Monthly Archives: April 2012

Fiesta Rib Cook Off

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Texas Style Cuisine

Fiesta in San Antonio is a huge celebration. It is 100 different events over 11 days in late April every year. One of the annual events is the Culture Fest Rib Cook Off  hosted by St. Philip’s College. I had entered a few years ago and really enjoyed myself with a 3rd place finish. It took very little convincing to get Bar Cross to enter it this year. We decided to enter both beef and pork ribs and to sell plates. I made a run to Restaurant Depot and picked up 30 slabs of spare ribs and six slabs of beef. We usually never cook beef ribs so we practice on a few racks prior to the cook off and came up with what we would be a good recipe. We have been working on some new recipes so we decided to enter two teams, Bar Cross and Bar Cross Too.  We got to St Philip’s around 3:30 and started the fires. The pit was warmed up and cruising about 250º so we loaded up the pit with 30 slabs of pork and 6 slabs of beef that had already been rubbed the day before. About 10:45 we turned in our competition ribs. Team 1 turned in our sweet pork rib recipe and some spicy beef ribs. Team 2 turned in some spicy pork ribs and sweet beef ribs. Soon as we turned in we started selling plates. $5 would get you potato salad, borracho beans and a nice juicy rib. We had a good line of people buying plates when we were called for the awards ceremony. We were busy and did not go so they sent for us again. This time my cousin Fernando went to represent our team. The rest of us continued selling plates. in about 15 minutes we hear Fernando calling. We spot him coming through the crowd with his arms full of trophies. He yells out “We Won It All”. He was not kidding. We won 1st place beef ribs, 1st and 3rd place pork ribs and the Student Choice Award. Not a bad day. From the time we were announced as the winners we had people in our line until 1:30 when we ran out of ribs. Then we started selling sausage plates until they were all gone. So by 3:00 we had won every 1st place and sold out of food. Also we had a chance to try out the pit since we had moved it to the new trailer and made a few changes. It all worked out and we had a great time. St Philip’s did an excellent job hosting the event. We got to meet many of the Fiesta dignitaries, the president of Fiesta, the President and some of the deans from St. Philip’s and King El Rey Feo. We also wound up on TV here in San Antonio. WOAI TV 4 came by for a live shot for their morning show, and David Sears from KSAT 12 dropped in and tried some ribs while filming the trophies. It was great fun for us and we made good money selling plates, we just did not bring enough. But next year we will know and we will bring twice as many ribs.

Team Bar Cross BBQ

Pappy and I slicing ribs

The new trailer

Categories: BBQ, Entrees, Texas Style Cuisine | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Cast Iron Cookie

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Texas Style Cuisine

I had one of the kids come in and ask me if I could cook a huge cookie in a frying pan. Well of course I can, I told him.  I checked the dry storage and we were out of chocolate chips. But we were in luck, one of the kids had some World’s Finest Chocolate bars for a fundraiser. So we bought two bars and got after it. I grabbed an 8″ skillet and melted a stick of butter. Next I stirred in 1/2 cup each, of white and brown sugar. After the sugar was melted in I added 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla. We pulled the skillet off the stove. This is where you have to be careful, you can’t add the egg to soon. If you do you will cook the eggs. That is why you cant get the skillet to hot. Cast iron holds heat, so if you get it to hot it will take a while to cool it off. While the skillet was cooling, I chopped a World’s Finest Chocolate Bar into pieces. We had the chocolate and almond bar and that worked great. Then we sifted 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and mixed them together.. Next I whisked one egg into the sugar and butter. Then the flour was poured into the skillet to form the dough. Once the flour was incorporated totally I pressed the dough out evenly across the skillet. I then scattered the chocolate across the dough and placed it in the oven. The cookie was baked for 20 minutes at 350 and it came out a beautiful  golden brown. Now the best way to serve it, I believe, is with a few scoops of ice cream on top. We had no ice cream so we cut it up and found a little milk to drink with it. On a whim it was an excellent dessert and a great lesson for the kids to experience. Now if I was going to make a few of these I think I would make the dough and add it to a warm skillet. A much easier and faster way to cook these excellent cookies.

Categories: Dessert, Texas Style Cuisine, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Southwestern Quiche

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Texas Style Cuisine

I spent the day making Quiche. The French teacher brought his classes down to try a little french cuisine. I had a few quiches already made, so I would make one for the class then let them help my students make a few more. So by the end of the day we had made about 20. I had the kids cook a classic ham and cheese quiche, a spinach one and a broccoli one. We also made two southwestern quiches. They were all excellent, but as you would guess the spicy ones were my favorite. If you have never tried quiche then it’s about time and this is an easy one to make.

Southwestern Quiche
  • 1/2 lb                 Diced Kiolbassa Sausage with Jalapenos or Hot breakfast sausage
  • 1 1/2 Cup          Monterey Jack Cheese
  • 1/2 Cup            Cheddar Cheese
  • 1/2 Cup            Rotel Tomatoes with Green Chilies
  • 1  Cup               Milk
  • 3                        Eggs
  • 1/4 tsp             Pepper
  • 1/4 tsp             Salt
  • 1                        9″ Pie Crust
  1. Pre heat oven to 400
  2. thoroughly mix eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and rotel
  3. Place pie crust in 9″ pie pan
  4. Spread cheese evenly in the crust
  5. Spread the sausage over the cheese
  6. Poor egg mixture over the cheese and sausage
  7. Place quiche in oven for 30 minutes or until eggs are set
Categories: Entrees, Texas Style Cuisine | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A sweet little Fattie

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Texas Style Cuisine

Now I am sure that many of you wondering what in the heck is a Fattie. Basically it is a meatloaf stuffed with your favorite fillings wrapped in bacon and then smoked. I made two of them, one was an Italian, stuffed with red and green bell peppers sweet onions, mushrooms, ricotta and mozzarella. The other was stuffed with fettucine alfredo, mushrooms and jumbo shrimp. They were excellent. The way I make them is I place my meatloaf in a ziplock bag. Then I make a woven matt of bacon. The stuffing is placed inside of the meatloaf and rolled up, using the bag. I slice the sides with a sharp knife so it can be opened up. The meat roll is then place on the bacon matt and rolled up. Roll the fattie in plastic to firm it up, then put it on the smoker for about 2 hours at 225.

Categories: BBQ, Entrees, Grilling, Texas Style Cuisine | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

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