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Celebrate June’s Happy Memories
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June is a month of Happy Memories to celebrate. Think about weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and reunions with your school chums. Recall summer picnics, backyard barbecues, cook-offs, and festivals. Join the rest of the nation celebrating Flag Day, Juneteenth, and Father’s Day.
Those happy thoughts will make you smile and feel connected to the people to whom you are the closest. Join us today as we remember those happy times and chat with Pitmaster Ed Mitchell as he shares his barbeque memories and recipes.
June is the Month of Happy Memories
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Happy Memories: Festivals and Cooking/Baking Competitions
Cheese Lover’s Barbecue Bread Twists
Gloria Piantek’s 2023 Grand Prize-winning recipe, a perfect party snack, uses three types of cheese.
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About the Recipe: This delicious party snack bread uses three types of cheese, sweet and smoky seasoning rub, and crunchy smoked almonds. Just twist the circular dough into 20 BBQ onion twists let it rise, bake until golden, and add melted cheese in the middle. Like magic, it becomes the tasty centerpiece for your party that can be served with chili, soup, or with your favorite appetizers.
See More – Cheese Lover’s Barbecue Bread Twists
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Happy Memories: Wedding/Anniversaries.
Icelandic ‘Happy Marriage’ cake (Hjónabandssæla)
A sweet bar cookie dessert that is a traditional Icelandic marriage gift.
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About the Recipe: The recipe is called a cake, but it really is more like a dense fruit filled bar cookie or crisp. It is very sweet so using rhubarb jam balances the flavor. We served it as a dessert with lots of sliced fresh strawberries and plain Greek yogurt. It was a delicious partner for a cup of hot coffee or tea.
See More – Icelandic ‘Happy Marriage’ cake (Hjónabandssæla)
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Happy Memories: Barbeque or Barbecue
Ed’s Mouthwatering Baby Back Ribs
Ed’s winning ribs are moist, fall-off-the-bone, delicious.
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About the Recipe: These ribs are so delicious that they defeated Bobby Flay’s ribs on the Food Network television show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Step-by-step directions guide you to smoke the racks for two hours, then steam them with vinegar sauce for a few minutes, dry them out again with more rub and smoke, resulting in moist, fall-off-the-bone flavorful ribs.
See More – Ed’s Mouthwatering Baby Back Ribs
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Happy Memories: Barbeque or Barbecue
Country Boy Chew Bread
Brown sugar pecan squares were a country-boy rendition of brownies
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About the Recipe: This recipe is amazing! When I saw that it doesn’t use any butter, oil, flavorings, or spices, I thought it would never work, but guess what, it did. The little brown sugar pecan squares bake, yielding a dense brownie-textured softness that makes them chewy, and sweet caramel delicious. The bonus is that they use very simple ingredients and don’t need any fancy frosting to create tasty, sweet snacks.
See More – Country Boy Chew Bread
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Ed Mitchell – Whole Hog Pitmaster
Ed Mitchell is an American pitmaster and businessman. He makes frequent media appearances and advocates for the use of heritage bred pork, which earned him the title of the most famous pitmaster in North Carolina. Mitchell has appeared in Bon Appetit magazine and on the Food Network’s “Throwdown with Babby Flay” which he won, and National Geographic.
Pitmaster Ed Mitchell said, “For me, barbeque has always been synonymous with happy times…..’those barbeques are still fixed in my memory…I still associate barbeque with that time in my life when color, ethnicity, religion, and gender didn’t matter. What mattered was that together, we were working on and celebrating something bigger than ourselves.” Quote from Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque p. 67, 2023 Harper Collins Publishers
Photo Credit: Baxter Milner
Ed Mitchell has been cooking whole hog barbecue the traditional way since he was a teenager in Wilson, North Carolina. After his education, military duty and working in Industry, he returned home to help his mother with their grocery business. As his business expanded, his reputation grew, and Ed became a founding pitmaster of the 15th annual Big Apple Block Party. In 2009, he was invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City. Ed was featured in “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, that became a New York Times’ best seller and was also in a Netflix’s documentary film. Ed headlined the Churrascada Festival in San Paolo Brazil and hosted a barbecue master class at the 20th Annual International Food and Wine Festival in Melbourne, Australia. His newest restaurant is opening in Raleigh, North Carolina this summer.
Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque is Ed and his son Ryan Mitchell’s new cookbook. It’s filled with easy, great-tasting recipes and short stories about the Mitchells’ story over four generations. It’s a celebration of a family’s heritage and the foods that nourished them through good times and hard times. It shares recipes for traditional barbecue dishes that turn humble ingredients into delectable main dishes, side dishes and even desserts.
The book can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine bookstores across the US.
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Happy Memories: Juneteenth Celebration
Momma’s Greens
Byron Motley shared Momma’s special secret–just add a variety of greens
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About the Recipe: The type of greens used will change the flavor of the side dish. We used mild greens with collards and cooked it in bone broth. Later, we added smoked meats and sauteed onions. We didn’t add hot pepper or any vinegar, which are used in many recipes. We loved the mild smoky flavor of the greens and broth. Pearline’s cornbread is very crispy and is delicious served with collards.
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Happy Memories: Summer Picnics
Creamy Smoked Potato Salad
Ryan Mitchell calls it “I don’t Eat Everybody’s Potato Salad”.
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About the Recipe: I’ve tasted many potato salads but none of them were as delicious as this recipe. The creamy, light mustard potato salad had a different texture from the chunks of potato styled dishes. It is dotted with green onions, sweet pickles, boiled eggs, and bacon. There is a faint touch of smoky flavor that teases you into having “just one more scoop.”
See More – Creamy Smoked Potato Salad
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Happy Memories: Picnics
Blue Cheese Wedge Salad with Pork BBQ
Fresh crisp wedges of lettuce are garnished with a touch of BBQ.
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About the Recipe: The lettuce wedge salad is one of the most popular dishes at Ed Mitchell’s Raleigh restaurant. It is a fun way to serve healthy BBQ with some added veggies on the side. We topped our salad with torn pieces of pork BBQ and then drizzled it lightly with warm BBQ sauce. It was a refreshing summer supper, and we loved the crisp lettuce with the blue cheese dressing.
See More – Blue Cheese Wedge Salad with Pork BBQ
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Happy Memories: Festivals
Southern-Style Baked Beans
This full-of-flavor side dish is tasty, convenient, and easy to make.
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About the Recipe: I find that canned beans can also make delicious baked beans. When I made this recipe, I combined the flavors that Ed Mitchell used when he beat Bobbie Flay, just smaller amounts. It is a summertime side dish that’s full of flavor.
See More – Southern-Style Baked Beans
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Happy Memories: Reunions
Chili Crisp Double Potato Focaccia
Soft textured potato flatbread topped flavored with crisp spicy garlic and potato slices.
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About the Recipe: Golden mashed potatoes make the focaccia bread soft and moist, like fresh country bread. Spicy chili crisp oil adds toasted garlic and hot chili flavor to the cooked potato slices. nestled in a crunchy cheese topping. A few basil leaves and some drizzles of sour cream makes it extra special.
See More – Chili Crisp Double Potato Focaccia
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Happy Memories: Graduations
High Style Buffalo Chicken Party Skewers
Party perfect appetizer that’s easy-to-make and loaded with fun-loving flavor
Photo Courtesy Kraft® Cream Cheese
About the Recipe: This is an eye-catching appetizer that’s attractive, easy to make, and loaded with fun-loving flavor. It adds a touch of elegance to buffalo chicken served uptown style. Great for a party!
See More – High Style Buffalo Chicken Party Skewers
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Happy Memories: Graduations
Southern Sorghum Roasted Salmon
Lightly glazed super moist roasted citrus flavored salmon supper dish.
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About the Recipe: These fresh citrus flavored salmon fillets are easy to cook and prepare. They are coated with a light sorghum sweetness and spiced with whole grain mustard. They are a healthy protein and delicious, served on a bed of braised medley of onions, mushroom, and chard greens. Pair the dish with golden sweet potato mash.
See More – Southern Sorghum Roasted Salmon
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Happy Memories: Father’s Day
Crunchy Pretzel ‘N Lager Beer Bundt Cake
Treat Dad to an old-fashioned moist cake filled with flavor.
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About the Recipe: Treat Dad to an old-fashioned Bundt cake, which is super moist and flavored with beer nuts, pretzels, and butterscotch chips. Beer and pretzels are a natural combo, which blends well with a touch of vanilla. Add a garnish to your serving platter with some small, salted pretzels. The cake is lightly frosted with golden sweet drizzles and sprinkled with a crunchy topping of crushed pretzels, beer nuts, and mini chocolate chips or crushed butterscotch chips.
See More – Crunchy Pretzel ‘N Lager Beer Bundt Cake
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Happy Memories: Flag Day
Red, White, and Blue Fruit Plate
A party dish that’s easy to prepare and serve.
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About the Recipe: Sweet watermelon should be called wonder melon since it has a fantastic taste and is loaded with vital nutrients that are so good for all of us. Combine that with superfood blueberries, and this dish is a winner. Serving it with vanilla flavored yogurt dip makes it a real party dish.
See More – Red, White, and Blue Fruit Plate
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