Wings & Alabama White Sauce

Was there ever a more perfect Superbowl meal than chicken wings?! For Christmas Eve, my Mom has always done heavy h'orderves. Will and I were put in charge of the wings this year. Our favorite wings are the wings from Hometeam BBQ. If you haven't had them, you should. I'm not a big wing person, but I cannot leave that wonderful establishment without having at least one wing. And the Alabama White Sauce- oh boy! Finger licking good. 

So anyway, Will made the wings and I found a recipe for the Alabama White Sauce. For a first try, we did pretty good, but it will take a lot more experimentation to even come close to the Hometeam wings. So for now, this is a delicious recipe, but will need more tweaking to reach the standards of our favorite. 

Hope you enjoy them!

The brine (post draining the liquid)

After the brine, before the rub

Grilled Wings

The Alabama White Sauce

Chicken Wings and Alabama White Sauce

Ingredients

For the brine:

1/2 cup of salt

2 tablespoons of peppercorns

2 bay leaves

1 quartered orange

1 quartered lemon

2 cups of Apple Cider Vinegar

4 cups of WARM Water (or enough to cover the wings)

For the chicken wings:

2 dozen wings/drumsticks

1/2 cup of brown sugar

4 tablespoons of ground mustard

4 tablespoons of Cumin

4 tablespoons of Tarragon

4 tablespoons of Cayenne Pepper

1/2 cup of salt

For the Alabama White Sauce:

1 cup of mayonnaise

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of hot chili paste

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon of celery seeds

1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1 cup of water

S + P

Directions

1.  Combine all of the ingredients of the brine (salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, orange, lemon, apple cider vinegar and warm water) in a large container. Stir until the salt dissolves, then add in the chicken. Brine the chicken overnight (or a minimum of 4 hours).

2. Drain the brine from the wings and lay them out on a flat surface. Pat each wing dry with paper towels.

3. Stir together the brown sugar, ground mustard, cumin, tarragon, cayenne pepper and salt. Half the spice mixture and set aside.

4. Put a dozen wings in a brown paper bag with HALF of the spices/rub and shake. Do the same for the other dozen. They are now ready for the grill.

5. Set up the grill for indirect heat. Smoke the wings at 225 degrees F for about 90 minutes, turning them once halfway through.

6. While the chicken wings are grilling, make the Alabama White Sauce simply by combining all ingredients. 

Enjoy!

Adapted from: Bon Appetit 

The Mason Jar : Lowcountry Cooking

Recently, my friend went home to Maryland and was sending me pictures of crab cakes. Crab is my most favorite seafood. I looooove a good crab cake, so when I read in the City Paper that The Mason Jar serves up some hefty crab cakes, my mind was made up to head there asap. I had never heard of The Mason Jar before I read about it. 

I am not the type to crave a meat & 3 but I definitely appreciate good, southern cooking, especially when it involves seafood.  The saying "don't judge a book by its cover" definitely applies to this situation. When Will and I pulled up in the car, we were second guessing our decision to check out The Mason Jar. Its in a strip mall type area and is nothing to look at from the outside. 

   

The inside is nothing to get excited about either, but its fitting for a "diner" type setting. But let's be honest, we didn't come here expecting anything but good, southern cooking. We were greeted by a very friendly staff who's mission was to make sure you were on the receiving end of a delicious meal. 

There were so many things I wanted to try. I ended up going with the seafood platter, with fried fish and a crab cake. I knew it was going to be a lot of food so I skipped the shrimp, which could be added on. The fish was flaky and perfectly cooked- it wasn't greasy at all. The crab cake was perfect. It was exactly what I was wanting and was served with a remoulade sauce, that had quite the kick to it. It was delicious and really hit the spot. It was a really good portion, too. 

The platter will come with either corn bread or hushpuppies. As you can see, I chose the hushpuppies which were nicely done with corn kernels on the inside- very savory and delicious with their homemade tartar sauce. Lastly, you get TWO sides on the platter as well. The cole slaw I ordered was the cole slaw you expect and it was crunchy, fresh and had the perfect balance with the mayonnaise dressing. The potato salad was bland- don't order that. 

Will ordered the Hog Dog - a hot dog with bacon, pulled pork and topped with slaw. The bacon was crispy, the bread was toasted and it hit the spot for him. I had a bite and thought it was as delicious as it sounds. The slaw is a must as it breaks up the texture of the three meats, adding a cold, crunchy freshness. He got the fries as a side which were ok- standard french fries, nothing special.

                  

Will we go back? If we are in the area, yes. It was delicious, traditional Lowcountry cooking that was executed really well. It was nice to eat this type of cuisine without all of the grease associated with it. If you are in the area, its definitely worth stopping by! They have an all you can eat buffet Thursday nights and a seafood buffet on Fridays. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

Bourbon Pecan Pie

My in-laws came in from Asia for Christmas, so Will and I were in charge of Christmas dinner! This has been a year of firsts as far as hosting goes for major holidays. Whew- its a lot of work, but always worth it! We made a delicious meal and of course a dessert was completely necessary! In my CSA bag I got pecans, so of course! A pecan pie! 

I decided to go with a bourbon pecan pie and who else to turn to, but Paula Deen?! I ended up adding more bourbon than she did (which I was happy about) but it turned out perfectly and was very easy to make. Perfect for the season on any night. Enjoy!

Local Pecans

Ingredients

The unbaked pie

Finished product

Bourbon Pecan Pie

Ingredients

1 (9-inch) deep dish pie shell, unbaked

1 cup of sugar

3 tablespoons of butter, melted

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

3 large eggs, beaten

2 cups of pecan halves

3 tablespoons of good quality bourbon (I used Bulleit Bourbon)

Trader Joes French Vanilla ice cream :)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and melted butter. Add the corn syrup, eggs, pecans and bourbon and stir until all ingredients are combined. 

3. Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell and place on a tinfoil covered cookie sheet 

4. Bake for ten minutes. Then lower the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for an additional 30-35 minutes (until the pie has set)

5. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire wrack. Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

A la mode of course! 

Side note: It will still be a little "soupy" in the center when you take it out of the oven....don't worry, it will harden as it cools!




















Recipe adapted from Paula Deen's version

Pulled Pork Sliders and Spicy Slaw

Football Season-ahhhh. Few things make me as happy as pulling into Clemson University for a football game. To say I’m “All In” is an understatement. Will and I have season tickets and couldn’t imagine a year going by without traveling to Clemson for the games. I could go on and on about it but I won’t. (I’ll spare you- particularly you Carolina fans) We’re here about the food- tailgating food. There’s nothing healthy about it and I love it. It’s one day where calories just don’t count! From drinks to dips, sandwiches, pimento cheese, ham biscuits, chick-fil-a trays, burgers, hot dogs and more drinks!

My favorite tailgating partner for the next
50 years! Kaley is always making great
food for our tailgate

So much fun catching up

Clemson played Louisville this past weekend and a lot of people were in town for the game so I wanted to make a gameday favorite. I made these BBQ sandwiches two years ago and they were a big hit. They’re also something that I could prepare ahead of time- driving from Charleston, this is crucial. All I had to do Saturday morning was put the bbq, sauce and slaw on the bun- boom! Deliciousness!

Will, me, Lindsay, my younger sister
and her boyfriend, Adam

My older sister, Carolyn and my
nephew, Camden - it was his
first Clemson game!

Ingredients for the dry rub

The cooked pork shoulder

2 tablespoons paprika

1 tablespoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon dry mustard

2 tablespoons coarse sea salt

1 (5 to 7 pound) pork shoulder

2 bottles of the BBQ sauce of your choice – I use Melvins yellow mustard sauce frequently

2 packages of King Hawaiian Rolls- slider size

Ingredients for the spicy cole slaw

1 bag of coleslaw mix

4 green onions

1 – 1 ½ cups of mayonnaise

¼ cup of Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 lemon, juiced

Pinch of sugar

½ teaspoon celery seed

Several dashes of hot sauce to your liking

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients and rub them all over the pork shoulder- place in the refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors to soak into the meat (YUM!)

2. You can cook this in the crock-pot, which is what I usually do- you will place the pork shoulder in the crock pot with 1 bottle of sauce and cook it on LOW for 6-7 hours

Will just got a new grill and wanted to smoke the pork 

shoulder so he did so overnight (if you have this option, take it!)

3.  Make your coleslaw while your pork is cooking- I would suggest mixing the green onions and coleslaw mix in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the Dijon mustard, mayonnaise (I start with one cup and make the coleslaw and add more as needed- I don’t like too much mayo!), cider vinegar, lemon juice and sugar. Pour over the coleslaw mixture and toss. Add the ½ tsp of celery seed and hot sauce, salt and pepper to your liking. Allow the slaw to sit for at least three hours and chill in the fridge

4.  After 6 hours check on the pork in the crock pot, once cooked through, shred with a fork allowing the meat to mix with the juices at the bottom of the crock pot (discard fatty pieces and I usually get rid of some of the juice)

Spicy Coleslaw ingredients all ready to be mixed up!

I like to place the pork with 

slaw inside of a King's Hawaiian Roll- AH-MAZING! ENJOY!

The finished product at the tailgate with all of the
other tailgate snacks

FYI note: with this recipe, I had left over coleslaw and BBQ so that turned into Sunday’s dinner to top off a healthy weekend ;)