Fire Up The Grill, It's Time For... Tony D’s Fireman’s Chicken Barbeque

With spring around the corner my mind turns to the great outdoors. I think of gardening, fishing, walks along the lake shore and of course, BBQing! I don’t think there is a better dish on the planet then the chicken you get at a good old fashioned Fireman’s field days. This meal served up with fresh corn on the cob and salt potatoes is my little slice of heaven. I have made this a million times with no complaints. Here’s how I do it…

THE CHICKEN:

Get some nice chicken quarters or half’s with leg attached but any pieces will work.

THE SAUCE:

This is the famous sauce created at Cornell University's Farm Home Extension in the 1950's.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups vinegar
1 cup oil
1 egg
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
black pepper to taste

PREPARATION:

Put Ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. I use a wide mouth water bottle that I got at the dollar store. Add all ingredients and shake like heck. Marinate chicken in sauce for at least 1-2 hours, overnight is better. Don’t marinate more than one night or you will have chicken pickles. Discard marinade.

COOKING:

I prefer indirect cooking in a charcoal grill with lid and smoking woods but this will work with any type of grill. If you are doing them on a gas grill and you want the inside to be perfect without burning the outside, the secret is to par boil the chicken for a few minutes then place on the grill over medium heat.

You can get some smoke flavor even on a gas grill. Soak your wood chips for 20 minutes in water then place in a foil pouch with holes punched in it and place on burner. Experiment with different woods until you find the flavor th

at you like. I like apple for this recipe. The nice thing woods do is add flavor without adding salt.

Turn chicken frequently until done basting with sauce that you didn’t use for marinade and voila you’re done. Another "secret" recipe revealed via the internet.

Tony D's Sunday Gravy

Way back when, long before the distractions of the internet, hi def TV, and iPods, families actually sat down and ate dinner together. Sunday night was the BIG night when you pulled out all the stops and the cooking started before noon. Growing up in an Italian household in Brooklyn in the 60’s, we looked forward to it. Pasta was macaroni and tomato sauce was gravy and that was that. And Wednesday was definitely not Prince Spaghetti day, no matter what the TV told you. My father was the cook and he had 4 sons to do the prep and clean up work. It would all start with us sitting on kitchen chairs with a big stock pot between our legs and we would have to push tomatoes through a colander to separate the skin and seeds from the pulp. There is nothing like gravy from fresh tomatoes but here is the short cut using canned that you can make year round.

Ingredients

1 can of tomato paste
3 cans 28oz crushed tomatoes
Chopped garlic
Crushed Oregano
Crushed Basil
Red Wine
Pork sausage, hot or mild or hunk of pork loin
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese, grated

Start by pouring some olive oil in the bottom of the pot, using medium heat, brown the sausage until almost done. Remove sausage and drain on paper towels.They will get finished later. Leave oil in pot. Put chopped garlic in pan, as much as you feel comfortable with. Don’t over do the spices as you can’t take them out but you can add more later. If you use the jarred chopped garlic, use about half a teaspoon. Sauté until slightly brown and then add can of tomato paste. Don’t fry the garlic past golden or it will caramelize and take on a nutty flavor. Cook the paste and garlic together, stirring constantly until hot. Pour in all three cans of tomatoes and stir together. Reduce heat to low and leave uncovered. Cook this for one hour, stirring occasionally. Sauce should have reduced by 1/3 at this point. Now add a few healthy shakes of the oregano, basil, and parmesan cheese. Pour a few dashes of the red wine in. You can also use cooking wine available at the supermarket but that’s no fun ‘cause you’ve got nothing to drink while you make this! Watch the pot and stir for the next hour or until it has further reduced and gravy is thick. You can now add back the sausage you browned or add meatballs you’ve already made. Some info from the guy that was there: If you remember in the Godfather, Clemenza, added sugar to his gravy. Do that here and I will come over to your house and hit you with a wooden spoon. In GoodFella’s it was onions, try it, and I’ll be back with the spoon.

Anyway, there it is. Let me know how it comes out. Maybe next time we’ll make the meatballs!

Tony D's Meatloaf and Gravy

Remember pulling into a roadside diner with the blinking “Eats” or “Mom’s Home Cooking” neon sign? Well so do I. Even better yet, I was a short order cook in one of those joints back in the 70’s. The diner had been there since 1930 with the same owner and the customers raved about our meatloaf. Here’s how I did it.

Ingredients for two servings

1 lb ground beef 80/20

One egg

Milk

Bread crumbs, I prefer Italian seasoned

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Flour

Beef bouillon or two cans of beef broth

Gravy Master 1 teaspoon

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Get out a big bowl and break the egg and add a splash of milk like you are going to make scrambled eggs. Whisk until yellow. Dump in ground beef and mix together. Add a good dash of bread crumbs so that you can’t see the top of the meat. Sprinkle on garlic powder, as much as you like. Give a good shake of onion powder. Throw a little more milk on there and stir the whole mess together until it forms a firm loaf. You can always add bread crumbs or milk to change the consistency. Put in metal loaf pan and place in oven for 45 minutes. Take out and check loaf by piercing top and look for clear juices. You may need to put back in the oven for an additional 15 minutes if you like it well done. Remember you are going to be making gravy that takes about 15 minutes so don’t overcook it yet. Remove loaf from pan, put on serving platter, cover with foil and keep in a warm place. To make the gravy place the loaf pan directly on a stove burner. Here’s the secret to making gravy without lumps. Take four level tablespoons of flour and without turning on the burner, slowly, using another spoon, mix the flour into the pan drippings until you have a paste. If you are using beef broth slowly pour into pan while turning the heat on low. Mix the paste with the broth. If you are using bouillon cubes, add two cups of water and mix. Don’t add cubes yet. Turn heat to high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t boil over. Once it comes to a boil add cubes and smash them down with the flat side of a spoon. If using broth don’t add cubes! Boil gently for 5 minutes and viola…you’re done. And don’t forget, slopping ketchup on top of meatloaf is a felony where I come from, so don’t even try it. Serve with real mashed potato’s and corn with butter. It doesn’t get any better than this!

CARP!

Well it’s spring again, when there is love in the air and a young man’s fancy turns to CARP FISHING! I don’t know much but I do know this… and here is everything from my time tested recipe for carp dough... to how to catch ‘em. Good luck!

Ingredients:
Flour or cheap pancake mix
Corn Meal
Sugar
Cheap Pancake Syrup not the real thing – it’s for the maple smell
Water
Blackstrap Molasses

Take an old coffee can, I don’t why, just superstition, as I have always done it this way, and start with a couple of cups of flour, heave in some good shakes of the corn meal. Don’t worry as you can’t screw this up and you can always add stuff later. Shake sugar in, add maple syrup and molasses. Then add water as need be. You need a good wooden spoon to stir this mess up. Add ingredients as you go to make it like a thick cookie dough and not watery. When you are done you should be able to handle this thing like a big brown stinky softball but not syrupy, if that makes sense. Make sure you use the molasses as the stuff is like tar and will hold the dough ball together in the water. Resist the urge to taste it, because it tastes like crap. Now refrigerate this dough over night.

Now here’s the part nobody tells you about and it has always worked for me when cultivating a new carp hole. You need to go there everyday for a week and just chum the hole. Take balls of the dough and throw them out into the water. Throw 20 of them around and leave. Do this around the same time everyday. I never carp fish in the morning. I always fish in the middle of the day when nothing else is hitting except for these big dumb bastards. After a while you will see them swirling around in the water waiting like idiots for your chum.

When you can’t stand it any longer bring your poles. It’s better with 2 or 3 of your buddies as you have more bait in the water and there is somebody there to back up your incredible carp stories. Always run 2 poles per person stretched out down the shore. You need to always chum the hole with dough. Use a smaller hook then you think like a size 6 and run 8 to 10 pound test maximum. A bigger hook the carp will feel and drop the bait and a heavy line doesn’t cast. It’s all about the tensile strength anyway. I once caught a 27lb carp on an ultra lite with 4lb test so it can be done. I couldn’t lift my arms to scratch my nose for a month but that’s another story altogether.

Remember, chum the hole then form the dough ball around your hook to the size of a Titelist or Maxfli or whatever the hell it is you use on the course. I have no endorsements so I make my dough balls the size of an X out or a water ball that I have pulled out of what ever crappy course I’m on.

Now casting is an art with this or else the dough flies off the hook and becomes more chum. Don’t muscleman cast as much as you kinda of lob it out there. You don’t need to be real far out cause when these bastards get hooked they will handle that for you. I always prop my rods up with sticks or a rod holder so the tip is high and the line snug but not taut. When they start to gum the bait you’ll get some preliminary tugs but wait until a couple of good tugs and then pick up the rod and set the hook. Yell, “FISH ON” so your buddies can pull all their lines in. Make sure your drag is set so they can run or your line will break. Then you have to start working them back to shore like guys on fishing boats by walking backwards or pulling the rod back and reeling in the slack.

What ever you do, don’t pull a Kevin Ashman, or as it’s known by us a KDA. Kevin was a room mate of mine and a fishing buddy who always lowered his rod tip straight at the fish while John Bills yelled, “GET YOUR POLE UP, GET YOUR POLE UP”, ker-snap went his line every time. I haven’t seen Kevin in 20 years and all I can say if your reading this is.... sorry but it’s true.

Make sure you bring a long pole net because you can’t beach big carp, they will just roll over and break the line. Hopefully you will have John Bills there ‘cause he will go diving in after the son of a bitch. It didn’t matter if John had a brand new pair of hundred dollar sneakers on, he was going in and wrestling the rat bastard to shore. I’ve seen him with that look in his eye and I don’t mean the carp. Just don’t get between Bills and a fish or you will get hurt.

When you get him in, lay him on the bank, then you and your buddies can jump up and down yelling, “WILL YA LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT BASTARD” then throw him back and start all over again.

So that’s my trick. Hope it works for you. Let me know how you make out.

For some good info go here http://www.carp.com/

MOVING!

Well, son of a bitch, after 6 weeks I’m finally done. Of course, 90% of what I am looking for is lost in the 2000 boxes I have stashed in the attic, basement and garage. I’m sure like all the other moves in my life, I’ll get around it the same way I always do. Go out, buy it again, and find the packed away one the next day. Part of the reason is my scientific method of specifically and deliberately marking all the cartons with hieroglyphics and cryptic markings. Some of the crates even have those little side ways Egyptian guys and cave drawings of mastodons. It made perfect sense when I loaded them up. Now it’s just gibberish.

Part of the move consisted of numerous trips to goodwill with items like my 9th grade earth science book, a thermal paper fax machine from 1991 and no less than 3 salt and pepper shakers sets still in the box, one in the shape of some black and white cows. What the hell was I thinking when I bought that? The only bad thing is, if the 9th grade calls me back, I can’t go, because I gave away the text book. Then again, I was in 9th grade in 1973 so maybe they have new stuff by now.

And talk about tired. Nothing says “out of shape” like walking up and down steps with boxes and furniture. And shoveling snow. It seems like the minute I get the driveway cleared it starts all over again. I don’t know what I was thinking. I could have stayed in my nice rented townhouse, where magically the sidewalk and driveway shoveled itself. But, nooooooo, I went and bought a house. Next comes the mowing. I don’t know what I hate worse. Freezing while I chop ice off the driveway or sweating to death while I pick hayseeds and flies out of my teeth.

Well at least now, I can do whatever I want to the place. Like paint it purple with a yellow smiley face on the roof, put an anti aircraft gun on the front lawn and point it at my neighbors picture window, tie a barking junkyard dog on a one foot rope to the tree in the front yard, park old cars in various states of de-composition in the driveway, fill an old bathtub with dirty water and start a mosquito pond, let the pennysavers and junk mail pile up under the mailbox into a soaking wet heap, play “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” on repeat and blast it out of the garage for a week straight, run a chain saw at 6AM on Sunday morning. You know. All the things that make for being a good neighbor. Because after all, deep down inside, I’m a people person.

These bastards don’t know what their in for!

ROBOTS!

Well here we go. Another year under our belts. Christmas came and went and I still didn’t get the Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots I’ve wanted since 1967. But that’s a whole other sob story altogether. Since then I have managed to amass a toy and game collection consisting of Operation, Monopoly, Trouble, a hundred different Star Trek and Star Wars figures and no less than 3 Lost in Space robots, two of which say ”Danger Will Robinson Danger!”, but no Rock’Em Sock’Em’s. All the stuff I wanted as a kid and never got. So you ask, “Tony D, why do you have 3 Lost in Space robots? Well, funny you should ask. The story goes back to the 1960’s…

I grew up in a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn New York with 4 brothers and my mother and father. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together. Two brothers on a bunk bed and me and the youngest on a cot in one room. My parents in the other bedroom on the other end of the apartment. The view out my window was into an alley and a brick wall six feet away. To the left was the bedroom window of Paul Fasone, the building rich kid. He had everything. I can still remember his mother standing in the doorway of their apartment telling my mother about his genius IQ. They were those kind of neighbors. What ever was hot at the time he had. Bat Man figurines, a Star Trek phaser that shot little plastic discs, an I Spy brief case, and a Man from U.N.C.L.E. camera that morphed into a gun. And a two foot high Lost In Space robot that lit up. That bastard! I asked to see it once and he pulls it away and says, “No!” Spoiled freakin’ brat that he was. Meanwhile my best toy is a broom handle that I point at the city bus when it goes up our street and I make believe that I’m Vic Morrow on “Combat!” shooting at a German tank.

Of course none of the stuff did him any good as he couldn’t hit a ball in a straight line with his brand new Louisville Slugger, catch a pop fly with his genuine leather Mickey Mantle baseball glove, or throw a spiral with his official Joe Nameth football. He might have had all the toys but he was nothing but a nerd, a dufus, a spazz. Everybody knows a guy like this.

One of my favorite memories of Paul is of him showing up at our street hockey world series in the middle of 10th street. We’re using sticks that we took out of the hockey rink garbage cans and are holding them together with tape. We have the foam from sofa cushions that we found on the curb strapped to our legs, and key skates clamped to our Keds with a roll of black electrical tape for a puck and gloves that we stole off a Con Ed truck. He is dressed up in the complete goalie outfit of a New York Ranger. Helmet, hard chaps, shoe skates, everything. What an asshole!

We weren’t gonna let this get by us. He didn’t last ten minutes. He got a few well deserved body checks and then he ran home crying to his mommy. That was the end of his Bobby Orr fantasy and we never saw the suit again.

So now when people ask me why I have 3 Lost In Space robots in my living room, I tell them the story and the lesson, “WHO HAS THE ROBOT NOW PAUL FASONE. ME THAT’S WHO. YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

It's beginning to look a lot like the day after Christmas