Category Archives: Recipes

MexiCali Sunset

This refreshing cocktail is super easy to make. Here’s what you need to make it:

  • 1 freshly squeezed clementine (or substitute with orange)
  • 1 packet sugar in the raw
  • 1 bottle of spicy ginger beer
  • mezcal (or substitute with tequila, sotol)

Add all ingredients except the ginger beer into a shaker with ice, and shake it the fuck up. Put as much mezcal in as you want! Pour over ice in a low ball glass. Fill it up between half and three quarters full. Then add ginger beer and stir before serving. Garnish with clementine rind to add a pop of bitter into the otherwise sweet drink, and rub the rind around the rim of the glass to get those citrus oils popping with each sip.

White Mexican

You’ve all heard of the drink known as the “White Russian,” which was reincarnated by “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski. Essentially it is vodka, Kahlua and milk/cream.

My twist on the drink swaps out the vodka and Kahlua for Patron Cafe, a coffee and dark chocolate flavored tequila (hence the Mexican element). You can still use the milk or cream for the “white” element, but if you want to add a nutty flavor you can go with almond milk and then hit it with a dash of sweetened condensed milk for thickness.

Devil Tacos

Devil Tacos is a recipe I concocted for usage of Saint Lucifer Spice during my review of their product. If you can’t get your hands on their delicious shit, then substitute for some other pepper like cayenne powder. But I highly recommend their habanero garlic blend. It just works better. Or use some actual habanero peppers to season the meat (just be careful with those fuckers).

What do you need and how do you make them?

1) Coat some skirt or flank steak with Saint Lucifer Spice.
2) Grill for two to three minutes per side, depending on thickness. 
3) While the meat rests, warm up some soft tortillas.
4) Also while the meat rests, prep some cilantro, onions, sour cream and jack cheese for a cooling taco filling.
5) After resting, slice the steak into thin strips for taco filling (cut on the bias for tenderness). 
6) Slice up an orange (or any sweet citrus element, really).
7) Fill your tortillas, and squeeze some orange juice on before eating.DSC09884

 

Note: That sweet tartness from the orange will pair perfectly with the habanero of the Saint Lucifer spice and cut it ever so slightly. Trust me. Your taste buds will thank you. I swear that shit is fucking good. Orange + habanero is fucking amazing. I used to soak fresh habaneros in my cartons of orange juice to give the juice a nice kick.

If you have hairy balls, and you’re drinking a Bloody Mary with your Devil Tacos, you can even add a few shakes of Saint Lucifer into that shit as well.

Sweet & Spicy Bacon Candy

This one is pretty simple, and it’s something my wife and I make on occasion as a snack for holiday meals.

Get a pack of pre-cooked bacon and sprinkle some brown sugar, cayenne pepper and chocolate powder all over the slices. Bake in the oven to crisp up the bacon and to melt the chocolate and sugar. EAT!

You CAN make the bacon from scratch and skip the pre-cooked aspect, but I like shortcuts. You can find some very good pre-cooked bacon out there these days.

Steak Sauce Martini

I came across an amazing drink that Chef Admir from Ben & Jack’s Steakhouse whipped up for the holiday season. It’s called the Steak Sauce Martini.

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Ingredients

  • 1oz Bourbon
  • 1oz Eggnog
  • 1oz White Chocolate Liqueur
  • 1oz Frangelico
  • 1/4 teaspoon Steak Sauce
  • 1 Strip of Bacon (for stirring)

Directions

  1. Smear the steak sauce on the inside of a chilled martini glass.
  2. In a shaker with ice, add bourbon, eggnog, white chocolate liqueur and Frangelico.
  3. Shake and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with strip of bacon.

If its too much work for you to make at home, then take a trip over to Ben & Jacks to try it out.

Spaghetti Pie

This shit was a staple in my household when I was growing up. It’s really easy to make, and it’s something not many people have eaten. My mom used to make it with just the cheese, spices, eggs and spaghetti, but I decided to take it to the next level with some other shit. Here’s how it goes:

SHIT YOU NEED (Mom’s Way)

  • 1 Pound of Spaghetti
  • 1 Dozen Eggs
  • 6oz Grated Parmesan cheese
  • Basic Seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, crushed red pepper, etc)
  • Half Stick of Butter

SHIT YOU MAY WANT TO ADD (My Way)

  • 1 Bag of Baby Spinach
  • 8oz Imitation Crab Meat (or the real deal if it’s in the budget)
  • 6oz Mozzarella Cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Smear the half stick of butter all over the inside of a pyrex pan. Whatever extra you have can be melted and added into the bowl in the next step.

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3. Crack your eggs into a bowl and whisk together with the grated parmesan cheese and seasonings until thoroughly mixed.

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4. Boil your spaghetti, then strain (or leftovers are fine, too).

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5. Cook the baby spinach, then strain or squeeze dry (optional).

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6. Pull apart the crab meat and chop or dice coarsely (optional).

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7. Coarsely chop or dice the mozzarella cheese (optional).

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8. Add spaghetti (and the other optional ingredients) into the egg and grated cheese bowl, and mix with your (clean) hands until everything is evenly distributed.

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9. Pour the mixture into the buttered pyrex pan and spread it around so it is flat and evenly distributed.

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10. Bake until you see butter bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pyrex, or until you can poke it with a toothpick and not have any slime or ooze come up when you remove the toothpick. Typically the edges will start to get some brown happening when it is finished, and the top of the pie will start to develop some dry, crispy, semi-burnt spaghetti bits.

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Eggs cook pretty quickly, and that’s really all that needs to get cooked at this point. They’re probably halfway cooked anyway since the hot spaghetti likely hit the egg and started the cooking process already before the pyrex went into the oven. I’m thinking this is usually around 30-45 minutes for me, but I honestly never look at the time. It’s all eyeballs for me.

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Once it’s finished cooking, take it out of the oven and let it set/rest for a while before cutting into squares/cubes.

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In the meantime, you can make a nice dipping sauce out of some canned or jarred tomatoes, if you have them sitting around collecting dust. I like to use a small can of Contadina tomato sauce, hit it in a small sauté pan with some olive oil, spices, herbs and a bit of chili paste or chili flakes. You can pour it on top of your piece of pie, or dip into it with each bite.

Some people eat by hand, and others use a fork and knife.

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It really all depends on the density and consistency of the final product. If you want a more dense pie, use fewer eggs and add in all of the goodies I suggested. If you want a fluffier pie, use more eggs and fewer extras.

Shredded Turkey Dry Ramen

This Thanksgiving, I went a slightly different route with my leftovers. I grabbed a shitload of turkey and shredded it up, pulling it apart into bite-sized pieces. I heated that shit up.

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I took a packet of dry ramen noodles from the cabinet and crushed it up into small pieces.

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I used them as a topping, along with about half of the seasoning packet, and drizzled some oils into the mix as well (sesame, chive, chili, szechuan pepper).

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I also heated up some of the remaining gravy and poured that over the top, and then finished with toasted sesame seeds, fresh cilantro, and some sri racha sauce.

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Add some crushed peanuts and maybe some bean sprouts and you have a really delicious dish.

Winter is Coming

It’s really simple:

  • 1 part Amaretto
  • 1 part Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey
  • 1 part Kahlua

Shake up with ice and pour over some rocks. It starts out looking cloudy and light brown, but then it darkens up as it settles. A riff on this if it is too strong is to mix in a little bit of milk, but then the whole dynamic changes.

These were a smash hit on Thanksgiving. I must’ve made a half dozen of them for family members that took a sip of mine and then wanted their own. To me, it tasted like liquid brown sugar. My sister said it tasted like chocolate covered black cherries. My wife said it was a very “Fall/Autumn” drink.

Sweet Cactus

Adding to my repertoire of cocktails made with aloe drink, I went a little deeper into that family of aloe/cactus plant lineage with this mezcal-based drink:

  • 1 part aged mezcal
  • 2 parts aloe drink
  • 1 teapoon agave syrup
  • 1 packet of sugar in the raw
  • a squirt of lime juice

Shake with ice, and serve on ice. Very refreshing.

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Aloe Guvna

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to make a dent in some booze that I haven’t touched for a while in the liquor cabinet. I offered to make my wife a cocktail and she said “surprise me,” so I figured I would concoct something new and unique.

I have a LOT of scotch, so that was the first ingredient I picked. I took the lemon juice out, and grabbed a packet of sugar in the raw. But it needed something else. I opened the fridge and saw some aloe drinks. Perfect! It has a lychee-ish, grape-ish, elderflower-ish flavor to it, and a bit sweet but refreshing at the same time.

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So I threw one part scotch, two or three parts aloe drink, lemon juice and sugar into the shaker with some ice and went to work shakin’ that shit. The result was a foggy yellow colored drink that was absolutely incredible!

Strong, sweet, refreshing and unique. You can swap the lemon for lime if you want, and you could add a dash of spicy ginger beer if you have it, or perhaps a splash of cherry juice. I garnished with a cherry.

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