BBQ Pickle Chips

Pickle chips created for the Salisbury 2011 BBQ Festival with a brine made from Eastern Style Vinegar BBQ sauce are sweet, tangy, and not like any pickle you've tasted before!  

 Have you ever sat, staring at your nine bottles of BBQ sauce and thought to yourself: How in the @#$&* am I going to make that into an ice cream flavor? Of course not. If you did you'd be sick, twisted, lacking in palette and good sense. You'd be a chef on the verge of mental break down. In short: you'd be me.

I actually have been caught staring at BBQ bottles a little more often than usual lately, BUT I can finally divulge to you the reason for my short term insanity:

I, Jana Marie, have been donating my time and culinary skill set to the Salisbury Cultural Arts Festival in North Carolina. For the past three months I've been a chef, a recipe producer, photographer, event coordinator, and most importantly BBQ Ice Cream inventor. Yes, it is real, and it's actually surprisingly good! AND drum roll please (rat-a-tat-tat) my ice cream flavors, including BBQ Ice Cream, will be up for sale at a special ice cream social! Tired of looking at your computer screen, drooling on your keyboard, longingly wishing you could just reach out and swipe that scoop of ice cream for yourself? Well you can! For all of you in the 139 North Carolina cities I've had blog hits in, consider taking a little drive on Saturday, May 14th! I'll be there! BBQ Ice Cream will be there! What more do you need? How about a little preview?!

I created a number of recipes that will be featured in the gourmet tent, the chefs pre-cook-off breakfast, and BBQ feast dinner! As a part of this awesome project, between today and the May 14th Salisbury BBQ Festival  I'll be posting twelve of the recipes I've created on this journey. You don't know it, but you've already seen three of the dozens of other recipes I've created! My buttermilk cheddar jack biscuits, cheese straws (YUM), and pork pot stickers were all made with this project in mind!

It's been a grand adventure in muscadine, cheerwine and BBQ to get here. On a near weakly basis I've had everything from Cheerwine Syrup to Muscadine wines and jellies from Old Stone Winery, to actual pig butts mailed to me. Yes, you read that correctly. I received two pigs in the mail. They. Were. Delicious. It's a good thing too since I need to hone my BBQ tasted buds because.....

I'm gonna be a judge for the BBQ cook off!

Whose excited?! I AM!

To kick all this off, here is the first of a twelve part series in recipes created for the Salisbury BBQ Festival!!!

BBQ Pickle Chips

created for the Salisbury 2011 BBQ Festival

1/2 cup Eastern Style Vinegar BBQ Sauce

5 tablespoons of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt

1 cup very hot tap water

2 large (10 inch) cucumbers sliced, 1/8th inch thick

For refrigerator pickles:

Stir together the first four ingredients to dissolve the solids, and pack your pickles into a mason jar. Cover the produce with the brine, cover, and refrigerate. Let sit for four days before eating, lasts up to two months.

For canning pickles:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put two half pint mason jars, lids and rings in the oven to sterilize for twenty minutes

In a small sauce pan, Stir together the first four ingredients to dissolve the solids. Bring the mixture to a low boil.

Pack the pickle slices in to the sterilized mason jars. Pour the simmering brine over top with a quarter inch left to spare.  Seal with rings and lids, and turn, lid side down. Allow to sit upside-down on your counter for 45 minutes.

Store in a dark cool place. The pickles will keep in the refrigerator for two months after opening. 

Pumpkin Seeds

For anyone carving a pumpkin this weekend here are five creative ways to roast your pumpkin seeds: season salt, curry, paprika, Maryland style, and sugar 'n' spice! 

This last week a few of my friends through a pumpkin carving party. I am highly in favor of this. It makes so much more sense for only one house to have that trainwreck of a mess of pumpkin innards than seven. Not that I don't love pumpkin carving.....except that I don't. I honestly don't. The texture and smell and what feels like the years it takes to scoop everything out....not my favorite at all. I've honestly never carved a pumpkin of my own accord, so finding a party where there would be tons of pumpkin seeds up for grabs after everyone else did the work: PERFECT! But I'm not greedy, I roasted them up and brought them right back for everyone to eat! 

I'd already had my fill of plain old salted pumpkin seeds and decided to try for a few different takes. Everyone raved about the sugar'n'spice seed. I used vanilla sugar and can't begin to tell you how much I love vanilla sugar, but regular sugar will work as well, just add a half teaspoon of vanilla to the butter when you coat the seeds! 

I hope you have a fantastic Halloween weekend! I've got tickets to the Rally to Restore Sanity tomorrow! That should be a great time! Ugh. I still need to think of a creative sign. Any good ideas shoot them my way! 

Maryland Style Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups raw pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup Old Bay or to taste

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 T. Butter, melted

Sugar’n’Spice Pumpkin Seeds

2 cup raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried

3/4 cups vanilla sugar or white sugar (but add vanilla extract to the butter)

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Sweet Curry Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups raw pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup Sweet Curry Spice or to taste

2 T. Butter, melted

Paprika Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups raw pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup Paprika or to taste

2 T. Butter, melted

Seasoned Salt Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups raw pumpkin seeds

1/8 cup seasoned salt or to taste

2 T. Butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Rinse pumpkin seeds in a colander. Spread out on paper towels and pat dry.

Put the pumpkin seeds in a plastic bag along with the butter to coat.

Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray and spread the pumpkin seeds out in a single layer. Sprinkle the chosen seasoning evenly over the tops.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring occasionally, until dry and toasted. Cool for a few minutes before serving.