here’s my step by step method to creating these.

First, when you buy your ingredients, you may want to “theme” your flavors. For instance, if you go to a party, and someone cannot eat red meat, you can alter them by using turkey bacon, turkey hotdogs, and ground turkey. You can also use ground chicken, ground bison, chicken hotdogs, beef hotdogs, or anything that is suitable for someone’s needs. But with me, I’m just going to keep it simple.

LIGHT UP THE GRILL!!

First, I find regular hotdogs. The hotdogs I usually use are made with pork and chicken. I also use 80/20 ground beef, and then I make sure to get some good, quality bacon. Natural casing hotdogs also work!! I picked up Center Cut Bacon just because it has less fat content. My mistake, I would suggest regular size.

Season your ground beef with seasoned salt, black pepper, and a hint of red pepper. You can use any season of your choice, if you want. No need to add onions but if you want to, go ahead.

With your hands, grind your meat so that it’s well mixed.

Take a baseball sized handful of ground meat, and flatten it out as if you’re making a hamburger patty. Be sure to see that your meat is in between super thin, and not too thick.

Next, take a hotdog, and place them on the end of your ground meat. Roll it as the ground meat wraps around the hotdog. When you start to see a bit much, just cut off some of the ground meat, and then start to mold it around your hotdog.

Take a strip of bacon, and then wrap it around the ground meat. Try not to coat the entire hotdog, but at least to where both the ground meat, and hotdog is visible. It may take you at least two strips of bacon, to coat. It doesn’t have to be fully wrapped.

Now that your grill is hot enough to about 350-400 degrees of heat, place your bacon burger dogs opposite of the coals. You want to make sure that they are indirect of the heat. Let them cook, and about 20 minutes in the cooking, take your bacon burger dogs and rotate them so that they have an even process of cooking.

Noticed how the coals are? This was for picture purpose of what NOT to do.

In total, the time is at least 45 minutes into cooking these. However, take one to see if it’s fully done all the way through.  If you’re making these at home, I would suggest that you cook them on your grill, and then transfer them to an oven. Or, you can grill these ahead of time, and let them cook in a electric roaster or a crock pot.

Toppings:

Place some cheese on top of these while they are cooking. As you place them on your bun, put some chopped onions on them, and serve them with some BBQ sauce.

This batch went right into the oven. You can do the same for a crock pot

The Mahogany Quilters and Student Residents
Super Soul Food Sunday

Quick Cobbler

Back when I was a sophomore in college, my RA, Caitlyn, and I, thought about putting together a Super Soul Food Sunday in the dorm. Basically it consisted of a African-American history discussion on quilts by “The Mahogany Thread-Quilters”, and a taste of Soul Food. Since peach cobbler takes a long time to make, we decided to keep it simple. So here’s the recipe that we used…

You can use any pie filling that you want. I’m just going to use peach.

1 stick of Butter

1 cup of Sugar

¾ cup of Self-rising flour

¾ cup of WHOLE Milk

2 cans of Pie [Fruit] filling

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Before doing anything, place your stick of butter in a 9x13 baking pan. Don’t grease it. Just place it in the pan. When your oven is finished of being preheated, place your baking dish in the oven to let the butter melt.

While your butter is melting, in a large bowl, combine your sugar and flour. Mix it together while pouring in your milk SLOWLY, as you’re stirring your mix. Be careful to not have your batter “lumpy”. It should be a smooth batter.

Next, take your butter out of the oven, and with the batter, pour it in the butter. DO NOT STIR WITH THE BUTTER. Make sure that it is poured out evenly.

Caitlyn's Baking Away!!

Take your pie filling, and pour it out evenly on top of the buttered batter. Again, DO NOT STIR!!

Place your pan back in the oven for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, check your cobbler. If you want, you can place it back in the oven for an extra five minutes, depending on your crust.

Finished Product

Once it’s done, take it out.

Let it cool, and serve it with homemade vanilla ice cream.

This is the cobbler Caitlyn made, without my help

. I thought it was DELICIOUS!!











Happy Tailgating!!

Ronald Atkinson

Ronald's Saturday Off: Quick, Chicken Croissant Paninis.

My love for Croissants is out of this world. Last semester when I had made my Curried-Moroccan chicken Salad, I picked up a case of Croissant sandwich bread. Basically, the same ingredients use to make the croissants are basically the exact same ingredients to make these rolls. The only difference is, instead of being rolled, it’s flattened out like Ciabatta bread.

My only frustration is this, one, it only comes in four to a pack. Two, I can only find them at the local Wal-Mart in Manhattan. Junction City? I don’t think so. Do any other supermarkets have them? Perhaps. But, they’re very hard to find. If however you cannot find them, perhaps make the croissants from scratch, and then lay them down as if you’re baking biscuits, or you can buy croissant pastry dough and bake them accordingly.

Paninis are a sandwich hit amongst local eateries, coffee shops, bakeries, and hotels. These are quick, easy, and something that everyone who is tailgating will enjoy. Not only will adults and college students enjoy them, but the kids will too.

You’ll need,

            A frying pan (or cast iron skillet)

George Foreman Grill (With a Bread Warmer)

Microwave (If needed)

Charcoal grill (If needed)

·      Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich Meat.

·      Muenster Cheese.

·      Pepper-Jack Cheese.

    Mayo.

·      Croissant Sandwich Bread.

Each sandwich should have two slices of chicken, and one slice of each cheese.

1.         Heat your George Foreman Grill as followed. If you’re using one, be sure to have an extension cord to where it’s plugged into your car outlet.  If you also have a portable stove, use a pan to heat your chicken. If not, use your George Foreman Grill as shown below. 

2.         In a medium hot pan, place a small slice of butter in your pan to prevent your chicken from sticking. Place your two slices of chicken patties in the pan and allow them to cook on each side for about roughly two minutes.  

3.         While you’re cooking your chicken patties, warm your croissant bread in the bread warmer. If you do not have a bread warmer, you can use your outdoor grill, making sure that it’s away from the coals.  I also suggest that you use a microwave by heating them for 20 seconds. Make sure that your bread isn’t crispy hot. You want to make sure that it is lukewarm.

4.         Once your bread is semi-warm, take any spread of your choice, and spread a thin layer on the bread. My choice is mayonnaise, but you can choose any condiment that you want.

5.         Place your Muenster cheese on top of your spread, and place your Pepper-Jack cheese on top of the patties.

6.         Next, Double stack the chicken, remove them from your pan, and place them on the sandwich bread. As you place them on the croissant bread, place the sandwich on the George foreman grill. Cook for two minutes, Cut in triangles, and enjoy. I suggest that you press down on your George Foreman grill so that you’re flattening them out.

Tips:

If you’re making them ahead of time, I would suggest that you cook them before, and place them in a crockpot warmer. If you want, you can wrap them in printing paper to be extra creative. You can also add vegetables if you want.

To prevent your chicken from overcooking, take your pan off the heat.