My grandma was an awesome cook. Unfortunately, for most of my childhood, I was a punk kid who didn't eat anything she made. Unless it was mac and cheese. She knew I was an extremely picky eater, and she made me mac and cheese every time we went to her house for dinner. I swear the woman was a saint in that regard. Or maybe she just didn't want to hear me whine. That is a definite possibility because I was a great whiner! The year before she died, we had a Mexican feast, and she served this pork green chili. I hemmed and hawed and finally tried it...and I fell in love. Oh boy is this good. So I immediately asked her for the recipe and have been making it ever since. The main thing I love about this is that it's not a sauce. It's a chili. You can eat it with some cheese and sour cream along with a tortilla. You certainly can put it on top of a burrito or enchilada, but it's great in a bowl by itself.

My aunt makes this too (although I'm not sure if it's the same recipe). She grew up in southwest Colorado and is a great cook, especially of Mexican foods. She told me that if you cook your onions first and then remove them from the pot while you brown the meat, you'll get greater flavor out of your onions. So now I do that with any recipe where I have to soften an onion. I use canned mild chilis in this, and I think it can get pretty spicy so you may want to be careful about how many red pepper flakes you use if you're not immune to spicy foods. I've also used a huge bag of frozen diced green chilis in this recipe, too. You definitely can adjust the seasonings in this to make it how you like. The other beauty of this is you can make it and have it on the table in a couple of hours. It's a perfect weekend dinner in my opinion...plus, it makes for great leftover lunches all week!

Pork Green Chili Recipe
Serves 4
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Notes from my grandma: You can use pork chops, pork shoulder roast, or any other lean pork. It also works well in the slow cooker. After you've simmered it for an hour, if it's too thin, you can dissolve some cornstarch in water and add to the pot. Bring to a boil. Fresh roasted chilis are great, too.

1 pound pork, cubed
2 tablespoons butter, divided
Small white onion, diced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans (7 ounces each) mild diced green chilis
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
Dash cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano

Combine the 1/2 teaspoons of salt and pepper with the 1/4 cup flour. Dredge the cubed pork through the seasoned flour. 
 
In a large saucepan, melt one tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Place the diced onion in the pan and cook for 8-10 minutes until soft. Remove the onion to a bowl. Melt the other tablespoon of butter and add the flour-covered pork to the pan. Let sit for three minutes to brown. Stir and let brown for another 2-3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add in the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pot. Add rest of the ingredients and let simmer for one hour. Adjust the seasonings to your preference.

Serve warm with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and tortillas.

Source: My lovely grandma

Sigh. It's over. I imagine that living in a swing state meant that I saw and heard more political ads and got more junk mail and phone calls than other states. I hope it's true so that people in "normal" states didn't get harassed as much, but I'm thinking that's the way it was everywhere. So it's over and whether your preferred candidate won or not, at least the campaign is over. Sigh.

So, this pasta. Awhile ago, I checked out Emeril's Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders cookbook from the library. It had several recipes in it that I wanted to try, including this one. It was a great meal, but boy was it a lot of food. It certainly didn't help that my husband didn't eat any of it. Since he hates pasta, I gave him have a ribeye steak with a baked potato instead of having the steak mixed in this pasta. Turns out, we were both pretty happy with that decision. I got to try something new, and he wasn't "forced" to eat pasta. I halved the recipe, but I think I could have quartered it to make it a more manageable dinner plus lunch leftovers for the week. As it was, I ended up throwing some of it away because I couldn't eat all of it in time. The combination of mushrooms, gorgonzola, steak, and pasta was pretty comforting. I ended up adding a few dashes of Worcestershire to it to add a little more savory-ness and offset the gorgonzola. I'll be making this again, but I think I'll wait until we have company to help me eat it! 

Mushroom Gorgonzola Steak Pasta Recipe
Serves 6-8
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3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 lb ribeye or sirloin steak, cut about 1 1/4 inch thick
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup minced shallot
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
5 ounces crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 pound rigatoni, cooked al dente and drained
Fresh parsley for garnish

Season the steak with the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper on both sides. In a large skillet, combine the butter and 1 tablespoon of the veg oil over medium high heat until melted and hot. Add the steak and sear on one side without moving it until brown, about 4 minutes. Flip the steak and cook for another 4 minutes or until it's your desired temperature. If your steak is thinner, you won't have to cook it as long on each side. Remove the steak to a plate and tent it with foil.

Add the remaining oil, mushrooms, and pepper to the skillet and cook until the mushrooms have softened and their liquid has evaporated. Add the shallot, garlic, rosemary, and thyme and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Once the shallot has softened, sprinkle with the flour and stir to combine. Add in the beef broth and cook while stirring, especially scraping the bottom to release any brown bits. Let cook until the liquid has reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Mix in the cheese and cream and cook about 2-3 minutes until the cheese has melted.
 
Mix the rigatoni into the skillet. If the sauce is too thick, add in more beef broth. Thinly slice the beef, stir into the pasta and serve, topping with the parsley.

Source: Emeril's Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders 

When I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago, I spent a lot of time confused. I hate feeling like an idiot American when I don't speak the language. And, to be frank, I couldn't even understand French. The only familiarity I have with French is Beauty and the Beast (yes, I'm talking about the Bonjour song) and cooking terms. While bonjour got me pretty far, I don't think mise en place would carry me quite the same way. Therefore, when we walked around to find a restaurant, we would look for English menus. It was much less painful than pulling out my yellow French dictionary to try and figure out what I was about to order.
 
While we did all this walking around to find restaurant, we kept passing one that had a sign for tomato pumpkin soup. While we never stopped in and had a bowl, I was definitely intrigued. Enough that it meant I wanted to make some at home. I have absolutely no idea if this tastes anything like theirs, but I think it's pretty dang good. Plus, after I made it, I realized that it's vegan. I don't really intend for anything to be vegan, but I feel like this opens some options to those on restricted diets, which is pretty cool. Even though there is no cream in it, it's pretty creamy due to the pumpkin. It mainly tastes like tomato soup but has a hint of pumpkin. It's a great fall soup and perfect with a grilled cheese sandwich or some crackers.

Tomato Pumpkin Soup Recipe
Serves 6-8
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Note: I used cooking stock because that's what I had, but feel free to use vegetable stock or chicken stock/broth. Puree your soup to the consistency you like and if you like thinner soup, you may want to add more stock/broth.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 while onion, diced
2 (28 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons fresh sage, diced
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup cooking stock or vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch cayenne

In a large pot, heat the tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5-7 minutes or until soft. Drain one can of tomatoes and keep the juice. Add the drained tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, and sage and cook for 10 minutes. This will help to concentrate the tomato flavor before you add in everything else. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute. Add in the reserved tomato juice, the other can of diced tomatoes with the juice, the can of pumpkin, and the stock. Simmer for 20 minutes. Puree in batches in a food processor or a blender until smooth or is the consistency you prefer. Add in salt and pepper to taste and the pinch of cayenne. If you like thinner soup, add in more cooking stock. 

Source: Greatly adapted from America's Test Kitchen  

There's a Mexican restaurant in Colorado called Hacienda, and they make some pretty awesome food in my opinion. The thing that I always want to order (but don't do as often as I'd like) is a quesochanga. It's a chimichanga that has married some queso. There's queso on the inside and the outside, and for a queso-loving girl like myself, it's essentially perfection. I always thought it was really hard to make a chimichanga because there was hot oil involved. As it turns out, you don't have to deep fry these bad boys. You can shallow fry them in a pan, and it takes less than a minute. Easy peasy, and it's not scary. I promise. You just have to be careful.

We're using the shredded beef that I told you about months ago. I love this stuff. I make a huge batch, and then I freeze what we don't eat into individual portions. That way, I can make these or quesadillas or shredded beef tacos. One easy crock pot day and I have a lot of dinner variations! To make this recipe, all you need is that beef, queso, tortillas, and oil. Seriously, it's one of the easiest meals to make, and it's incredibly delicious!

Shredded Beef Quesochangas Recipe
Makes two
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Note: You want the meat and the queso to be hot because it's not in the oil long enough to heat it up. Unless you like eating cold food, I highly recommend it's hot when you place it in the tortilla. The tortilla will be easier to roll if it's warm, too. 
 
2 tortillas
1/2 cup Mexican shredded beef
1/4 cup queso
Vegetable oil

Pour enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet about 1/8-1/4 of an inch. Heat it on medium until it starts smoking.
 
While the oil is heating, divide the meat between the two tortillas. Pour half of the queso on top of the meat in each tortilla. Tuck the sides of the tortilla in, and then roll the tortilla up. It should look like a burrito, and there should be no gaps where the filling could ooze out of it. When the oil is smoking, carefully place the quesochanga into the oil using tongs, seam side down. Let it sit for about one minute or less until golden brown, and use the tongs to carefully flip it. After another minute or less when it's golden brown, remove from the oil and place on a paper towel to drain. Repeat with the remaining quesochanga (or you could do both at the same time if you're up for it).  Serve with additional queso on top and/or on the side.

Source: She Makes and Bakes

Every time we eat this meal for dinner, I say, "We should have this more often." I would be happy to eat it weekly or bi-weekly. It's that good. And, the funny thing is that I've served this to people who aren't mushroom lovers, and they love it. A lot of people who don't like mushrooms like stroganoff (or maybe they just don'e want to hurt my feelings!). This is a meal that will wow all kinds of people, especially now that the weather is getting cooler.

If you get home early enough or eat a little later, this can be a weeknight meal. I always buy tenderized stew meat, and if I don't see it, I've been known to ask the guys manning the counter if they can tenderize it for me. I think it really helps with the tenderness of the meat. Duh. Especially because you aren't going to be cooking it all day. I also love love love red wine in this dish, but if you don't like or don't have any, no pressure. I think it really brings something special. This serves my husband and me with leftovers, so I think it would feed a family of 4...unless you have a lot of hungry teenagers.
 
One more thing...don't get turned off by the yellow mustard. You definitely should try it using the good ol' yellow mustard. It just perfectly develops the stroganoff flavor.

Mushroom Beef Stroganoff Recipe
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2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound tenderized beef stew meat
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup red wine
2 cups beef broth
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
1/4 cup sour cream
1 ounce cream cheese

In a large skillet, melt one tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Cook the onion about 5 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Remove the onion mixture to a plate or bowl.

If needed, cut the meat into smaller bite-sized pieces. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together, and dredge the meat in it. Using the same pan, melt the remaining butter over high heat and brown the meat in it. Let it sit for about 1-2 minutes per side until it's browned. Pour the red wine into the pan and deglaze, scraping up the bits on the bottom. If you're not using the red wine, deglaze the pan with some of the beef broth instead. Add the beef broth and mushrooms and bring to a boil. Add the mustard, Worcestershire, and onion mixture and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and simmer for about one hour until the meat is tender and cooked.

While the stroganoff is simmering, cook your egg noodles or rice to serve with the stroganoff. I usually make about 3/4 of a bag of egg noodles.

Remove the stroganoff from heat and add sour cream and cream cheese. Stir until it's mixed in. Serve over the egg noodles or rice. 

Source: Adapted from AllRecipes 

I'm not going to lie...the first time I saw this on Pink Parsley's blog, I definitely turned my nose up at it. Tomato cobbler? Weird and gross. The second time I saw it on Annie's Eats, I turned my nose up again, but maybe it wasn't quite as high. It kind of stuck in the back of my mind. Well maybe, I thought. My biggest hang up was (is) the fact that I'm not a total tomato lover, as I've previously mentioned. I especially don't like fresh tomatoes. And I don't like tomato skin in my cooked tomatoes. So I stored it in my mind for another year.

This summer I've really come around to eating more and more tomatoes. So I thought about the tomato cobbler yet again and decided to make it. Oh my. For one, your house will smell absolutely incredible while you bake it. That alone makes this dish worth the effort. There's something about the caramelized onions mixed with the garlic mixed with the butter from the biscuits that is to die for. It's not a pool of tomato juice with soggy biscuits on top. Not at all. The biscuits are light, fluffy, and crispy on top with plenty of amazing gruyere in and on them. I even liked the roasted tomatoes in the cobbler. It gave each bite a bit of freshness. The whole dish is quite wonderful, although the hubs turned his nose up and said it was weird. Maybe he just needs a couple of years to adjust to the idea like I did.

Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere Biscuits Recipe
Makes a 9x13 dish
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Note: I cut this recipe in half and baked it in a 1.5 quart baking dish for about 50 minutes. This takes a bit of time to prep and bake, so you could caramelize the onions the day before and keep them in the fridge. Then just put everything together and bake. Also, if you love caramelized onions, you definitely should double that part of the recipe!

For the filling:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
3 pounds cherry or grape tomatoes
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

For the biscuits:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, cold and chopped into pieces
1 cup grated gruyere cheese, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream

To make the cobbler filling, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large pan and add onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized (about 25-30 minutes). Add the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss tomatoes, flour, red pepper flakes, and onion mixture. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish or a 9x13 pan.

To make the biscuits, in a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add in the butter and incorporate it using two knives, a fork, or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the cheese, and add in the cream. Stir with a fork until the dough forms into a large clump (it will be sticky). Using an ice cream scoop, 1/4 measuring cup, or a large spoon, drop clumps of the biscuit dough on top of the cobbler filling. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese.

Bake for one hour to one hour and ten minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool 20 minutes before serving. 

Source: Annie's Eats and Pink Parsley, originally from Martha Stewart Living

I realize that grilling season is "officially" over, but it was still 90 degrees in Colorado today. So let's fire the grill up and go! This is some of the best chicken I've had in quite some time. Instead of doing a typical flour, egg wash, bread crumb breading, you make a simple dressing, toss the chicken in that, and then add the bread crumbs. Then, instead of frying or baking the chicken, you grill it on skewers. Oh man, it was tender, juicy, and had great flavor and crunch from the bread crumbs. 

I realize that grilling romaine may seem a little strange. Even my husband looked at me like you're asking me to grill lettuce? But don't skip this step. It brings out the sweet smokiness of the lettuce and enhances the flavor. Plus, it's something different. I highly recommend you try this meal before it gets cold and dark outside!

Breaded Chicken Skewers with Grilled Romaine Recipe
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1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, plus more for drizzling
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon minced shallot or red onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1 head Romaine lettuce, quartered lengthwise
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preheat a grill to medium high heat and soak 8 wooden skewers in water (so they don't burn on the grill).

In a medium bowl, stir together the oil, vinegar, oregano, shallot, garlic, red pepper flakes, and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt. Drizzle the cut sides of the lettuce with about 1 teaspoon of this mixture.

Add the chicken chunks to the rest of the mixture in the bowl and toss. Add the breadcrumbs and toss until the chicken is coated. Place the chunks on the skewers, leaving space between each piece. 

Grill the skewers until the chicken is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Also grill the romaine, turning it once, until marked and slightly wilted, about 1-2 minutes. Put the grilled romaine on plates and drizzle additional olive oil and red wine vinegar on top. Season with salt, add the chicken skewers, and sprinkle the parmesan on top of everything. 

Source: Food Network  

It all started with me going to the library, which happens about every couple of weeks. I love to browse the cookbook section and see what catches my eye. Last week, it was a Easy Summer Food cookbook that looked too good to resist. Mainly because I am not even remotely close to being ready for fall. Yes, I am a little sick of the 62 days and counting of 90+ degree weather in Colorado, but it's going to be snowing before I know it. And I am definitely not ready for that! So Easy Summer Food sounded fantastic.

We have three large tomato plants growing in the garden, but last week we had only red cherry tomatoes and a whole lot of green Roma and regular tomatoes. I saw this soup recipe and hightailed it to the store to buy tomatoes on the vine, two pounds of them to be exact. It's not really that much unless you get distracted by a friend and misread the scale and buy almost six pounds of tomatoes. Um, what? Six pounds. I paid almost $15 for those bad boys, and now I have a ton waiting to be picked. Fail. So I made this soup, I made salsa, I made baked caprese tomatoes. And now I have to come up with more recipes to use up the tomatoes in the garden. Major problems, I know.  

So this Tuscan soup really is a great summer dish. You can serve it hot or cold (I prefer hot), it takes less than an hour, uses fresh herbs, and has amazing fresh flavors. It screams I came out of your garden. Even my I-hate-soup-when-it's-hot-outside husband loved it. The wonderfully unique thing about this soup is the dried, grilled bread that gets mashed into the soup, giving it more texture and flavor. I recommend you try this before tomato season is over!

Pappa al Pomodoro Soup Recipe
Serves 4
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Notes: This recipe calls for dried bread. If you only have fresh bread, bake the bread at 300 degrees for about 10-15 minutes until it's dried. I actually used French bread because that's what I had, but sandwich bread would work great, too.

2 pounds tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 spring oregano
4 sprigs basil
4 slices dried bread, crusts removed
2 garlic cloves cut in half
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grated parmesan cheese to serve

Place your peeled and chopped tomatoes in a saucepan and add the stock, sugar, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and the leaves from the oregano and basil. Add salt and pepper and heat slowly to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast the bread over a grill or grill pan until it has grill marks, and rub the garlic on the bread. Place it on a plate, drizzle the remaining oil over it and mash it with a fork until it's in small bits.

After the soup has simmer for 30 minutes, add the bread and stir over low heat for about 5 minutes until it has slightly thickened. Add more salt and pepper to taste and top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.

Source: Easy Summer Food Cookbook

First of all, I'm loving the Olympics. I love watching everyone compete, and I love the sports. However, I think it's funny that the Olympics inspires people to sit on their couches and watch TV. I guess that I went for a bike ride this morning and stood in the kitchen all day, so that can justify me sitting around, drinking wine, and watching gymnasts and swimming tonight, right? By the way, what's up with the female gymnasts wearing scruncies circa 1995? Can't they do something else to give their hair some flair?

Anyway, this pasta has nothing to do with the Olympics other than I might eat this to carbo load before my triathlon next weekend...which still has nothing to do with the Olympics, but I'm excited about it. Almost ten years ago, I spent a lot of time in Grand Cayman. There was (is?) a restaurant on Seven Mile Beach called Cimboco that had great pizza and pasta. Consequently we ate there a lot. They had this great pasta dish called simple n light, and this is my attempt at recreating it. Spaghetti, olive oil, tomatoes, basil, garlic, feta, and parmesan. Like the name says, it's simple and light. And awesome. Maybe they should rename it.

Simple n Light Pasta 
Serves 4
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8 ounces spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large tomato, diced
5-10 basil leaves, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons feta
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan

Boil your pasta in salted water to al dente. Drain and set aside. Using the same pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the olive oil. Put the diced tomato in and cook for about a minute until softened. Add in the garlic cloves and basil and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Put the pasta back in the pan and toss until coated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Plate the pasta and sprinkle on the feta and parmesan before serving.  

Dish from Cimboco in Grand Cayman

Pulled pork is such an easy meal, especially when you can throw it in the Crockpot and forget about it for hours. I've made this twice now, and it's a great recipe. The first time I made it, I did it with a three-pound bone-in pork shoulder. When I went to pull it out of the Crockpot after about 10 hours, it literally was falling off the bone. It was absolutely incredible, and we devoured it. The second time, I used a seven-pound boneless pork shoulder when I made it for the hub's 30th birthday party. I didn't have it in the Crockpot quite long enough so it wasn't as tender, but it still was fantastic. Everyone loved it. As a bonus, I made my own BBQ sauce in four different varieties. It was fun having everyone decide which one to slather on top of their meat. Out of regular, spicy, Jack Daniels, and apricot (because I was too lazy to buy peach preserves when I had apricot), the spicy and Jack Daniels variations were the favorites. One of the best things about the BBQ sauce is that it's no cook, so it takes about 5 minutes to whip up. 

Here was some of the birthday spread...pulled pork sandwiches, baked potato bar, corn on the cob, kale chips, buffalo chicken dip, cucumber blueberry salad, caprese puffs, peaches and cream cupcakes, slutty brownies, blueberry pie bars, and cookie cake. Everyone was well fed!

By the way, today I'm participating in Momma's Meals Featured Friday. She's baking my orange creamsicle cookies. I sure hope she likes them...I think they're the perfect summer cookie! Go check out Momma's Meals to see her take on them.

Pulled Pork Recipe (Crockpot)
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3-4 pound boneless pork shoulder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups water
1 tablespoon hickory flavored liquid smoke

Rinse and pat dry the pork shoulder. Season it with salt and pepper all over and place it in the Crockpot. Pour the water and liquid smoke in the Crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours until very tender. Remove the meat from the Crockpot and shred with two forks. Serve with homemade BBQ sauce (below).

Homemade BBQ Sauce Recipe (no cook)
Makes about 3 cups

1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup molasses
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Store covered in the refrigerator for several weeks.

Variations:
--Add a few tablespoons of peach or apricot jam for a fruity BBQ sauce
--Add extra hot sauce for a spicy kick
--Add a few tablespoons of Jack Daniels or another whiskey/bourbon for an adult version (just make sure to tell people that it's not cooked)

Pulled pork recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
BBQ sauce recipe from Pink Parsley