SUYA

What is Suya????
I had no clue.
My mom and dad went to Africa and had Suya, which they wanted to recreate.

Dad took all kinds of spices-chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, I think cloves (?) but I'm not sure, I don't even know what else...and he mixed them up.  Then he ground up a cup of crushed peanuts.  The The mixture was supposed to be very dry, but it wasn't because he ended up using a regular onion instead of onion powder so it was wet.  So he added a little bit of oil so the meat could marinate in it.  Anyhow, he put super super thin slices of venison in a bag and let it marinate in the sauce he made for a couple of hours.

Then he soaked some bamboo sticks.

When we were outside for the bonfire last night, (and let me tell you, people, dad has created this AMAZING bonfire area with lanterns hanging and big rocks everywhere and the bonfire itself was BEA-U-TI-FUL!!!! )  he put a grate and propped it up so it was at an angle over the hot coals.  When the coals were piping hot and blazing away, he laced the meat onto the skewers, making sure the meat isn't too tight on there because it cooks more even when it's loosely skewered.  Then he put it on the grate and waited.

I can't even tell you all how divine it was!  The meat was soooo good.  It melted in your mouth.  Plus, it was sort of chewy and crunchy on the outside, and soft in the middle.  The peanuts tasted like they were glazed or something.
We're going to have to make this on a regular basis.  GO DAD!!!!!!!!!!!

Mini Meatloaves

we're totally running out of food, but it's okay because friday is payday...so Liz brought me some hamburger a couple of days ago, and mom brought me a bag of groceries yesterday.  Our lame supper turned out good.
we had mini meatloaves.
I made my normal meatloaf recipe, and put them in a cupcake pan instead of a big loaf pan because mike was starving and i took a nap for too long so i was sleeping when he got home.  anyhow, for the top i mixed sweet and sour sauce, brown sugar, spicey brown mustard, pepper, and ketchup.  then put that on the tops right at the end and broiled them.
it was good...my explanation point doesn't work so i don't seem excited but i really am.  :-)
along with it we had a mixture of canned wax and green beans.  not the highlight of my cooking career.  and we had a salad.
Not too bad for a family with no food.  thanks mom and liz. (exclamation point) :-()

Smoked bbq beef brisket & Red Potato Salad

This one was not fully my making.  Oh wait...all I did is sit there and look cute while dad did it all.  :-)  (jk) Anyhow, we had this GINORMOUS brisket, so dad trimmed the fat off until there was 1/4" or less of fat all over the whole thing.  Then we cut it in 3rds because it was so big and we needed it finished in 6 hours instead of 8.
Let me tell you, a brisket is SO tough.  We baked it for a few hours on 350 in beef boullion, and apple cider.  We could hardly poke the fork in, it was like leather!
So we cooked it longer another 2 hours after dipping it in a "mop" sauce dad made of...um....like apple cider, tomato sauce, can of diced tomatoes, garlic, salt, cumin, chili powder, whiskey, and brown sugar.  We let it boil down a lot.
Then dad cut up some maple wood and put that in the smoker.  He kept dunking the meat in the sauce every 30 minutes or so, but it was DONE at an hour more.  So I guess he only did it a couple of more times.  It was sooo tender!
We decided to chop it up and put it on some fresh chewy buns.  SSSOOOO good!  Our first brisket was a total success.  We watered the "mop sauce" down with more apple cider because it was super strong, and used that to moisten the meat after it was chopped up.
We had red potato salad with it.  I took red potatoes, cooked and chopped them up, and added diced red onion, celery, zucchini, green onion, and a BUNCH of hard boiled eggs because I love hard boiled eggs in my potato salad.  And for the sauce, I did it was 2/3 greek yogurt and 1/3 mayonnaise to make it more healthy with more protein.  I also added sweet relish, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, and dill.  Only a little big of dill though.
Everyone loved it!  The potato salad just needed more sauce.  Too dry.  But that can be fixed.  And the greek yogurt was good in it too.  Y'all should try this one.