The Texas Gulf Coast BBQ Cookers’ Association meeting is tonight, September 6, at 7 p.m. at the VFW Post 10352.

The big boss here at Texas Pepper Jelly and Texas Rib Candy, Craig Sharry, is himself a participant, past winner, and administrator, which doesn’t surprise me at all; his products are so awesomely delicious, it’s just inconceivable that anybody could surpass him!

TGBCA, along with Texas Pepper Jelly and Texas Rib Candy, is on Facebook, so by all means follow them and keep up with the delicious world of bbq!

I hope you are all grilling out tomorrow; the weather is supposed to be lovely here and I stocked up on grillable meats at the grocery store this afternoon. We’ve got about half a bottle of Rib Candy left, so we’ll be emptying that, for sure. We’ll be feasting on pork ribs, chicken, and hamburgers, along with baked beans and potato salad, all of which contain Texas Pepper Jelly.

You might say that although my family lives in Indiana, our kitchen and taste buds live in Texas.

Author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her husband Almanzo’s childhood in her wonderful book Farmer Boy. Mrs. Wilder shared with her readers the fact that Almanzo, as a little boy, could out-eat most grown men, and that his favorite food was fried apples-n-onions.

My grandmother told me that fried apples-n-onions was pretty much a staple dish back in pioneer times, and again in hard times. She told me that when she was a young mother, she often served fried apples-n-onions when she could afford nothing else to put on the table for her children.

Everyone in my family is a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, and we often re-create the foods she writes about. Fried apples-n-onions was a natural: so easy to put together, and so inexpensive, to boot.

Therefore, I wasn’t surprised when my kids, visiting for the weekend, suggested that we see how fried apples-n-onions would be, using Apple Cherry Habanero Rib Candy. It sounded good to me, so we did it.

Oh holy cow, it was awesome. You’ll think so, too.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 big Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced fairly thin
2 big onions, sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup Apple Cherry Habanero Rib Candy
Dash of cinnamon

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, and add the apples and onions. Stir-fry, never leaving the pan, until just almost tender. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and Rib Candy, and continue stirring until the apples are tender. Serve, and stand back.

With onions, this dish is a great spicy side. Without the onions, this dish is a fantastic spicy dessert.

It’s awesome, with or without the onions, and whether you use Rib Candy with or without the peppers.

Remember, it’s the simplest recipes that often give us the tastiest foods.

Now, get out there and start re-reading the Little House books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Now.

Grilling season is, indeed, winding down, and that’s all the more reason to break open the Texas Rib Candy – with or without the peppers – and feast on the best grilled pork, beef, chicken, veal. . . . heck, frog legs and ostrich cutlets. . . in the whole wide world.

Texas Rib Candy is – and I’m not exaggerating in the least – the best damn stuff to put on your meat that you will ever find. If you searched the planet all your life, you wouldn’t find anything that even compared to it. Rib Candy is well named. It’s honestly and truly Rib Candy. CANDY for your ribs. Or chicken. Or frog legs and ostrich cutlets.

Everyone who eats your grilled delights will agree.

Invite everyone you love over for a cookout. Do it soon. Summer’s winding down, and Rib Candy is too good not to share.

First of all, if you haven’t signed up for our awesome newsletter yet, get over to the Texas Pepper Jelly website and sign up! We’re offering all kinds of freebies and bonuses if you sign up now – ecookbooks, discounts, and more!

Then, if you’ve got a Facebook account, we’d love it if you friended Texas Pepper Jelly. We’re only just getting started on Facebook, but it won’t be long before you’ll find some great information there, as well as here on our blog.

Then, if you’re on Twitter, we’d be oh-so-honored if you would follow us there as well! On Twitter, we are @TexasRibCandy , and thank you in advance!

As far as recipes go, it’s been too hot to cook today, so we’ve been snacking on cream cheese and Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly pretty much all day. The kids are here, and the four of us have, over the course of an entire day, gone through two boxes of Ritz crackers, an entire stalk of celery, and all the carrots that were in the vegetable bin. And we’re all smiling.

Spicy Squash Rings is a fantastic side dish, but it’s also a great appetizer if you’ve got company.  It’s also easy as can be to make, and attractive to look at as well.

Ingredients:

2 acorn squashes

1 cup Texas Pepper Jelly, any variety

What to do:

Cut the squash crosswise into 1-inch-thick slices.  Discard the seeds.  Arrange in a single layer in a shallow baking pan.  Sprinkle lightly with salt if you wish.  Cover and bake in a 350 oven for about 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and pour pepper jelly over the squash rings. Return to oven for another 15 minutes or until squash is completely tender.

Acorn squash is also delicious with Texas Rib Candy instead of the pepper jelly.  Depending on which condiment you choose, you’ve got a completely different dish!

We’ve got a basket of fresh peaches and tomorrow night we’re having Spicy Peachy Sweet Potato Bake for supper.  Tim and the kids can hardly wait!

Ingredients:

6 medium sweet potatoes, cooked

1/3 cup broken cashews

3 large peaches, peeled and sliced thin

2 cups Peach Habanero pepper jelly

2 tablespoons butter

What to do:

Peel the potatoes and slice them into thick pieces.  In a buttered baking dish, start layering all of the above ingredients. Dot with butter.  (Retain about a half cup of pepper jelly)

Bake, covered, in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes.  Uncover, and bake about 10 minutes longer.  Remove, and spoon remaining pepper jelly over the potatoes.

My son likes to sprinkle brown sugar over his portion, as well.

Don’t count on any leftovers.  This dish is so good, it’s like dessert.

This is one of the most versatile recipes you’ll ever find.  The finished product is different every time, depending on your choice of “filler,” and any of the end results are fit for a company dinner, as well as for your family.

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons chopped green onion

1 jar any Texas Pepper Jelly product (pepper jelly, Rib Candy,  or grilling sauce)

What to do:

Put the chicken breasts on your cutting board and beat them flat with your kitchen mallet.  (If you don’t have a kitchen mallet, cover the chicken with plastic wrap and beat them with a hammer.)

On each flattened piece of chicken, spread Texas Pepper Jelly and sprinkle with onions.

Roll up the chicken and insert a toothpick (or several) to hold the shape.

Bake the rolled chicken in a baking dish (not a cookie sheet) in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Serve with more Texas Pepper Jelly.

Fresh pineapples are a good price right now – where I shop, a lovely large one is about $2.50.  For our pineapple pie, you should probably buy two, just in case.  You’ll need four cups.

Your family will know it’s midsummer for sure when they see Texas Pepper Jelly’s Fresh & Zesty Pineapple Pie on the table!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar (I use Splenda)

3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

Tiny dash of salt

4 cups fresh pineapple, cut into 1/2-inch pieces.  (do not use canned pineapple!)

1 tablespoon lemon juice (fresh-squeezed – not that bottled stuff)

1/2 cup Texas Pineapple Habanero pepper jelly

Pastry for double-crust pie (make it or buy it; it doesn’t make any difference)

1 tablespoon butter

What to do:

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, tapioca, salt, pineapple, pepper jelly, and lemon juice.  Let this mixture stand for about fifteen minutes.

Line a large deep-dish pie pan with half of the pastry crust and fill with the pineapple mixture.  Dot with butter.

Adjust the top crust, seal, and flute the edges to your liking. Cover edges of pie with foil.

Bake in a 375 oven for twenty minutes.  Remove the foil, and bake for another 25 minutes or until crust is uniformly golden.  Cool the pie thoroughly before cutting; if you slice it too soon, it’ll run all over the place.

It’s absolutely delicious.  It’s even better the next day, after spending the night in the refrigerator.  Some people put topping on their slice, but my family likes this pie just as it is.

Oh, and that surprise Texas Pepper Jelly will have for y’all soon?  It’s awesome, too.  Just you wait.  Mmmm, you’ll love it!

“Plucking Bread” is sometimes called “Monkey Bread,” and they are much the same thing. Both are easy, nutritious, attractive to look at, and very, very versatile.  You can turn your “plucking bread” into dessert, snack, or full meal, all depending on what you add to it.

Here is the recipe for Spicy Plucking Bread.

Ingredients:

3 cans refrigerated dinner rolls

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar (do not substitute Splenda for this recipe)

1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

3/4 cup pepper jelly (any flavor) (I like to add the matching fresh fruit, but you don’t have to.)

What to do:

Get out your largest angel food cake pan or bundt pan and grease thoroughly.  Be sure to include the middle.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave, and add the sugar, cinnamon, nuts, and pepper jelly.

Cut each of the rolls in two and cover the bottom of the pan with them.  Spread the pepper jelly mixture over the top.  Add another layer of rolls, and another layer of pepper jelly mixture, and repeat until all ingredients are gone.

Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.  (Keep checking to make sure the middle isn’t still goopy.)

When you remove the pan from the oven, immediately invert the pan onto a plate.

My kids like to spread more pepper jelly on the piping hot bread before they tear into it.

And when I say “tear into it,” that’s exactly what I mean.  Because plucking bread is made up of separate pieces of dough, it bakes into balls of bread that can be “plucked” off and eaten.

Of course, if you’re wanting to appear a bit more refined, you can always slice it with a sharp serrated knife.  If you do eat it this way, you’ll notice that the inside of the loaf is absolutely beautiful – criss-crossed and patterned with dark and light and nuts.

P.S.  Don’t forget that soon, VERY soon now, Texas Pepper Jelly will be announcing its newest and most awesome product!

Many families are still celebrating our country’s independence today, and many people are relaxing on the last day of a four-day weekend.  Most of us would agree that we drink far too much carbonated soda, so let’s make a big batch of Spicy Summer Punch!  It’s good for us, and it’s delicious.  This recipe makes a large batch, perfect for a punch bowl or for several pitchers.  Spicy Summer Punch freezes well, too.

The day before you make the punch, make special ice cubes by using lemonade, orange juice, pineapple juice, or all three – or any kind of fruit juice – in ice cube trays or in any kind of mold you wish.

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar (I use Splenda)

4 cups water

2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen)

6 cans (the 6-oz size) frozen lemonade (do not dilute)

2 cans (the 6-oz size) frozen orange juice (do not dilute)

5 cups pineapple juice

4 cups pineapple chunks

2 cups Texas Pineapple Habanero pepper jelly

1 gallon water (Yes, this is another “helping” of water)

2 quarts of dry ginger ale

What to do:

Boil the sugar and water (the 4-cup batch) for about 10 minutes, or until it forms a syrup.  Add the juices and pepper jelly, and chill for 2 or 3 hours.  Add the remaining ingredients, and pour over the ice you made or molded yesterday.

Freeze half (or more) of the punch if you don’t need a large amount right away.

I like to float all kinds of fruit on top of the punch; I usually use thinly sliced limes, lemons, and oranges.  The pineapple chunks are floaters, too.  If I have berries, those are good, too.  In fact, if I have berries, I usually freeze them into the ice cubes the day before.

This is a lovely tart punch with a spicy kick, not the foamy creamy sweet kind.  It does a perfect job of quenching the thirst of a hot and humid summer day.  Put some toothpicks on the table so people can stab and eat the pieces of fruit.

Keep on checking our blog; our newest product is something so awesome, you won’t believe it until you try it.  Just before Labor Day, all will be revealed, and won’t you be glad!  Yes, you sure will be glad.  Mmmm, yum.