BBQ Sandwiches: A homage to Pioneer Woman

I thought it would be fun to do a homage to one of my favorite blogs - Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. This woman is awesome. She takes incredible photos, homeschools her children, is married to the Marlboro man, gardens, cooks and takes pictures of what she cooks. She is quickly becoming my hero! But now that I think about it, I might hate her just a little. No! I’m just in awe.
So in a complete spirit of fun and adoration I did a photo shoot of BBQ sandwiches. (I found out that food stuffs are great models. They never complain about endless poses and don’t want to get paid. I think I found my genre.)
So here goes:
I wanted to use some leftover brisket that was transferred to my house via our neighbor. (You’d be surprised how much leftover food just shows up in my fridge or doorstep. It’s spooky. Ever try to get rid of greasy spaghetti sauce? Not even the dogs will eat it twice. But, I digress.) So, I thought, after tasting it, that maybe with some BBQ sauce, it would have some flavor. Uhmmm... I mean... I thought with some BBQ sauce it would be a nice sandwich. When I mentioned this possibility to Fishahead, he gave me a dubious look and said, "Might work. But, you’re not going to use that stuff in a bottle are you?"
"Of course not, Dear! I would never dream of taking the easy way out of cooking lunch. You should know better than that! I’ll just whip that up for you in a minute! Yep. You betcha. I’ll get right to that - Right after I dig up some onions, make my own ketchup, and distill my own vinegar." Does that ever happen to you?!
So I looked on line and found a recipe I thought might fit the bill. Fishahead likes his BBQ sauce tangy; meaning vinegar. I like mine a little sweet; meaning brown sugar.

So here is the list of Ingredients:

I added onion because - what's BBQ sauce without onion?

1 cup balsamic Vinegar

3/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup, plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 onion, minced

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

(Now at this point Pioneer Woman would have showed you each step of the process. Unfortunately, I didn't get the idea until all the ingredients were in the pan.)

Now comes the hard part. You toss it all into a pan and bring it to a boil. Put it on simmer and wait for about 15 minutes.

Caution! The house will fill with that wonderful, pungent odor of vinegar. It's smells great, but will burn your nose hairs, if you get too close.

Oh, and if you just can't wait to try it before it is done, DO NOT inhale when taking that sip. Believe me. Your eyes will water and you will lose your breath. Trust me. I tried it three times.

Here's the finished result. Yummy!!!!

Now to make that leftover brisket delicious, too

Melt a tablespoon of butter.
This too is a homage to PW. Though I fall decidedly short of her butter factor, I had to add some or it would have been unworthy of her.



Next, chop up that brisket.


Then add all that meat to your frying pan with the melted butter. (It's in there. I promise!) Pan fry until the meat no longer looks like small logs and starts to look like meat again. Say... 3-5 minutes.

Add about half the BBQ sauce and simmer for a minute or two.

Place on a toasted bun and Enjoy!

I have to say it really was good. Jesse is hoping another brisket will show up soon. Now, that never happens.


Before I finish my homage. I have to publicly apologize to PW for the level of photography and cooking displays. Her site is a thing of beauty. Don't let my dismal attempt keep you from visiting her blog/website. It is great. Plus, I need to show what happens when you are focused on a picture and not paying attention to life.

Yep. That's my cook stove with melted plastic on it. I kinda forgot that the burner was still hot when I set up the ingredients photo. Before I could take the shot though, I noticed the plastic baggy around the onion was shrinking. (That's it in the top right corner.) The blue stuff is from the brown sugar.

Hope this peeked your interest in PW. It was kind of a fun challenge. If it weren't already being done, I would copy her.