What to do with leftover, stale muffins?  Bread pudding of course, topped with a vanilla rum sauce.  First break the muffins into large pieces along with additional slices of bread.  Because the muffins have a high sugar content, the additional bread fills out the dish and reduces the sweetness a bit.
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
12 day old blueberry muffins
4 slices stale bread
1/4 cup fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine butter and sugar process until well blended. Add cinnamon, and vanilla, and pulse to combine.  While the processor is running crack 3 eggs into the mixture. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the heavy cream and pulse to combine.

Lightly butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Add muffins and bread slices.  Scatter the fresh blueberries and gently mix to incorporate. Pour the egg mixture over the croissants; soak for 8 to 10 minutes. You will need to push muffin and bread pieces down during this time to ensure even coverage by egg mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 35minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes to brown the top. The bread pudding is done when the custard is set, but still soft. Allow to cool.

Vanilla, Rum Sauce
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 stick butter
1 T dark rum
1 T vanilla extract
1 T light corn syrup

Bring to boil in sauce pan.  Serve warm over bread pudding.

Practiced some brisket this weekend for this season’s BBQ competitions.  First contest is an early one in West Bend, KS next weekend. The creation above was made with Texas toast, brisket, sauce, potatoes, and gravy made by the aus jus of the brisket.  I like using the back part of the flat below the point of the brisket for sandwiches like this.  It is super tender and has a ton of flavor from the point and fat cap marinating as the brisket cooks.

Without a doubt, this is the best dog I’ve ever had… hands down.  If I owned a restaurant, this would be on the menu tomorrow.  It was so good, that I’ve had them again for the last three meals.  Now I’m out of green chili.  Damn!!

The Dog
Nathan’s All Beef Hot Dog
Two strip bacon
Green Chili
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

The Chili
This recipe comes from Wayne from Playing with Smoke and Fire.  His green chili is pretty famous and has won numerous chili cook offs across the country.  This was my first attempt at green chili for a cookoff at work.  I didn’t win the cook off, but I came home with some great chili.  Check out Wayne’s Green Chili recipe.

Using the ground CAB brisket, we grilled up some burgers for Sunday supper.  They were topped with our new Bovine Bold Rub.  Delicious!

This Shepard’s Pie is made with ground brisket trimmings.  When we cook for competitions, we do a lot of trimming on our briskets to get them to cook just how we want them and fit in the turn in box.  From the American Royal contests, I brought home six lbs of brisket trimmings from Certified Angus Beef (CAB).  It made for some great ground beef.  How many Shepard’s Pies have you had with CAB beef?

The ground brisket was seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then it went onto the Big Green Egg to smoke for a bit.  The smoked ground beef was then mixed with a can of tomato paste, corn, peas, and carrots.  Garlic, thyme, onion powder, and celery salt were added for flavor.  Everything was combined into a casserole dish, topped with mashed potatoes and cooked on the gas grill using the Grill Plate by Grill Innovations.

A twist on the classic Chicken and Waffles…

Audrey got out the waffle iron this morning for breakfast. The kids had no idea that waffles don’t have to come out of a box in the freezer.

For lunch, we put the leftover waffles in the toaster and topped with pulled pork. The sauce is Blues Hog’s Gourmet Finishing Sauce.

Been wanting to make enchiladas for a long time. Love the enchiladas, but have never made them myself. It is so damned easy, why have I never done this?

I’ve got so much left over brisket and pork from comps, it is starting to fill my freezers. So here comes brisket enchiladas. Just had one with my smoked salsa verde. Whoa, Pepe! Delicioso.

The site has been missing some cooking.  Lot’s of competition, but not a lot of cooking at home.  This dish was inspired by my friends at the BBQ Brethren.  The pork is left over from our competition this last weekend.  The cornbread pancakes came from a box of Jiffy with a dozen or so dashes of Tabasco.  Topped with some BBQ sauce and more Tabasco, you have a lunch ready for a hungry Jack or Jill.

For Breakfast, top with a fried egg.  Over easy of course.  Gotta love that yoke breaking and making everything extra yummy.  (Did I just say Yummy?  To much Rachel Ray 30 Minute Meals.)

“I’m the king of omelets, there is none higher!”  An homage to Run-DMC, the kings of rock.  One that that most people don’t know about me is that I make a mean omelet.  While looking for some lunch today, I came across some leftovers from “taco night”.  We’d already done the Mexican version of the sloppy Joe: Sloppy Pepe’s.  Didn’t want to do that again.  Then I saw the eggs.

Two eggs were whisked with milk and mexican oregano.  The filling consisted of taco meat and pepper jack cheese.  Queso Fresco or chihuahua cheese would be great in this as well as black olives, onion, and jalapeño.  Topped with my favorite chipotle salsa, this omelet was, as the Taco Bell commercials say, “good to go”.

“All you sucka MC’s can call me sire!”

Took the quart of pan drippings from last night’s turkey and made gravy today. That is the best part of the oil-less turkey fryer. All of the drippings fall down below the burner, so you get a lot of quality product. Had a quart of gelatin to work with this morning.

Bowl + Biscuits + Leftover Turkey + Pan Gravy = Delicious

As a kid, we would put a piece of bread on a plate and cover it with my grandma’s gravy. What a memory.