Maybe some of you have once heard about a Mexican hot dog, and might have questioned it, much like I did. I recall seeing a show on television and they were talking about Mexican hot dogs, somewhere in the southwest portion of the United States. What it ended up being, and don’t get me wrong, it looked great, was a bacon wrapped hot dog, with tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers, and a cream sauce. Once again, it looked great, but I had a better idea, and something I thought would be a bit more authentic. I did not want to go with a bacon wrapped hot dog because I had already did this with my corn dog recipe, as well as simply wrapping the hot dogs in bacon and grilling them. Both amazing, but not what I was looking for in what I am calling the Mexican hot dog.

Let’s get started.

(Serves 1)

• 2 flour tortillas, warmed, per serving
• 3 tbsp refried beans, cooked
• 2 roasted jalapeño peppers, seeds and stem removed, sliced
• 1 hot dog, make it your favorite one, cooked
• 1/2 cup of shredded Colby jack cheese
• Sriracha sauce, optional

Begin by preparing all of your ingredients. To roast the peppers, I simply add them to a hot cast iron skillet, turning along the cooking process, until they are nice and blackened on all sides. Then, remove them, let them cool to the touch, and clean them.

Cook your hot dog any way you like. For this particular recipe, I like to steam them until fully cooked, then lightly sear them in the hot cast iron skillet, just for a little color.

To assemble the hot dog, warm the tortillas until they are nice and flexible. You can do this on a skillet, or in a microwave.

Remove one of the tortillas, spread the refried beans on the base of the tortilla, then top with about 3/4 of the cheese, then the sliced jalapeno peppers. Top with another warm tortilla, pushing down just a bit to melt some of the cheese, then top with the cooked hot dog and the remaining cheese.

You want your tortillas flexible at this point in time. If they are not warm and flexible, either add them back to a preheated skillet, covered, or in the microwave for about 15 seconds, until they are nice, soft, and flexible.

Roll the tortilla, until you have the seam side down. The refried beans and cheese will serve as a the glue, keeping everything in tact.

Slice it in half and serve with Sriracha sauce for additional heat.

This Mexican hot dog is creamy, has a nice snap from the hot dog, a bit of heat from the roasted jalapeños, and when taking a bite, just blends all of those flavors into one.  I hope you enjoy.

Don’t get me wrong, a chip sandwich on its own is pretty darn awesome, but as I am always trying to get my kids to try new things, I thought I would take his idea of a chip sandwich and convert that into one of his favorite burgers. Yes, his favorite burger is a plain burger, stacked with bacon. No cheese. No condiments. No nothing.

So this led me to make this really awesome burger creation, and sure, I loaded mine up differently than I did my oldest child, and my middle son, but what did shine besides the delicious burger was the crisp, yet tender, homemade garlic chips.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 3 large russet potatoes, cleaned, skin on
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed
• Ground chuck, made into your preferred size burger patty
• Generous amount of salt
• Generous amount of cracked black pepper
• Thick cut bacon, cooked, bacon grease reserved
• Thick style burger buns, proportionate to your patty, and thick enough to trap any juices
• Carmelized onions, optional
• 2 slices of American cheese, per burger

If you have a mandoline (highly recommend if you do not have one), use it, and set it to about a 1/4 inch thick. If you do not have one, don’t worry. This will give you an opportunity to work with your knife skills. The point is slice the potato lengthwise, so use a very long knife, a knife longer than your potato, cutting into about 1/4 inch thick. Keep the skin on. I’m a big believer in skin on. Add all of your slices to a large bowl, and cover with cold water as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

As the potato slices soak, cook your bacon in a large cast iron skillet. Add the garlic to a skillet and add in the oil. Cook on medium to low heat, being gentle to not burn the garlic. Your goal is to extract the great garlic flavor into the oil. After about 10 minutes, remove the garlic cloves and discard, and turn off the heat. Your bacon should be finishing up now, so once it is cooked, remove to a paper lined plate to drain any oil. Turn the heat off of the bacon skillet as well, but reserve the bacon fat. Yes, we are going to cook the burgers in the fat.

Caramelize your onions if you are using them.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Drain the water from the potatoes and lay them on a large towel. Cover with another towel and gently pat them to dry. Next, add a wire rack onto a large cookie sheet. If you do not have a wire wrack, don’t worry. Use parchment paper instead. Brush the garlic oil on both sides of the potato slices, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place in the oven to cook for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, and maybe even 10 minutes into the cooking, take a peak on them. The last thing you want are burnt chips. Flip over, then raise the heat to 400 degrees, cooking for another 10 minutes of so, and once again, keeping your eye on them. If some are cooking faster than others, remove them from the oven and place on a plate. Continue until all of the chips are done.

Next, make your patties. I like to mix a small bowl of salt and pepper together, then generously sprinkle a plate with the mixture. Once my patty is made, I can set it onto the plate, absorbing the salt and pepper, then season the top. I’m always generous when it comes to seasoning the top and bottom as it helps build a nice crust, which I really love.

Bring the bacon fat up to a medium to high heat. Add in your burger patty(s) and cover with a splatter screen if you have one. Cook to your desired doneness, flipping on both sides. I prefer a medium on my burgers. Before you reach your doneness, add bacon slices, caramelized onions, then top with the cheese. The cheese will begin to melt down, covering the onions and bacon for another added surprise.

Before serving, slice your buns, and add into the warm oven. To plate, add the cheeseburger to the bottom bun, and stack with a handful of the homemade garlic chips, then top with the top bun.

This burger will grab your attention, and those around you. It is stacked with perfection. With both hands, grab that burger, give a light squeeze, and wrap your mouth around it. Crunchy and garlicky from the chips, then the really juicy burger along with the smokey sweetness from the bacon and onions, really complete the burger. Super great, and now I am glad my kid opened my eyes to a chip sandwich. Who knew? The big question is, which is better the pretzel burger, the cheese crisp burger, or this bad boy? Hope you enjoy.

Turkey legs. I saw them at the local store, and they were on sale. One to a pack. At first sight, I was kind of laughing to myself and did not really care if anyone saw that, and I knew that my kids would get a kick out of them.

If you think about it, the turkey leg is a huge hit at most state fairs, or even better, Disney World. While growing up, I got excited when I saw these caveman style turkey legs at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. There was always something about getting one of these giant legs, walking around and nibbling on them for quite some time. But, there was nothing special about them. They were roasted, seasoned lightly, and that was about it. My take on these turkey legs just changed, and my kids, well, they loved them!

As I have been cooking with beer for the last couple of months, I decided to twist it up a little bit when I began thinking of what I was going to do with these turkey legs. Heck, why not use some booze, right? For some odd reason I have a bottle of Jack Daniels in my bar. I’m not a fan of Jack Daniels, nor do I ever drink the stuff, but I have it, and now I know why. It is because I was going to use this whiskey to really bring some life to the turkey leg. Enough said, let’s get started.

Ingredients for injection:

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1/2 cup of whiskey
• 1 tsp salt

Ingredients for Smoked Turkey Legs:

• 2 turkey legs, rinsed and patted dry
• 1 cup of honey
• 1 cup of ketchup
• 1 cup of whiskey
• 1/4 cup of light brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• Pecan wood chunks, soaked in water for 4 hours

Normally I would brine something like this, but as I was not going to do a whole turkey, I decided to use an injector. If you do not have an injector, get one. They are awesome.

Begin by melting the butter to a sauce pan, and add in the stock, salt, and whiskey.  Bring to a boil, then take off of the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Go heat your coals for your smoker.

Once the mixture has come to room temperature, take your injector and draw back the stock mixture and begin injecting it in various areas within the turkey leg. Be generous on both legs. Let these sit at room temperature while you get your smoker ready.

Once your coals are heated for the smoker, add the wood chunks. Place your turkey legs onto the smoker, cover, and let them get hit with the smoke for at least two hours, on low heat.

Transfer the turkey legs to a preheated, 325 degree oven. Place the turkey legs onto a roasting pan, and cook for one hour, turning after 30 minutes.

While the turkey legs are roasting in the oven, make the glazing sauce.

To a sauce pan, add in the honey, whiskey, ketchup, salt, pepper, ketchup, and brown sugar. Bring to a low boil, then reduce the heat, stirring frequently. Turn off the heat, and set aside.

After the turkey has cooked in the oven, turn up the heat to 400 degrees. Begin brushing on the glaze, cooking for the first 10 minutes. After the first ten minutes, flip the legs over, and generously glaze once again, returning back to the oven for another ten minutes. On the final turn, glaze once again and cook for another ten minutes.

Remove the legs from the oven, and let them rest for a few minutes. If you want, brush any remaining glaze onto the legs just before serving.

To serve, just grab those legs, using the bone as your handle. Dig in, get messy, and take on the delicious whiskey flavor. You get tender, smokey meat, with a subtle hit of the whiskey glaze. My kids could not stop eating it, and I could not have been happier watching them eat their very first turkey leg.

Give it a shot. You will be happy that you did.

I have made mussels in the past in somewhat of a classic sense, but this time I wanted to do something different with them, and as I typically do, experiment with that recipe. This when I thought about incorporating smoke into the mussels, and boy am I glad that I did.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 3 lbs of fresh mussels, inspected and scrubbed
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp shallots, minced
• 2 tbsp flat leaf Italian parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 sprig of thyme
• French bread, lightly toasted
• Pecan wood chunks or chips, soaked in water for 4 hours

Begin by inspecting all of the mussels. When buying them fresh you want to make certain that they are all closed, and remain very cold until you are ready to clean and cook them. If there are any open, toss them, and if there are any that do not open during the cooking process, toss those as well.

Start by heating up your grill, or smoker. If you are using a grill, heat one side of the grill on high heat, and keep the other side on medium heat. If you are using your standard smoker, heat your coals, or get it brought up to temperature. If using a grill, add the wood chunks to a some aluminum foil and place above the heated source and let it begin to smoke.

When you are ready to begin, scrub all of the mussels under cold water. Get a large sheet of aluminum foil out, enough to house all of the mussels, and poke small holes through it. This will allow the smoke to move through it. Add all of them to some aluminum foil and transfer it to the grill or smoker. Let the mussels get fully penetrated by the smoke, and cook, roughly 10-30 minutes depending on your smoker. The mussels are fully cooked when all of the shells have opened.

During this time, make the sauce. To a sauce pan, add the butter and olive oil and let them fully melt together. Toss in the garlic and shallots and cook for a couple of minutes.  Bring the temperature up to a higher heat. Add in the wine, cooking for about five minutes until it begins to reduce. Reduce the heat to a simmer and toss in the rosemary and thyme.

When the mussels are done, you are ready to plate and serve. To a serving bowl, or bowls, add in the mussels, then spoon over the wine sauce all over them. Shower them with fresh parsley, and serve with some toasted French bread to sop up that delicious sauce.

The result is nothing more that greatness. They had a great smokey flavor and took on the flavor of the buttery wine sauce. Super tender and delicious, they were nothing but fun to eat. Hope you enjoy!

Many of us who our not from southeastern Europe probably have no idea, nor heard of cevapi. That is one of the reasons I am going to introduce it to you today. Cevapi, in my opinion, are like grilled kebabs that look dense in texture, but are extremely light and airy. Not only that but they are packed with some great flavor. They are found in the southestern parts of Europe. Think Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia. To me, this is their kebob, and one similar to kofta. After all, it cannot be just the Italians that make some sort of meatball right?

Let’s get started on this wonderful southeastern Europe style kebab.

Ingredients: (serves eight)

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, minced
• 1/4 cup of Italian leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup warm water mixed with 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper

Serve with:

• Naan bread, warmed
• Ajvar (optional)
• tzatziki (optional)

If you have never added baking soda to any of your meat mixtures, you might be missing out. The baking soda builds that pillow texture, that airiness you get in this kebob. Remember that when you are biting into the final product. Take all of your ingredients, throw them in a bowl, and mix well with your hands. Mix like you are making meatballs, or a meatloaf.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let this sit overnight if you can, if not, at least 4-6 hours.

Next, form the cevapi into thick finger likc shapes, if you will. They do not have to be perfect. They should be about the length of your index finger, an inch or so thick.

Let these rest while you fire up your grill. I highly recommend cooking over charcoal if you have that opportunity as the charcoal give this kebobs that smoky flavor. Well, let’s admit, charcoal or wood should be used when grilling. I will admit that I have not used the gas grill all summer long since my cousin was kind enough to hand down his charcoal grills to me.

Once the coals are hot, add the cevapi to the grill, cooking a few minutes per side. These do not take very long to cook. You should get nice sear marks on the outside of the kebabs, while going for a medium, to medium well on the inside.

Once your cevapi are off the grill, you have some options in plating.

My personal favorite is to plate the cevapi on a nice plate. To another plate, stack the warm naan or pita bread. Then in two separate bowls, add the ajvar and the tzatziki.

Build your cevapi by spreading ajvar on the bottom of the bread, top with the cevapi, and drizzle some tzatziki sauce on top. Wrap and bite into it. The result is something out of this world. Tender bites of the kebab that are so well balanced by the slightly spicy ajvar sauce then cooled by the tzatziki sauce. This southeastern Europe kebab known as the cevapi is hard to be. So if you are looking for something new to try, and get your family or guests questioning at the dinner table, this one might just do that. Enjoy!

Ever since my wife fell in love with the chicken feta sausage that I made, I have been making sausage on a fairly regular basis. The great thing about making your own sausage is that you are the creator. I think of making sausage like making a pizza. It can be very simple like making a cheese and pepperoni pizza, or it can get as creative as you want that pizza to be. So after I began thinking of what type of sausage I would like to serve to my family and friends, I decided to make a craisin and sharp cheddar style sausage.

I am so glad that I made this sausage, for only one reason, well there are probably more reasons, but one reason that I will get to after towards the end.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs of pork shoulder, bone out, cut into 2 inch slices
• 1 shallot
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of craisins
• 3/4 lb of 3 year old sharp cheddar cheese
• Salt, to taste
• Cracked black pepper, to taste
• Natural casings, cleaned
• Sausage stuffer

A couple of key components when making your sausages. Casings and a sausage stuffer. You can get the casings at nearly any butcher, and the stuffer can be purchased online, or if you have a KitchenAid, you can get the attachment. Once you have these items, you are on your way to making great sausage.

So to get started, begin by getting your meat really cold. I place mine in the freezer for about 30 minutes before grinding. You want the meat to be really cold. If you do not have a grinder, you can use ground pork, but just make sure it has a bit of fat in there. I would recommend talking to your butcher and having them grind the pork shoulder for you.

Once you have the meat ground, take half of it, and grind it again. You will thank me later.

Next, take the shallots, garlic, cheese, and crasins, and run those through the grinder.

Start off by seasoning the meat mixture with about one tablespoon each of the salt and pepper. Mix well.

Form a small patty and cook it on medium heat in a skillet. Once cooked, taste it. The key is to taste the sausage and season with any additional salt and pepper before stuffing three feet of sausage. I know people who have not done this and paid for it later!

Once you have your seasoning right, prepare your sausage stuffer.

Place the casing onto the stuffer, tying a knot at the end.

Begin feeding your sausage, working with both hands. Feel free to use a toothpick at times to poke small holes in the casing, letting out any air, and it will happen. Nothing to worry about though.

Once you are done stuffing the sausage, make into your links, or go old school and use the whole sausage ring, placing it on the grill. Depending on who you are grilling for, this can be pretty fun.

Freeze in plastic freezer storage bags, or if you have a FoodSaver, use that.

The best part of making this particular sausage was that everyone loved it, including my oldest boy who has refused to eat sausage since he was about three years old. Not only is he picky about fruit and having cheese in certain foods, but he had no clue. He loved it! The double grinding of the meat makes these brats really stand out in texture, and flavor.

I served mine sliced, and due to the subtle sweetness, drizzled a bit of Jamaican pickapeppa sauce for a bit of heat. However you serve these, you will enjoy them. Hope you enjoy.

Some times you just want something different from those standard side dishes. This is where a classic macaroni salad came into play. I did not necessarily do this for myself, rather, I wanted to surprise my wife with something new, and I think I did just that.

This classic macaroni salad has everything you would expect in flavor and texture. A nice light dressing along with the great crunch from fresh celery, made this macaroni salad go great with the barbecue. So whether you are making chicken, pork, beef, or something in between, skip the bland deli style salads that you would typically pick up from the grocery store and try this one before summer ends. You will be happy you did.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb of macaroni pasta, cooked al dente
• 1/2 cup of celery, small dice
• 1/4 cup of red onion, small dice
• 1 small roma tomato, small dice
• 1/2 cup of light mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp Italian leaf parsley, chopped

Begin by boiling your pasta in salted water. While the pasta is boiling, prepare your ingredients, chopping all of the vegetables. When the vegetables have been chopped, make the dressing.

Combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, sugar, and sour cream to a small mixing bowl. Do just that, mix well until you have a nice and thin dressing.

When the pasta is done cooking, drain, and rinse with cold water to cool the pasta. Drain well.

To a large mixing bowl, add the pasta, chopped veggies, and top with half of the dressing. I say half because depending on the pasta, you want to make sure the sauce stays nice and light, not too much sauce. Mix to incorporate everything until you have the desired about of consistency with the dressing.

Taste. Adjust any salt and pepper to your liking. When you are ready to serve, transfer the macaroni salad to a serving bowl and garnish with fresh parsley. Serve cold, or at room temperature. Enjoy.

Ajvar is very simple to make. It is basically red bell peppers, eggplant, a bit of garlic and lemon, and just like that you have a wonderful, lightly spicy and fresh condiment.

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggplants
• 3 large red bell peppers
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp paprika (optional)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of olive oil

Simple ingredients. Begin by roasting the red bell peppers and the eggplants, either on a hot grill, or in the oven on high heat. The goal is blacken all of the skin on both the eggplants and the peppers. This process takes about 25 minutes. Once the skins are blackened, place them in a ziplock bag, or paper bag, and let them rest for about another 10 minutes. What happens when the vegetables are sealed in the bag, is that they begin to steam and allow you to easily remove the thicker skins on both vegetables.

Once the vegetables are slightly cooled, remove the skins off of all vegetables as well as their stems. Add the eggplant to a food processor. Before adding the red bell peppers, make sure you remove the seeds from them.

Next, toss in the remaining ingredients and begin pulsing the mixture down until it is nice and smooth. If you want more texture in your ajvar, by all means pulse it down to your desired consistency. Me? I like it nice and smooth.

Transfer this mixture to a large saucepan, and bring it to medium heat, covered, and cook for about one hour on a simmer. Let cool.

Once your ajvar is cooled, pour into storage containers, and when you are ready to eat, simply spread on bread such as naan, or heck, even some nice crostini. First bite, and you will understand how delicious this condiment is. The big question is why are we learning about how awesome ajvar is today?

Hope you enjoy.

What I have learned over the last few years is that rib tips are not a common item that you find your local market, but with that said I suggest you find a local butcher. My go to butcher in the Milwaukee area is Ray’s Butcher Shoppe. Not only do they have everything you need, but they have also shown that they can meet your needs. I have been buying pork belly from Ray’s for my last couple of bacon sessions, and I immediately knew that they would not hesitate if I asked them to cut some baby back ribs down the middle for me.  So, if you cannot find rib tips in your market, find a great butcher, and have them do the work for you.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 lbs baby back ribs, cut down the middle bone for rib tips
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp canola oil
• 18 oz Pilsner beer
• 2 cups maple wood chips, soaked in water at least 4 hours
• Your favorite BBQ Sauce (I suggest Sprecher’s Beer BBQ Sauce)
• Texas Style white bread, thick cut

Begin by heat your dutch oven, or other solid cooking vessel on a medium to high heat.  As the dutch oven comes to temperature, generously season your racks of rib tips with salt and pepper on all sides.  Place them in the dutch oven and brown them on all sides. Add the beer, cover tightly with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and cook for about 1 1/2 hours, never removing the lid.

When you are about to finish these off in your smoker, or grill using a foil packet of the wood chips, heat your coals and get your smoker all prepared.  Fill your water pan in your smoker with water.

Remove the rib tips from the beer and pat them dry.

Add the rib tips to the smoker, and place the wood chips on the hot coals. Cover and forget about them for about a good hour or so.

When you are about to eat, brush on the barbecue sauce on the ribs. Cover for a good 10 minutes. Repeat and cook for another 5 minutes. Now you are ready to plate.

To serve, lay down a nice thick slice of white bread, top with some rib tips, and drizzle barbecue sauce over the rib tips. Serve with your favorite sides. In my case, some local and fresh sugar snap peas.

The end result is a great taste of beer through and through. The rib tips were so tender and fun to eat that even my pickiest of eaters, and one who refuses to have sauce on anything, loved each and every rib tip. Hope you enjoy.

Agua frescas are basically fruit flavored water refreshments that can range from pretty much any fruit you put your mind to, but as my daughter has been on a strawberry and raspberry rampage lately, I decided to give her something different and expose the strawberry in a different light. This drink, in its purist form, is simply fruit and water, with a bit of sugar, and let me tell you, it makes the heat go away. Lets get started on this wonderful and refreshing drink.

Ingredients:

• 2 pints of strawberries, hulled
• 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar (taste how sweet or sour your strawberry is)
• 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves
• 8 cups of water
• Ice

Begin by macerating your strawberries. Add them to a bowl, add the sugar, mix, and let them go for at least two hours. You will notice that they begin to release their liquid and turn into something wonderful.

Next, add the bowl of macerated strawberries to a blender, add in the mint and water, and give it a good blend, almost into a puree.

Now you need to strain the mixture. If you have a fine wire strainer, use it and place over a bowl.

Slowly pour in the mixture and with a wooden spoon or other utensil, begin slowly moving it around, separating the pulp from the water.This will take a few minutes to do.

Once you have strained everything, you are left with a very refreshing strawberry water. Pour this into a pitcher, and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let it get nice and cold. Otherwise, if you do not have time for that, fill up your glass with ice, pour the strawberry agua fresca inside, and head outside.

Enjoy that sun. Enjoy that heat, and better yet, enjoy that strawberry agua fresca. There is nothing like it, so enjoy every moment of it!