I don’t know about you but I love Hawaiian BBQ restaurants. We used to have one near our house but for some reason it closed and turned into a sushi bar. I was kind of sad to see it go, but I digress. So I searched on the internet to find the marinade or sauce or whatever it is that they use to make the meat so tasty. I looked and looked and tried some recipes but none had that perfect flavor.

Fast forward a few years…we were at a friends house for a birthday and someone was there cooking the most amazing Hawaiian BBQ’d meat. I asked for the recipe but they couldn’t tell me because they said they really didn’t know all that was in it. Defeated, I let my wife know and figured I had to savor the food right then. Later on in the party my wife and I and one of her friends were sitting down talking about the food. I mentioned my sadness again at not having the recipe and her friend (Fina) said it was easy. I was dumbfounded, the person with the answer had been in front of me the whole time. I didn’t even think to ask her. She told me what the basic ingredients were and I was so excited so I made it a few days later and low and behold the tastiness was found at last. Thanks to Fina for her insight.

Now to go along with the meat you need to add the famous Hawaiian Macaroni Salad and sticky rice they always serve with the meat. I have added the salad recipe below. As for the sticky rice I will leave that up to you and your rice cooker.

Oh and don’t forget the Sriracha!!

Hawaiian BBQ Feast

Me and a lot of direction from my wife’s friend Fina.

The Meat and Marinade

• Boneless skinless Chicken Thighs, beef short ribs, or any kind of meat you want to use.
• 1 C. packed light brown sugar
• 1 C. soy sauce (I don’t recommend the Dark kind, it’s too strong, the regular cheap-o will do)
• 4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 1/2 T. fresh ginger root chopped
• 1/4-1/2 large onion sliced

Marinade Directions

1. In a bowl, mix the brown sugar and soy suace together. Keep mixing until almost all the sugar is dissolved in the soy sauce.
2. Add in the garlic, ginger and onion and mix.
3. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes.
4. Put meat into a zip lock bag and pour mixture over it. Depending on how much meat you have you may need to make more marinade and split this into 2 different bags. Let this marinade for at least 4 hours.

For the Grill

• 13×9 Pyrex dish or smaller depending on the amount of meat you have
• 1 stick of butter (trust me this is the linchpin)
• 4-5 green onions sliced small

Grilling Directions

1. Place Pyrex dish on the hot grill if you have room otherwise you can put it in the oven.
2. Add the butter to the Pyrex so it starts to melt.
3. Add the meat to the grill and cook to perfection.
4. When the pieces of meat are done place them in the Pyrex to let swim in buttery goodness until all are done and add the green onions.

Hawaiian Macaroni Salad

Courtesy of food.com

• 3 C. cooked elbow macaroni cooled (if its hot the mayo will melt and it will be a mess)
• 1 C. Mayonnaise
• 1/4 C. milk
• 1/4 C. grated carrot

Directions

1. Pour all ingredients in a bowl and mix.
2. Refrigerate until you are going to eat it.
3. Add more mayo if it needs it before you eat it.

Sticky Rice

Follow direction on package.

I want to say right off the bat that I am not a big turkey fan but this recipe and the way I prepare it, make it very tasty. The main part of of this recipe is the brine. After you brine it you can cook the turkey whatever way you want. If you have never brined a turkey or chicken or whatever, the brine makes the meat super moist and juicy. Now the way you cook the turkey, like I said, is up to you. Now that said, I know you are going to laugh at me for this, but I use my Ronco Rotisserie to cook the turkey each year. I’m not as fortunate as some awesome people to have a double oven so this is my way to keep the oven from being monopolized by a huge turkey. The oven can be used for other things like rolls and scrumptious apple pies.

Here is my baby in action…isn’t she a beaut’.

Super Moist Turkey

Adapted from Good Eats

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
• For the brine:
• 1 5 Gallon Bucket with lid
• 1 c. kosher salt
• 1/2 c. light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 T. black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 t. allspice berries
• 1 1/2 t. chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water
• For inside the bird:
• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage

Directions

2-3 days before

1. Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
2. Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat

1. Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
2. When you are ready to cook the bird, remove the it from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine. Once thoroughly rinsed pat dry with paper towels
3. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with the rosemary and sage.

Now if you are going to use an oven, I would suggest following the instructions below, you can also see the video on how to cook it here.

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
2. Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan.
3. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
4. Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

I don’t know if you noticed but recently I updated my WordPress theme. It’s responsive. Whats responsive you might ask. Well lets do an experiment. Grab that handy dandy little smartphone out of your pocket. Got it? Good. Now open up the browser so you can surf the web, in the address bar up there type in bestrecipesevar.com. Okay now the let the magic happen, I will wait here til you are done.

Done now? Good. I don’t know if you noticed or not but this site is now much more readable on a smaller display. This is the responsive part I mentioned earlier. The site will shrink and grow according to the size of the screen or browser window you have open. You can try it on your desktop computer too. Make it big… now grab the corner or the side of the window and make it smaller. It’s like magic!!

Now the reasoning. I don’t know about you but I am increasingly using my phone to read recipes. This way we don’t have to squint or try to shrink the page our my browser to see the recipe. It’s all there in an easy to read format. I have also done some minor design tweaks that make things better all around. Yes for now the image slider at the top is missing but I promise, it’s coming back. Internet Explorer users may see some weird things for a bit, but those are getting fixed. Also if you see any weird things that I may have missed just let me know in the comments of this post.

Now for the other fun things. Super Moist Thanksgiving Turkey recipe is coming down the pipe soon. So is Hawaiian BBQ Feast. Hellfire and Damnation Chili too, among others. I pledge to be more posty. I just need to get over the fact that not so great images are alright to have on here instead of perfect ones.

Now let me tell you a story. My wife found this recipe a few years back somewhere on the internet and copied it down to a recipe card. I love this potato salad so much I wanted to put it on here so you all could partake of its goodness. So I took that card and had it on my desk at home for a long time, meaning to add it.

Well Labor day comes around and I decide to get it up here. Well guess what, it disappeared. I looked all over for it, even at work on the off chance I took it there. No luck. So it has been a month and still there was no sign of it. I was really sad that I couldn’t find it.

Well the other day my wife sent me a text to check my email and that I would be super happy. So I took a look and low and behold she had found it in her email. She had sent the recipe to a friend so it was in her sent messages folder. GO WIFE!

Now about this potato salad. It’s awesome, really its the best potato salad I have ever had. I’m, not joking. Usually potato salads are kind of bland, and either over egg-y or overly potato-y. This one is perfect, and that is why I was sad that I couldn’t find the recipe. Oh and did I mention it has bacon. Yes I said bacon! Tasty tasty bacon. I could go on forever about bacon, but I won’t I will let you get to making this awesomeness.

Best Potato Salad Ever

Found somewhere on the interwebs.

• 6 hard boiled eggs
• 10 potatoes (boiled)
• 1 C. mayo
• 1/2 C. ranch dressing
• 1/3 C. dill pickle relish (i just slice up pickles and add a bit of juice)
• 2 T. mustard
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 1/8 t. paprika
• 1/8 t. celery seed
• 1 lb. chopped cooked bacon (crunchy)
• 1 onion chopped (browned in the bacon grease)

Directions

1. Chop the eggs and potatoes to the sizes you like and put them in a large bowl with the cooked onion and mix.
2. In another bowl mix together mayo, ranch, relish (pickles), mustard, salt, pepper, paprika, and celery seed.
3. Pour the the mayo/ranch/spices mix in with the eggs and potatoes and mix to combine.
4. Right before you serve it mix in the bacon. This will ensure the bacon is still crispy.

How many of you used to, or still eat Hostess Cupcakes? I know I did back in the day. I stopped eating them because I don’t know if I trust what they put into them. So when I saw this on Cooks Country, I just had to make them. These are heaven in chocolatey, creamy form. They are oh so good. You won’t be able to stop at just one, I sure can’t.

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Better than Hostess Cupcakes

Cooks Country
Makes 12 cupcakes.

Cupcakes

• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. Salt
• 1/2 C.boiling water
• 1/3 C. cocoa powder
• 1/3 C. semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 T. instant espresso (I don’t use this)
• 3/4 C.sugar
• 1/2 C. sour cream
• 1/2 C. vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t. vanilla extract

Filling

• 3 T. water
• 3/4 t. unflavored gelatin
• 4 T. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter , softened
• Pinch salt
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 C. marshmallow fluff (such as Fluff or Kraft Jet-Puffed Creme)

Glaze

• 1/2 C. semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 T. unsalted butter

Instructions

1. MAKE BATTER Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Whisk water, cocoa, chocolate chips, and espresso in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until incorporated. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool -cupcakes in tin 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
2. PREPARE FILLING Combine water and gelatin in large bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla, and salt until combined. Let mixture cool until just warm to touch, about 5 minutes, then whisk in marshmallow creme until smooth; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Transfer 1/3 cup marshmallow mixture to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip; reserve remaining mixture for filling cupcakes.
3. ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES Microwave chocolate and butter in small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 30 seconds. Cool glaze to room temper-ature, about 10 minutes. Following photos 1 to 3 at left, cut cone from top of each cupcake and fill cupcakes with 1 tablespoon filling each. Replace tops, frost with 2 teaspoons cooled glaze, and let sit 10 minutes. Using pastry bag, pipe curlicues across glazed cupcakes. Serve. (Cupcakes can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.)

Anyone out there like Iron Chef Bobby Flay? I knew there would be a few. I myself enjoy his show Throwdown. If you haven’t seen the show educate yourself. This is where I got this Italian meatballs and marinara recipe.

This recipe is best described as fresh, especially the sauce. The tomatoes, onions, garlic and fresh basil in the sauce make for an unencumbered flavor. Just straight goodness. The meatballs are wonderful too. They go hand in hand.

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Mama Maronis Meatballs

Throwdown with Bobby Flay

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground chuck
• 4oz. dried bread crumbs (I use the Italian style – adds a little more flavor)
• 4 large eggs
• 4oz. whole milk
• 6oz. grated Romano Cheese
• 3oz. grated Spanish onion (I use a yellow onion – don’t really know what the difference is.)
• 2oz. finely diced fresh garlic
• 2oz. finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 2oz. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2 tsp kosher salt (my addition)

Directions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.
2. Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs.
3. Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and place on baking sheet. Place into preheated oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Enjoy!

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Mama Maroni’s Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

• 6oz. good olive oil not extra-virgin
• 12 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1 large or 2 medium Spanish onions, finely diced
• 2 (28-ounce) cans imported crushed tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp. white or black pepper, freshly cracked
• 1 large handful julienned fresh basil leaves

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add oil.
2. Once heated add the finely sliced garlic and onions to the pan. Cook over medium heat until soft and slightly brown.
3. Next add the canned crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper and stir. Allow the sauce to come to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and add the julienned basil.

Serve over noodles with meatballs.

My kids love broccoli. Kind of weird I know, but they do. So when I find a recipe that uses broccoli, I usually try it out. This broccoli beef recipe struck me because of its apparent ease. This recipe is so tasty. My kids eat it up, I eat it up, even the picky neighbor girl ate it up. It’s really that good.

I wanted to make a note that I did update the method or the way it’s made just a little. I found that blanching the broccoli was a hit or miss on doneness. Sometimes it was too done or sometimes it was underdone. It also added to much water sometimes, so I changed the way that it was cooked. For more info on the method I like to use watch this video on how to stir fry. By the way, my family loves that recipe as well.

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Awesome Broccoli Beef

Adapted from Simply Recipes, and a few updates and additions by me.

Main Ingredients

• 1.5 lb. flank, sirloin, or the cheaper london broil, sliced thinly across the grain
• 1.5 lbs. broccoli florets
• 6 T. + 2 t. high-heat cooking oil
• 6 cloves garlic, very finely minced or pressed through garlic press
• 1 T. minced or grated ginger
• 1/4 C. chicken broth

Beef marinade

• 2 t. soy sauce
• 2 t. Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry) or since I don’t ever have wine I used rice wine vinegar
• 1 t. cornstarch
• 1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 t. sea salt
• 2 t. of Sriracha

For the sauce

• 2 T. oyster sauce
• 2 T. hoisin sauce
• 2 t. Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry) or since I don’t ever have wine I used rice wine vinegar
• 2 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 C. chicken broth
• 1 T. cornstarch
• 2 t. of Sriracha

Directions

1. Marinate the beef: Stir together the beef marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the beef slices and stir until coated. Let stand for 10 minutes ( you can let it marinate for longer too while you get the rest of the recipe ready)
2. Prepare the sauce: Stir together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and instantly evaporates upon contact. Add 2 T. of the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the 1/3 of the beef and immediately
   spread the beef out all over the surface of the wok or pan in a single layer (preferably not touching). Let the beef fry undisturbed for 1 minute. Flip the beef slices over and cook until nicely browned on both sides and remove to a plate. Repeat this until all beef is cooked.
4. With the beef removed, lower heat to medium-high heat the 2 t. oil until shimmering.
5. Add garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
6. Add broccoli and stir fry for 1 minute.
7. Pour in 1/4 C. of chicken stock
8. Cover and steam for 2 minutes or until broccoli is tender-crisp, stirring once.
9. Return beef to pan and stir. Push contents to side of pan.
10. Pour sauce in center of pan; cook, for 1 to 2 minutes or until thickened, stir sauce only if needed.
11. Stir beef and broccoli into sauce until coated.
12. Serve over sticky rice, with lots of Sriracha.

Yep that awesome stuff you put on top of your ice cream. The supposed unknown substance that has to be made out of something scary for it to harden when met with tasty cold ice cream. Well its not so scary and you can do it at home for a fraction of the cost of some at the store. It just takes a few simple ingredients and you are golden.

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Homemade MagicShell

This recipe is easily doubled or tripled

Ingredients

• 1/2 C. Coconut Oil
• 1 C. Chocolate (I use chocolate chips)

Directions

1. Over medium low heat, add oil and chocolate together in small to medium saucepan.
2. Slowly stir until completely melted and blended. Add a dash of salt and any other flavors you desire.

I put my magic shell into an old chocolate syrup bottle but you can put it in whatever you like. Oh, and don’t worry if it solidifies in the bottle just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds, I won’t tell.

I think you may know, or even if you don’t, I like to make breakfast. I usually make it on the weekends for the fam.  In my humble opinion breakfast is the most fun meal of the day. Who doesn’t like a meal that has so many dishes that are almost like dessert.

One of my favorite “breakfasts (desserts)” is monkey bread. This monkey bread isn’t one of the canned biscuits or frozen rolls recipes. This is the real deal. Full on tasty bread balls covered in gooey cinnamony goodness.

Yes, you have to make a yeast dough, but don’t fret, its easy! Only problem with this recipe is that its hard to find time to make it in the morning. So took a idea from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and put it in the fridge after I make them in to sugary balls of goodness and deposit them into the bundt pan. This allows for a slow rise, and in the morning the next day I take it out a little early and let them warm up on the counter. Pop it in the oven and you are good to go. Trust me it works and cuts down on the hassle of making something like this in the morning!

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Monkey Bread

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Dough

• 4 T. unsalted butter , divided, 2 tablespoons softened and 2 tablespoons melted
• 1 C. milk , warm (about 110 degrees)
• 1/3 C. water , warm (about 110 degrees)
• 1/4 C. granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 t. rapid-rise yeast (or instant)
• 3 1/4 C. all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
• 2 t. table salt

Brown Sugar Coating

• 1 C. packed light brown sugar
• 2 t. ground cinnamon
• 8 T. unsalted butter (1 stick), melted

Awesome Icing

• 3 T. Butter
• 1 C. Powdered Sugar
• 3/4 t. Vanilla Extract
• 2-3 T. Hot Water

Directions

1. For the dough: Adjust oven rack to medium-low position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Butter Bundt pan with 2 tablespoons softened butter. Set aside.
2. In large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar, and yeast. Mix flour and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook, (see below for instructions without a mixer.) Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with cooking spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in warm oven until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.
3. For the sugar coating: While dough is rising, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl. Set aside.
4. To form the bread: Gently remove dough from bowl, and pat into rough 8-inch square. Using bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces.
5. Roll each dough piece into ball. Working one at a time, dip balls in melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip back into bowl. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then layer balls in Bundt pan, staggering seams where dough balls meet as you build layers.
6. Cover Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in turned-off oven until dough balls are puffy and have risen 1 to 2 inches from top of pan, 50 to 70 minutes.
7. Remove pan from oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap pan and bake until top is deep brown and caramel begins to bubble around edges, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
8. For the Icing: Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Mix in the powdered sugar, vanilla and hot water. You may need to add a little more water or a little more powdered sugar depending on your desired consistency. Drizzle on warm monkey bread. Note: This makes a little more than what you need to drizzle on top. I use it as a dip for the monkey bread.