The 'Burbs' Backyard Barbecue (#107)

 

It's time for another spooky October film. This year, our film was one of my favorite horror comedies, 1989's "The 'Burbs" which stars Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, and several other familiar faces from the 80s, including 17 year old Corey Feldman in one my favorite roles of his.

The story of this film centers on a new family that moves into the the neighborhood. The family keeps to themselves. No one ever sees them enter or exit their home. This leads to nosey neighbors speculating and spreading rumors that darker and more twisted as the film moves on.

There are several food references in this film. There's a big breakfast scene at the beginning of the film, so you could base the meal on that if you wanted. That's not what I decided to do though. This film is all about new neighbors. There are also several references to a barbecue. So, I decided to build the theme on a "Welcome to the neighborhood" style cookout.

As for the actual dishes, I was inspired by a scene where the neighbor Art explains how no one enters or exits the house and they don't get any deliveries. "What do think they're eating over there?" he asks creepily. There's also some implications of cannibalism made in the film. For this reason, I wanted the main proteins to be a bit mysterious or creepy. I made some bone-in ribs and a "mystery meat" sloppy joe.

Smoked Short Ribs

I used my pellet smoker for my short ribs. First, I made a spice rub with canola oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne. I let the ribs marinate in the rub overnight in the fridge. I took them out of the fridge an hour before putting in the smoker to let them hit room temperature. I smoked them with hickory pellets at 275°F for four hours. I cooked them bone side down and every 30 minutes, I sprinkled apple cider vinegar over the meat. Typically, you would use a spray bottle for that, but I didn't have one available so I made do.

I forgot to take a picture of the final product, so I will describe it. The outside of the rib meat was crispy and the inside was super moist. It easily pulled off the rib bones. Then I shredded the meat for guests to eat on it's own or as a topping to the mac and cheese that I also made. The flavor was incredible and it melted in your mouth. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

"Mystery Meat" Sloppy Joes

I know that no one likes a recipe that is proceeded by a story, but this story is kind of fun, so I am going to share it anyways. This story goes back to when I was a young man and extremely broke. I was hungry one day, there was no food in the fridge, and I didn't have money for groceries or fast food. I started going through the nearly empty cabinets hoping that there would be something to get me by. I found a can of Manwich, which I had never eaten before, but the picture on the can looked like the sloppy joes that my mother used to make, so I excitedly opened it. I was sad to discover that there was no meat in it. The can is just a can of sauce that is meant to be mixed with ground beef.

I didn't have beef or any other meat in the house so I started to wonder if I had any protein at all that I could mix with it. All I was able to find was a can of tuna fish. I knew these flavors wouldn't mix well, but I was out of options. I combined and tasted it, and it was disgusting. Very salty and unpleasant.

At this point, I was in too deep though. I had to find a way to make it work. So I started getting creative with it. I added stuff like sugar and vinegar to counter the saltiness. Once the saltiness had be mellowed out, I added some mustard to give it a little tanginess, and played around with what little spices I had available. In the end, I was shocked to discover that I not only made it not terrible, but it was actually pretty good.

At that point, my very picky roommate came home. He's the kind of person that judges food before he even tries it. If it sounds like something he wouldn't like, he won't even try it. I asked him if he wanted so "mystery sloppy joe" as I knew he would never touch it if he knew it was tuna. He loved it. He said that I should make it again sometime. I laughed because it was a recipe that I was making up as I went along. I knew that I would never remember it. By the way, I never told him what the mystery was. Hahaha

So, back to the present. If I am going to make a barbecue dish with a "mystery meat," it seemed like the perfect time to try to recreate this recipe. Since I didn't measure everything and can't remember what all I added, I decided to Google to see if anyone else had ever made anything similar to my mystery joe.

Sure enough, I found an old recipe that was very similar to what I remembered doing. The recipe was meant to mimic chicken or pork barbecue when money is tight and all you can afford is canned tuna. Essentially, the same situation that I had found myself in.

The recipe below was inspired by that recipe that I found, but with my own adjustments.

Ingredients: (Makes enough for about 4 sandwiches, so double or triple as necessary)

• 2 5oz cans of tuna in water
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp yellow mustard
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• additional spices per preference

Directions:

1. Drain tuna and combine with other ingredients in a large pot.
2. Set heat to medium low and stir regularly for about 20 to 30 minutes.

The sauce ingredients here create a simple barbecue sauce that does a decent job of hiding the saltiness and fishiness that comes with canned tuna. Taste it as you stir and feel free to adjust to your own liking. You might want to add some additional spices like chili powder, cumin, or smoked paprika to give it more heat or a more unique flavor.

Smoked Mac & Cheese

Not every dish needs to be weird. I decided that a mac and cheese would go well with this meal. Plus, I've seen lots of barbecue masters make mac and cheese in a smoker, so I figured that it would go good with the barbecue theme overall. I put this in the smoker during the last two hours that my ribs were cooking. Thankfully, my smoker was just big enough to fit both.

Ingredients:

• 1 box (approx 2 cups) dry macaroni noodles
• 12 oz block Boar's Head 3 pepper colby jack cheese
• 12 oz block Boar's Head jalapeno pepper jack cheese
• 3 cups milk
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter

Directions:

1. Pour dry macaroni noodles into bottom of disposable aluminum foil 9x13 pan. I suggest doubling up on the pan, as it will get heavy.
2. Shred your cheeses and sprinkle over the dry noodles. Don't use pre-shredded cheese because it doesn't melt as well as block cheese. Feel free to use different flavors if you prefer. I got spicy cheeses because I wanted it to have a little bit of an extra bite. I could have added peppers or hot sauce for the same effect.
3. Pour milk and heavy whipping cream into the pan now.
4. Give it a good stir to make sure that the dry noodles are sitting well in the milk and cream. This is necessary to ensure that you don't get any dry noodles. Add additional salt, pepper, or other seasonings as you prefer.
5. Place the stick of butter on top of the mix, in the center of the pan. It will melt into the mixture as it cooks.
6. Put pan in smoker. Mine was already set to 275°F because I was cooking the ribs in it. You can cook this at a lower temp if you prefer.
7. Every 30 minutes, give the macaroni a stir. This will help ensure that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or bake into a solid mass. Also, it's a good way to check on the cook. Total cook should take approximately 2 hours.

The mac and cheese was a pretty big hit. I was afraid that it might be too spicy for some of my guests, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Pretzel & Sardine Brownies

This dessert was inspired by one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie, the scene where we finally meet the neighbors. The wives decide that all these rumors were getting out of hand and that they should just go over there with a plate of brownies and welcome the new neighbors to the neighborhood. After inviting themselves inside, the creepy neighbors offer them some sardines and pretzels. Coincidentally, this happens right near the halfway point of the film, so it's also the perfect time to pause the movie for desserts.

Rather than expect my guests to eat pretzels and sardines, I decided to combine the two snacks. I made the brownies with a box mix and stirred in broken pretzel pieces until I felt like they were mixed well throughout the batter. The idea is that the pretzels would add a little saltiness and a nice crunch.

After baking the brownies, I let it cool, cut it into squares, piped some vanilla frosting onto the center of each square, and then added a Swedish Fish as my sardine substitute. It's a simple snack, but it tasted good and ended up being a pretty fun nod to the film.

Cookies would also be a fitting dessert for this film as they are featured in a different scene.

Overall, it was a pretty fun night. The food fit the theme well and the movie was great fun. Because this was meant to feel like a neighborhood cookout, I encouraged guests to bring either a dessert or a side dish. Even though, I still cooked a lot, it was helpful to have more options. I would definitely encourage this theme for anyone looking for a fun/creepy movie night.