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My First Foodie Pen Pal! I have been patiently waiting to post this for about 2 weeks now! I have been beyond excited the entire time I have participated in my first foodie pen pal exchange. The...

The Therapy of Sausage Making I was hesitant to even post about this. What I really wanted to do was crawl into bed and find comfort in watching Biggest Loser on my DVR while eating a massive bowl of...

Porky Pecan Pie I had some thoughts going through my mind as I was creating this Frankenstein of a pie...What will people think? Are people tired of adding bacon where most feel it doesn't...

Que Make Me So Very Happy! Well it's no longer a secret. (Was it ever even a secret?) The BBQ bug has completely buried it's stinger into me. I had the opportunity to attend my second BBQ class...

Wordless Weekend: Glamorous BBQ For the full blog post of Glamorous BBQ Check out Porknography BBQ Porknography BBQ

My First Foodie Pen Pal!

Posted by danielle | Posted on 30-04-2012

Category : Outings/Review

I have been patiently waiting to post this for about 2 weeks now! I have been beyond excited the entire time I have participated in my first foodie pen pal exchange. The rule was to get your box out by the 15th..well I probably had mine out by like the 8th! I had a great time exchanging e-mails with the person I had, and the person who had me. This is most definitely not meant just to be greedy and waiting for your gift like a kid on Christmas, the connecting part was also very precious to me too! For those of you not aware of the Foodie Pen Pal Program, please read more after my post!

My Foodie Pen Pal this month was Shannon Williams from Confessions of a Fat Momma. I was happy to see that her blog was about getting healthy. My blog is far from that! However, I had just started (continuing again..) my weight loss journey. I was paranoid that my first box would be filled with awful things that I will feel guilty about, but I was so pleased that I could nosh on the treats in my box and not feel bad!

I was so excited when I saw the package waiting for me on my staircase. I had one of those days and was feeling a bit bummed, but who cannot be absolutely thrilled when they receive a package?! I had made a joke to the boyfriend that ‘It feels like Christmas! But like getting a gift from Grandma, you don’t know which way this can go!’. Of course by that I mean no disrespect, you just get a bit nervous getting a ‘gift’ from someone you’ve only known a matter of 2-3 weeks! I was excited to see the spread of healthy yet delicious snacks. Working in catering I never know when I can sit down to eat a real lunch and sometimes you just have to eat snacks while driving around on deliveries. I’ve been so happy to have healthy snacks to reach for while at work. The highlight of the box I have to admit is the Dancing with the Stars DVD. I am one of those people that everyone hates to shop with. I go down the same aisles 16 times..put things in my cart..take them back out…wander around the entire store at least 4 times.. I have to LOVE something to actually purchase it. I have been having the biggest struggle finding a workout DVD (dance in specific) that I deemed worthy of purchasing. I love that she took away that guess work and got me something I have been wanting for a while, and I didn’t even tell her that! She’s just a mind reader I suppose..Thank you to Confessions of a Fat Momma for the thoughtful box and to the Lean Green Bean for making this program a success!

*************

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

The Therapy of Sausage Making

Posted by danielle | Posted on 17-04-2012

Category : Dinner

I was hesitant to even post about this. What I really wanted to do was crawl into bed and find comfort in watching Biggest Loser on my DVR while eating a massive bowl of ice cream. I felt I had to just suck it up and post this. Without posting it tonight I feel the raw emotion that brought me to even make sausage tonight, would be lost.

I had a bad day. A really really bad day. One of those days where the work on your desk grows and suddenly your help starts to shrink. Every time one thing got finished, a new one appeared. Sometimes even before things finished there was something new. I literally had to run away from someone today too! Even better – I continuously yelled “No! Go away!” No joke, stop laughing.

A few hours into my day I decided I had to find something that would make me happy and just make that my focal point. What makes me happier than anything? Sausage. I didn’t want to just eat sausage, I wanted to make sausage. I had bought a pork shoulder and everything on Sunday with the hopes of making my sausages, but I have a huge habit of trying to fit too much into one day. Maybe if this wasn’t a habit of mine, I may not have had such a rough day? Hmm.

Once I had this idea in my head I tried to let everything roll off my shoulders the best I could and just work quickly so I can high tail it out of there and just make my delightful porky packages. There came a point after 5:00pm came and went that I had to decide how long can I keep doing this and keep feeling miserable? All I can think of is “What if I get home and I am just too tired to cook”, this just couldn’t be an option. The only chance I get to really clear my mind is when I get to cook. I decided around 5:30 that I had to just surrender and back away.

I went next door to the catering building I work in and picked up some brisket trimmings that the manager had kindly let me take off his hands. We have been experimenting with what we can do with brisket trimmings instead of just throwing them away. I was able to grab a small bag of it to cut up along with my pork shoulder I bought Sunday. I zoomed home excited that my plan might get me out of my funk. I stepped inside, and didn’t even last minutes until I burst into tears. Letting go of the woes of the day. After my pity party, off to sausage I went. Time to be a big girl and make some sausages!

I apologize that I do not have a recipe to go with this. Sausage isn’t one of those things that always requires a recipe. It’s one of those wacky things that whatever you have on hand is just fine. Well, I guess to and extent. It’s more of a method than a recipe, and im sorry to those of you who hate people who say that. It’s true though! All you need for sausage is:

Cubed Meat – Mainly pork but beef can be mixed in. Chicken if you’re a communist.
Fat – Pork belly (PIGGY TUMMY) or in my case I used brisket fat
Seasonings – No need to fuss here if mixing spices isn’t you’re thing. I used a pre-made rub for beef.
Binder – I usually used water, but I used beer today for extra flavor.

My little begger

And thats it! Pretty simple. The key to making sure your sausage comes out right is to assure everything is ice cold! If you do not follow this step, your sausage will come out with a mealy texture that isn’t a very appealing mouth-feel. The flavor will probably be good still, but the texture will be off. To assure things stay cold I will put whatever meat im not using into the freezer. As I cut up my brisket fat, I kept the shoulder in the freezer. When I was cutting up my shoulder, I put the brisket fat back into the freezer. I know they say you shouldn’t re-freeze meat, but this isn’t staying in until it completely freezes. This is just to assure its staying very cold.

Once all your meat is cubed up. Run it through your meat grinder with the plate that has the biggest holes first. Mine only has 2 sizes so once it runs through the first one, go to the next size. Season up your meat however you’d like. Patty a small bit and cook it up to assure you like the flavor. Adjust seasonings as needed. When you like the flavor add your binder until its squishy but not watery. When you got the grind size you want, and the flavors you like then its time to stuff. If that’s what you want to do that is. At this point you can just use it as bulk sausage for pastas, sauces or even make sausage burgers. I cased mine in natural hog casings. I attached my sausage stuffer and went at it.

The only annoying issue with stuffing in hog casings is finding holes. It definitely makes my relaxing zen moment of sausage making back into a rage filled tizzy. As sausage started bursting out of tiny holes I took a deep breath and either cut it off there, or just did a twist and kept trudging on. Don’t cry over burst sausages people. I will admit there were many times where i almost ripped off the sausage and almost called it quits, but I didn’t. This was happy time darn it! I did finish my sausage and I was very happy I did. I do plan on smoking it tomorrow if I get the opportunity.

Mission accomplished.

I hope tomorrow is a better day. If it isn’t then..

I’m gonna have more sausage than I know what to do with…

Porky Pecan Pie

Posted by danielle | Posted on 15-04-2012

Category : BBQ, Desserts

I had some thoughts going through my mind as I was creating this Frankenstein of a pie…What will people think? Are people tired of adding bacon where most feel it doesn’t belong? I know most may say that my idea for adding bacon to pecan pie may be considered cliche in this bacon craze that seems to be going on. I felt in the spirit of this weekend being “Bacon Fest” in Chicago, and yesterday was National Pecan Day (Thank You The Young Grasshopper) putting bacon and pecans together seemed like the respectful thing to do. So to all of those who are rolling their eyes at yet another bacon filled recipe – you’re wrong, bacon is delicious.

The pie crust is just a basic cold butter/flour pie crust. Ingredients are as follows -

1 1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of smoked salt (you can use regular, i was just keeping the theme)
1 stick chilled butter
1 egg, beaten

I pulsed all ingredients in the food processor, egg being last. I formed a dough ball and chilled in so it can roll out easier. In the mean time I made the pie filling. Just a classic filling again. I used a recipe from the Food Network Website. I did not use the bourbon though. I can’t add bacon AND liquor..that would make me a heathen!

5 tablespoons butter
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt (i used smoked salt again)
2 cups toasted pecans
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs lightly beaten

So, after I read this I realized that it clearly states 3 eggs lightly beaten. I used 1….fail? But for the sake of giving you a proper recipe, there it is! I did not follow that, because I clearly cannot read. I will validate this by saying, I knew this, and I knew that 2 additional eggs would not have fit in my pie crust. Which IS the TRUTH! I feel better about this now, thanks!

What you will need for the bacon

1 lb bacon
light brown sugar for sprinkling
about 3 tablespoons butter
ground ginger
honey

On a cookie sheet spread the brown sugar around, be sure to not press down, just sprinkle! Make it wide enough to fit the bacon on top, I did 7 slices by 7 slices square. I then sprinkled some ginger and did tiny cubes of butter scattered around. Squeeze a little bit of honey in a squiggly motion over the sugary buttery concoction (im very technical). Make a lattice of bacon, my package had 14 slices so I did 7 going one way, and 7 going the other. This fit the pie perfectly, it was clearly fate. Repeat the bottom layers again but in reverse. Squiggle honey, add butter cubes, sprinkle ginger, and rub gently with brown sugar. Bake in an oven set at 350º until you start to see your bacon get a nice candy coating. It cooks pretty fast, be sure to watch it closely because with all the sugar, it burns quickly! Bacon is far too precious to scorch.

Roll out your pie crust to fit whichever pie tin you are using. Grease your pie tin to avoid great stress later on. You know, as you’re trying to pry it out of the pan because the sweet addicted gremlin inside of you wants pie REALLY bad..until you finally give up and sit on the couch with an entire pie and a fork, we’ve all done it, don’t be ashamed. Put a piece of parchment and some pie weights in before baking. Or if you are the un-baker like me, I used numerous condiment bowls and scattered them on top, hey it worked! Bake about 20 minutes at 400º.

To start the pie filling, melt butter in a saute pan. Add brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Once it comes to a boil, let it continue to cook for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and add vanilla and pecans. Let it cool while you’re waiting on your pie crust. Add 3 eggs…you know, or one egg if you’re a rebel. When the pie crust is ready flip the bacon lattice into the pan and cover that with pecan filling. Bake at 350º for about 45 minutes.

Let the pie completely cool before cutting into it to avoid a pecan avalanche. Maybe if I put the correct amount of eggs this would not have been a concern…Lesson learned.

After typing all this I have realized this is a lot of steps. And If i were looking at this I would think you were absolutely insane if you thought I would make this at home. But the truth is..it was so incredible. The smoky, sweet, salty combination made me wiggle with joy! How can you deny something that looked as beautiful as this?

What if I paired it with ice cream?

Go ahead, have a bite!

Que Make Me So Very Happy!

Posted by danielle | Posted on 11-04-2012

Category : BBQ

Well it’s no longer a secret.

(Was it ever even a secret?)

The BBQ bug has completely buried it’s stinger into me.

I had the opportunity to attend my second BBQ class with my BBQ partner in swine (get it..not crime..swine..i crack myself up). Today was a little bit different from the last class we took since it was all fish and not all about MEAT! I found out that I love way more fish than I thought! But this post is not about fish or the class I took today, but instead about how I have found something to be excited about. I seriously feel like a child knowing that Santa is ready to come. When I think about this new chapter i’m opening by competing in BBQ I get so giddy and my mind is just swirling with ideas. I have not been so excited about something since the time I decided I wanted to be a chef, and had that eagerness to learn and absorb everything around me. Then of course you go through this phase of “I went to school, so I must know stuff!” then you go into the field and realize you know nothing. This is sort of how I felt when I started working at Sweet Baby Rays BBQ. I had already bought a smoker with the intentions of getting into smoking meats but I hadn’t really jumped in yet. Being surrounded by a cooking technique that you are totally not familiar with intrigued me. I wanted to now know how to smoke food. I knew how to do everything else they teach you in culinary school, but they certainly didn’t teach me this. But what my chef did tell me was to “Never stop learning”, and I haven’t. Have I made you proud Chef Kramer?

The moment that sort of sparked this fire inside me is I signed up for my second competition today. Yes, I just created a team and I am already signed up for two competitions, which the intentions of a third one coming along soon. This competition is strictly for amateurs, which means we have a shot! Their categories are chicken, ribs and any NON MEAT dish we would like. That really gets you thinking…BBQ…but..no meat?! This is the moment I love, the brainstorming! What will ‘wow’ them. I don’t like to play it safe, I do the opposite. I try to do things that people claim just wont work. And that is totally what I will be attempting here. We will most likely be doing a dessert for this category. Now..to learn how to bake some cake on a grill!

I know this post didn’t offer any crazy new technique or the next unique dish to serve to your family. But I really hope you can feel the passion flowing through me right now, and also, please share with me the last thing that got you so excited! Are you dabbling in a new style of cooking you haven’t ventured into yet? I hope to hear what keeps you excited about cooking!

Photos from Fireplace & Chimney Authority BBQ Class

Lisle, IL

Don’t forget to follow Laura and I in our BBQ Competition Journey. Click photo below to follow our blog!

Wordless Weekend: Glamorous BBQ

Posted by danielle | Posted on 08-04-2012

Category : BBQ

For the full blog post of Glamorous BBQ Check out Porknography BBQ

Porknography BBQ

Roadkill Cupcakes

Posted by danielle | Posted on 03-04-2012

Category : Desserts, Themed Meals

You are quite the special kind of person for knowingly clicking on something called Roadkill Cupcakes….Im glad you did though!!

I have already explained my shame for posting things far too late, and even though I made this item for New Years Eve, I can at least be comforted knowing that this recipe is not Holiday-Sensitive! You can enjoy roadkill ANYTIME of the year folks! Okay i’ll explain..

New Years Eve is my sister-in-laws birthday so each year they throw a huge birthday/new years party with a strict theme. This year it was “Turnin’ 30 in the Dirty South” and I took this as a challenge to make a creative birthday treat. To stick with the theme I figured roadkill was clearly the way to go. No offense to anyone in the ‘Dirty South’..Im from Chicago…anything south of the city is now hillbilly land to me, i’m sorry!

To create hillbilly cupcakes all you will need is:

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
White Frosting
Pinkish Frosting
Black Frosting
Mississippi Bacon

To make Mississippi Bacon all you do is spread out brown sugar on a baking sheet, line up bacon across brown sugar and sprinkle more brown sugar. Bake at 350 until bacon starts to look ”candied”. Brown sugar should turn syrupy and be bubbly, keep watching because it can burn on you really fast! Pull out of the oven and let cool to the point where you can touch them and lay them out on parchment to cool completely. If you let it cool completely, then goodluck getting it off the cookie sheet! You will now have a nice sheet of candied bacon! Which…there’s nothing wrong with that either…

Before

After

Closest thing I could find to a ‘Hillbilly’ cupcake liner

After the bacon cooled, I drew lines down the bacon with black buttercream frosting to resemble tire tracks. I then cut them into little squares as a garnish. I frosted each cupcake with white icing and drizzled pink for ”guts” and then topped with the candied bacon. Taadaa! Roadkill Cupcakes!

Now…for your entertainment…Chicago Hillbillies…

Well that’s it folks…Y’all come back now..ya hear?

Easter Centerpiece – Overcoming Flower Phobia

Posted by danielle | Posted on 01-04-2012

Category : Gifts

For those of you just tuning into Piggy Tummy, I work for a catering company in the Chicago suburbs called Sweet Baby Rays & True Cuisine. In November my position changed at work from Operations Manager to “Operation/Sales Liason”. Sounds fancy but it’s easier to say than rambling off a list of things that I do. In doing this it took away a lot of duties from the sale staff as far as the nitty gritty details of how their events and parties are supposed to look. Instead of sales people going around store to store to buy their decorations I do that. Instead of the sales being in charge of actually assembling these things, I do that too! There’s a point to this story I promise, stick with me here. Anyhoo, the staff has approached me many times saying they are having a party and they need a centerpiece/wreath/table decorations or whatever they may need – Can you make this for me? I have done a few creative things here or there but I have never had any proper training or even a remote desire to even care how to do these things. Party after party I got much better at fulfilling these tasks. People would praise me and assume this is some closet hobby of mine. Completely not true…my closet hobby is video games..there..its out. I’m a chef and video game nerd, and apparently now a florist. Side story over, getting-to-the-point starting now.

My mom had brought up all of her spring decorations and it was that time of the year for me to find her a centerpiece to freshen up the dining room. I tend to just surprise her on Easter with one, but I sort of wanted an Easter themed one, and didn’t want her to just have it out for that day. I decided to use the skills I have learned at work and actually use them in my ‘real’ life. Crazy concept huh? I went to Michaels Craft Store..slightly lost on how I even go about starting the project. I knew she bought a brand new table cloth in yellow and blue so I figured..ok..I can do that! I looked around at other centerpieces at the store that are pre-made (and looked and the prices and thought pffffft watch me make that cheaper!). I found my basket, my greenery, assorted flowers and some cutesy Easter things to stuff in there. I got home and stared at my items wondering if this will look great, or just as sad and pathetic as things I made for her in Kindergarten. Either way, mom’s have to pretend its the best thing ever right? So here goes…my first centerpiece….

Taadaaaa! Natural lil’ Martha Stewart I am! My mom very pleased with her centerpiece, then again she had the same reaction as she did when I was a child and brought a fistful of dandelions. I am just glad I got over my phobia of doing floral arrangements. My mom had a tendency to kill real flowers, so they have to be fake; however fake flowers tend to be far more expensive than real! Now I can make my own and not spend 70$ on a basket of flowers that aren’t even real! The sad part is the puppy did chew off the rabbits hat, and the cat chewed the side of the basket…I guess it’s the thought and over coming the fear that counts…right?

Luck O’ The Irish Cupcakes

Posted by danielle | Posted on 28-03-2012

Category : Desserts, Themed Meals

I realize I am terribly late on this post. However, don’t think of this as just being an Irish themed cupcake – It can be spring too! Remove the pot of gold..put a bunny..or a flower..or something else Spring-y! I must admit; it does make an adorable St Patricks cupcake though! I do not want to take the full on credit for making this cupcake, I was inspired when I googled “St Patricks Cupcakes”. This is the post I had found – Cakexplosion Blog

I wanted to take this idea and make it my own. So I thought in the spirit of St Pattys I wanted to add a pot of gold. I went and picked up some fondant. Of course the boxes were in the wrong spot and this massive box was in the $7.99 spot..I come to find out it was really $19.99 so instead of getting a lot of fondant at an incredible price..I got a lot of fondant for the true price..sigh..oh well. I dyed the fondant black with gel food coloring. I just flatten out my fondant, dab a little in the center and just knead it until its done. I highly recommend gloves for this! After my fondant was dyed black, I rolled each one up into a fairly small ball, just about the size of a finger tip. I made a small well with my pinky and filled it with royal icing. All I do for this is a small amount of powdered sugar, meringue power and water to desired consistency. I then dyed it with the closest color to gold I had. I then sprinkled Wilton’s Yellow Pearl Sprinkles in the center. Voila! I have a pot of gold!

To save you alot of trouble in finding those stinkin’ rainbow candies – I found them at Walgreens after checking many stores for them. They are a rainbow sour candy ‘belt’ made by Airheads.

Now as I say time and time again. I do not bake!! I am far more interested in the decorating part. If someone would just make and cool batches of cupcakes for me for me to just decorate, I would be absolutely thrilled! That being said, I clearly do not make my own cupcake recipes. This recipe I found came from Joy of Baking . It is one of my favorite tried and true chocolate cupcake recipes.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Combine cocoa and boiling water, mix well until you perfectly blend in all cocoa.
Cream together butter and sugar, add vanilla, salt and eggs
Slowly temper in cocoa and water mixture, mixing vigorously to not scramble eggs or melt butter.
Add flour and blend well.
Pour into desired sized muffin tins and bake @ 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean, about 10-12 min

While cupcakes are cooling make the buttercream frosting. My favorite is Wiltons buttercream -

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup crisco
1 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Blend all ingredients until fluffy. Reserve a small amount of white butter cream and set aside, add green food coloring to the rest.

Spread a small amount of green frosting to each cupcake. There is no need to make it perfect! Add two small dollops of white for clouds.

I do have a friendly warning – those candy rainbows and very flimsy! They will bend and lean if you make them too long. The first time I made these I only cut them in half, the second time I cut them into thirds and it didn’t lean as much as it did when it was just cut in half. Stick each end of the rainbow into the clouds. Place a pot of gold under the rainbow and sprinkle a few extra yellow pearls around it. Then finally, you need to take pics because they are so darn cute!

Logan definitely enjoyed the cupcakes!

Operation BBQ Relief

Posted by danielle | Posted on 27-03-2012

Category : BBQ, Helping Others

I had the opportunity to be a part of a fantastic dinner put together by Sweet Baby Rays BBQ last night. It wasn’t just any ol’ dinner though, it was to support an amazing cause called Operation BBQ Relief. This organization was formed after the Joplin, Missouri tornadoes hit last year, i’m sure you are all familiar with this tragic event. What Operation BBQ Relief did was went down to the site of the destruction and fed families, firefighters, police, etc. They served over 120,000 meals in the two weeks they were there. Of course people living in the Midwest area have also been hit again recently with multiple tornadoes again. The dinner last night was formed in hopes of growing the organization to the Chicagoland area.

I cannot explain the reason for their cause any better than what their vision explains;

“The vision of Operation BBQ Relief is that all people involved in relief efforts during natural disasters will understand the true meaning of compassion for those who have lost possessions and loved ones and that they will further utilize all of their God-given skills and abilities to better the lives of those affected.”

I was incredibly touched by the outcome of this event. Nearly 150 BBQ fanatics in the Chicagoland area came together to discuss such an important cause and show their support. I was so impressed by the vision and mission of this cause that my BBQ Team will be joining the efforts and to help out as needed. I encourage you to read more on this cause, they are incredible people doing great things for people in need. BBQ fanatics or even just people with a big heart are welcome to come join forces and help!

Click Here to Read More

Now – to share the incredible food Sweet Baby Rays provided for this event!

Dave Raymond (Sweet Baby Ray) Talks about the cause

See Sweet Baby Rays post on OBR

BBQ Martini

Burnt Ends

Shrimps

Our Chef preparing said shrimps

Gumbo Shooters

Our Dinner Menu

Brisket, Pulled Pork, Texas Sausage

Desserts – After I already got to some of them

Stuffed.

Thank you for stopping by! Please check out Operation BBQ Relief & Sweet Baby Rays!

Porknography

Posted by danielle | Posted on 26-03-2012

Category : BBQ

Oh hi there strangers! Okay, I guess it would be more fair to call me the stranger. I have not had a post since Christmas! Pure insanity I say! I have been taking all sorts of pictures of dishes I have made with the absolute intention of posting them – well…didn’t happen! Because of this you will all be enjoying some themed dishes from past holidays! I justified this by telling myself it’s acceptable since now you can bookmark them for next year – you know, since we all go back to past bookmarks when we remember Piggy Tummy posted the best cupcakes for New Years Eve (in March..) Without further ado let me crack my knuckles and get back to business.

On my Facebook page I announced that I was coming back with a week of cupcakes and a week of BBQ and a big announcement. That is all true but I decided I may do it a bit out of order and probably scrambled up a bit. BBQ CUPCAKE WEEK! HOORAY! I did want to do the cupcakes first but a whole bunch of stuff came up that made me so eager to do my announcement first and most likely will do BBQ week here first and maybe throw a cupcake in there for good measure.

My big announcement is….

Drumroll…

A friend and I have started our own BBQ competition team!

*crowd goes wild, confetti and balloons fall*

Isn’t she the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?! I think so… If you have been following me for some time now then you may remember my first BBQ competition last year when I participated with a BBQ team from work – The B Team. Here are the posts from last year to refresh your memory Red White & BBQ P1 & Red White and BBQ P2. After that competition I had been talking to a friend of mine about us possibly branching off and doing our own thing. After a night of hilarious bantering back and fourth she had come up with this phenomenal BBQ name and with the help of the boyfriend our logo was born. Even though this has been in the works for nearly a year I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything with it. We didn’t feel we were ready to compete last summer but we have had plenty of time to plan and organize and we are ready to roll!

I was asked to join the B Team again for another run this summer but I requested for us to merge and go as Porknography just so I can have a proper unveiling of the team. It hasn’t been the most ideal of merges yet but kinks will be worked out in time and my hopes are for an incredibly fun summer. I will most likely only be attending one professional BBQ competition but I will try to find as many Rookie ones as I can Well I just wanted to share that with you all because I’m absolutely thrilled about it! If people end up wanting some merch and swag that will probably be in the works soon.