A batch of winners at the barbecue sauce cook-off
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The produce is rolling in at the Farmer’s Market. Last week I saw everything from fresh local cherries to sweet corn, farm-fresh eggs to green beans. Hurrah!
Now’s the time to start canning, I bet, to fight the prices to come this winter. All you have to do is get up by 8 a.m. on a Saturday, or drop by at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays at Seventh Avenue and Merchant Street.
Four brave souls brought barbecue sauces to the cook-off last week. They were all fantastic! Orvin Worcester brought a jar of his wife Suzy’s special sauce (No. 1). Orvin and Suzy do catering under the team name “Backwoods Barbecue,” and have competed all over the continent. Suzy runs Suzy Q’s in Americus. Her sauce was very nice, with a good blend of spices and not too much heat.
Pat Kluthe stopped by with a vegetarian sauce (No. 2). He said he has a friend who is a professional chef, who described it as “complicated.” It certainly had some heat to go along with the sweet. You may recall Pat’s “Smokin’ Coke Wings” from last year - yum!
Beth Jackson brought a jar of a family recipe (No. 3). Her uncle Wayne used to cook for the railroad workers in Kansas City, and passed his recipe down the line. It had a great red pepper kick to it, and a tang from lemon juice. It would be a good basting sauce as well as a finishing sauce.
The winner was Judy Conway’s “Sweet’n’Sassy” sauce (No. 4). It was rich, with an excellent texture and perfect balance between sweet and heat. There was a hint of chipotle, too. Judy and her sweetie are often selling their fresh produce at the market, so you ought to stop by and say hello.
Congratulations to everyone who competed. It was a great day for it! The next two cook-offs will be in July: July 19 is Jams and Jellies, and July 23 will be Salsa. My cook-off is open to everyone, so I look forward to seeing you. Watch the paper for details and call me if you have any questions at 620-342-4800.
Summer is vacation time, heat time, and meet and greet time. I love doing the backyard barbecues with all our friends, going out to Live in the Lot, and hitting the pool when I can.
However, it’s also a time when people who need help are often set afloat until school starts. Emporians who have trouble making ends meet lose access to the school lunch and breakfast programs. Local food distribution agencies see a drop in donations because the more affluent are focused on other things or even out of town. There aren’t many penny wars, food drives or other group charitable activities like the ones that occur during the school season.
Yet people still need to eat! I don’t have to tell you how bad it is out there, but just so you understand, there are families from all walks of life in our community who don’t have three meals a day. Parents who skip meals so their kids can eat. People who have to resort to highly processed, less nutritious foods because it’s the cheapest food they can get. Right here, in the Twin River city!
Therefore, I am going to spend the next few weeks of summer promoting the Murphy’s Menu Food Drive. Each week in this column, I will ask those of you who can to consider giving certain kinds of food that the Salvation Army and Abundant Harvest have told me they need. You can take contributions directly to the agencies or bring them to me at the Gazette. I’ll provide the agencies with recipes appropriate to the ingredients and other helpful tips, some of which we will publish here, too!
I’m going to scour the Tuesday sale papers to try and make it as easy on you as possible. If you decide to donate, there are three places to take your gifts:
F Abundant Harvest takes donations from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday at 1119 Whittier. That’s just behind the K & S Eastside Conoco on East 12th Avenue and conveniently close to Dillon’s (hint, hint).
F The Salvation Army is open for donations between 9 a.m. and noon Monday, through Friday; 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; and then 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They are just up the road from the South Country Mart, at 520 Constitution.
F The Emporia Gazette, 517 Merchant St. We’re open 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday - Friday. Just bring it in the front door and we’ll take care of the rest!
With the July 4 holiday, there’s a big sale on baked beans, barbecue sauces and cake mixes.
Hit Price Chopper or Country Mart this week and you can get KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce for $1.50, 48 oz. Crisco Vegetable oil for $2.99 (needed for cake mixes) and the 15 oz. Van Camps pork and beans for just 29 cents. Aldi’s has Baker’s Corner cake mixes for 79 cents.
Dillon’s also has a barbecue sauce sale: Kraft is only 99 cents. Barbecue sauce can be used on vegetables as well as meats, and even in place of mayonnaise or mustard. The Bush’s Baked or Grillin’ Beans are 98 cents--I love those Grillin’ beans, and you can toss in some chopped meat to “beef” them up. Kroger pineapple is only a dollar, and can be used for meat marinades, fruit salads, snacks or desserts. Finally, if you feel like it, a 28 oz. jar of Kroger peanut butter is just $2.50 with your Plus card.
Thirsty? At Price Chopper and Country Mart this week you can get a 32 ounce jug of Gatorade for 80 cents, plus a case of 7Up to mix it with, and 25 cents goes to the Kansas National Guard. That’s double-dipping on the giving!
At Dillon’s the big jug of Hawaiian Punch or Motts apple juice are $2.50, which you can mix with diet soda ($1 on 2-liter Diet Sprites) to cut the sugar, but still feel like you’re having a treat. A 64 oz. jar of Santa Cruz lemonade or limeade is only $2, again to stretch with an inexpensive soda to make the goodness last.
Dillons is also having a special “Daytona 500” sale: buy any 10 items and get $3 off. The pantries could really use the Kelloggs Frosted Mini-Wheats (for breakfast or snacks), Kroger salad dressings, Hellman’s mayonnaise, Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks and Ragu. The zesty Italian salad dressing would be perfect for this recipe:
LEMON CHICKEN PASTA SALAD
3 cups (8 oz.) bow-tie pasta, uncooked
1 lb. fresh green beans
1 cup Zesty Italian salad dressing
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
2 cooked chicken breasts
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
2 cups cubed cheese (Cheddar, Mozzarella, etc.)
Clean the green beans if necessary. They may have strings on them, and you want to snap off the stem end. Snap the beans into two-inch pieces. Cook the pasta as directed on package, adding green beans to the cooking water for the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking time. Drain, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, and drain well.
Mix together the dressing, oregano and lemon peel. Chop the chicken into bite-size chunks (you could use canned chicken or tuna). Place the pasta mixture in a large bowl. Add the dressing mixture, chicken, tomatoes and cheese. Mix lightly and serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes about 6 big servings.
Perishable foods can be used by Abundant Harvest. They average feeding 40 people each night. They go through a gallon of milk just for drinking, and use more for cooking. I saw in the Aldi flyer the store has 16-pound watermelons for $3.99. That would be a treat! And strawberries are 99 cents a pound, which could brighten up a can of fruit salad, or decorate the top of a cake. Also Aldi’s has a five-pound box of hot dogs for $5.
We’re all in it together! You never know when you are going to need help, or who is going to need help. Let’s see what we can do to help out our local food agencies during the slow summer months.