Thursday, August 5, 2010

The infamous BBQ sauce

Ingredients:
2 cups Ketchup
1 small can Tomato paste
1/4cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup diced/sliced/minced onions(your preference, I like sliced, but I LOVE onions, if its not your forte, go with minced)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup diced/sliced/minced red/orange/yellow bell peppers (any of these colors work, but NOT green, it has a different flavor than these)
Salt and Pepper
1 can of beer (no preference)
2tbls butter
Hot Sauce(Louisiana, sriracha,tapatio, whatever you like)

Directions:
Using a sauce pan or dutch oven(no skillet, too shallow), turn your heat to medium(my knob is at 7). While you wait for your pan to heat up, prepare all your veggies.. the onions, garlic, and peppers. They need to all be ready to go before you add butter to the pan. Once all your chopping is done, add the butter to the pan and immediately add all the veggies. With a wooden spoon, gradually stir the veggies until soft and translucent. The onions and peppers should smell sweet and warm. Add your ketchup and tomato paste and stir for a minute. At this point, you will add your hot sauce, depending on your liking, add anywhere from 3-10 dashes of hot sauce. Add brown sugar and continue to stir for 3 more minutes. Increase heat to medium high(my knob is between 8-9) and bring sauce mix to near boiling point(there should be bubbles popping, but not too many). Once it reaches this point, stir in beer, bring to boiling point, shut off heat, and cover with lid. Do not peek inside sauce for 10 minutes! The sauces flavors are melding together and becoming bolder and richer.

Its at this point that I add cooked chicken breast that i have semi-shredded or pulled pork or brisket. When adding meat, you will turn the heat back to medium, and let it warm up the meat and ensure its coated. Once done, add to your Kaiser rolls or hamburger buns. I recommend topping with coleslaw. Consume and enjoy:)

*Brown sugar can be swapped with anything sweet, try different sugars to get different flavors! When I've run out of brown sugar, I've used maple syrup. Honey or orangle marmalade would be excellent substitues, and molasses could give it a deeper, bolder flavor. be creative!

**The veggies are key to base of this sauce, if you really do not like onions and peppers(some don't) I suggest mincing very fine or blending your sauce with a food processor or blender when sauce is completely cool.

Day 64329145

Clearly I did not follow thru with my daily posts of bootcamp. To be honest, I missed more bootcamp than I actually went to. Before you all shake your head and gloat in the fact that I once again(like most things in my life) did not follow thru on something, you should know that my life in July was a wreck.

Many of you know, Cherry's dad has been having heart problems that started the second week of July, I won't go in to details, mostly because I do not understand it and I am no Doogie Howser, but needless to say today is August 5th and Cherry's dad is still in the hospital. So with that said, it is an understatement to say I am exhausted.

The real issue is that I failed, and there really is no one to blame but myself. I didn't follow through on yet another chapter in my life. I can not be consistent with anything in my life. For example, I really wish I could keep a journal, so that I could look back and relive this part of my life. But the only journal I can keep is a bill book, and it doesn't convey any emotion or feeling except getting me excited or disappointed in our living wages from month to month. I know this counts as a journal, but in reality, the way I write, I know it is going to be read versus a REAL journal, I would write the thoughts in my head knowing no one would read them. I just have no discipline. No consistency. I can not be consistent in my weight, or my exercises. I can not be consistent in school, one semester its perfect As, the next semester I am being put on Academic Probation. Living in Sacramento or living in Vacaville? Keeping my house clean, then throwing a party(inevitably causing it to be trashy again).

They say Yo-Yo dieting is really bad for you health, but what about a Yo-Yo lifestyle?

Ahhhhhhhh.... ok so that sad-weeping-depressing-pity me portion of this blog is done...

back to bootcamp success/failure:
So bootcamp is now over, and no i will not be renewing for another month(if I flake out this month, its $200 down the drain, as opposed to my $35 I wasted). Bootcamp was fun, and I felt it was really working, but I am 1 pound less then when I started, my body looks pretty much the same(I took before and after pictures) but my endurance and strength have definitely increased. I find myself moving and picking up heavy things with ease and when I run in the morning, I am running faster and longer. So in the end that feels good, but it just wasn't enough to make a visual difference. Maybe that's the hook to get you to buy more months... I'm not biting, neither is my paycheck.

This month's goal is to stick to my "to-do" sheet that I have taped to my fridge. I have a months worth of exercises and I check it off each day. Maybe this will keep me motivated and on track, also its very public so Cherry and anyone at my house is allowed to give me shit if something isn't checked off. Two days in to my check list, and my calves hurt like a mo-fo. Welcome back sore muscles, I didn't miss you, this time, please work on shaping my body, I don't need so much strength... love, non-fat fat girl.