It’s Autostraddle Babe-B-Q Season Again!
It’s all gone, y’all. We spent days in the sun and nights in the rain but now summer is over, simple and plain. I found you some fun that’s good for the pain, though: A bunch of queer women camped out somewhere eating barbecue.
That’s right, cuties. Autostraddle Babe-B-Q weekend is upon us.
Last year, I was very keen on getting y’all to grill. Remember that? It was a very exciting time to be alive. So majestic were the wonders of queer women reclaiming the art of the BBQ from white guys and so delicious were the things we ate together that we’re doing it all over again! Summer comes to an official close on September 22, so this weekend we’re calling on queermos like you around the world to ring in a colder season with one final dog day spent together slathering yourself and maybe also some food in vegan barbecue sauce!
A Babe-B-Q could look like a lot of different things, because we all contain multitudes. You could host a potluck in your backyard! You could make a reservation at your local BBQ pit joint and raise hell. You could quite literally camp in the middle of nowhere, scavenge for food, and cook it over a tiny portable stove while reading excerpts from Wild and also my secret Tumblr out loud to each other! Or you could like, pack a picnic and do a variation on that which is less rigorous, although I do recommend reading excerpts from my secret Tumblr out loud to each other anyway and then reporting back to me on whether or not anyone felt anything / whether or not anyone thinks my work has meaning. Either way, I recommend browsing our Babe-B-Q archives for inspiration, recipes, and music suggestions from last year, especially the cookbook we made for y’all with love that involved me standing over an open fire with an expensive camera a lot. Were we ever so young? Does anyone else prefer birds’ eye photos of their meals? Who cares! Let’s make some magic happen and stop asking questions!
You’ve got one wild and precious life to live. Why not spend a day of it with a spatula in your hand while someone else preps the Tofurkey sausages and then sit back in a lawn chair and put some coleslaw in your face surrounded by a bunch of people you’ll soon find yourself hopelessly in love with?
For those of y’all who decide to be national heroes and host a Babe-B-Q this weekend, we’ve got lots of goodies for you. A Facebook event cover photo! Images for Twitter and Instagram that announce your badass gathering-to-be! A portal chock-full of meet-up organizing tips and tricks! An endless well of our love! And once you’ve picked a time / place / concept and finished up the delicate wording on your event listing, you can submit your events to our calendar and we’ll slap ’em up on the site and spread the word for you on social media.
If you’re less the type to organize something this awe-inspiring and more the type to appreciate it while offering quietly to help out in someone else’s kitchen, come on down! There’s room for everyone in this movement, y’know? Simply join in online with the hashtag #AutoBabeBQ, put on your fave linen shorts, and make yourself known to the queer universe at-large. Everyone’s gonna love your hair, promise. Just click here to find the event closest to you, or maybe furthest if you’re looking to drive across the desert and figure out the purpose of life. You do you! Have fun! Make good choices!
Let’s do this thing, y’all. Let’s do it like it’s never been done before. Be there or be square, and don’t forget to put sunscreen on please.
Friday Open Thread: I Wanna Hear All About Your #AutoBabeBQ Plans, and Also the Rest of Your Life
Hello, veggie skewers, and welcome to this week’s Friday Open Thread! This is a space in which we practice for standardized tests and pass notes to each other on expensive calculators. JK! It’s a space in which we share pictures, stories, and GIFs with each other and basically forge relationships and love affairs to last a lifetime, in a platonic way. Like this!
This week’s FOT comes at a special time, because we’re all about to embark on this wild and crazy #AutoBabeBQ weekend together and thus I assume we’re all spending tonight in our kitchens tenderizing meat or veggie crumbles or something. I mean, I know that I, for one, have a massive amount of potato salad to make and also a Party City run to complete, and all by tomorrow afternoon! But it’ll be worth it, because at the end we’ll all gaze into each other’s eyes around the fire of a charcoal grill and wonder, is something burning? Like, not burning because it’s a grill, but burning burning?
Also, I assume there will be mosquitos tomorrow so I need to figure some shit out because I have like a zillion mosquito bites already. Actually it’s 32, I counted.
Either way, I’m super excited for all of us to throw our chef hats and tacky aprons on and grill up a storm in the name of queer BFF-dom!
So, tell me: what are your plans for the weekend? Are you going to a Babe-B-Q? What are you bringing. Actually, also, what are you wearing, is it okay that I wanna wear pants? I probably shouldn’t wear pants. What are you cooking? WHAT’S GOIN’ ON. Tell me everything.
And if you aren’t hosting or attending a Babe-B-Q this weekend, I still love you! So much! So go ahead and jump right in and tell me all about your life: your lovers, your friends, your family, your projects, your pets, your new sunglasses, your colleagues at work, EVERYTHING GUYS, EVERYTHING. No holds barred. No chicken wing left unturned. Also, do you wanna see a picture of Eli in his new summer hat? Just let me know. We can do an informal poll.
Let’s get fired up in here!
How To Post A Photo In The Comments:
1. Find a photo! This is the easy part. Find a photo on the web, right click (on a Mac, control+click), hit “Copy Image URL” and then…
2. Code it in to your comment! Use the following code, and use a DIRECT LINK to the image. Your image link should end in .JPG or .GIF or .PNG or .CallMeWhateverYouWant even. I don’t care, but it should be an image suffix! KINDA LIKE THIS:
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2. Copy the code and paste it directly into your comment.
3. Go forth and jam.
PLAYLIST: This Is Your Official #AutoBabeBQ Mix
It’s almost Autostraddle’s own Babe-B-Q weekend! We’ll be hanging out with each other August 15 and 16 to grill up a storm, and everyone’s invited! We’ll also be guiding you through the process of grilling up said storm and getting prepared for the big event all week. You can view all Babe-B-Q posts here.
It’s almost time, y’all! Pretty soon you’ll all be gathered ’round the flames of some variation of a grill situation chowing down on some veggie burgers and literally basking in the glow of one another’s faces, and I for one and psyched as fuck about it. In honor of the occasion, I have put together a playlist that spans genres but never stops screaming “BBQ, Y’ALL!” Which is key, I think.
This Is Your Official #AutoBabeBQ Mix
With A Little Help From My Friends – Joe Cocker
Everyday Is A Winding Road – Sheryl Crow
Honey, I’m Good. – Andy Grammer
Down The Road – C2C
I Knew That – Snoop Dogg
AM // Radio – Earl Sweatshirt;Wiki
Underneath It All – No Doubt;Lady Saw
Girls Just Want To Have Fun – STRFKR
Celebration – Kanye West
Higher (feat. B.o.B) – Classified;B.o.B
Try Me (feat. Jennifer Lopez & Matoma) – Jason Derulo;Matoma;Jennifer Lopez
Badfish – Sublime
Primetime (feat. Miguel) – Janelle Monáe;Miguel
Don’t Worry – Madcon;Ray Dalton
Old Thing Back (feat. Ja Rule and Ralph Tresvant) – Matoma;The Notorious B.I.G.;Ralph Tresvant;Ja Rule
Ghetto Supastar (That is What You Are) – Pras;Ol’ Dirty Bastard;Mya
Otis – JAY Z;Kanye West;Otis Redding
i – Kendrick Lamar
Santeria – Sublime
Officer – Slightly Stoopid
Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Take It Easy – Eagles
Soak Up The Sun – Sheryl Crow
I’m Goin’ Down – Bruce Springsteen
Africa – Toto
Right Here Right Now – Jesus Jones
Got ‘Til It’s Gone – Janet Jackson feat Q-Tip;Joni Mitchell
CHA CHA – D.R.A.M.
2am – Slightly Stoopid
Love Is Free – Sheryl Crow
FourFiveSeconds – Rihanna;Kanye West;Paul McCartney
Selfish – Slum Village feat Kanye West;John Legend
Huey – Earl Sweatshirt
These Walls – Kendrick Lamar;Bilal;Anna Wise;Thundercat
The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars
Saturday In The Park – Remastered Version – Chicago
Golden Years – David Bowie
Black Water (45 Version) – The Doobie Brothers
Whiskey River – Live – Willie Nelson
Panama Red – New Riders Of The Purple Sage
Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
Sunday Morning – No Doubt
Honey & I – HAIM
Treasure – Bruno Mars
Everything Is Embarrassing – Sky Ferreira
The Good Times Are Killing Me – Modest Mouse
It’s Too Late – Carole King
Crazy Love – Van Morrison
Grill Butch: Here to Light Your Fire with a Rundown of Grilling 101
feature image via Shutterstock
It’s almost Autostraddle’s own Babe-B-Q weekend! We’ll be hanging out with each other August 15 and 16 to grill up a storm, and everyone’s invited! We’ll also be guiding you through the process of grilling up said storm and getting prepared for the big event all week. You can view all Babe-B-Q posts here.
Hello glowing embers! It’s your Autostraddle summer grilling correspondent here, ready to help you prepare for this weekend’s big Babe-B-Q cookout extravaganzapalooza! Maybe you’re reading all these posts about grilling with a knowing grin, confident that the portobello mushrooms you’ve had marinating in your fridge for three days in your secret recipe are going to be an even bigger hit than they were last year now that you tweaked the spices (they totally will!), but maybe you prefer to do your cooking indoors—where things make sense—and are intimidated by the possibility of fire trucks screaming down the street, dashing the hopes of your hungry guests. Fear not! Cooking food outdoors is easy and fun, and I’m here to gently nudge you toward the flames. You’ve got this.
Step 1: Acquire a Grill
Having a grill is an important first step toward successful grilling. There are a lot of Big Feelings out there in the world about charcoal grills vs gas grills and which type is superior and which will make your food taste better and which one makes you a Real Griller compared to a pathetic, sniveling counterfeit unworthy of the food you would deign to prepare. I am here to tell you this: it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter! There are pros and cons to each type of grill and you can prepare delicious food with either. Charcoal grills smell good, they burn super hot, and they make you feel like you’re doin’ stuff! Propane grills, while some may qualify them as “glorified, expensive outdoor ovens,” are efficient, easy to control, and make for quick cleanup. The kind of grill that makes the most sense for you will depend on your circumstances. If you’re really on the fence, there’s a good breakdown of the arguments for and against both types here.
Step 2: Prepare Your Grill
If you haven’t dug the grill out in a while, you might open it up to find the grate rusted to oblivion – especially if you live somewhere with humidity and temperature fluctuations. This is not the end of the world, but you’ll need to clean it up before you can cook on it. Rust can often be removed with just an abrasive scrubber like a wire grill brush and some soap and water, but tougher or deeper rust might require a more complicated solution, like a vinegar/baking soda/lemon situation, and maybe a soak. Try to stay away from harsh chemicals if you can, since you’re going to be eating off that surface. Keep rust from coming back by being careful to brush and oil your grill surface after you’re done cooking.
To clean off old blackened food bits, use a wire brush or half an onion pierced with a fork. A ball of tin foil will also work in a pinch, but watch out for aluminium residue. I find it easier to heat the grill up a bit before going at it. Once it’s clear, oil the grilling surface with a brush, rag or paper towel (avoid aerosols near flame and heat). You’re doing great!
Lighting a gas grill is a simple as opening the propane tank valve (lefty loosey righty tighty), turning the dial on the grill to start the gas flowing, and hitting the striker button. Charcoal is a bit more complicated. My preferred way to light charcoal is with a charcoal chimney, since it’s efficient and doesn’t require lighter fluid. Pour the charcoal into the main compartment of the chimney, stick some balled up newspaper in the lower compartment, light the paper, and wait. Once most of the charcoal is covered with a light grey ash you dump it in the bbq and off you go (lump charcoal doesn’t ash though, so just give it about 15 minutes). If you’re more into playing with fire there are some different torches out there, or low-tech methods like filling an egg carton with briquets and lighting it on fire. I saw one guy on youtube who covered his pile of briquets with an olive-oil soaked paper towel that he then lit on fire, and that seemed to work fine as well. Really the most important thing is to avoid lighter fluid if you can, since it (unlike propane) imparts a nasty chemical flavor to the air and the food (and match-light charcoal is just briquets soaked in lighter fluid, so avoid that too!).
If you have to go the lighter fluid route (which, again, I advise against in the strongest possible terms) I recommend spreading the coals out, hitting them with the fluid, then rearranging them into a pyramid shape before lighting from the bottom. Spread them out again once they’re coated with ash.
Step 3: Grill!
Ugh, finally, right? Whose idea even was this? If you haven’t ordered in yet, there are different ways to approach grilling depending on what you’re preparing.
1. Direct heat
This is just what it sounds like — you light your fire, you place your food items above said fire, and flame them into becoming their best selves. This method is good for things like steaks, burgers, sausage, chicken legs, kebabs, corn cobs, and veggies. When cooking meat like a steak or a burger over direct heat, give it a 90-degree turn when it’s halfway done on each side, to get those sexy grill marks, and try to avoid flipping meat more than once. If you have a gas grill that came with searing plates, use them to get a nice crust on the outside of your steak.
sexy grill marks on a tri tip I made recently
2. Indirect heat
Indirect or convection cooking is when you cook food by heating up the air around it. To do this you need a 2-zone temperature setup, where you’ve got higher heat on one side of the grill and lower or no heat on the other. On a gas grill you can easily adjust to a 2-zone setup via the burner dials; with a charcoal grill it’s a bit less precise and involves piling your coals on just one side. This method is used for low-and-slow cooking, or for when you need more temperature regulation throughout the cooking process or are grilling foods that cook at different rates. Indirect heat can be used for things like roasts, whole chickens, ribs, brisket, pork shoulder, and certain delicate fish and vegetables. I did a beer chicken this way recently on a gas grill and the results were fantastic.
3. Smoking
Proper smoking is really best achieved with an actual smoker, but charcoal and gas grills can be used to add delicious smoky flavor to your food too. Get some wood chips and soak them in water for at least an hour before cooking, then make a foil pouch: dump the chips into the center of a large sheet of tin foil, then fold it over on itself and seal all the edges tightly. Poke lots of holes in the top for the smoke to escape. Place the pouch on the coals or over the burner until smoke starts to emerge from the holes, then move it somewhere off to the side that’s not directly beneath your food. Open the grill vents and close the lid to let the smoke swirl all around inside and flavor your food. Delicious!
Bonus tips!
A digital oven thermometer is your best friend — the one on the outside of your grill lid, in addition to probably not being very accurate, is really just reading the temperature at the top of the inside of the grill and not down where your food is actually cooking. So much about grilling is controlling temperature and understanding at what temperature your food needs to be cooked. While you’re at it you should get yourself a decent digital meat thermometer too.
Let your meat come to room temperature as best you can before cooking it, and salt it liberally. As it sits the salt will dissolve into the meat, re-emerge as liquid, then re-absorb again — it’s neat! Just as important as letting your meat sit before you cook it is letting it sit after — this is called resting, and it’s super duper important. Tent that hunk of protein with some foil and let it sit for at least 10 minutes, or longer if it’s a big cut. This way when you cut into it you won’t find yourself swimming in a sea of unruly meat juice. Also it’ll taste better.
Don’t be intimidated by the idea that in order to create a delicious finished product you need to have some complicated family-secret spice concoction to rub all over your food – most decent cuts of meat are best-served with just salt and fresh ground pepper, and the same goes for veggies, which I usually just toss in a little salt, pepper and olive oil. If you’re feeling adventurous there are lots of marinade and rub recipes out there, though — Bon Appetit’s 4-3-2-1 spice rub works in a pinch if I’m doing a shoulder or something, mainly because it’s easy to remember and I am bad at remembering things. Making your own barbecue sauce is also pretty simple and you probably already have what you need kicking around (ketchup, sugar, spices, acid, etc). IN FACT we just published some handy recipes on this very website this very day!
Do you have your own favorite marinade or rub or fire-starting tip to help us all avoid lighting our sleeves on fire? Want to declare me a complete lunatic for daring to suggest that charcoal isn’t the only acceptable way to apply heat to food? Tell me all about it in the comments!
Get Baked: The Great Autostraddle Babe-B-Q Cookbook
It’s almost Autostraddle’s own Babe-B-Q weekend! We’ll be hanging out with each other August 15 and 16 to grill up a storm, and everyone’s invited! We’ll also be guiding you through the process of grilling up said storm and getting prepared for the big event all week. You can view all Babe-B-Q posts here.
As you gear up for your Babe-B-Q’s this week, you’re probably wondering what to throw onto that sheet of slatted metal over a burning hot flame when the time rolls around. In the interest of helping you out, Rachel, Aja, Kaitlyn, and Carmen (and her gal pal Geneva) whipped up some totally kick-ass sauces, drinks, appetizers, and entrees for you that are best enjoyed on picnic benches and on paper plates next to a crackling set of coals. If you’re looking for even more menu ideas, check out these 39 out-of-the-box BBQ recipes.
Grandma Jones’ Bourbon Slush
by Aja
via Stephie Cooks
My mama passed this boozy recipe down to me from her mama and told me it was a big old family secret, so I dutifully guarded it with my life for years, sharing it only with one close friend who was sternly warned to keep her mouth shut: “You swear on your mama and your mama’s mama not to tell a single living soul about this recipe,” to which she replied, “I will swear to keep this a secret on the souls of both my mama and my mama’s mama, as that grandma happens to be my favorite one anyway.”
You can imagine my surprise (or naiveté, perhaps) when just a few weeks ago, Garden & Gun promoted a new Southern cookbook touting my Grandma Jones’ exact secret bourbon slush recipe. So. Rude.
Of course, the reality is that when my grandma was a young woman, this slush and others like it were all the rage. When I started making it I couldn’t leave well enough alone and spent summers tinkering with the recipe, bringing huge batches to the San Francisco Dyke March to everyone’s delight, and it became a tradition. It won a cocktail competition at a party during the first year we moved to Boston. We’d whip up big batches when friends came over, or show up with it on our friends’ front porches.
Because I didn’t make it until I was a newlywed, and so many fantastic memories are associated with it, it almost feels like our marriage’s signature libation. Here it is in its original form, probably from the early 1950s as OJ concentrate wasn’t successful until the late 1940s. Then, I’ll show you my own interpretation of a rightful classic.
These recipes each serve 16–18.
Original Ingredients:
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups strong tea
- 2 cups bourbon
- 1 cup sugar
- One 6-ounce container frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
- One 6-ounce container frozen lemon juice concentrate, thawed
- Garnish: Mint sprigs or lemon slices (optional)
Combine the water, tea, bourbon, sugar, orange and lemon juice concentrate in a large container or bowl, and mix until sugar dissolves. Pour into two gallon-size freezer bags. Freeze until an hour before serving. Place the frozen punch in a large bowl and let thaw, breaking up every 15 minutes. When punch is melted, add more ice or water as desired. Serve in punch cups. Garnish, if desired.
My Ingredients:
- Six to Eight Cups Smith Teamaker Lord Bergamot Blend No. 55 black tea
- One 750-ml Bottle Bulleit bourbon
- One 750-ml Bottle Blood Orange Italian Soda (any brand)
- One Quart Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade
Make it a day before you actually need it, first off. Make the tea (if you want to get extra fancy you can add basil or mint leaves here), but wait for it to cool before mixing all of the above together. Unless you have a giant, sanitized bucket or the mother of all pitchers, you will likely need to batch this, which involves a bit of math, but not terribly meticulous math. Mix to taste with the first batch and adjust from there, adding a little sugar at a time if you must (but I wouldn’t). It may bite at first but that’ll smooth right out in slush form, trust me. Any remnants make up a wild card batch, which is f-u-n.
For freezing, freezer bags are perfect if you’re transferring to another container for serving (punch bowl, pitchers, etc.), and some folks just put a giant container in the freezer (though I can’t imagine what sort) and scoop it out of there as they serve (with this much bourbon things probably won’t freeze to rock hard ice).
You can easily slush-and-go, 8 oz. canning gem jars are perfect. Remember not to fill ‘em all the way up — the water will of course expand as the mixture freezes. For serving, mint or basil garnish is lovely, but not required. Cut straws down to fit for a pretty, thoughtful touch. Feel free to tinker and tweak the recipe to your liking — fresh citrus is always a great idea — and please do responsibly enjoy this rich Jones woman tradition.
Grilled Caesar Salad
by Carmen and Geneva
I’ve eaten so many salads in my time, y’all, but never like this. Now that I’ve grilled a head of lettuce and covered it in vegetarian chicken strips, though, I’ll probably never go back. 5/5 would recommend to a friend.
I’d say serve these cut in half, so this recipe would make side salad for six people.
Ingredients:
- Three Heads of Romaine Lettuce
- Three Slices of Bread
- Chicken Strips (Mine Are Veggie Grilled Chicken Strips)
- Parmesan Cheese
- Caesar Dressing
This is an easy one, y’all. You start by tossing the entire heart of romaine, washed and not dripping wet, onto the grill. Go ahead and put a sheet of aluminum foil, open-faced, with the chicken on it over the fire, too.
Someone should toast the bread while this is happening, like in a toaster. When it’s good and crispy, cut it into four strips and then cut those into chunks to your liking. (I like a big crouton, so.) Cover them in a thin layer of olive oil, add salt and pepper, and then put them on a sheet of foil over the flame, too.
Remove the ingredients as they begin to look a bit browned, which probably means lettuce first, croutons second, and chicken third. But hey, you do you. I love burnt things, to be honest. Lay out the hearts in a plate, cover them in the chicken strips, and then sprinkle the croutons over top. Slather on some dressing, throw cheese wildly, and get ready to chown down.
Totally Improvised Potato Salad
by Carmen and Geneva
Geneva has turned me into a potato advocate, like the most passionate potato advocate. And so, we had this massive amount of potatoes and nothing to do with them and I suggested we make a potato salad because, well, potato salad is dank as f*ck and why not. And thus, this entire recipe was borne of our own potato-based intuition. As in, we winged it. We came, we cooked, and trust me, we conquered.
This recipe makes five to six servings.
Ingredients:
- Six Potatoes, Cleaned and Quartered (But Not Peeled)
- One Pickle
- Four Eggs
- Half Red Bell Pepper
- One-Fifth Sweet Onion
- Quarter-Cup Spicy Mustard
- Half-Cup Mayonnaise
First, you start by boiling the potatoes. Place them, quartered, into a big ol’ pot and cover them. Let ‘em boil for half an hour on medium heat like that, stirring occasionally and removing them from heat when they get soft. Drain them in a colander.
You’ll also wanna boil your eggs at the same time. My method is to put eggs in still water, toss a dash of salt in that b*tch, and then place them over an open flame uncovered. The water in your chosen pot should cover them by about an inch. When the water begins to boil, cover the pot, lower the heat, and set a timer for ten minutes. When it goes out, remove them from heat, drain them in a colander, and run cold water over them until they’re cool to the touch. Toss them in the fridge until later.
While things are boiling, clean and cut your veggies. Slice and dice the pickle, onion, and bell pepper. When everything else is cut, peel the eggs and quarter them. When the potatoes are done draining, cut them into smaller chunks using a fork and knife (they’ll be hot!) and then, mix all that stuff up in a considerably large bowl.
Using a hard spatula, mix all the ingredients, including the mayonnaise and mustard, in that big bowl. Don’t completely rid the potato salad of the lumps and chunks, but mix well enough that there’s nothing that hasn’t turned yellow.
And then, voila! You’re ready to chow down.
Hot ‘n Tangy and Spiced Blueberry Barbecue Sauces
by Kaitlyn
Everyone knows sweet barbecue. It’s that thick, syrupy, tangy stuff that you can buy at any grocery store, that helped Sweet Baby Ray make his barbecue sauce fortune. It’s been my favorite kind of grilled food topping since I lived smack-dab between Kansas City (where this style was born) and St. Louis (home of its tangier, thinner cousin). You could make the KC sweet style at home and put it on just about anything — it’s ubiquitous for a reason — but if you’re going to the trouble to make your own version of a sauce that you can buy at the store for two dollars, I say you may as well do it big.
So for my first foray into the DIY sauce game, I picked two types that weren’t what I’d normally reach for at a barbecue joint. The first is a blueberry sauce, and despite an off-putting (to me) inky blue color, it was really tasty. Sweet and fruity, but with enough vinegar that it doesn’t go down like a bucket of syrup. My girlfriend, who loves blueberries and frequently puts blueberry barbecue sauce on her burgers, said it was different from other ones she’d tried (“It’s got a kick to it!”) but happily scarfed down her portion. The second, a family recipe I snagged from The Kitchn, was runnier and super tangy, but with enough brown sugar to mellow out the vinegar that usually turns me off to this type of sauce. It was also spicier than I’m used to, but my taste buds came out unscathed!
Blueberry Barbecue Sauce Ingredients:
- Two Cups Fresh Blueberries
- Half-Cup Balsamic Vinegar
- Half-Teaspoon Salt
- Two Tablespoons Red Onion, Roughly Chopped
- Half-Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- Three Tablespoons Ketchup
- Three Tablespoons White Sugar
- Two Cloves Garlic, Roughly Chopped
- Half-Teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- One Teaspoon Chili Powder
Put literally all your ingredients in a small sauce pan. It’s so easy. Stir them together, then set to medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, reduce to a medium-low simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally if you, like me, cannot let a pot sit unattended for that long.
Check the consistency of your sauce. The blueberries should have pretty much broken down by now, and the red onion and garlic will be soft. I ended up adding a little extra water because I wanted the onions softer but worried about running out of liquid; feel free to do the same.
Once everything has mushed to your liking, remove the pan from heat and let cool. Pour into a blender or use an immersion blender to liquefy the ingredients. Pour or brush onto your grilled proteins, or use as a dip!
Hot ‘n Tangy Barbecue Sauce Ingredients:
- Three Teaspoons Salt
- Three Teaspoons Dry Mustard
- Three Teaspoons Chili Powder
- Three Teaspoons Paprika
- Half-Cup and One Tablespoon Light Brown Sugar
- Six Tablespoons Ketchup
- Six Tablespoons Cider Vinegar
- Three Tablespoons Lemon Juice
- Six Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
- Six Tablespoons Vegetable Oil (See Note Below)
- Half-Cup and One Teasoon Water
Put all your dry ingredients in a saucepan. Mix ‘em up with a whisk and blend in the ketchup until it’s all smooth. This supposedly keeps the mustard powder from separating, but I wouldn’t know if that’s true because I forgot to do it. Oops.
When I made this, I added all the wet ingredients in at the measurements listed. However, my end product was pretty oily — I had to cook the sauce for much longer than the recommended time to get a good consistency, and there was a decent layer of oil that just would. not. combine. So I’d recommend starting out with just 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, reserving the other three for if things look too dry during the cooking process.
Add the rest of your wet ingredients, whisk until smooth, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer.
The original recipe says to simmer for about 10 minutes, but as I said, I had a lot longer wait before things started to reduce. Keep an eye on things, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick enough to cling to the back of a spoon. You’ll know it when you see it.
Vegetarian Stuffed (and Grilled) Peppers with an Elote Remix
by Carmen and Geneva
Stuffed peppers have long been my jam, but I’d never grilled them before Geneva and I threw together this recipe. AND WHAT A RECIPE IT IS, Y’ALL. I could probably eat these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of time until I died and be the happiest little nugget on Earth. On the side, we added a spiced up time-honored BBQ classic by preparing corn as they do in Mexico: slathered in mayo and sour cream and covered in chili powder. It’s a wild ride, y’all.
Stuffed Pepper Ingredients:
- Three Bell Peppers
- One and One-Half Cup Rice (Uncooked)
- One Cup Morningstar Crumbles
- One-Quarter Cup Chopped Onion
- One Carrot, Finely Chopped
- Parmesan Cheese
- Bread Crumbs
Before you can stuff and grill these babies, you’re gonna need to prep the rice. Cook it separately, then combine it in a well-greased frying pan with the onion, carrot, and veggie crumbles. Stir it up real good, spice it to taste, and then turn off the heat when it’s mixed and the veggies look done. Meanwhile, cut the tops off of the peppers, but don’t discard them. Then, gut them and stuff them with the rice and veggie crumbles mixture. Top them off with some parmesan and some bread crumbs, and then put the tops of them back on.
Wrap them up in aluminum foil, fully covering them and preventing them from opening or spilling out. Toss ‘em on the grill for fifteen minutes, turning them as needed, and then unwrap them carefully.
Proceed with caution, as these will be dangerously delicious. (And really hot!)
Elote Ingredients:
- Two Ears of Corn, Husked and Washed
- Quarter-Cup Sour Cream
- Eighth-Cup Mayonnaise
- One Lime
- Cilantro
- Chili Powder
After you’ve washed the corn, pat it dry and then rub on some olive oil. Add salt and pepper as desired, and then wrap it up in aluminum foil. Cook it on the grill, turning it regularly, for twenty to thirty minutes.
While the corn is over an open flame, chop up some cilantro. Mix together the mayo and sour cream in a bowl and then toss in the cilantro, too. Once your corn is good to go, unwrap it and spread the mix on it while it’s still hot. Season it with chili powder to your own liking and then squeeze some lemon on top before you serve it.
Put out napkins in advance.
The People’s Veggie Burger
by Rachel
I have been blessed, as a vegan, to be invited to many cookouts where friends have graciously provided veggie burger options. Unfortunately, many of those veggie burger options have been kind of lame, ranging from hockey-puck-like frozen storebought patties to loose piles of shredded beets that become essentially a warm salad because the burger chef wasn’t sure how to bind patties without egg. Into this void I would like to respectfully suggest this veggie burger, which is vegan, quick and easy to make, requires no ingredients that would necessitate a trip to a Whole Foods, and conveniently does not contain any tofu or breadcrumbs, which means it is acceptable to persons of a soy-free or gluten-free persuasion. Also it does not contain any black beans or beets, which are ingredients I love but have already eaten so much of in burger variations I can no longer summon enthusiasm for them.
It’s originally from Lukas Volger’s Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, which is an authoritative text on the subject and very worth buying. In the book, they’re called Quinoa, Red Bean and Walnut Burgers. The book recommends glazing it with a Pomegranate-Sesame sauce, which I’m sure would be delicious, but which I have never quite gotten around to trying.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup quinoa, rinsed thoroughly
- 1 small potato (4 to 5 ounces), peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 bunch scallions, including an inch of the green parts, thinly sliced
- ½ cup roughly chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 1 ½ cups cooked red beans
- ½ cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Juice of ½ lemon
I forgot the parsley and ginger for this picture but I feel like you know what they look like
1. Cook your quinoa and potato until they’re both cooked through and soft. If you’re using dried red beans like I was, you’ll need to cook those too (remember that you need to soak them overnight the night before! No cheating on this part!). This is a recipe where canned beans are at least as good to use as dried beans, because that viscous canned bean liquid helps bind things, but dried beans were what I had and they worked great.
2. While your pots are bubbling away, toast your walnuts — you can do this either by putting them in a dry pan on medium-low heat and moving them around so they don’t burn, or you can arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake them at 325-350 for 7-10 minutes. Once they’re toasty, chop them up a bit.
3. Chop up your scallions, parsley and ginger into a relatively fine mince. I always use more scallion and parsley than the recipe calls for because I like fresh herbal things.
4. Once all of your items are cooked, toasted and/or chopped, you can combine them all into a mixing bowl and add the salt and lemon. Use a potato masher to smash everything together thoroughly. The mixture should begin to stick together pretty well right away.
Proto-burger
5. Patty time! To make a burger patty, grab enough of the mixture with your clean hands to make a ball about the size of a baseball. (For burger aficionados who are not sports inclined, it should be about the size of a fist.) Next, flatten it gently between your palms and cup it in your hands, using your thumbs to press in the sides of the burger slightly so that they don’t taper out weirdly. You want it to be shaped more like a car tire and less like a flying saucer.
6. You’re ready to apply heat! These burgers are firm enough that I suspect they can be thrown on the grill, although you want to make sure that any grill you use is well oiled so that your burger doesn’t stick and fall apart. I personally prefer to cook these in a pan, at about 5-6 minutes per side over medium heat. Everything in these is already cooked, so you’re not trying to cook them through, just get a nice crispy crust on the outside. If you want to pan-fry them, you don’t have to worry about being left out of the barbecue atmosphere; if you have a stainless steel or cast-iron pan, you can stick that right on top of the grill itself and use that as a heat source.
7. Once your patties are off the grill, it’s all about the condiments.
This burger is definitely hearty enough to handle some classic ketchup/mustard/pickle/relish situations, but I’d encourage you to think outside the box too. Here’s a place to start. I personally like these with a green pureed sauce of some sort, whether it be pesto or chimichurri or something similar. I went bunless, because I knew the burgers themselves would be enough to fill me up, and topped them with eggplant caponata and a vegan riff on the Silver Palate Cookbook’s green sauce.
However you choose to dress your burgers up or down, the most important thing is that you eat them outside, in the sun, with some good friends and a drink of your choice.
Veggie Skewers (w/ Pineapple!)
by Carmen and Geneva
In the midst of burgers and hot dogs, what’s a vegetarian to do at a Babe-B-Q? Well, my friend, I have right here the ultimate answer to that question. I have right here the most heavenly grilled veggie and fruit kabobs you’ve ever put in your goddamn mouth. We made four.
Ingredients:
- 4 Button Mushrooms
- One Green Zucchini
- One Tomato
- Half Onion
- Half Fresh Pineapple
- Half Green Bell Pepper
This one’s easy peasy lemon squeezy. You start with your fresh veggies, get ‘em washed and ready, and then start cutting them into slices. You’ll wanna be able to put all these things on a big stick in a hot second, so cut the zucchini width-wise, into circular slices. Cut the tomato into eighths. Cut the pepper into strips and then cut those strips in half. Leave the mushrooms whole. Cut the onion into chunks, slicing large bits away from the center. Dice the pineapple, but into big chunks.
Line up your ingredients on the skewer however you damn well please. Then, spray them with an olive oil spray and season them to your liking. We put chili powder, cumin, pepper, and salt on ours. Be sure to rotate the skewers and season and oil every side. Wrap the skewers in foil, leaving them open on the ends so you can track their progress. Cook them over an open flame or in an oven for 30-40 minutes until brown, rotating them about halfway through.
Then, put each heavenly piece in your mouth one by one.
5 Ways To Tenderize Tough Meats (With Science!)
feature image via shutterstock
It’s almost Autostraddle’s own Babe-B-Q weekend! We’ll be hanging out with each other August 15 and 16 to grill up a storm, and everyone’s invited! We’ll also be guiding you through the process of grilling up said storm and getting prepared for the big event all week. You can view all Babe-B-Q posts here.
As a person whose dental adventures seemingly never come to an end, I’ve developed a real soft place in my heart for soft foods. So for today’s topic, I thought we’d talk about how to soften up other tough muscles! With science! Get pumped.
What makes you so tough, huh?
Okay, first things first, I’m the realest. But um, first things second, all meat consists of muscle, connective tissue, and fat. Most of what you see are bundles of protein fibers, which provide structure and (when we put it in our mouth) a chewy toughness. These proteins can be divided into three general categories:
- myofibrillar proteins, which enable muscles to contract
- stromal proteins, which provide structure to connective tissues, including tendons, and
- sarcoplasmic proteins (e.g., blood).
When it comes to texture, the most important are myofibrillar proteins, which account for about ⅔ of the proteins found in mammals. Within these, Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food explains: “Myosin and actin are the most important from a culinary texture perspective. If you take only one thing away from this section, let it be this: denatured myosin = yummy; denatured actin = yucky. Dry, overcooked meats aren’t tough because of lack of water inside the meat; they’re tough because on a microscopic level, the actin proteins have denatured and squeezed out liquid in the muscle fibers.”
Within each muscle fiber are strands of myofibrils. These long cylindrical structures appear striped due to strands of tiny myofilaments, which have two types of protein: actin (thin myofilaments) and myosin (thick myofilaments). Via Penn Medicine.
Also important to meat texture are the stromal proteins — namely, collagen. For many cuts of meat, collagen mainly shows up as discrete pieces, such as tendons or silverskin. These can simply be cut away before cooking. In other cuts of meat, however, collagen forms a tough 3D network through the muscle tissue. This is most effectively removed through long, slow cooking methods which convert the collagen into gelatin.
The tricky thing about all this is that the more you cook muscle, the more the proteins firm up and dry out; yet the more you cook connective tissue, the more it soft and tender it gets. Through empirical research, food scientists have determined that there’s a sweet spot for the internal meat temperature between 140-153F/60-67C, where myosin and collagen will denature but actin will remain in its native form. There’s a lot more to be said about the chemistry of cooking meat, but for now we’re going to focus on the food prep stage.
There are five things people commonly use to tenderize meat during food prep: acidic marinades, proteolytic enzymes, brines, dry rubs, and mechanical tenderization tools.
Acidic Marinades
Marinades have been used since Renaissance times to slow spoilage and provide flavor. When the acids in the marinade come in contact with the meat, they denature the protein bonds, uncoiling the actin and myosin filaments. The electromagnetic properties also disrupt collagen’s helical structure, untwisting the strands and chopping up the “backbone” of the structure through hydrolysis. Unfortunately, the effect is actually quite limited, as it only works when there’s direct contact. Marinades penetrate slowly, and no matter how long you let it sit, they tend not to go any more than ⅛ of an inch in.
Among professional chefs, you’ll often see marinades used as more of a surface treatment on thick cuts. To increase the tenderizing effects, they’ll sometimes put gashes in the meat or inject marinade inside, allowing the acid to come into direct contact with more surface area. Alternatively, one could also stick exclusively to thin cuts of meat, like the skirt steak Chef Susan Feniger uses in this recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEkK08GPAnY
Brines
A brine is a liquid with 3-6% salt by weight. Meats are typically immersed in brines for anywhere from a few hours to a few days before being cooked, with the effect of making the final product much juicier than it otherwise would have been.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen describes the scientific reason:
Brining has two initial effects. First, salt disrupts the structure of the muscle filaments. A 3% salt solution (2 tbsp per quart) dissolves parts of the protein structure that supports the contracting filament, and a 5.5% solution (4 tbsp per quart) partly dissolves the filaments themselves. Second, the interactions of salt and proteins result in a greater water-holding capacity in the muscle cells, which then absorb water from the brine. (The inward movement of salt and water and disruptions of the muscle filaments into the meat also increase its absorption of aromatic molecules from any herbs and spices in the brine.) The meat’s weight increases by 10% or more. When cooked, the meat still loses around 20% of its weight in moisture, but this loss is counterbalanced by the brine absorbed, so the moisture loss is effectively cut in half. In addition, the dissolved protein filaments can’t coagulate into normally dense aggregates, so the cooked meat seems more tender.
The downside to this, of course, is that soaking in brine naturally makes the meat much saltier. To mask this effect, many cooks add other flavors such as sugar, spices and vegetables. Chef Anne Burrell demonstrates how to make one such “brinerade” below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLwa1oYfOjY
Dry Rubs
The acids and/or salts in dry rubs work in the same manner as marinades and brines; they just have less penetrating power. (Duh.)
Really I included this method because I wanted to show you this video of Chef Elizabeth Falkner making pork chops:
That hair, you guys. And that outfit. Hot fire. (Also she seems like a very capable woman who is extremely knowledgeable about her profession and stuff. So, right on.)
Sugar is sometimes used in dry rubs to balance saltiness and help the meat brown better by creating a caramelized crust on the outermost portion of the meat. Flavor-wise, this translates to deliciously strong smoky and charred flavors. Or when applied in different stages, cooks sometimes also use dry rubs in combination with other tenderizing practices, as Chef Tiffani Faison demonstrates here:
Proteolytic Enzymes
As far back as pre-Columbian Mexico, cooks found that wrapping meats in papaya leaves before cooking had a tenderizing effect. The reason: papayas contain an active enzyme known as papain, which digests protein! A number of other plants have proteolytic enzymes as well, including pineapple (containing bromelain), ginger (zingibain), fig (ficin), kiwi (actinidin), and certain types of fungi.
Awesome as this is, however, direct contact is once again required for the effect to take place. Proteolytic enzymes penetrate only a few millimeters per day, so it’s usually not advisable to leave the meat immersed for a long period of time. (Unless the cook purposely wants the outside surface to become mealy while the inside remains unaffected. But um, yuck.) Although the enzymes act slowly at refrigerator or room temperature, they can go up to five times faster when heated between 140-160F/60-70C. Some slaughterhouses actually inject papain to the animals right before slaughtering, with the idea that the injected enzyme will be carried through the bloodstream to all parts of the animal and later become activated by the cooking process. This sometimes results in inexplicably mushy meat. For the individual cook, a much better bet is to apply enzyme somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes before firing up the grill.
Although tenderizing via proteolytic enzyme meat tenderization is currently less common in the United States, the practice is well-known in many other cultures. For example, papaya marinades are used in Lao cuisine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPI8jLsUi3U
Interestingly, the more familiar American practice of “dry aging” steak works in exactly the same way; it just allows the enzymes naturally present in the meat to do their thing, rather than a cook artificially adding new ones. Dry aging also alters the flavor of the meat, making it taste gamier — so proceed with caution if that’s not what you’re into. Dry aged retail cuts are typically 5-7 days old, but some restaurants use meat aged 14-21 days.
Mechanical Tenderization Tools
There are two schools of thought when it comes to mechanical tenderization:
- Attacking meat with a series of sharp, pointy things to cut through tough meat fibers
OXO Good Grips Bladed Meat Tenderizer in action. Via Whiskey Bacon.
- Breaking the fibers down by beating the heck out of meat with a hammer-like tool or other hefty object
Via Food Wishes via dish.allrecipes.com.
There’s no chemical change to the meat during this process, so in some people’s opinions, this qualifies less as “tenderizing” and more as “masking toughness.” You can achieve a similar effect by slicing meat against the grain after cooking.
Via BroBible.com. (HA!)
Happy grilling!
Notes From A Queer Engineer is a recurring column with an expected periodicity of one month 14 days. The subject matter may not be explicitly queer, but the industrial engineer writing it sure is. This is a peek at the notes she’s been doodling in the margins.
Grills and Accessories We Recommend For Babes Who Barbecue
It’s almost Autostraddle’s own Babe-B-Q weekend! We’ll be hanging out with each other August 15 and 16 to grill up a storm, and everyone’s invited! We’ll also be guiding you through the process of grilling up said storm and getting prepared for the big event all week. You can view all Babe-B-Q posts here.
Here are some grills you might like!
Stef: Hibachi
A couple of summers ago, my friends and I were having a little get-together in McCarren Park on the 4th of July. Halfway through our first round of veggie burgers, the cops came around to tell us that nobody was allowed to grill in the park. You can’t take away our freedom on friggin’ Independence Day!!! Lucky for us, one of my friends had a discreet little hibachi grill. While other cookouts scattered throughout the park were shut down, ours continued on the DL and the cops were none the wiser. Little hibachi saved the day!
In addition to being small and unassuming enough to help you grill on the sly, the hibachi is convenient, efficient and downright adorable. I bought mine for $13 at the grocery store and have enjoyed multiple small-scale cookout situations ever since. It might not be my forever grill, but it’s my grill right now, and we are in love.
Aja: Charcoal
- Arrange the coals
- Light the damn coals
- Manually regulate the temperature
- Make some food hot
- Don’t burn anything down
Do you have charcoal, two sticks or matches? Do you have a grill? Do you have food? Great, you can probably do this. You don’t need a cordless Xerox machine that cooks to do all the work for you. Gas grills are fine, but how are they not glorified, expensive outdoor ovens? Where’s the skill and nuance and outdoorsy ruggedness and fun in that? The only way to rough it harder than a charcoal grill is if you’re literally cooking out of a bloody fire-pit like a Walking Dead character, or a Girl Scout.
Grill Accessories
Want bells and whistles? TOO BAD. Just kidding, here are some inexpensive grilling clips that are excellent for veggies, nifty kabob baskets so you don’t lose any of your preciously marinaded morsels, and a chimney starter that turns crappy charcoal into a column of perfectly smoky obedience. You can also give the process a boost with eco-friendly products like Frontier Tumbleweeds Firestarters.
Do you have any grill recommendations? Tell us all about your nifty grill accessories and all-time favorite grill in the comments!
You Should Go: Autostraddle Babe-B-Q Weekend is (Almost) Upon Us!
Good news, kids! This weekend, Autostraddle’s Babe-B-Q celebration is coming to a backyard, fire pit, and/or other totally appropriate location near you. And I’ve rounded up all of the events our readers are hosting to be part of the action in this very post!
If you’re upset that nobody in your neighborhood is hosting a Babe-B-Q, my advice is to be the meet-up you wanna see in the world. Hosting is as easy as 1-2-3, in which 1 is “pick a date and time,” 2 is “choose an RSVP mechanism, most likely a FB event,” and 3 is “submit it right here.” And if you’re planning to host but haven’t quite gotten around to formalizing those plans yet, don’t worry! All Babe-B-Q events submitted to us this week will be added to this post as they’re received. (We’ve also got some great social media images for all y’all hosting events, which you can find in this post.)
We’ll be guiding you all through the rest of the Babe-B-Q planning process this week with a slew of posts that will help you pick out your BBQ looks, plan your menus, and otherwise get in the grilling spirit. And when you’re finally soaking up the sun together this weekend, don’t forget to use the hashtag #AutoBabeBQ to show us what’s goin’ on! (We’ll probably even reshare your posts on our Twitter and Insta accounts, if that floats your boat!)
And now, without further ado, let’s get listing. And grilling! And loving. And laughing, breathing, whatever, I never memorized the song.
Australia
Melbourne 8/16: Bring the Babes, Minus the BQ
Venue: My Place
4/35 Sherwood Rd, Ivanhoe
Melbourne, Victoria 3079
Australia
Event Date: 2015-08-16
Start Time: 03:00 pm
Host: Al
Sydney: An #AutoBabeBQ Minus the BBQ
Venue: Camperdown Rest Memorial Park
Newtown, NSW 2131
Australia
Event Date: 2015-08-22
Start Time: 11:30 am
Host: Dina
United States
Austin: Backyard #AutoBabeBQ
Venue: 2505 E 9th St
Austin, TX 78702
Event Date: 2015-08-16
Start Time: 05:00 pm
End Time: 09:00 pm
Host: Valerie Blakey
Chicago: North Side #AutoBabeBQ
Venue: Jarvis Beach
1208 W Jarvis Ave
Chicago, IL
60626
United States
Event Date: 2015-08-16
Start Time: 02:00 pm
End Time: 08:00 pm
Host: Sarah Goldberg
Denver: Birthday, Brandi, and #AutoBabeBQ!
Venue: Chez Prenticciaro
3942 Milwaukee st
Denver, Colorado
80205
United States
Event Date: 2015-08-16
Start Time: 06:30 pm
End Time: 10:30 pm
Host: Paula
Dover: New Hampshire #AutoBabeBQ
Venue: Catherine’s Abode!
Event Date: 2015-08-16
Start Time: 02:00 pm
End Time: 08:00 pm
Host: Catherine Rawson
Long Island: Sisters Of The Yam #AutoBabeBQ Celebration
Venue: Eisenhower Park
Merrick and Stewart avenues
East Meadow, NY 11554
United States
Event Date: 2015-08-15
Start Time: 12:00 pm
End Time: 03:00 pm
Host: Gigi
Los Angeles: Backyard #AutoBabeBQ Potluck
Venue: Backyard
1718 Hauser Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
90019
United States
Event Date: 2015-08-15
Start Time: 02:00 pm
End Time: 09:00 pm
Host: Carmen SanDiego
Southern California 8/16: #AutoBabeBQ at the Beach
Venue: Huntington Beach
Hutington Beach, California
United States
Event Date: 2015-08-16
Start Time: 11:15 am
Host: Al
Washington, DC 8/15: #AutoBabeBQ Potluck
Venue: Summer Vibe Haus
Washington, DC 20002
United States
Event Date: 2015-08-156
Start Time: 03:00 pm
Host: Carmen
Grill This Sh*t: 39 Outside-the-Box Grill Recipes
It’s almost Autostraddle’s own Babe-B-Q weekend! We’ll be hanging out with each other August 15 and 16 to grill up a storm, and everyone’s invited! We’ll also be guiding you through the process of grilling up said storm and getting prepared for the big event all week. You can view all Babe-B-Q posts here.
Much like its introverted indoor cousin, the crock pot, an outdoor grill can cook a whole lot of unexpected stuff beyond hot dogs and hamburgers and tofu steaks. Not to hate on quintessential BBQ foods, of course, but your grill can do so much more than you think. Whether you’re camping or backyard barbecuing or just trying to avoid stove cooking on a hot day, here are some weird and wonderful things that you can make on a grill!
1. French Toast Fruit Kabobs
2. Plankies (Twinkies, Nutella, Marshmallows, and Toffee!!!)
3. Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza
4. Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Glazed Pineapple
5. Bacon Blue Cheese Dogs with Samuel Adams BBQ Sauce
6. Grilled Polenta and Eggplant with Wild Mushroom and Sage EVOO and Traditional Balsamic
7. Grilled PBB & J
8. Grilled Watermelon with Balsamic Dressing
9. Grilled Lobster with Garlic-Parsley Butter
10. Grilled Dark Chocolate Sandwich
11. Sweet N’ Spicy Grilled Salmon Fish Tacos
12. Grilled Kale
13. Grilled Caprese Naan Pizza
14. Chocolate and Marshmallow Stuffed BBQ Bananas
15. Grilled Clams with White Wine Butter Smoked Paprika Sauce
16. Cupcakes Grilled in an Orange
17. The Ultimate Quesadilla
18. Grilled Caesar Salad with Chicken and Shrimp
19. Grilled Chocolate Chip Cookies
20. Grilled Spaghetti
21. Smoke Grilled Onion Soup
22. Grilled Hot Fudge Sundae Donuts
23. Chicken Pot Pie on the Grill
24. Triple Berry Crumble on the Grill
25. Spicy BBQ Chicken Tostadas
26. Grill Roasted Bacon and Scallion Muffins
27. Grilled Stuffed Mushrooms
28. Chocolate Cherry Ricotta Grilled Pizzas
29. Popcorn on the Grill
30. Piri-Piri Chicken
31. Campfire Grilled S’mores Calzones
32. BBQ Chicken Mac n’ Cheese Pizza
33. Grilled Fresh Garlic & Herb Potatoes
34. Grilled Strawberry Shortcake Skewers with Blueberry Glaze
35. Grilled Guacamole
36. Grilled Peaches with Vanilla Ice Cream
37. Grilled Cream Cheese Wontons
38. Grilled Egg (in a Pepper)
39. Grilled Lemonade
Get Fired Up: Autostraddle Babe-B-Q Weekend is August 15th & 16th!
We’ve had an action-packed summer, y’all. Between the non-stop love-fest that was Tell Us Everything Week and the slew of meet-ups y’all valiantly hosted with one another in honor of ice cream and friendship, it’s been a truly fabulous and Autostraddle-rific few months. And they’re not over! Yet. We’ve still got a few weeks of blistering heat, kindred spirits in cutoff shorts, and the soothing sound of bug zappers between us, and we need to make the most out of it.
Which brings us to Autostraddle Babe-B-Q Weekend!
On August 15 and 16, I’m challenging you to get together and grill up a storm. That’s right! We’re taking back grilling from the straight white dudes of this world and we’re doing it the only way we know how: together. The chosen family that grills together inevitably chills together, after all. For the rest of time, that is.
This could take so many shapes, y’all. You could corral your fellow ‘straddlers into your backyard for an all-day grill-a-thon; head to a public park for a picnic full of warm, charred goodies; meet up at a local BBQ spot; or even build a brick oven together over the course of a week while locked away in the woods and then grill some of these weeds in it. It’s really up to you! Whatever floats your boat. Whatever lights your fire. We’ll have lots of posts the week of your wild and wonderful events to help you decide on a Babe-B-Q menu, figure out what to wear while you’re werqin’ that grill, and so on and so forth.
If you’re the brave soul in your city / town / tiny island who decides to host, rest assured that we’ve got your back. All you need to do is pick a date, decide on an event mechanism (having people email you to RSVP, posting an event on Facebook, using Eventbrite, etc.), and then submit all the details to our events portal. We’ll help you spread the word – all you have to do is take the dive and submit! (If you make your event page on Facebook, here’s a cover photo you can use. We’ve also got some sick Twitter and Instagram images for you.)
If you’re not hosting but still wanna get in on the action, don’t fret! You can check out the events submitted to us right here as they roll in, and on August 10 I’ll post a round-up of the events by city so you can plan out your weekends together.
And whether you’re attending, showing up, or wistfully eating a microwaved hot dog in your mom’s house, you can still be part of this movement on social media by using the hashtag #AutoBabeBQ!