My husband is making ribs today, lucky us 🙂 I’m off the hook for the main dish today, so I’m going to share my very favorite homemade bbq sauce recipe with you. Plus I tried this bacon pimento cheese potato salad recipe from closetcooking, and I really liked it so I hope you will too. I put a few of my own touches on it as usual 🙂
I also wanted to make my kids this iced coffee boba drink I had floating around my head this week and today seemed like a good day for that since it is hot and summery out. Boba is easy and so fun to make at home, especially for kids. You can buy the tapioca pearls on amazon and all you have to do it boil them, drain and rinse and add to your drinks. You do need special big straws though, because they won’t fit in a normal straw. Or you can eat them out with a spoon at the end, but part of the fun is sucking them up through the straw. These are the boba and straws I have:
BBQ Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups ketchup
- 1 14 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup molasses (or more to taste, I like molasses a lot)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- few dashes of liquid smoke
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
- 1 tsp celery salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 -1 tsp salt (to taste)
- some ground black pepper
Combine everything in a sauce pan, stir and allow to simmer about an hour. Cool and pour into a canning jar or other container. Store in the fridge. This sauce freezes very well too.
Potato Salad:
- 1 1/2 lbs potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces, peeled or not peeled up to you
- 4-8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (see my post on oven cooking your bacon!)
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- few dashes of hot sauce
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 7 oz jar pimentos, drained and chopped
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 4 scallions sliced
Put the potatoes into a large pot and cover with water and add some salt. Cook until the potatoes are just tender, around 10-12 minutes. Drain and run them under cold water to cool them.
In a large bowl, combine all the rest of the ingredients. Toss potatoes in this mixture, taste, and season with additional salt, spices, vinegar, mayo, etc to your taste. We like vinegar a lot so I added a little extra. Store in the fridge and let warm up a little before serving.
Boba Iced Coffee (per drink):
Where do you all stand on alternative milks? 3 out of the 5 of us in my house don’t tolerate dairy well, so we love them. I mostly use almond milk, but we recently tried oatly oat milk and it is so creamy. I used that for these drinks but you can use whatever you prefer in your coffee.
- 1 tbsp instant espresso or decaf instant espresso (I used decaf)
- 1 tbsp coffee syrup of your choice (I used salted caramel)
- 1/2 cup cooked tapioca pearls (boba) – cook according to the package
- 3/4 -1 cup milk, half and half, or nut or oat milk
- ice
Put the espresso powder into a mug or heat proof cup and mix with 2 oz of boiling water to dissolve it. Add some ice and stir to get it cold. Put your sugar syrup and boba into your serving cup and mix them around to let the boba absorb a little of the syrup. Add your cooled coffee and then add some ice and the milk. Stir everything and taste to see if you want to adjust the sugar/milk. Serve with a boba straw!
Sounds delicious !!