I Am Jones-n Man!! I Need To Smoke!!!

I admit that I have a serious problem...I crave smoke! Hickory, Apple, Cherry....I crave them all! The engulfing smells that they emit....the color of the smoke...the way it softly floats from the weep holes....I have a serious problem. I admit that I am completely addicted! But hey! Admitting it is half the battle!

With my addiction though the other half of the battle is figuring out what to smoke! We are looking at a weekend of 70F with sun and that just adds fuel to my fire pit to get something on the smoker! So I am taking suggestions! Of my very few but I hope loyal followers, I would like to see your favorite recipe, favorite smoked item, favorite cooked anything!! I want to give it a try this weekend! I was leaning towards Smoked Beef Brisket but I have never smoked a brisket before, so send some suggestions cuz I need to figure out how to feed my addiction this weekend!

On a side note....I am saddened to say that Dave Duerson passed today. He took over for Todd Bell in 1985 and never looked backed. He started a run of 4 straight Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl Championship with the 85 Bears. He won another Super Bowl with the 1990 Giants but we will forgive him of that. Say hi to Halas for me Dave.......go Bears.....

Is it the Georgia or the New York That Makes the Pizza Suck?

I think I have it all figured out. Southern pizza does NOT suck....it is that New York style of pizza that sucks and that is all they see down here. These are big, nasty, floppy flats of wet cardboard, covered in mushy slop. It blows, I am not going to lie. HOWEVER!!! Like all things, something that sucks requires someone (mainly me!) to create something better!! And I think I am on to something!

I started by taking a Chicago Style Pan Pizza recipe...which is quite close to Malnati's and Gino's East, and I rolled out the dough real thin to make a thin crust pizza for my daughter. It turned out pretty good. The great mistake that was discovered was that the simplistic sauce freakin rocked! I mean really, it is mostly just crushed tomatoes!!! But the sweet tang it puts out like filthy Vegas hooker was just outstanding! Now the dough made for an adequate crust. To use it for Chicago Style Deep Dish it was perfect, but I need to get a little more of a "cracker" crust to get good Chicago thin crust...I need to get there because I cannot stand this New York garbage they are trying to shovel here.

Here is the Chicago Style Deep Dish recipe I found. I have not tweaked the dough yet at all except for adding a little salt:

Dough Recipe

    * 2 packages rapid rise dry yeast

    * 2 cups warm water

    * 1/2 cup vegetable oil

    * 4 tablespoons olive oil

    * 1/2 cup cornmeal

    * 5 1/2 cups flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer (e.g. KitchenAid), dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the vegetable oil, olive oil, cornmeal, and half of the flour. Beat for 10 minutes. Attach the dough hook and mix in the remaining flour. Knead for several minutes with the mixer. (Note: because the dough is very rich and moist, it would be difficult to do this by hand.)

Remove dough and place on a clean counter top. Cover with a very large metal bowl and allow to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and allow to rise again. Punch down a second time and you are ready to make pizza!

Oil your deep-dish pizza pan. Depending on the size of your pan, place some dough in the pan and push it out to the edges using your fingers. Put in enough dough so that you can run the crust right up the side of the pan. Make it about 1/8-inch thick throughout the pan.
Filling for a 9- or 10-inch Pan

    * 1 pound sliced mozzarella cheese
    * 2 cups original crushed tomatoes
    * 1 teaspoon basil
    * 1 teaspoon oregano
    * 2 cloves garlic, minced
    * Salt to taste
    * 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
    * 3 tablespoons olive oil
    * (I like about a teaspoon of sugar in my sauce too)

Place the cheese in tile-like layers on the bottom of the pie - you won't use it all but you want to be sure to have enough. Next put in the tomatoes and the basil, oregano, garlic, and salt, reserving the Parmesan cheese for the top. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the pie and you are ready to bake.

**If you want sausage make sure you put the sausage on the cheese, UNDER the sauce. It sounds silly but it really makes a difference in the taste of the sausage and pizza! I am not lying...once I perfect this, I am so close to starting my own Pizza shop!

Super Steeler Kill The Packers Bowl Sunday!!!

Well it is Super Bowl Sunday and what does that mean? It means that I am in denial, dressed in all my Bears gear, cooking Jambalaya while I watch the history of the Bears. Everything but the Jambalaya is sort of a tradition for me. I guess when you grow up a Bear fan you have to make your champions through non stop propaganda.

I know one thing for sure today...I still hate the Packers and I am really hoping that the Steelers kick the crud out of them! So to get an idea of how much I dislike the Packers...I am rooting for Rapenberger and the Steelers over the Packers! Those filthy Packers! You know how you can tell you are a Packer fan? When your cousin is also your aunt, your sister, and your wife!!

Now that I have that off my chest...LET'S MAKE SOME JAMBALAYA!!!! This one is an easy one.

Ingredients
    * 1 pound fully cooked kielbasa
    * 1 pound andouille sausage
    * 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
    * 1 large onion, chopped
    * 1 cup chopped celery
    * 1 cup chopped green pepper
    * 7 garlic cloves, minced
    * 3 tablespoons butter
    * 2 can diced tomatoes, undrained - 14.5 oz
    * 2 can tomato paste - 6oz
    * 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
    * 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
    * 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
    * 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
    * 1/4 teaspoon pepper
    * 1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and de-veined
    * Hot cooked rice

Directions
   1. Cut the sausage into 1/4 inch slices. Cube the chicken
   2. Dice the veggies (onion, green pep, and celery)
   3. Heat up a fry-pan and a dutch oven - in one tbsp of butter, brown the sausage in the dutch over and in 1 tbsp of butter, brown the chicken in the fry pan, dump the chick in the dutch oven
   4. Add 1 tbsp of butter and the trinity (onion, green pepper, celery) to fry pan now and saute until translucent - add to the dutch oven.
   5. Add the garlic to the dutch oven and stir.
   6. Stir in the diced tomato and the paste
   7. Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes
   8. Add the shrimp, reduce to a simmer for 4 minutes.
   9. While the Jambalaya is cooking, start the rice.
  10. You are ready to serve this over some rice and enjoy.

NOTES: I did add some beer to the dutch oven after I added the "trinity"...I am not sure if I really needed to add beer as much as I needed an excuse to open one and drink it while I was cooking...hardly any went into the Jambalaya.

GO BEARS!! Uhhhh, I mean Steelers!!!