My Favorite Coleslaw

This coleslaw recipe isn’t fancy, but it goes great with BBQ cooking recipes and any other type of outdoor events. Actually, it’s great indoors, too! It has a pungent vinegar taste, along with some sweetness. If I don’t have time to shred my own cabbage, I use a 10-ounce package of slaw mix. I like to chop the packaged slaw mix to a finer texture, however, because it gives the slaw more surface area. This makes for a creamier coleslaw.

My Favorite Coleslaw recipe

Ingredients:

6 cups shredded cabbage OR a 10-ounce bag

3/8 cup cider vinegar

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sugar OR Splenda

¼ cup ranch dressing

2 tablespoons milk

¼ cup sweet pickle relish

2 green onions, thinly sliced (I include the tops)

Garlic salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

Directions: Place cabbage in large bowl and chop to desired texture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together vinegar, mayo, sugar, ranch dressing, and milk. Pour over cabbage.

Add relish, onions, garlic salt, and pepper. Toss to coat.

Cover and refrigerate at least two hours before serving.

Super Baked Beans

Few activities are better for summer holiday ideas than BBQ cooking recipes. What goes better with BBQ cooking than baked beans? To save time, I use canned pork and beans, but believe me – these beans are awesome! For spicier beans, use a small can of diced green chilies instead of the bell pepper. You might also want to add some chili powder or ground red pepper for some heat.

Super Baked Beans recipe

Ingredients:

2 cans pork and beans (28 ounces each)

1 large Vidalia onion, diced

½ cup bottled barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

½ cup brown sugar, packed

½ pound ground beef, cooked, drained, and crumbled

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke

6 strips thick-cut uncooked bacon

Directions: To save dishwashing, I combine everything in the pan that I’m using to cook the beans. Just mix everything together but the bacon strips. Use a 13 x 9 pan or Pyrex dish. Once everything is mixed together well, lay the 6 strips of bacon on top.

Bake uncovered at 300 degrees. Check the beans after two hours. I usually cook this recipe for about three hours, but your oven might be hotter than mine. Also, cooking time depends partly on how much liquid was included in your canned beans.

Cookout Tips

If you're hosting a cookout as a way to entertain guests, good choice! BBQ cooking recipes are favorites with just about everyone. BBQ cooking will make things a lot easier on you, too. It's always pretty easy to take charge of the grill or smoker. It seems that men especially like this type of cooking. Personally, I think this goes back to the caveman days, when the males hunted down wild game and cooked it over an open fire. Whatever the reason, take advantage of it! If you can get hubby or some other male to handle cooking the meat, that will be one less thing for you to have to do. Of course, you might want to make the sauce, yourself, by using some tasty BBQ cooking recipes.

If you have the meat taken care of, get help with the side dishes. I don't know how it is in your part of the country, but around here, guests always ask what they can bring to a party or get-together. Don't be shy. Of course, don't ask them to bring some complicated or expensive dish like lobster thermidor. Suggest they bring dishes like coleslaw, potato salad, pasta salad, or other cold foods. All you'll have to do is to take care of bread, beverages, and dessert.

Breads for cookouts is easy! Just split loves of French or Italian bread, spread them with butter, sprinkle on a little garlic powder or garlic salt, and wrap them in foil. The loaves can be warmed on the grill or in the oven.

For desserts, most of these can be made the day before. If you don't want to go to the trouble of baking, buy cakes, pies, and/or cookies at the bakery. Of course, ice box pies are easy to make, so you might want to consider a couple of those. If you choose to buy a pound cake or angel food cake, offer sliced fresh fruit and whipped cream for guests to help themselves to. You could set up a small area as a dessert bar. Include slices of cake, chocolate syrup, sliced strawberries, sliced peaches, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. Another cookout dessert idea is homemade ice cream. If you have an electric ice cream churn, homemade ice cream really isn't hard to make, and it won't require your constant attention.

The next thing you'll need to address is beverages. When we have an outdoor event where kids will be included, we set up three coolers. One is filled with canned soft drinks, bottled water, and ice. Another is filled with canned beer and ice. The third cooler contains juice boxes, Capri Sun drinks, and/or Mondo Coolers. Kids won't be constantly asking for someone to make them a drink - they can help themselves! Ice down all the drinks the morning of the party or the night before.

A few days before your holiday cookout, hit the dollar store or your local party store for paper plates, napkins, plastic spoons and forks, and plastic tablecloths. Eat outdoors on picnic tables or patio tables, and place large trashcans near each table or eating area. Cleanup will be a snap!

If you use these holiday ideas, your cookout will be fun and practically stress free. Your guests will pick up on that, too, and everyone will have a great time!

BBQ Cooking Side Dishes

We have several holidays coming up – Memorial Day, Southern Memorial Day, and July 4. Are you already thinking up some holiday ideas? For the three events mentioned, BBQ cooking is very popular. You know that BBQ is traditionally a Southern food, right? Oh sure, the rest of the country does it now, too, but it all started in the South, where the pig was king of the barnyard.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Southern food dishes go great with BBQ cooking! If you’re hosting a barbecue or cookout, or if you’re invited to one, you’ll need to prepare a side dish or two. You wouldn’t show up to a gathering empty handed, would you? Of course, you wouldn’t! Why, that would be very un-Southern!

So what goes well with barbecue? If the barbecued meat is hot and spicy, the best accompaniments are cool, creamy dishes. Favorites are potato salad and coleslaw. You might think these two old standards are boring, but there are plenty of ways to “jazz” them up.

For potato salad, you could add ranch dressing instead of mayo. You could also add sour cream, diced bacon, red bell peppers, chopped cucumbers, bread-and-butter pickles, or radishes. If you want to add some heat to your potato salad, stir in some diced green chilies, some chopped pickled jalapenos, or some chipotle powder.

Coleslaw doesn’t have to be boring, either. Give it a tropical flair by adding some crushed pineapple or some diced mango. Make it more colorful by adding purple cabbage, diced tomatoes, halved grape tomatoes, sliced black olives, or small strips of red bell pepper.

If you choose to forego the potato salad and coleslaw, what about rice salad, corn salad, or pasta salad? You can find my recipes for all of these at the Best American Food website!

July 4 Party - BBQ Cooking

Okay, so you're thinking about having a crowd over to celebrate July 4, and you're searching for July 4 party ideas.Of course, just about any July 4 events will have to include food, right? A great way to feed everyone on the Fourth of July is with BBQ cooking. Why is that? Because BBQ cooking is done outdoors, where everyone will probably want to be if the weather's nice. If the cooking is done outdoors, it can be part of the festivites in itself. Also, the one doing the BBQ cooking won't be stuck inside while all the other July 4 party guests are having fun in the sun!

Another good reason to consider BBQ cooking for July 4 events that involve food is because a large amount of meat can be cooked at one time, especially if you use a large grill or smoker. The price per pound is usually much less for such cuts of meat, also. If you place the meat on a smoker, you won't have to attend to it much, so you can enjoy the party instead of working on the food.

Some good choices of meats for BBQ cooking on a smoker include fresh pork hams, pork spare ribs, baby back ribs, pork loins, beef briskets, and pork shoulders, also called "Boston butts." If you're expecting a large group of people, you might want to consider cooking a whole pig or a half pig and have a pig pickin', as we call it in the South! If you have a family member or friend who's into survival hunting - hunting for meat - you might be able to talk him into giving you a venison ham for the grill or smoker. Vension is excellent for BBQ cooking! If you need some recipes and info for BBQ cooking, just click the BBQ cooking link above!