Now, while I’m not a big fan of sweet salad dressing, I am a BIG fan of “special sauce” on my burgers. More specifically, the kind that mimics the Big Mac sauce from McDonalds.

This is a very very close, delicious, and healthier alternative to what you will find on a big mac. I counted 19 ingredients in McDonald’s Big Mac Special Sauce and at least 5 of those ingredients are not natural, such as stabilizers and preservatives. No thank you!

It’s really quite quick to make yourself, and not only will it be a great complement to your next burger, but it is a big hit around here as a tartar sauce replacement for fish!

Ingredients:
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons Catalina Salad Dressing (recipe here)
1 Tablespoon diced Dill Pickle
2 teaspoons Dill Pickle Juice

Directions:
Combine the mayonnaise, Catalina dressing, pickles, and pickle juice in a small bowl.

Enjoy!

When I was visiting my mom in the US we took the opportunity to give my brother a belated birthday party. He loves cookie cakes, so my mom decided to try to make her own.
I think when I was younger one of these would cost about $30 at the mall, but for a fraction of the price, you can make it at home. My mom said she used the Nestle tollhouse recipe for bars, and we used the cream cheese frosting that she used on my baby shower cake.
She made the cookie cake on a round pizza stone that she had, but you can make this on any round pizza pan or into any other shape: rectangular, square, heart…etc.
All-in-all everyone loved it and it was hard to not keep sneaking pieces later on!

Cookie
Ingredients:
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Butter, softened (next time I will use 1.5 Cups)
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 Eggs
12-oz. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 191°C (375°F).
Line a round pizza stone with parchment paper and make an edge/wall out of aluminum foil to all around the stone to keep the dough from spilling over the edge.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until it seems creamy. Beat-in the eggs. Then, gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Place the dough in the center of the stone, cover with plastic wrap and roll out the cookie dough with a rolling pin until the dough is evenly spread – keep it about 1-2 inches away from the edge.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before decorating with frosting.

Frosting* (original recipe from AllRecipes.com)
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1 1/4 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Beat until smooth in an electric mixer. Use to decorate cookie cake. Add food coloring if desired.

*This will make way way more frosting than you will need, but it freezes really well. Freeze in small portions in ziplock bags and defrost as needed a day ahead of time in the refrigerator.

Friday I posted about a copycat Tony Roma’s baby back ribs recipe that I tried out. Bellow is the recipe with the bbq sauce that they recommended making. I found it way way to tangy and vinegary. However, this may be because the homemade ketchup that I made this time around was also more tangy than usual…and the fact that I only had light corn syrup and not the dark corn syrup called for.

Either way..my husband loved it. I thought it was good, but it was so tangy that my mouth was burning!

The cooking method for these ribs is really fantastic and quite simple and created delicious succulent fall-off-the bone ribs. You will need 2 days to make this recipe, so prepare accordingly!

(ribs after being steamed)

Ingredients:
2 kg Baby Back Ribs
Salt
Pepper
BBQ Sauce (see recipe bellow)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 260°C (500°F).

Wash and dry ribs. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper and rub to coat.

Prepare a broiler pan by adding 1 inch of water to the bottom pan and placing the grate on top.

Place the ribs on the grate, making sure they don’t overlap. Build a foil tent over the ribs. Make sure that the foil is not touching the ribs and that the tent is sealed so that the steam from the water cannot escape.

Bake for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the oven, but leave covered! Let completely cooled down with foil tent still in place – about 2-3 hours. Then, wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator overnight. This will help re-solidify them so that they don’t fall apart when you try to grill them.

Next day:
Preheat grill or broiler (I broiled).

Place the racks of ribs on the grill grate. When they have reached a golden, bubbly stage, about 3-4 minutes, coat with bbq sauce and broil another 2-4 minutes, then turn and repeat the process. Remove from broiler and slather on some extra sauce.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Tony Roma’s Original Barbecue Sauce (my tangy version)
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Homemade Ketchup (recipe here)
1/2 Cup White Vinegar
1/4 Cup Corn Syrup
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/8 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce

Directions:
Whisk all ingredients together in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Makes about 1 cup.

Baby-back ribs are not very popular in Germany – ribs in general are considered a sort of waste product. So, they are cheap. I can get a kilogram of spare or baby-back ribs for €3,00 (about US$4.17). So, when we need a cost-effective meal that contains meat, ribs are the way to go for us.

The other day I came across a copycat recipe for Tony Roma’s baby-back ribs. The recipe included a sauce, which was good (see next week’s Monday post), but definitely did not taste anything like Tony Roma’s bbq sauce. I did however, split the rib recipe in half to try out my new sweet and smoky homemade bbq sauce, and, to my surprise, I had recreated Tony Roma’s bbq sauce!

The cooking method for these ribs is really fantastic and quite simple and created delicious succulent fall-off-the bone ribs. You will need 2 days to make this recipe, so prepare accordingly!

(ribs after being steamed)

Ingredients:
2 kg Baby Back Ribs
Salt
Pepper
BBQ Sauce (see recipe bellow)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 260°C (500°F).

Wash and dry ribs. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper and rub to coat.

Prepare a broiler pan by adding 1 inch of water to the bottom pan and placing the grate on top.

Place the ribs on the grate, making sure they don’t overlap. Build a foil tent over the ribs. Make sure that the foil is not touching the ribs and that the tent is sealed so that the steam from the water cannot escape.

Bake for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the oven, but leave covered! Let completely cooled down with foil tent still in place – about 2-3 hours. Then, wrap the ribs in aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator overnight. This will help re-solidify them so that they don’t fall apart when you try to grill them.

Next day:
Preheat grill or broiler (I broiled).

Place the racks of ribs on the grill grate. When they have reached a golden, bubbly stage, about 3-4 minutes, coat with bbq sauce and broil another 2-4 minutes, then turn and repeat the process. Remove from broiler and slather on some extra sauce.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Homemade Sweet & Smoky BBQ Sauce
Ingredients:
30 grams Palm Sugar (or light brown sugar), crushed
1 Cup Warm Water
120 grams Homemade Ketchup
2 Tablespoons Molasses
1 Tablespoon Liquid Smoke

Directions:
Dissolve the palm sugar in the water. Add ketchup, molasses, and liquid smoke and mix over high heat. Reduce to medium-low and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Makes about 1 Cup.

I dream of going back to Miami one day. But, not for the warm weather, sandy beaches, or delicious Cuban food. I dream of going back to my favorite restaurant: Shorty’s Bar-B-Q. I just salivate thinking of this place. They have the most heavenly tangy (not sweet) meaty bbq sauce and the most buttery corn I have ever eaten. My dream dish: an open-faced roast beef sandwich with a side of fries all covered in an entire jar of their bbq sauce that is served in glass parmesan cheese jars and a side of corn on the cob drenched in butter.

Next year will be my 10-year high school reunion, and even though I didn’t get to graduate from that high school because we moved to Texas, I would like to go back and see all my old friends…it’s been 11 years! So, if I do get the opportunity, this restaurant will not only be my first stop, but my second, third, fourth, and fifth…you get the point. And, i will probably bring a few jars of the good stuff home with me too!

So, in an attempt to recreate Shorty’s delicious buttery corn on the cob, I came-up with this recipe. It is a very simple recipe, but still needs a lot of tweaking before it is comparable to the butter-infused cobs that you can get at Shorty’s.

Ingredients:
2 ears of Corn, husks and silk removed
4 Tablespoons Butter
1 teaspoon Salt (can omit if you use salted butter)

Directions:
Wash corn and place on a plate, cover with a microwave lid and microwave for 2 minutes. Turn corn and microwave another 3 minutes.

Melt butter and salt together and pour into a long deep dish.

Place cooked corn in the butter and roll to coat. Cover and keep warm for 15 minutes – turning the corn to roll in the butter every few minutes.

Makes 2 servings.

The other day I came across a really really good-looking recipe for “San Marzano “Quick” Salsa” on Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread blog. And, just by looking at the photos, I knew it would not only be a fantastic salsa, but the salsa that I have been trying to reproduce for the past 5 years.

I changed-up the recipe a bit to fit the ingredients that are available to me here in Germany. This salsa is not only really easy to make, but tastes just like my favorite Chili’s salsa that are served with Chili’s “BOTTOMLESS TOSTADA CHIPS™”. Most of the people who tried this salsa last weekend were surprised that I had not used fresh, but rather, canned tomatoes.

Ingredients:
800 grams canned Whole Roma Tomatoes, juice drained*
1/2 small Red Onion, halved
1/2 small White Onion, halved
1 green Turkish Chili, roughly chopped
1 Cup fresh Cilantro, roughly chopped (including stems)
*update* 1/4 of a Green Bell Pepper, quartered
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
juice of 2 Limes
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground Pepper (rough grind)

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until all pieces are very small. Serve with tortilla chips.

*Only use the whole tomato pieces and reserve the left-over tomato sauce for another recipe.  The 800 grams is the weight including tomato sauce.  The weight of the tomatoes should be around 488 grams.

Makes 2 cups.

The week before the Super Bowl I was craving chicken wings so I set out to look for a recipe to satisfy my craving but not return me to abdominal distress after having been sick for 4 weeks.

In my search I came across a few recipes that I melded together to come up with this delicious baked recipe for ranch chicken wings. My largest “problem” with most of the recipes I came across was that they all called for dry ranch dressing powder. Well I don’t have access to “food” like that, and even if I did, we all know that homemade tastes better. I found everything in my spice drawer that I needed without having to plan a trip to the grocery store!

Ranch Chicken Wings
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon dried Parsley (I was all out and substituted with an herb mix that I use in salads)
3/4 teaspoon Pepper
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt (see our family’s favorite homemade recipe here)
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/8 teaspoon Sweet Paprika
1/8 teaspoon Thyme
24 Chicken Wing Pieces
2 Tablespoons Butter, melted
1 Tablespoon Hot Sauce (I used Crystal)
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 177°C (350°F). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

In a small bowl mix all dry ingredients together (parsley through thyme) and set aside. In another large bowl mix the chicken wings and warm melted butter until all wings are completely coated. Mix in the hot sauce and the vinegar and completely coat the wings. Alternately, you can premix the butter, hot sauce, and vinegar together before coating the wings.

Sprinkle half of the dry spice mixture on the chicken wings while in the bowl and mix to coat. Then, place the chicken wings in a single layer on the lined baking sheet and sprinkle with the remaining dry spice mixture.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until the wings have browned.

Serves 2.

Ranch-flavored Sour Cream Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
100 grams Sour Cream
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/8 teaspoon Onion Powder
a pinch of Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Salad Seasoning Mixture or dry Parsley
a pinch or two of Salt
a pinch of Dill

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and use immediately. Makes a great dipping sauce for the ranch chicken wings as well as cut-up raw vegetables.

I am sorry to say that I haven’t cooked anything for 3 weeks!! We have all been sick with either the stomach flu or a cold. In my case I got the stomach flu twice with a cold in between.  Today I have a massive headache like I haven’t had in 2 years….

Because of that I have no recipes to share with you from the past weeks, but for those of you suffering from a nasty stomach bug, I have just the drink for you! Homemade Gatorade.  This is a re-post from June 2008 from my blog.  The recipe is bellow.

It’s not possible for me to buy Gatorade where I live in Germany. I can find Powerade, but it’s expensive. So, we make our own with some flavor packets that we picked up when we were in the US. They are very inexpensive and take up very little storage space. They also come in a wide assortment of flavors. My favorite is grape because it reminds me of the grape soda I used to get to drink, although rarely, as a child.

Anyways, we’ve been living off of our homemade Gatorade, crackers, pretzel sticks, and bland potatoes for the last three weeks.

I am still not feeling 100%, so I may be posting sporadically for the next few weeks. And, thank you in advance for understanding!

Ingredients:
1 packet of Flavoraid or Koolaid (I’ve tried Tropical Punch, Kiwi-Watermelon, Grape, Lemon, and Orange-Mango)
8 Tablespoons Fructose (or sugar)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/16 teaspoon Baking Powder (optional – you can’t taste it and it’s very good for you)
2 Liters Water, preferably cold

Directions:
Place all dry ingredients in a bottle and fill with cold water. Stir or shake until all dry ingredients have dissolved.

Drink immediately, or refrigerate for a few days before consuming.

Makes 2 liters (about 8 Cups).

Happy 2009 everyone!

I decided to analyze my blog from January 2008 – December 2008 to see what you like.

Why?
I want to see more of you around my blog more often. And, that means finding out what you like.

How?
I looked at all my posts and saw what you commented most on and I learned quite a lot.

What?

Of the 47 posts that you commented the most on:
39 have recipes in them or linked to in them
like in : sweet potato fries, black bean tostadas, turkish haydari
29 had the color(s) red, orange, pink, or yellow in them
like in: tomatoes, sorbet, bacon, corn
18 had the color green in them
like in: lettuce, popsicles, guacamole, kiwi, and cocktails
17 had the color beige in them
like in: cookies, fried rice, tortillas, pork chops, and fried onions
23 had bright colors in them
like in: salsa, tomatoes, smoked salmon, strawberries
24 had some sort of produce in them
like in: churrasco, ketchup, fruit tart, pizza
16 are sweet in some way
like in: papaya sushi, cookies, sweet potato fries, sorbet
20 are generally considered as “healthy”
like in: churrasco, salsa, sushi, sorbet, salad
25 are savory
like in: BLT, chick toast, bacon, salad
3 were about travel
like in my trips to: Ireland, Christmas Markets, Southern Bavaria
4 were about some part of my home
like in: Thanksgiving, kitchen tour, new spice containers
2 were about Food Styling
like in: bacon
1 was about my son

May was the most interesting month to you.

The most popular posts are:
Homemade Ketchup with 13 comments
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries (small ones) with 15 comments
Inter-Cultural Thanksgiving – Foodbuzz 24,24,24 with 15 comments
Papaya Shikai Maki with 24 comments
Help Me Name This Drink Contest with 38 comments

What do these most popular posts have in common?
The first 3 posts cover homemade comfort foods that are popular, but are not generally reproduced in the home kitchen.

The second to last post mentioned, and second to most popular one, showed you how to make something step-by-step that looks complicated, but is easy.

The last post mentioned, and most popular for the year 2008 was a contest where commenters could win something – namely being featured on my blog for naming a drink.

So, this gives me more ideas for next year. What I will come up with, I don’t know yet. But, I foresee many recipes with fresh, delicious, healthy and have a lot of the shade of red!

What attracts you to this blog? I’d love to know how to keep you coming back for more.

Your favorite For the Love of Food posts linked here:

January:
Gyros : 5 comments

February:
Churrasco with Chimichurri Sauce :  6 comments

Mascarpone Brownie Petite Fours with Strawberry Swiss Merengue Butter Cream : 7 comments

March:
Quick Homemade Salsa : 4 comments
Black Bean Stacked Salad : 9 comments
French Chili Oil : 5 comments
Stacked Mexican Pizza : 9 comments

April:
Papaya Shikai Maki & How to Roll Them :  24 comments
Lox & Roasted Asparagus Inside-Out Maki Sushi : 9 comments
Sweet Potato Fries : 9 comments
Szechuan Pork Chops : 7 comments
Homemade Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza : 7 comments

May:
Beer Cookies : 5 comments
Homemade Ketchup McDonald’s Style : 13 comments
Chili Lime Butter : 5 comments
Marjoram & How Does Your Garden Grow : 5 comments
Homemade Angel Food Cake Lolly Pops : 7 comments
Shrimp Fried Rice : 5 comments
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries : 15 comments
Homemade Fresh Fruit Tart : 8 comments

June:
Back Home : 5 comments
Black Bean Tostadas : 6 comments

July:
Homemade Frozen Jello Pops : 8 comments
Snickerdoodles : 9 comments
My 36 Hour Chocolate Chip Cookie Studio : 6 comments
36 Hours of Chocolate Chip Cookies : 5 comments
The Best Guacamole I’ve Ever Made : 6 comments

August:
Pizza Roll Pizza : 7 comments
Tear Tomatoes : 6 comments
Caprese Chicken Sandwich : 9 comments
Homemade Mango Sorbet : 5 comments
Homemade Onion Strings : 5 comments
Turkish Haydari : 6 comments

September:
Citrus Salted Salmon Trout : 5 comments
Help Me Name This Drink Contest : 38 comments
The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie : 6 comments
BLT Steak Minis : 5 comments

October:
11 Interesting Facts About Ireland : 7 comments

November:
Inter-Cultural Thanksgiving – Foodbuzz 24,24,24 : 15 comments
Homemade Falaffel : 8 comments
Baked Potato Chowder & Bacon For Food Styling : 7 comments
My *new* Kitchen : 11 comments
New Spice Containers : 5 comments
Chick Toast In A Hole : 7 comments

December:
Sunday Morning Breakfast – Food Styling : 3 comments
Christmas Market In Fuerth Germany : 7 comments
Fall Salad : 5 comments

These biscuits will warm you up on a cold wintry day – done in just 20 minutes from start to finish!

The other day I wanted to make biscuits…I had all the ingredients, but when I pulled out the butter I gasped – there wasn’t enough! What was I going to do. I searched my refrigerator for a substitute – no margarine, no hiding butter – then I came across the lard I had hiding in the back of my fridge.

I do have to say that while I thought that the last recipe of biscuits were the best I’d ever made, I’m going to have to recant that statement and put the best-ever label on these babies. These are perfect in flavor and in texture. You will never want to go to KFC again to get these of pop some out of a refrigerator can – these are so easy it is a sin to not make them homemade.

And, for those of you who don’t readily keep buttermilk around the house to make these spontaneously, you can easily substitute with equal amounts of milk and 1 teaspoon of white vinegar.

Without further adieu:

Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Fructose (or sugar)
90 grams cold Butter (room temperature butter will work as well,but the texture will not be as nice)
35 grams cold Lard (don’t substitute with vegetable shortening – use real pork lard or substitute with more cold butter)
3/4 Cup Buttermilk (can substitute with milk plus 1 teaspoon white vinegar)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 235°C (450°F).

Hand whisk all dry ingredients together in a bowl until well combined. Add the butter and lard in smaller chunks and cut together with a fork or pastry cutter until there are just tiny little sand-sized crumbles. Then, add the butter milk and mix in, once it gets too sticky, use your hand to mix.

Spread a teeny tiny bit of flour onto your counter top – I mean a supper thin layer, we don’t want too much to transfer to the biscuits, we just don’t want the dough to stick.

Now, make the dough into a ball, take your rolling pin, and beat it. Give it about 4-6 whacks and then fold it in half. Do this over and over until you’ve done it 10 times. Then, roll the dough out so that it’s about 2 cm thick (about 3/4 inch). Then, cut the biscuits with a cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or metal measuring cup. You will have some dough left over, fold and whack, fold and whack – 2 times is enough. Then roll it a bit, and cut again, until there’s no dough left.

Place them on a baking sheet really close together (touching sides) so that they rise up and not out. Bake for 15 minutes.

Serve warm, just don’t burn yourself!

Makes 4 large biscuits, 6-8 medium biscuits, or 10-15 small biscuits.