Family Reunion Menu and Peanut - Red Chile BBQ Sauce

This past weekend I decided to get some family together for a reunion. It had been a decade or longer since I had the pleasure of their company. It was wonderful seeing all of them again but it felt a bit like a tornado of people. We hardly had a chance to say "Hello, how have things been? How did we let over 10 YEARS pass?!" before they were off.

I was pretty nervous about this party so I decide to keep the menu simple. Almost everything I made was from Bobby Flay's Messa Grill Cookbook (NOT my own recipes GASP!). I have made quite of few recipes from this book and so far they have all been very good to excellent.
For those of you who have been asking for cookbook recommendations put this one on the list.

I made roasted garlic and poblano pretzel sticks, deviled eggs, guacamole, wild mushroom quesadillas with red chile jack cheese, Yucatan chicken skewers with red cabbage slaw and peanut red chile BBQ sauce, and Sophie's salad which is a chopped salad with beans and cheese. (For those of you who read my last post - I debated on not making anything with meat but I knew they were almost all meat eaters...I told you, I'm not good at following implied rules)

Here is an adapted version of Bobby Flay's peanut red chile BBQ sauce. He uses chicken broth and Messa Grill BBQ sauce which is also in the Messa Grill Cookbook. I only had this off of a spoon but it was so good I contemplated eating the spoon itself. I imagine this would be good not only on chicken but on tofu, veggies, it's so good it would probably make anything delicious!


Peanut-Red Chile BBQ Sauce (adapted from Bobby Flay's Messa Grill Cookbook)

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger*
1 1/3 cup Chipotle Honey BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add ginger and cook until soft, about 1-2 minutes. Raise the heat to high and add the BBQ sauce and the veggie broth. Cook stirring occasionally until reduced by half.
Reduce heat to medium. Whisk in the peanut butter and the soy sauce. Cook stirring occasionally until thickened about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
You can make this a couple of days ahead of time and reheat it before serving.

*An easy way to peel ginger is to simply scrape the skin off with a spoon.

To Eat or Not to Eat... Meat

I feel like I need to come clean about something...I no longer eat meat. This isn't completely new. I was more or less a vegetarian for over 15 years, I started craving meat when I was pregnant which is when I started eating it again, that was 5 years ago. I can't do it anymore. There are a multitude of reasons for this. It's environmentally unsound. Absolutely disgusting things are done to the meat in order to add weight to it. The animals are kept in horrific, inhumane conditions... I can't ignore the facts any more which for me means I can no longer eat meat. It no longer seems like food to me.

I am not a fan of labels, they seem to imply rules which quite frankly I've never been good at following. However, I can't deny the fact that I'm a vegetarian. Since this is a food blog, I'll be documenting my semi new food adventures here.

I hope that even you meat eaters stick with me. Even though I am no longer eating meat, I still have a meat loving family to feed. My goal is to make meals that they will enjoy. Not meals of meat replacements but food so good the thought of meat not being part of it doesn't even cross your mind. How's that for setting the bar high?!

For those of you interested in learning more about our food supply I highly recommend reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. They are fantastic thought provoking books that if nothing else will make you more aware of the food you eat.