‘BBQ’ Articles at Sweetnicks

Recipe: Two Ingredient BBQ Dipping Sauce

June 17, 2018 · Narrative

A super fast, mega delicious dipping sauce that is perfect for all your upcoming Summer BBQs.

I host cooking classes and food tastings at a variety of locations. I have been doing it for two years now, and have about a dozen different places that I hit regularly. Sometimes I pitch concepts and recipes to my client, sometimes they ask for something specific.

But most times? I’m figuring out the recipe at the eleventh hour.

No joke.

Part of it is that while I am a bit of a planner, I also have a whole lotta “fly by the seat of my pants” in me too. It can make for a very chaotic life sometimes, perhaps more so than necessary, but it’s served me reasonably well so far, so if it ain’t break, why fix it?

All that to say that I finally decided what I was making for a class last week at 11 pm the night before. I had pitched “unique BBQ recipes,” but just hadn’t settled on exactly WHAT that meant.

If you’ve been a regular visitor here, you know I love my condiments and dipping sauces. Like… LOVE. So I started brainstorming about other ways that I could use a BBQ sauce, because I was bringing a friend to present with me, and she owns a gourmet food shop that carries the Stonewall Kitchen line of sauces.

BBQ sauce tends to be high in sugar, so although I love all things BBQ, I tend to steer clear of a lot of it unless I make it myself, because it’s not exactly Whole30 or clean eating. So while I was brainstorming for this particular class, I was trying to think of ways I could make a sauce that was healthier.

And here we are.

Two Ingredient BBQ Dipping Sauce.

The other ingredient?

Greek yogurt.

As I was talking to the class attendees, I was telling them how much I really dislike Greek yogurt. Like, I’ll eat it drizzled with honey and topped with fresh fruit and granola… which means I pretty much do what I can to cover up the actual taste of Greek yogurt. Which is how this dipping sauce came to be.

Let’s take a super delicious smoky peach whiskey BBQ sauce and add Greek yogurt to it.

I roasted a whole sheet pan of Yukon Gold potatoes (my favorite) for the class and everyone seriously devoured them.

Everything is better with a dipping sauce, I’m telling ya.

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Review: Jack’s Bar-B-Que {Nashville, Tennessee}

April 30, 2014 · Narrative

Need to know the best eats in Nashville? Jack’s Bar-B-Que. That’s pretty much all you need to know.

As soon as we pulled up to our Nashville hotel for our first night in Tennessee, I asked the valet for a dinner recommendation.

Want to know the best place to eat in town?

Ask a local.

But I gave him very specific criteria.

Kid-friendly. Reasonably priced. Not a huge wait. A place that screams Nashville.

And the place where he would go to if he could only go to one place in all his time in Nashville.

And Jack’s Bar-B-Que it was.

Originally started as a catering company in 1976, the restaurant was about four blocks from the hotel, and since the weather was pretty clear, and I am intent on keeping up with my Fitbit friends, we decided to leave the car and walk to dinner.

Which totally would have been awesome had the skies not opened up during dinner to welcome us with a torrential downpour.

Yep, yep.

Nothing that a six dollar cab ride can’t fix.

So we walked into the lively Jack’s and I dispatched Nick to grab a table. There are a handful of tables in the front of the restaurant, and more on the second floor (seating that you can view from a tv screen while you’re in line).

Luckily we were a bit early for dinner, and there were just a few people in line. I queued up and started scanning the menu so I would be ready. The menu is short and direct.

Meat.

BBQ.

Vegetables.

They are focusing on what they’re good at.

Which is pretty much the way to go.

Restaurants that have pages and pages and pages of menu offerings always are off-putting to me. Lack of focus.

During our Tennessee adventure, I wanted to be sure to hone in and enjoy local Tennessee specialties. Really chow down on the best the state has to offer.

And BBQ is definitely a sure-fire way to go.

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Our Favorite Eats in Tennessee {Food}

April 22, 2014 · Narrative

When we were in Tennessee last week, I wanted to make sure to have as much local food as possible … to really have a chance to dive in and find local favorites.

And I think we did just that.

I swear it feels like we ate our way from one end of the state to the other.

Likely because we did.

While most days, we didn’t even have three meals a day (some days were just one), we snacked and tasted and indulged around every corner.

And it was wonderful.

Let’s dig in.

Tennessee Pork Shoulder – BBQ is, of course, big in Tennessee and our first foray into it did not disappoint. We found the very best at Jack’s BBQ in Nashville. Tender, subtly flavored, but made amazeballs with their house-made, slightly tangy, BBQ sauce.

Cinnamon Bread – When we visited Dollywood, we spied a working grist mill where they were turning out fresh, hot from the oven loaves of cinnamon bread and giant cookies nearly as big as Madeline’s head. We bought one of each, found a shady spot outside and devoured every last speck.

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