Mr. Hawthorne Uses Storebought BBQ Sauce And Rosie Makes Her Own BBQ Sauce For Her Boneless ChickenThighs. And The Hawthornes Are At Odds.

Mr. Hawthorne and I went to Harris Teeter Monday to pick up a few items. I had pulled a package of chicken thigh fillets out of my deep freeze and wanted to do a barbecue chicken. By the way, we'd bought the chicken thighs on sale (I know. Big surprise.) and they were $1.99/pound for boneless thighs. I was stunned when Mr. Hawthorne went to the pickle and ketchup aisle and started checking out Barbecue Sauces. Why? Oh why, Mr. Hawthorne? I was going to make a barbecue sauce on my own, so I didn't know why he was picking out commercial sauces. He said he wanted to "experiment." Whatever. I wanted to make my own.

My ingredients: 1 heaping TB minced garlic (about 4 cloves) 3/4 cup chopped onion (1 medium onion) 1 15 oz. can tomato sauce 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup molasses 1/8 cup dark corn syrup 1/4 cup Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce 1 tsp ground mustard seeds 1 tsp hot paprika 2 tsp Stubb's Hickory Liquid Smoke Saute the onion and garlic in 1 TB olive oil over medium heat for about 1 minute. Turn heat to low and add in rest of ingredients. Barely simmer for about 1 hour, uncovered, occasionally scraping down sides, letting the sauce thicken and the flavors develop.

Onions and garlic in olive oil for about 1 minute over medium heat, stirring.

Tomato sauce went in.

Brown sugar.

Cider vinegar.

Molasses.

Dark corn syrup.

Lea & Perrins.

Ground mustard seeds.

Hot paprika.

Hickory Liquid Smoke.

Barely simmer over very low hear for about an hour, uncovered, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom and sides. You want to let the sauce thicken and the flavors develop. Brush the barbecue sauce over the meat during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Before cooking his boneless chicken thighs,

Mr. Hawthorne seasoned them with salt and pepper, Cajun seasoning, and Creole seasoning. Here's the extent of Mr. Hawthorne's "experimentation." After about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven, he poured on Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce. These went back in the oven for 15 more minutes.

Before cooking, I seasoned my thigh fillets with salt and pepper, cayenne, Old Bay seasoning, and a few drops of Texas Pete and Stubb's Hickory Liquid Smoke. After cooking the thighs for 30 minutes, I brushed on my BBQ sauce.

During the last 15 minutes of cooking, Mr. Hawthorne peeled and sliced some apples, sauteed the slices in butter, and added a bit of cinnamon and sugar.

And he sauteed some asparagus spears.

Mr. Hawthorne's BBQ (or I should say, Jack Daniel's BBQ) on the left. Rosie's on the right.

Here's my plate with both BBQ's on it. Mr. Hawthorne's chicken is top left. My chicken is top right. I thought the Jack Daniels was a good barbecue sauce, but it had a monotone flavor of hickory smoke. The hickory smoke permeated and I felt it left it a bit one-dimensional. I liked my BBQ sauce better. It had a dimension of flavors and a complexity to it, plus I liked the heat of the hot paprika and the Texas Pete and the cayenne. Mr. Hawthorne stubbornly refused to try mine since he knew the Jack Daniels was better. Silly man. You know, I could have made mine more like the Jack Daniels. I could have poured the whole bottle of Hickory Smoke into the pan.

Dixie is happy. No other puppies here and her Mama and Daddy are finally back home.

And don't ask me about the two recipe cards below. Yes I know there are two. And if I knew how to fix it, there'd only be one. So don't ask me. Damn computers.

Salmon Two Ways.

We're having salmon. Neither one of us is particularly fond of salmon, but some friends gave it to us and I'm going to give it a shot.

The first thing you have to do is remove that blood vein.

Mr. H. sliced neatly right behind the bones and removed both the bones and the vein.

Then he carefully felt along the fillet and pulled out the rest of the bones.

And here's my fillet, ready for me to somehow make it taste not like salmon.

Like I said, neither one of us really likes salmon, but when anyone offers us free food, we're going to take it. I cut the salmon into three pieces and I'm going to marinate one piece and cook that later. The other two pieces will be done different ways for our dinner.

First, Mr. Xmaskatie was kind enough to share his recipe with me.

I went out and picked parsley, thyme, cilantro, and fennel.

I placed all the herbs in my Magic Bullet along with some garlic, onion, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Blend away.

This was a really good sauce that I'll be making again to use on something I haven't thought of yet. You should try it. You can taste every ingredient - the freshness and greeness of the herbs, the sweetness of the honey, the bite of the onion and garlic, all combining to produce a happy, aromatic marriage of flavors.

My ingredients: salmon salt & pepper Cajun seasoning herbal blend

Season the fillet with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning.

Then smear the herbal paste on top.

Bake for 5-10 minutes at 350, then give it a quick broil. Now for my second salmon. Sara, of Sara's Kitchen suggested Coconut Crusted Salmon with Tamarind Barbecue Sauce. Excellent, since I had no idea what to do with the rest of my tamarind and I was looking for suggestions. Thanks again, Sara.

For those of you who don't know what tamarind pods look like, here they are. Should you want to try them, look for them in the Hispanic section of your grocery store.

Inside the pods is a sweet, sticky pulp.

After removing the shell, peel off the stringy fibers.

To make the tamarind extract, I poured 1 cup of boiling water over the tamarind pulp and let it sit, covered, for one hour.

Drain the tamarind mixture, reserving liquid.

Terribly appetizing, isn't it?

Return the pulp back to the pan and pour 1/2 cup boiling water over top.

Stir to combine.

Pour tamarind likker through the sieve.

Press tamarind mixture through sieve, reserving liquid and discarding solids.

Here's the final product - tamarind extract. It's sweet. It's sour. It'll make your mouth turn inside out.

The ingredients for Tamarind Barbecue Sauce: 1 tsp canola oil 1/2 cup chopped shallots 1 TB grated ginger 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 TB tomato paste 1 cup hot water 3 TB tamarind extract 1/2 tsp brown sugar 1/4 tsp ground red pepper 1 TB soy sauce 1/2 tsp dark sesame oil

Here are my chopped shallots, minced garlic, and grated ginger.

Heat canola oil over medium high heat. Add shallots and saute for 2 minutes.

Add ginger and garlic and saute for a minute, stirring constantly.

Add in the tomato paste, stirring constantly for 1 minute.

Add in the water.

Tamarind extract.

Brown sugar.

Red pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce.

Finally add in sesame oil. And the barbecue sauce is ready.

Ingredients for the salmon: 3 TB panko 3 TB coconut 1/8 tsp ground turmeric 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/4 tsp ground coriander 1/4 freshly ground pepper

I mixed all the ingredients together, since I didn't read the recipe that closely. The recipe said to sprinkle the salmon with salt, coriander, and pepper, then dredge in the panko, coconut, and turmeric mixture. I don't think it made any difference.

But I went ahead and seasoned the salmon with the salt, pepper, and coriander.

Then dredged the fillet in the panko mixture.

I sauteed the fillet, skin side up in olive oil and butter for about 2 minutes.

Then I turned the fillet over and placed the pan in a 400 degree oven for about 6 minutes.

Here are both salmon fillets.

My plate. And darn it, I forgot to put the sauce on it.

Ahh. There's the barbecue sauce.

I must say this is a colorful dish. The pink in the background is from just a tad bit of red cabbage Mr. H. put into his coleslaw. After one day, it turns the whole batch pink.

Now, remember. Neither one of us likes salmon, but I liked both dishes. I liked the herbalicious goodness of Mr. Xmaskatie's salmon and I liked the sweet coconut with the tartness of the tamarind sauce on the salmon recipe Sara sent me. When I told Mr. Hawthorne that I was using coconut on the salmon, he was very skeptical. As for Mr. H., he declared both dishes "different." That was pretty much the extent of his comments. Then later, after he'd had time to think and digest, he approached me with one of the stupidest questions a man can ever ask: "Can I just say something without you getting mad at me?" I gave him the look but he continued anyway. Mr. H: "You know how you don't like it when I put A1 on a steak?" R: "Yes. Why would anyone want to crap up a steak with that stuff?" Mr. H: "Well, that's what you've done with the salmon. Just like you tell me the A1 masks the flavor of the steak, the stuff you put on the salmon masks the taste of the salmon." R: "Well, duh. That's the whole point."