Thanks to everyone for entering our Father’s Day Howling Wolf BBQ giveaway!
The winner of our contest is HAP reader…Bonnita Denson! Bonnita wrote: “I’m definitely with the Blood Mary peeps! My husband, who is a dad and his dad and my own dad like experimenting with different kinds of sauces. We havent tried these!! Also, I’ve “liked” HAP for a while now!! Thank you!!”
We hope you all enjoy your weekends, celebrating dads every where!
Filed under Giveaway
Every year at the spring farmer’s markets I see the baskets of the quirky, curly garlic scapes. I’ve always been curious but with such a short season of availability, the opportunity to try them is fleeting. Last weekend I finally decided to give them a whirl.
If you’ve never had them, garlic scapes taste like garlic mixed with a green onion. Raw they are a bit pungent however, when cooked any sharpness mellows out to a more delicate and balanced garlic-onion flavor. I made this risotto to let the flavor of the scapes shine and paired it with salty bacon to add a bit of richness. Just the first hint of the loveliness to come from the farmer’s markets this year!
Bacon & Grilled Scape Risotto
1 1/2 C arborio rice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 C white wine
4-5 C chicken stock
6 pieces bacon
7-8 garlic scapes
1 Tbsp butter
1/3 C grated parmesan cheese
cracked black pepper
salt
In a large sauce pan, add olive oil and arborio rice and begin to toast over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add in white wine and cook, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Add 1 C stock, continuing to stir until liquid is again absorbed. Repeat process, continually adding stock and stirring until it is absorbed. When most of the liquid is gone, test rice. It should be slightly al dente and creamy.
Place scapes in a grill pan and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Cook over medium heat until scapes have light grill marks. Meanwhile, cook bacon according to your favorite method. When I have multiple pans going, I like to microwave my bacon. To do so, place 2 paper towels on a plate and cover with bacon. Place one paper towel on top. Cook for about 7 minutes.
Transfer scapes and bacon to a cutting board and let sit until they’re cool enough to touch. Dice both. Reduce heat to very low. Stir in bacon and scapes. Fold in parmesan until it melts. Cut butter into four small squares and fold into risotto. Season with salt and cracked pepper.
Top with sprinkle of parmesan and diced raw garlic scape.
Filed under Sides
This week we are celebrating dads by giving away what dad loves most – BBQ! We have had the honor and privilege of interviewing Ken Wolfe from Howling Wolf Gourmet Foods, who has enlightened us on us culinary BBQ perspective. If reading his story doesn’t make your mouth water for some delicious Father’s Day grilling, we aren’t sure what would! Please take the time to read about Howling Wolf and have the chance to win a BBQ combo pack with a bottle of the Howling Wolf Original BBQ sauce, Land & Sea Rub, and Dry Rub. Giveaway details are below.
Give us the one-minute bio of yourself.
I am a classically trained chef who has always had a passion for sauces, smoked foods, and BBQ. I started my career with a 3 1/2 year culinary apprenticeship in southern California, followed by two years of working as a chef in France. I spent most of my early career as a saucier, before moving up the ranks. Eventually I opened my own restaurant, Cafe Wyoming, in Dubois, Wyoming. At the Cafe, I featured my BBQ sauces and perfected my style of barbecuing. My ribs and sauce were mentioned in Jane & Michael Stern’s Roadfood 2005 edition. After six successful years, I sold the Cafe to focus on my sauces full time. I moved to Wisconsin five years ago and have been in the stores four years.
Tell us a little bit about how Howling Wolf BBQ got started?
I have always had a passion for BBQ growing up and as I progressed in the culinary field I was continually thinking of the possibility of starting a food line to eventually free me from the restaurant business. That line naturally became my own gourmet take on BBQ.
What inspires your BBQ flavors?
I love the diversity of flavors that the spice world offer. Combined with my passion for BBQ, I have been able to create some extra ordinary flavors that are both flavorful and very versatile. For example, My Cranberry Orange BBQ can be used as a glaze for Asian sweet and sour, and my original can be mixed with yogurt and takes on a middle eastern flavor.
Are you a gas or charcoal man?
At times gas is convenient but not only do I prefer charcoal but I prefer to make my own.
Describe your perfect BBQ meal.
I am always happy to devour a rack of perfectly smoked pork spare ribs but nothing beats a beautifully seasoned and smoked pork shoulder sandwich on a homemade roll topped with my homemade aged slaw and a good I.P.A.
How will you be spending your Father’s Day?
I will be doing something outside with my family most likely in the garden and it will most certainly end up with a nice dinner off the grill.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS
In order to win the Howling Wolf BBQ Combo Pack, visit the Howling Wolf website and check out the different products and recipes. Leave us a comment on this post telling us how you would like to use a Howling Wolf product to put a smile on dad’s face this Father’s Day.
For an extra vote – like Haute Apple Pie on Facebook and let us know you did!
You must enter your comment by Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 11 p.m. CST. The winner of the giveaway will be announced Friday, June 15, 2012 and will be chosen at random. You must be over the age of 18 to vote and live in the Continental United States.
Happy Father’s Day to all those awesome dads out there!
The grills have been rolled out and dusted off. The propane tanks filled. The charcoals are burning. It is grilling season again. Great news for the taste buds, bad news for the waistline. Enjoying a good brat or burger off the grill is a Midwesterners favorite pastime, but it can wreak havoc on your summer weight loss routine. This summer, we are running Skinny BBQ Series, lots of great grilled recipes from apps, to entrees, to desserts that you will not need to feel guilty about.
My good friend from college hails from the great state of New Mexico. If there are two things he has taught me, they are: tortillas and green chilies. We often grilled in college and never seemed to scrape enough money together to have buns lying around, so we would wrap our hot dogs and brats in tortillas. It cuts back on the carbs and calories and is surprisingly delicious! Now the chilies we are able to buy in cans here in the Midwest pale in comparison to the ones mailed straight from New Mexico, but they still get the flavor across.
When the lovely people at Gold’n Plump sent us some of their new chicken sausages, I was excited to create a meal that mixed my Germanic routes with my taste for Southwestern cuisine. Using Gold’n Plump’s new chicken bratwurst, I made a lean and spicy new twist on an old Wisconsin favorite.
Tortilla Chicken Brats with Southwestern Sauerkraut
1 package Gold’n Plump Chicken Bratwurst
5 Flour or Corn Tortillas (Use whole wheat for an added health bonus)
1 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
1 jar green chilies
1 16 oz. jar of sauerkraut, rinsed, drained and squeezed dry
1/2 tsp chipolte powder
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cumin
BBQ sauce (optional)
Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil. At a medium-high heat, sauté garlic for one minute, stirring constantly. Add onion and jalapeño. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, until softened. Add green chilies and reduce heat to medium. Stir in sauerkraut. Mix throughly. Add chipolte powder, pepper, paprika and cumin. Simmer at medium to low heat until ready to serve.
Add bratwurst to grill. Grill for 15-18 minutes, turning on all sides to cook evenly at even intervals. In the last 2 minutes of grilling, add tortillas to the grill. Heat until slightly crisp edges form, watching closely to make sure they do not burn.
Lay tortilla flat. Add bratwurst and large spoonful of sauerkraut. Drizzle about 1 TBSP of your favorite BBQ sauce (I love Saz’s!) and wrap.
These chicken brats only have 7 G of fat and 150 calories. If I did not know it was chicken, I would never have guessed. Sauerkraut may add a little extra sodium but no fat and virtually no calories. The extra tablespoon of BBQ sauce may add about 20 calories or so, but I think it is well worth it. This meal tastes sinfully bad for you, but packs in at less than 500 calories! Now that is what I call skinny BBQ!
*Disclaimer: Gold’n Plump provided Haute Apple Pie with the products utilized in this post, however the content, images, recipes and opinions are all our own.
After recently returning from a vacation in Florida, I’ve been looking for ways to infuse a little more “tropical” into my life. So when some friends were hosting a shrimp boil over the weekend I decided to get experimental with flavors that would continue the beachy vibe of their party for dessert. The Mango Coconut Cookies I put together would be good on their own but the salted caramel drizzle gives them that extra something to make them quite addictive!
Mango Coconut Cookies with Salted Caramel Drizzle
1 C butter
1 C brown sugar
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 C flour
2 tsp ground flax seed (optional)
1 C coconut flakes
1 C dried mango, chopped into small bits
1/2 C prepared (or homemade) caramel topping
sea salt flakes
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Next, beat in vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Finally, mix in flour, one cup at a time until batter is thick.
Use a spatula to stir in coconut, mango bits and flax seed if using until all items are well incorporated into batter.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. Place a cooling rack on top of aluminum foil or waxed paper. Transfer cookies cooling rack. Once cool, drizzle with caramel topping and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
Filed under Treats
The hubs and I celebrated our fourth anniversary over Memorial Day weekend. We are a sucker for tradition and stick to the classic list of anniversary gifts. Each year it has been fun to come up with something clever to give one another. We’ve conquered paper, cotton, leather and this year fruit or flowers. While I may beam from a dozen roses, surprising my husband with a basket of fruit or homemade jam just didn’t seem good enough. Therefore, we decided to go in on our gift together.
If you remember last year, I talked about planting a shade garden. We worked on ripping up the old ground cover from the side of the house and took out some shrubs. By the time I was motivated to plant, it was too late in the season. This year, we gave each other the gift of beautiful landscaping and had fun picking out flowers and sprucing up the side walkway of our house.
To dedicate the shade garden, I painted a rock I found in our yard with our anniversary date. I freehanded the letters in pencil and painted them in with some leftover paint I had laying around the house. Now, as we walk past our pretty flowers, we both feel a little extra love.
I researched the best flowers to grow with little sunlight in Wisconsin. We already have bunches of purple daylilies whose blooms we have been enjoying lately. We have also mixed in a few varieties of hostsas. I wanted to add some color at other parts of the season, so I added some astilbes and coral bells to the mix to brighten it up. While you may not be able to see them yet, I also placed Northern Sea Oats to give some height and depth to the garden. We fixed up the edging and added some cypress mulch. We couldn’t be happier with the transformation!
I will share more pictures with you later in the season and next year, when our small plants blossom and bloom!
Do you stick with the traditional anniversary gifts? If so, I’d love to hear your clever ideas!
Filed under Garden
I apologize if I have been a little absent from the blog for the past few weeks, we have been quite busy around our house with our new little addition! Meet baby Elin, the newest addition to the HAP family.
Elin Kathleen
8lbs 7oz and 22 inches long
Filed under Uncategorized
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