I just wanted to share some more outdoor recipes for the BBQ season… these are just grill recipes and therefore do NOT qualify as barbecue. (Barbecue requires smoke)

Anyway, here are a couple great grill recipes for your stoner asses to try out while you burn a Jay in the back yard:
Chronic’s Cubano-style pork tenderloin:

This is a recipe that you have to start the night before… give the meat a full 12 hours in this marinade for best results. (it’s good for 2 tenderloins..,they’re always 2 to a pack)

You’ll need:

The juice of 2 limes

1/4 cup of orange juice

1/4 cup olive oil

5 cloves of minced/diced garlic (if you’ve got it in a jar, use a couple heaping tablespoons)

1 medium onion (diced/minced)

1 tablespoon dried cilantro leaves (or a bunch of diced fresh cilantro if you’ve got it)

1 teaspoon each of: Salt, cumin, black pepper

put all this stuff in a big-ass zip-lock and mush it around… throw the pork into the bag, cover it, seal it and throw it in the fridge.

Take the meat out of the fridge a full hour before cooking and let it get up to room temperature. Preheat the grill to ultra hot, throw the tenderloins on the grill.. they’re supposed to be 3-sided, if you can clearly see the 3 sides, do 3-4 minutes on each of the 3… if it seems more like only a 2-sided cut, do it for 5-7 minutes on each side.

Chronic Grilled HOT wings:

This recipe is good for about 18-20-ish wings and is another one that’s better if you give the wings a full 12 hours to soak up the marinade.

1 cup hot sauce (red cayenne hot sauce, Louisiana style or something)

1 stick of melted butter (margarine)

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

5 cloves diced/minced garlic (2 heaping tablespoons)

1 tablespoon each: onion powder, salt, black pepper, sugar

combine all that stuff in a big bowl… pour
half of it into a giant zip-lock and add the chicken to the bag… mix it all around, squeeze out all the air and get all the pieces covered.

Save the other half of the sauce for basting.

Cook these on a lower temperature grill, something like 300 degrees and keep the lid on ‘em. bast ‘em every 5-10 minutes and flip ‘em regularly… They’ll take 30 minutes or so to cook on this low temperature with all the flipping and heat-loss, but the end result is well worth the time and trouble.

Chronic’s simple burger seasoning:

Make up a batch of this and it’ll last you through a couple good grilling sessions… probably does 15-ish 1/4 pound burgers.

2 tablespoons onion powder

1 tablespoon each: garlic powder, black pepper, salt

1 teaspoon each: chili powder, dried thyme, sugar

I keep a shaker at home and at the studio.

Try these out, yo!

I’ve really gotten into barbecue in the past couple years. It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed, but in recent years I’ve taken it to the next level, forming a competitive barbecue team with a couple buddies.

We’ve experimented with a wide variety of different rubs and sauces over the past several months and I thought I’d share a few of my favorites with you. Here they are:

Chronic’s sauceless (Memphis style) ribs:

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons each: black Pepper, mustard powder

1 tablespoon each: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, dried thyme leaves

1 teaspoon: chili powder

1/2 teaspoon each: cumin, ground sage

combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the slab.

Smoke the ribs at 200-225 degrees for 8-12 hours. You’ll need a blend of wood and charcoal for the smoking process. I like to use pure oak charcoal with large hickory chunks and some smaller apple chips. Depending on where you are in the world and what time of year it is, you may want to soak your wood prior to smoking to maintain a cool enough temp… but if you’re doing this in the winter, soaking your chips is kinda pointless. (You’ll know the ribs are done when the bones are sticking out 1/4″ or so past the meat on the small side of the rack) when you pull these off the smoker the ribs will be so tender you can pull each bone clean out of the slab without disturbing any of the meat around them.

No sauce on this recipe… if you’re having trouble maintaining a low enough temperature you might want to have a little spray bottle to keep the bark moist.

—

Chronic’s (Carolina Style) Pork Shoulder/butt:

*For a full shoulder double the below recipes*

Rub:

2 tablespoons each: chili powder, mustard powder, black pepper, salt

1 tablespoon each : paprika, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, brown sugar

Sauce:

1/2 cup each: white vinegar, apple juice, dijon mustard

2 tablespoons each: ketchup, hot sauce (use a cayenne or habanero based sauce), honey

1 tablespoon each: worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, chili powder, cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon each: ground red pepper, ground sage, dried thyme leaves

Combine all these ingredients on the stove and bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down to as low as it will go. take like 1/3 of the sauce and mix it with an equal amount of water in a separate container. (This watered down sauce is your mop sauce, the stuff on the stove is the sauce you serve)

Apply the rub to the pork shoulder (If you bought a half-shoulder/roast that came wrapped in a twine net, I highly suggest taking this off before seasoning the shoulder and if the meat’s having trouble staying together, use a kabob skewer or two to hold it together. There’s NOTHING as messy as cutting those nets away after cooking)

you’ll want a slightly warmer fire for the shoulder because you’ll be opening the smoker regularly to mop the meat, and lots of heat will escape during this process. (I usually aim for 250 degrees with a shoulder, but it’s nice and fatty so it can take the heat as long as you put it as far from the actual fire as you can) If it’s a whole bone-in shoulder it may take as long as 12-14 hours… and you’re gonna want to mop it once an hour or so… if it’s a half shoulder/butt/roast it may be done in as little as 6-7 hours. Since this is a long smoke I recommend using milder wood… I generally use a blend of apple, hickory and oak on everything… for this smoke, i’d go heavy on the oak and light on the hickory and apple.

When it’s done, pull it off and let it rest for 15-20 minutes… the bigger the cut, the longer it needs to rest (Logic! yea!!11one) then shred that bitch up with a couple forks. serve it on whatever kind of bread you want, slather some sauce over it and chow down.

Try these out and let me know what you think… I’ll have more recipes to share soon!

This year marks my first year of actually trying to actually make it as an entrepreneur. I’m pouring 100% of my time and energy into popfreeradio.com and I’ve never been happier. After years of screwing around I finally feel like I’ve found a project I can pour myself into.

I was recognized this year by The Pitch as The Best Of Kansas City 2007: Best Online Radio Personality. It was seriously the single most-unexpected honor I’ve ever received.

2008 may not bring critical acclaim, but it feels like we’re on track for BIG things. The popfreeradio.com crew is incredible. I’ve managed to assemble an amazing group of people to help develop this project since the very beginning and it gets better and better every day. Thanks to their hard-work and your insight the site has grown from a dormant dot-com in september of 2007 to one of the biggest alternative radio stations anywhere on the internet.

I have every intention of geting back in the habit of updating this site every day… I’m just a lazy pothead… Please keep sending questions and I’ll be sure to answer them. If you’re looking for advice between 3:20 and 7:00pm central, you can ask-a-pothead on-air by calling 816-355-2315. (your call may be aired on popfreeradio.com)

It’s been nearly a year since I updated this site… I’ve been busy. I launched popfreeradio.com on 10/31/06, and have been completely absorbed in this project ever since. So far the station has streamed to almost a quarter of a million people, and we’re starting to get some local recognition. The station was mentioned 3 times in the Pitch in the past few months along with some of the better-known blogs in town including Tony’s Kansas City and we’ve been invited to do remote broadcasts around town including a weekly broadcast from El Torreon every Friday night. We pulled off our first show on May 12th: Cloud Cult, Shudder and Tripp Algiers at Davey’s Uptown. We’re planning a second show for September. This one willgo all day long, be 100% local, and feature at least 10 bands. We recently acquired a station van and office space which we’ll be moving into in the next 60-ish days. I finally purchased some professional broadcasting software and have started programming our 26,000 songs into it. (At this point the stuff in the heaviest rotation should play around once every 7 hours… stuff in the lowest rotation will play once every 51 days.)

That does it for station updates… here’s something completely unrelated: I was 36 inches and 30 seconds from beating the shit out of an old man last night. I was coming home from my parents house (I work today, so we did the father’s day stuff for my dad yesterday) and as I drove westbound on 83rd street I was followed by a silver BMW. The speed-limit is 30mph on this street, and I was doin’ around 34-ish. The dude in this beamer was evidently in a HUGE hurry though… on my bumper honking and flipping me the bird. So naturally I slow down… if 34 is too slow, I’m sure 20’s gonna be fun… at 20, the honking picks up… so I drop down to about 15. This pisses him off more and the honking and hand-gestures pick up even more… As I crossed metcalf, dude held the horn… a solid 15-20 second hoooooooooooooooooonk. at this point I say fuck it. I come to a cpomplete and total stop in the middle of the street and put the vehicle in park. Beamer-guy has whipped a right turn into the mr Gyros parking lot, but there’s no one behind me so I jump back in the van and back up so I can pull into the parking lot behind him and block his car in his parking space. “What the fuck is your problem? What’s the hurry? Is there a medical emergency? Does your car have a short that makes your horn honk randomly?”

Dude gets out of his car at this point and I started actually laughing at him. (I couldn’t help it) He stands 5′5″-ish and has around a 40-inch waist and thick-black-rimmed glasses.. He starts telling me I don’t know how to drive and that obviously I have no life and that I should have my lights on… I yelled at him for 3-4 minutes and each time I tried to get within 3 feet of him, he ducked behind the glass door to Mr Gyros. (not that I really would have hit him, but I was gettin’-off on watching him flinch and the smell/taste of fear coming from him).
br> Anyway, a couple random diners at the restaurant see all this going down and come outside to try to calm things down (and I was starting to calm down at this point anyway…I’d yelled for 3-4 minutes, and knew without having to throw a punch that this man was terrified) and just kind of got between us and started talking and blah blah blah it all ended… I made a comment about getting his license plate number, and told him to feel free to note my license plate number…. he thought that had something to do with calling the cops or something and didn’t really catch the message I was trying to convey… but anyway that license plate number is Missouri: 113 NZZ or maybe 133 NZZ. It’s a 2002?-2003? beamer coup… If you see this jackass on the road, have some fun with him!

“The Contortionists” is reminiscent of the kind of 70’s era ambient-esque that Air produced for the movie “The Virgin Suicides.” Circling piano medleys and the chorusing of voices makes this one a winner as well. Of course, i’m a sucker for some good chill out sounding stuff.

The myspace tracklisting was somewhat cut of, but i’m assuming the next track was called “Buildings and Mountains.” It’s got a folksy driving feel to it with a steady kick from the drums moving it along. The effects on the vocals aren’t overdone, which is nice as a lot of bands of late have relied too heavily on excess electronics. The Republic Tigers meld it nicely so that neither the live instrumentation or the electronics being used take the front or back seat. Both gel together beautifully and without overpowering each other.

“Sinkin Annie Down” was probably the most memorable song for me, primarily because newer bands refuse to take cues from older soul records from the early to late 70’s. There is a chorus round that opens up this song that’s absolutely astounding and beautiful.

This is a band that will take a certain amount of open-mindedness to enjoy. If you like the later Radiohead releases, you’ll definitely be able to enjoy this. Don’t expect outrageous guitar solos or the infusion of punk/funk/dance that seems so prevalent in new bands now. This is one to sip mojitos on the porch to some sunday afternoon.

Out of 5 Spliffs possible, I give this a 7 Spliff rating. It’s just that good (and they’re Kansas City local! BIG UPS!)

The Republic Tigers can be heard on their myspace site at: Myspace.com/therepublictigers. Their new site, TheRepublicTigers.com is in the works now too.

Written by Bucho