BarBQBoozers

Hey wait...Bianco? Yes there’s Martini Bianco in this recipe! Why? Because I like Martini, and that has nothing to do with the appearance of a certain George Clooney in their ads…absolutely not…nope…sigh...!

A white bean salad is always good to serve in the summer, easy to make and you can use lots of different ingredients. And don’t forget, it’s quick. Ha! And that gives you more time to relax and to enjoy a glass of wine sitting in the sun! I’m making this up right now because with the bad weather we’re having over here I can hardly remember how it feels!! Not the wine, noooo I know how that feels…neh I mean the sun of course!

Note: the tomatoes I used are called “wild tomatoes” not because they’re “wild” (I can not imagine how that would be, but messy I guess! oww...!!) but it’s a nice name that tickled my imagination (sorry). These cute things come in different colors and shapes and are very tasty! You can choose any tomato you want, just make sure they have lots of taste, otherwise this dish will be disappointing…it all depends on the taste and the Martini can’t fix it all!! At least, not this time!

What do you need:

1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup finely chopped tomatoes, see note above
4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
½ teaspoon chipotle chile pepper seasoning
¼ cup finely chopped feta cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil leaves
¼ cup Martini Bianco
Bit of salt

Preparing this dish is easy: mix it all together!

Keep it in the fridge for at least 1 hour. That will give you the time to ehm... grill some meat? Open another bottle? Watch an old but inspiring episode of Desperate Housewives? Oh hey wait....we got an hour?? okay...I say stick with the meat..!

Talking about meat: this salad is perfect as a side dish for grilled meat! And look!!!! When dinner was served there was also a ray of sun!! Now, how's that huh?!

Cheers and enjoy!!

Do you have that too? That some booze always reminds you of great parties you had and lovely warm days and ehm...nights?? Yeah well I do, and that's why I'm here to booze up your day because today I have a Campari Pasta Salad for you! Campari always takes me back to Milan, Italy, the place where it all started. Not for me (ehm...) but for Campari. Sorry no juicy details this time, or it must be the amounts of ehm... Campari with orange juice I had there! This mixture is made by the devil, I'm sure. You can drink it like soda and all of the sudden....BAM! Recipe for disaster maybe?? Not necessarily and certainly not this recipe, I'll keep it a bit more on the soft side (oh well that's new!). Sometimes that's good and sometimes you need to step back a bit, you can't play with fire 24/7, it's sooo exhausting!

But I did choose a hot pasta type for this!  

Pasta with red peppers, ever had that? Hmmm let me tell you my expectations were a teeny tiny bit too high (but that happens more often, live and learn I guess!) because after boiling the pasta, the nice red color had turn into a bleachy red and hot...no not really. See, this proves that even Italians can disappoint you, who would have thought that!! Hmm...back to the recipe.

Don't you just love the color of the dressing??

Nice pink (okay I admit, I fell for the taste...)! It's ½ cup mayonnaise and ¼ cup Campari and a bit of pepper.

Oh wait, damn, we have to boil the pasta first!  

Not a big deal....add some salt to a pan, boil some water, pour it over the pasta, cook and drain. This time you're allowed to rinse it with cold water, I won't spank you for this. Butt only in this case! (nope, not a typo, just wait what happens after some Campari!!!).

Then we're going to have a drink, because we have to be sure that the pasta has cooled off enough don't we?? So grab a glass, fill it halfway (who cares!) with Campari, add some OJ and cheers!

After one glass (it can be dangerous and that depends on how tall the glass was, yes I know you!) we're going to have to do some chopping:

1 can of tuna (no need to chop that)
 2 cups mini tomatoes, chopped in half
1 cup feta cheese, chopped in pieces
¼ cup chopped green olives
a few chive strings, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dried chili flakes (in case you want it hot)

Mix this all together with the pasta, add the dressing and some pepper and put it in the fridge for about an hour (or until you finished the bottle of Campari).

 And look what happens when you put it on your plate:

THE SUN!!!!! Amazing huh....yeah it's like the Italians say “that's amore” or something like that... who needs a dictionary!

Cheers and enjoy while I'm going to book a ticket...yes...to Milan, I'm in desperate need for some hot Italian amore!

We’re going to slow down a bit, after all it's summer and we want to keep you away from the stove. It’s time for Coleslaw! And then I mean Coleslaw for Adults. No sorry it’s not some kinky coleslaw, (in my opinion cabbage isn't very sexy...but I could be mistaken...), what I’m talking about is booze! And yes, you can use booze in coleslaw! Never tried?? Doesn’t matter, we are here to do the testing for you, and we do it with pleasure!!! Cheers!

Nothing beats this as a side dish, okay almost nothing and you have to agree that making this recipe is as easy as chop chop chop (if you want you can substitute the word chop for plop if that sounds more familiar to you). Besides, we don’t have just one recipe, nope, we got two! One is such a lonely number, and you can handle two can’t you? But you’ve got to learn to have some patience, because we’re going to tease you: we won’t give you the two recipes at once, we’re going to spread it out…!

For this first recipe you need:

Cabbage (half)
1 large carrot
1 cup dried cranberries
Mayonnaise
Old Bay Seasoning
Vinegar (I used white wine vinegar) (of course)
Sugar
Tequila
Pepper/salt

Make a dressing of ¼ cup of mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning, 3 tabespoons Tequila, 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar, some salt and pepper. Taste the dressing before you add it to the salad, you might want to add something more (Tequila for example).

Let your food processor do the work of shredding the cabbage and the carrot, add the dressing and the dried cranberries and put it away in the fridge for at least one hour.

Coleslaw Number Two (always the best) is going to be very special, so keep an eye on our Blog!

Cheers!

Wow Burgerman… please continue with that S&M food…mmmm!! I’m on my way, you better start defrosting those leftover patties!! But, it makes it really difficult to create a recipe that will be as successfull as that one!
Okay okay, I admit, I can never compete with you and your recipes!

And I’ve been thinking what could possibly be a good recipe that was perfect to publish now and I could only think of one thing, and you know what I’m dreaming of: a creamy sauce!! And of course there was booze involved, what do you think!? Booze makes sauce taste so much better.

Create a hot fire, open up a bottle of your best wine. I choose an S (which stands for Shiraz here) and then you gather these ingredients:

One small red onion (diced), 1 cup beef stock, 1/4 cup Baileys (it could have been a bit more, not sure anymore...), 4 tablespoons raisins, 2 tablespoons capers, a few drops Worcestershire sauce, some butter.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, cook the onions until soft, add the stock, boil for a few minutes. As you can see, making this sauce is no problem on your barbeque!

Add the raisins, capers, Worcestershire sauce and the Baileys. Let it simmer for a few minutes. Use some flour to thicken the sauce, yes I like thick sauces!

Serve with for example some grilled beef skewers and grilled potatoes…..and I tell ya, it was an awesome sauce…delicious!!!!

So actually, this was really a great meal: I had wine, I had meat and I had a terrific sauce. I’m happy!!

A promise is a promise, here is the recipe for the Boozy Beans!!  I really hope you’re starting to realize that booze is actually a very versatile ingredient! (oh not only in the kitchen but that’s for a different kind of website… idea idea!!)! You can use it in a marinade, in a sauce, in ice cream, and don't forget to use it as an inspirational companion during cooking, and now you’ve got another reason to get that bottle on the counter: use it in a dressing! Hmmm…not bad I tell ya that!

Talking about an inspirational companionship, any fluid that contains more alcohol than…let’s say…12% is good enough for us BarBQBoozers to embrace, with passion!! And that also includes wine. I felt the urgency to tell you that because wine is one of our most favorite drinks (isn’t that so Burgerman???), and will be showing up here at the blog many many times. There’s still time for you to leave if you don’t like it, but I know you won’t…..hehehe!!  

Now, you want to know more about the beans?? Sure you do, so let’s get this salad on your plate!

Grab a can of white beans, any type you like. I used cannellini beans for this. Yeah sorry, I ran out of butter beans…you can’t have it all!! My shopping list has changed dramatically since we’ve started this blog…and my walks to the glass container make me tired....ugh! Oh geez, the beans!! What to do with them?? Drain and rinse!

Make a dressing of 3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 3 tablespoons Bourbon (yeah now we’re getting somewhere…) and ¼ teaspoon lemon/pepper seasoning. Pour it in a salad bowl.

Cut some cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the dressing.

Quarter about 6 strawberries and add them to the tomatoes and the dressing. Looks nice already huh??

Tear a few basil leaves into pieces, and toss the ingredients (we’re almost there….).

Break Time!! Pour yourself a drink (sorry, no picture of that hahaha!) and then add the beans (no not to your glass, we’re making a salad here! Keep paying attention please!!).

Now it’s time to grill some meat (I grilled some Beef and Tequila Kebobs) because when those are almost ready, you can cut an avocado into pieces and add these to the salad (last minute, and be careful with the knife now....).

And here it is!! The salad with the Boozy Beans!

Cheers! We hope you‘ll enjoy it :-))