Gaming Night!

To all the gamers out there, I am thinking of you for this post. I myself am a gamer to a point. I play World of Warcraft every day, I play Magic: The Gathering with my fiance, and I will jump on a console system every once in a while to play some of my Final Fantasy games or a rousing game of Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Patrick, however, is a gamer of epic proportions and his friends are as well. Well, gamers... I have a quick recipe for you that you can use for one of two different things. It can be nachos OR taco salads with very little effort.

This recipe will serve at least four people.

Gaming Night Nachos

2 lbs of ground chuck
3/4 cup of regular or reduced-fat sour cream
3/4 cup of salsa or diced tomatoes
One HUGE bag of Mexican blend cheese (because I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE cheese like mad on my nachos.)
Chopped fresh cilantro (not too much. You don't want to overpower the meat)
2 bags of Taco Bell taco seasoning
Bags of tortilla chips (And I'll post a quick recipe to make homemade tortilla chips if you are so inclined to make them. :)

Place the ground chuck in the pan and brown the meat until done, breaking it up as it browns. When it is done and drained of all the grease, put back into the pan and add the Taco Bell seasoning bags and the water needed. (You will read this on the bag of the seasoning bag.) Mix the meat and seasoning together until evenly seasoned and cooked into the meat.

At this point, pull out an oven-friendly platter (you can put it in the microwave too) and put loads of tortilla chips on it into a pile. Then spoon the meat out over the chips until meat is gone. Cover that with tons of cheese and put into a pre-heated oven (375 degrees) for about five minutes or until cheese is melted. (If you are using the microwave, a minute or two on high should be fine. Just use your judgement.) Then add your other ingredients. I am not going to tell you how much of everything else to put on there because it is really your preference. :) Sprinkle some fresh cilantro on top of the nachos when done and chow away! A hearty gaming snack that will make everyone happy.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

This is a very easy thing to do. Just grab some corn or flour tortillas from the grocery store and cut them into quarters. Heat up your favorite deep fryer or if you don't have one, use a 'dutch oven' with vegetable oil in it on high temperature. Test the oil to see if it is at frying temperature by putting a piece of the tortilla in and when it is, dump them in! Not all of them of course. Just about ten or so at a time so they will have room to fry evenly. Put a napkin on a platter and put the chips on them as they come out of the fryer. Let them drain for a few minutes as you start the next one and begin arranging your nacho platter!

I love this recipe because by just crushing the tortilla chips up in a bowl, you can turn this into an impromptu taco salad with little effort. This is a favorite in my household any time, especially when we have our gaming nights where we don't want to cook big meals or anything. So I hope it'll be a favorite of yours too. :)

Eastern North Carolina-style Barbeque

One of the things I miss of my home state of NC is the barbeque. Eastern NC has the best barbeque in the world in my opinion and to combat the fact that I had to live in Virginia for most of my life, I learned to make it in my own way. Up until about 7 months ago though, I was working constantly and I never had the time to make it so I tried an alternative method so I wouldn't have to constantly check over it all day. I pulled out one of my favorite cooking utensils: the Crock-Pot. Such a wonderful invention, don't you think so? Anyway. I decided I'd post the recipe for both the barbeque, the rub for the meat and the sauce on here for whoever would like to try it.

Crock Pot North Carolina Style Barbeque:

1 pork shoulder (however big you want to get it is fine. I usually pick up a six or seven pound one myself, since I have me, my fiance, and a couple of people we know usually will eat off of it)

Barbeque Rub:

1 teaspoon of:

crushed red pepper
garlic powder
chili powder
black pepper
salt
paprika (optional. Some people don't care for the taste of paprika but I like it myself.)

Barbeque Sauce:

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™), or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix the dry ingredients for the rub in a small bowl. Pull out the meat from the refrigerator and massage the rub into the pork shoulder vigorously. Pour 2 cups of vinegar mixed with crushed red peppers into the crock-pot. Place the meat in the crock-pot on low for about 8 to 10 hours until cooked all the way through and tender. Depending on your preference, after you pull the pork apart and mince it, you can either mix the barbeque sauce in with the pork first or you can put on your serving as you wish. My favorite things to serve barbeque with is slaw, baked beans and some french fries. It makes a wonderful, laid-back meal.

Now as far as the sauce goes, you can just mix all of the ingredients together and put it in a tightly closed container a couple of days beforehand. Just let it sit in the refrigerator and the flavors will mix together beautifully.

I have to admit though... sometimes I'll be a little lazy with my sauce. Instead of making it, I love to buy Sauer's Barbeque sauce. I usually have a gallon bottle of it around for when I don't feel like making the sauce. It is one of the closest barbeque sauces I've had to homemade Carolina BBQ sauce. At least at the time of this writing. I did see a "Carolina-style" barbeque sauce in Wal-Mart that I might pick up and try just for the hell of it. Maybe it'll be better than Sauer's? I don't know. But I have to say that nothing beats homemade in my book.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments on this recipe, please feel free to reply to this. I try my best to get on here daily and see what's going on.

I decided to do this thing called 'blogging.' I suppose everyone does it in one form or another, whether it may be on MySpace or Facebook or VampireFreaks... but I decided that I wanted a place that wasn't directly connected to me that I could express my interests, thoughts, dreams, and everything else running around inside my head and have some form of anonymity while doing so.

Anyway. I suppose since you actually have taken the time out to actually read my blog, I suppose I should give you a little information about myself.

I am a 24 year old classical musician and budding chef who currently lives in Charleston, West Virginia. I work full-time and will be returning back to school full-time in the Summer semester. Although music is a huge part of my life, I haven't quite decided what I actually want to go to school for. I suppose it's the Aries in me, but I have so many interests and things that I like to do... and I can never stay on one path for too long. And also like my astrological sign, I am a serial starter. I will start things gung-ho with all intentions to continue... and then I just get bored and go on to something else.

Hopefully, I won't do so on this. It'd be a very constructive outlet for me. Anyway. I think that's all for now. I shall write again soon.