Archive for July, 2009
The Sauce is the Boss July 31st, 2009
After a few requests for my Bourbon BBQ Sauce recipe here it is. I totally grifted this from some generic recipe and made some changes.
1 onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 Cup Bourbon (Evan Williams)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 Tablespoon sea salt
1/3 Cup cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons liquid smoke (or more)
1/4 cup Worcester (I use the vegan kind)
1/2 Cup brown sugar packed (or molasses)
1/4 cup Franks hot sauce
2 Cup Katsup
1/4 cup tomato paste (I used a little 6oz can)
lots of cayenne pepper to taste
Pour some good bourbon in a class with 2 ice chips. Sip it. Simmer the onions and garlic in 1 cup of cheap bourbon until the onions are translucent. Or like 10 mins or something. Add everything else and simmer for about 30-60 mins or more. I like to keep adding whiskey to mellow out the sauce. If you want a darker sauce use molasses instead of sugar. I recycle my old bourbon bottles to keep the sauce in.
I’m going to start posting some of my vegetarian recipes here. I’m working on a post about the Vegan Riblets. Here’s some preview photos taken by Jason Brown & Brian Valentin.
Tags: bbq, Bourbon, cooking
Posted in cooking | Comments (3)
Survivor Day July 23rd, 2009
“I have always treated my good health as a gift, not a given.” -Kerry Lutz
Kerry Lutz was still a stranger to Bob Winkelmann when her stem cells gave him back his life. He now has her blood type, and a wonderful “stem niece,” as he lovingly calls her.
I’m not a details person. It drives my wife nuts that I don’t catch the names of the disease’s and afflictions that we report on. (Ok, for the record Bob had acute myeloid leukemia) This was a person caring enough to help someone else. I love these assignments. This was about making a connection. This was about giving a grandpa back to 14 kids. It’s amazing to think you can radically affect an entire family by giving some your blood.
Bob’s wife, Karen, met me at the door and within seconds you become part of their world. We listened to Karen’s 14-year-old grandson cover a White Stripes song as she danced in the kitchen. We sat by their pond and Bob told our reporter a ton of details, most of which I didn’t really understand. You can read the story here.
Then Bob broke out a DVD me made. He wanted to thanks his anonymous donor in case he didn’t make it. Kerry started crying, Bob was choking up, Lynne our reporter was crying a bit. Then came the laughter. Lots of laughter. I was shooting photos not watching the DVD at this point and even I could feel this heavy emotion.
Today I learned you don’t have to be a hero to save someone’s life.
Then I shot over to Northlake to spend some time with Jillian Jeske, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4. She’s been in remission for 2 years and is captain of her team at the Relay for Life held at East Leyden High School. Her story is here.
Tags: Bob Winkelmann, cancer, Glenview, Kerry Lutz, leukemia, stem cell, survivor
Posted in Chicago, Rob Hart | Comments (0)