Cactus Peach Venison Sliders AZ BBQ Festival

When the folks at the AZ Barbecue Festival asked me to do a cooking demo this last Saturday at their nationally attended event, I was a totally honored.  However, when they asked me to teach about cooking road-kill I almost panicked.  My thoughts immediately raced to images of maggot-riddled skunks and possums scraped off the road by a rusty old fork. I do believe I blurted out loud,  "I'm country but I ain't neeever cooked a varmint." Suddenly I caught a vision of myself with Ace dressed as  Jethro Clampitt sitting at my kitchen table with a gingham napkin tucked into his bib overalls ready to slam down some of my quality home cookin'...

Granted, I'd butter  my husband Ace's biscuits with my fabulous sauce any day of the week (does that sound wrong?), but I had no idea where to start on the main meat for a cooking demo based on road vittles... Then I remembered the poor deer that impaled itself on my brother-in-laws van last summer. Deer would work as road-kill right? Poor, poor, dear.

I didn't actually use the deer that died last summer. That would be wrong.  Sick and wrong.  Of course, with the right sauce can anyone even tell?  Just kidding. Seriously. I am.
This deer steak came from my bishop's freezer...believe it or not. I was super excited to get to mess around with something I didn't actually have to process. Thanks bishop. Actually I should thank his wife. She was the one who did all the actual packaging. She's so cute. Not like me in Daisy Dukes...that would also be wrong. Seriously. Sick and wrong. 

My Tips on Cooking Venison for BBQ:

• Trim all the fat off, that's where all the "game" flavor is found.
• Process the meat as soon as possible after the hunt. The longer it sits, the tougher it gets.
• Use a doe instead of a buck, as the buck meat tends to be more difficult to tenderize. Remember that deer works for a living and the older trophy bucks may have the best antlers, but their legs and thighs are pretty over-worked. 
• Marinate the meat in a flavorful solution and season well.
• Use only venison you trust. Don't buy it from an old rusty van on the side of the road...it may be my brother-in-law trying to make a fast buck. No buck deer pun intended either. Oh dear. 
• Dry the meat well before cooking. This meat has a lot of juices (and by that I mean blood but that sounds sick so I'm not going to say blood I'm gonna say juice) The dryer you pat it, the better it will brown.
• For tender bbq, cook slow and low (around 300 degrees in a tomato or vinegar based sauce for 5-7 hours). 
• Yes you can also use a pressure cooker for the meat. I  actually prefer the use of a good pressure cooker. It only takes 20-30 minutes instead of 7 hours, and the flavor is incredible. I used This one.
• Freezing the meat will add to the tenderness, since the ice crystals will actually break down the sinews and fibrous textures. 

My Cactus Peach Venison Sliders
3 lb lean, trimmed venison round roast, cubed (or beef)
1/2 cup peach puree
1/2 cup prickly pear cactus syrup
1 cups bbq sauce (I use my Great Grandma's Chile Sauce plus 2 tsp liquid smoke)
1 tsp salt
1T fresh ground ancho chile powder
2T fresh minced garlic
Chef Tess all purpose seasoning to taste (about 1T) It is here. 
Directions: Place cubed venison meat in a 4-5 quart pressure cooker (This one is my favorite) along with remaining ingredients and cook  on high for 30 minutes, natural release. If you want to use a slow cooker, you can do so as well, but it will take 5-7 hours on low. When meat is cooked tender, shred with a fork. Serve with any more

This slaw is off the charts darlings. Really.

Grilled Pineapple Citrus Slaw

Ingredients: 

1/2 medium pacilla pepper, sliced thin

1 cup red bell pepper, sliced thin

4 cups thin sliced cabbage or brussel sprouts. I used sprouts.

1 cup fine shred carrots

Dressing:

1 cup Big Daddy's Sweet-Hot Pineapple, chopped or regular pineapple

1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar (I use Lucero white pineapple)

1/2 cup sugar or 1/4 cup agave nectar

1/4 cup fine minced red onion

1T minced garlic

1 T orange zest

2tsp lime zest

zest of one lemon

1T fine ground ancho chile powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Lightly oil the thin sliced pepper and place on a hot bbq for about 3 minutes. Do not over-cook, you just want some smoke and grill marks. Mix with the salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Place all the dressing ingredients in a blender and pulse 5-6 times until smooth.  Pour over the salad ingredients in the bowl. Serve.

I served the venison on these slider buns...

That recipe for the slider buns is here. 

 "Oh Pickles!" {Have I mentioned that I used to say that instead of using a cussing word?}

 I also couldn't go to a bbq festival without some real quality pickles.

I've mentioned this guy before on my Facebook page...but I'm sharing these today here as well. Big Daddy's. True story. The first time I met this guy he walked in with two jars of pickles and asked me to try them. I figured I only live once. What the heck. We cracked one open right there. I figured they could be like Aunt Bee's Kerosene Cucumbers (y'all remember that episode of Andy Griffith?). Or, they could be amazing.

I put one in my mouth and I actually said, "Da...{insert cuss here} that is ridiculous!"  I never cuss. Daggumit!  I had to hug this dude. He has completely nailed pickle perfection. 

At the actual Arizona Barbecue Festival event that I was so excited to be part of, everyone loved the Deer...oh dear. Class went off without a hitch. I didn't cut off a finger. The oven turned on. 

I was thrilled to see one of my dear friends from Valley Dish, Dave Bernstein, in the crowd. It is always nice to see a familiar face isn't it? Dave is a local foodie and serious rock-star. He shared this picture on facebook and I had to steal it to share with all of you guys!

photo courtesy of Dave Bernstein

Oh yeah! This is Dave...who ate my slaw...and he doesn't really like slaw...but he loved mine. Gushing with joy...wowowowow. I'm a nerd. BTW. Dave does an amazing job as a DJ. For more info on weddings you can find him here: db@vipvoiceovers.com

There is it darlings. I dare you to make some venison...or beef. Most of all, I dare you to have an amazing Monday night! I want to see all kinds of bbq foodie selfies on my facebook page from all of you!  xoxo!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

An ETT on BFFF...Brownie Pudding

This is going to be a very special Best Food, Finds and Friends Friday...because last night I was blessed to be able to visit with my darling culinary school friend Evil Tara! Yes, that is a term of endearment. Those who have been friends and readers of the blog-o-glory will know, all too well how we call our cooking adventures the Evil Think Tank or ETT. The ETT started originally at the beginning of this blog the first time I ever held a digital camera almost 3 years ago. Tara invited me over to cook...and to let me use her camera so I'd have some pictures to put on my blog. Yes, things at my house were *that* tight. I started this little adventure on a shoestring budget and a dream.  

The ETT went on from there as a grand delightful time when Evil Tara and Evil Tess needed time out creating culinary delights from a combination of ingredients of our choice. Sometimes we'd end up at a special market or grocery store. Always there was some new thing to create.  As it has progressed, I've had a few ETT's without Tara. I've been to other dear friends' homes and enjoyed creating with them...but always the resulting event was to be the same. Random ingredients and creative minds. It's like a melting pot of all things amazing...and usually involves a block of chocolate. Ironically, last night was not an exception. To my joy, we had a few sweet visitors and got to play "dessert fairies" after our adventures and deliver some little bowls of happiness to a few of our dear friends in the area. 

It's not an ETT without the 

Evil clip boards and evil bobble-head giant pens-o-love-and-destruction. Oh, and I can't even work my magic without my lucky socks.

 Tara found my camera and took a shot. Bwhaaha! Can you see the smoke coming out of my ears? OH...and the foot pop with the magic socks is a nice touch. Does popping one's foot out like that help them think better? I think YES. I know the pen the size of a rolling pin helped!

 So, we decided to make a variation of Brownie Pudding from the Barefoot Contessa. We'll give her full credit for this one because it was a truly amazing recipe. I think it's one to keep forever in my Evil notes.   What came out was a cross between a hot chocolate pudding and a fudge brownie. It's a warm, gooey, rich almost brownie fudge "cobbler" effect if I can put it that way. I was stunned by the simplicity and the straight forward heavenly globs of goo that ensued. Ahhh. You really want to have this in your life. 
Barefoot Contessa's Brownie Pudding

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup good cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon framboise liqueur, optional
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a 2-quart (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow.

We did add the vanilla bean to the butter as it was melting. Small change but the vanilla will actually have a nice pronounced flavor if you do that. This is a vanilla bean collection. It appears I'm still, somehow, keeping up the bean week theme for this week by using these today...right?! Say yes. Please say yes. They may be the only healthy thing in this post.

Cut the bean in half with a sharp knife and add the contents of the bean to the butter...along with the bean.

Be sure to take the bean out of the butter before you put the butter in the batter. Ya know...because that would be just sad.

 Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the framboise, if using and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined.

Instead of the alcohol, we used 1/2 tsp of each of these. Amazing! I'm a big fan of the whole new Mix-a-meal line of these Powdered flavorings. I use them in a lot of my homemade cake, cookie and muffin mixes and today I just had to try them in this brownie pudding. I'm totally addicted. 

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan. We did a large pan and then a second batch using 4 smaller loaf pans.

Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. (That "halfway up the side" is a key phrase here. If you go too high you will have only chocolate pudding...not brownie pudding. half of the pan will be cooking at a higher temperature than the water, producing that brownie on top!).

Tara also thought it was quite humorous that I had chocolate all over my hands and still managed to take pictures of the pudding. Look...I never claimed I had clean hands while in the Evil Think Tank.  

 A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean. The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding

How evil is that?!

I also managed to put some caramel  and chopped chocolate on half of the brownie pudding while it was still warm and it could melt. You know, strictly for scientific reasons. There must be a control side and an evil variation side, right? Only so we could compare flavors. (Wink, wink...) 

Friends who came by made the ultimate sacrifice...and ate some of the evil thing. Xoxo to Kim.

Hugs to Amy...who didn't stay for the tasting but brought us peaches!

Plus two or three late night chocolate deliveries from the ETT to girls we adore who spoke up on Facebook during the ETT! Xoxo ladies! You soooo got chocolate because you are loved. Plus...it was fun reading comments on Facebook while we created! How fun! It was almost as good as having you all here!

There you go! I love the ETT! We'll be doing this again really soon and look forward to many, many more culinary adventures together. God bless. Big hugs...and keep moving onward and upward!
Your Friend,
Chef Tess

BFFF! Best Friends, Finds, and Food! Friday!

Friday is the day I share some fabulous Friends, Food and Finds! 
If you're baking  or cooking something special, running a unique business or have a really outstanding product, I love sharing it here! So...this week we have some cool stuff going on!

Gingham Project updates! Oh I love you guys! Sister Daisy's Kids! Congratulations to both our sponsor families and TEN of our sweet kids who have now been connected with a family. Sponsor families provide hope, encouragement and faith in a world that has been pretty rough on these young kids. Thank you!


This week I'm hoping we can find a family for a beautiful girl named Raja.

Raja \r(a)-ja\ as a girl's name is of Arabic origin, and the meaning of Raja is "hope".
AIDS took her parents at age 4. At age 14, she needs help and a friendship with a family who can share in her hopes and dreams. If you would like to help Raja Kumari, please let us know. 

(please note: the child photographed is a 4 year old- the age that Raja Kumari was orphaned. She is now a 14 year old child.)

 I'm honored to be part of what is going on with Gingham! If you want to see how my "Gingham Masala" is being used to help feed the kids, look Here. To order the spices go here. 

They also have a few other items in their store that all benefit the kids 100%. 

Okay, so now I'm moving on to some of my friends! This is Tom. We met at the Honeyville Farms preparedness fair last month and totally talked artisan bread. He's awesome and knows a ton about grain!  I was so excited to hear that he was building an outdoor bread oven. Well...He recently sent me a picture of his outdoor artisan bread oven completed. Um...yeah, he built this! I'm so excited for him...and jealous! Tom is in Utah so if any of my amazing friends up there wants an oven built like this, Tom is totally available for hire as well. Contact me at chef-tess@hotmail.com and I'll connect you with this remarkable baker and oven maker!

I have to do a shout out to Linda Wachtel  the amazing apron seamstress! I ordered one of her aprons a few weeks ago and wore it on Fox 10 for the segment on Homemade Laundry Soap.  Her Etsy shop is called  Elsie's Flat and I love her work! The seams were perfectly even, the fabric was heavy, good quality and she got it to me really fast. So...here's another one she did called  Butterscotch Cupcakes! Isn't it adorable?!  Thank you my dear!

 On a sad note.

 Here's another dear friend who is dearly missed. Denna. Denna was shot in her home last month and died tragically. We used to sit in the foyer together at church and she grew up in my husband's family's neighborhood.  Her parents are beautiful people and we love them dearly.  


  Saturday, Oct. 8th there will be a Benefit for the Denna Strebe Memorial Trust there will be Indian Frybread to benefit the family. 

 The benefit will be in Mesa.
  
1912 E. Jensen Street Mesa, AZ 85203. 10 AM- 3 PM




That's all for now on this weeks BFFF! Thanks for all you guys do and all the love I feel everyday! It makes me so happy to be part of your life. 


Your Friend,
Chef Tess

BFFF! Friday's Fun!

Friday is the day I highlight some of my friends, finds and food around town and around the world. Sometimes folks send me email or post of Facebook and I have to share some of these great experiences! So here's a few, in random order. I'm ever so good at random order. 

First a Friend, one of the moms who has been coming pretty regularly to my cooking classes is named Amy. She and I went to school together and I have to do a shout out to her! Hooray for Amy! Expecting baby number eleven and she's still going! Love you girl!!

We have a new friend to meet with Sister Daisy's Kids! I'm so excited to help him find a family to sponsor him!

9 year Arun Raj is the 4th child on the left with the blue pants. We are looking for a family who can open their hearts to him. $30 a month pays for his schooling and food. He lives in a hostel and stays with Sister Daisy during school breaks .

 Check out Gingham Project for more opportunities to help our little friends in India!

Okay...Food finds. I've been totally in love with the tomato powder for making pasta sauce! So much so that I think I'm gong to make another convenience meal in the jar that will end up looking like this...

If you missed the other recipes they are here!  On that note...I'll be talking about freeze dried convenience meals in a jar this week upcoming on Fox 10! Tuesday at 9:45! Isn't that going to be epic cool?!

One of my favorite "Finds" this week is my outdoor food dehydrator! Thank you Food Pantrie and my darling friends at Preparing Wisely! You know what I love about it? I can put food in it out on my patio hanging up and it dries them wonderfully! So...thank you! Wonderful product for a "greener" way to dehydrate here in the desert! Specifically this week it's been my herbs!

 Find that was super fun...Mel's Diner. Yes. The original Mel's Diner from the old show Alice. We took the kids for fun since Ace had been talking about the show all week. What a blast from the past!

 Ace seriously loves old diners. He'd eat at them all the time if it wasn't so unhealthy. That being said...he was in "old diner" heaven! Look at this face looking at the menu!

 Yes...it was totally an old diner too. No frills and certainly not fancy. However, the food was down home and just what you'd want on a trip to a diner.

 Including Face and his burger.

 Next up! An awesome friend!  The Play Factory that I LOVE has it's special back for Friday's! 5$ a kiddo all day to play! So...I had to share that magnificent news and say thank you to them for that! It's hot and my kids need somewhere to go besides crawling through my air ducts...and no...I don't let them do that. {For the record}.

 Oh and one last Friend!
 Next Saturday September 10th Fondant Class with Lin Sue Cooney of NBC 12 News! She's also the owner of Sweet Stops bakery! I'll be showing painted decorative bread, enjoying the class and showing my new spice line!  Contact me for details or contact Lin Sue Cooney at http://sweet-stops.com/ Because you know...the toffee is amazing!!

There you go! I'll be sharing more next week from around the corner and around the world! I hope you'll join me!
Your friend,
Chef Tess

Best Friends, Finds and Food! Wow what a week!

BFFF for those who don't know, is my news of Friday. It's my day to shout out to my best Friends, Finds and Food! I encourage you to share with me what you're doing and creating! I want to share it here on the blog! Remember to pop over to my latest Giveaway!

Let's Start BFFF!

Today I'm especially remembering my Friends across the globe in India! Gingham Project...you guys are changing lives and I salute you everyday!  Exciting news!  this week is that I was able to partner with the most amazing gal to head up my spice sales online that will benefit the Gingham project. More details to come on that here . 

One of the biggest highlights of my week okay..YEAR...was being asked by Chris Petrie over a month ago if I would come teach is wife Andrea Robinson (Petrie) at a private cooking class in their home as a surprise for her birthday! It may have killed me not saying a word...but I'm telling you she was so excited Friday when I pulled up to her house.  The other perk was seeing and hearing all the new squeals when a new dear old friend would arrive that she wasn't expecting! Spice class was outstanding...but truly the best part for me, was seeing my sweet friend Andrea have a remarkable day.

  Andrea Robinson is one of the morning anchors on Fox 10...and may I just say, having known her for almost 3 years...that she is every bit as real and sweet in person as she is on TV. Alexis Vance was also there...another kindred spirit and dear friend who happens to be on Fox 10. She's a doll! Love you Alexis!

 The food was crazy amazing! However, my favorite part was making the cupcakes! Since it was an herb and spice class the final course included these spiced chocolate cupcakes with rose petal white chocolate fondant and painted pearl embellishments. Truly vintage and just cool!  Look at this album on Facebook for more pictures of this event: Surprise Party for Andrea Robinson

Amazing friend and find of the week:
 Laura Sokol Photography ! Laura does outstanding work and is totally great to work with.  She's also way pregnant!  Laura came to my home and took a lot of amazing pictures. These are three of my favorites...

Okay...um this may be my favorite of all time...

After pictures, we sat down to warm bread and honey at my kitchen table. Talked. Laughed. I LOVE you Laura! It was a great time had by all! Awesome gal! Great professional work.

So, this next find and Friend are not food...but Creative non-the-less. It's the blog of my creative genius brother John who has written two amazing Books! Composite Materials: Fabrication Handbook #1 (Composite Garage Series) and 

Composite Materials: Fabrication Handbook #2 (Composite Garage Series). Both amazing!  Well...today I was looking at John's Blog and Wow if he didn't have the coolest tutorial on how to make one of these i phone stands...

John is now the master-genius. I called him this week and he is totally on board with helping me develop a dough mixer design that will be able to be adapted and used in third world countries and in emergency situations around the globe. John. You are the beloved.  What do you think? I  think he needs a t-shirt made." Johnnie 5...Master Genius. Yo!". 

Food! Okay. Foodie food from my friends on Facebook


Ann Gregorio-Thomsen told me 
"I'm making tortellini with grilled chicken, tomatoes and fresh spinach"

I had to share. Look how pretty it is!

Another friend I've known since High School and who's culinary talents have made me drool often...
Kathrine Hansen shared this recipe with me and sent me to this awesome Mongolian Beef recipe here at Favorite Family Recipes . Freak YES! This was awesome!

So...that's been my week! Wow what a whirlwind of Friends, Finds and Food! What are you creating? Feel free to keep me in the loop! I love sharing your success with food and I love visiting your favorite "Finds". Send me a note anytime! stephanie@cheftessbakeresse.com or Facebook everyday! Xoxo! Smooches!
Giveaway!

Your Friend,
Chef Tess.