What's cooking at Jerk Castle . . .

barbecue sauce. . . Happy 4th!

 

Although we all know it is going to be super sweltering hot today here in new york. . . many of us are going to still venture outside for the July 4th bbq-ing, including Steven and I.  . . we will take out the umbrellas and 'the sun block and try and prepare to sweat while stuffing our faces. . . today's menu at our place includes turkey burgers, burgers, corn, potato salad and coleslaw (recipes for the potato salad and coleslaw  to follow over the next couple of days). . . .and bbq chicken with homemade bbq sauce. . which is seriously one of my favorite parts of summer. .. .

I recently tried this bbq sauce recipe which was featured in the July issue of real simple bc it called for a few less ingredients than some of the others out there and i was looking for a simpler and fast way to whip up some sauce. . . the sauce was pretty perfect actually- nice simple bbq flavor with a little kick from the cayenne. . . .and most of the ingredients you probably have at home. .  . . 

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/simple-homemade-barbecue-sauce-recipe-00000000036427/index.html

Happy BBQ-ing!

Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa

I am so psyched that I finally made this salsa. i've been purchasing tomatillos on and off every now and then for years and never got it together to actually use them. . . a produce market in astoria with a huge basket of tomatillos changed that for good. .  (and steven, the other resident amateur chef, helped me finally jump in since he was pretty excited about it as well.)

So the funny thing about my procrastination is that this salsa was SO EASY. I am serious. We used a Tyler Florence recipe we had seen from his food network show- basically you roast tomatillos, jalapenos, garlic and onion and then pulse it all in a food processor after adding lime juice, cilantro and ground cumin. .  done. . just like that.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-enchiladas-with-roasted-tomatillo-chile-salsa-recipe/index.html

tip: although not mentioned in the recipe, we drizzled olive oil on the vegetables and salted them before roasting. . . .i would suggest that.

view before processing:

 

And after:

 

Then eat a lot of it on your fajita or taco of choice. . .