Good morning all!

It’s Labor Day Weekend here in the hellscape of the former USA.

Today is also the season 11 “Season finale” of Sunday Gravy. Thank you for being a part of this thing we do.

Never in a million fucking lifetimes did I ever envision this thing lasting for 11 seasons. I wasn’t sure what the fuck to think when I posted the first Sunday Gravy back in 2015. In fact this entire site was a mystery. It was just a bunch of us former Kommenters from the old place that had no idea what we were doing so we just started flinging poo at the walls.

Some of that poo obviously stuck because here we still fucking are.

A special shout out to the off season folks who bring their best to the site when we have the fewest eyeballs. It’s a long godforsaken offseason and it’s our job to attempt to keep the regular readers entertained.

I think we do a pretty damn good job of that too.

Over the past few months we’ve experimented, ad-libbed, dabbled, made shit up and even occasionally stumbled across some very tasty things right here on Sunday Gravy and it’s been my honor to share them with you.

Sunday Gravy along with the other off season features will be going on winter hiatus as we gladly hand over the reigns to our more than capable “in season” NFL crew.

It’s been a long goddamn seven months, let me tell you. 

Rather than presenting a structured menu today as we are wont to do, we’ve got a few items I recently encountered that really stood out as possible game day food ideas.

We’ve got to ramp up your food game and get you all into fucking tailgating shape.

It’s motherfucking football season!

If you’re hosting an NFL get together or tailgate there are a few things you must have. Beer of course and many various items for full on snackage.

And what’s better than a good goddamn game day dip?

Damn few things I say!

And I ain’t talking no “Pint of sour cream and some dried seasonings” dip neither. Nuh-uh.

HomeMADE shit is what we’ve got for you and it’s a proper fucking keeper of a dip it is! A goddamn beauty.

How about something rich, decadent, creamy with a fresh roasted pepper kick, Mediterranean flair and a slight smoldering finish?

Sound good?

Have I got the right motherfucker for you!

Htipiti!

recipe via cookieandkate.com

One 8-ounce block of feta cheese broken into large crumbles (about 1 ⅔ cups)

½ cup roasted red peppers, patted dry and roughly chopped (2 peppers)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for garnish

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Crushed red pepper flakes, for garnishing (optional)

_________________________________________

The real motivation for making this came from having a big ass slab of leftover feta from when we made shakshuka a couple of weeks back and I needed to find a proper use for it.

Procure a couple of these here motherfuckers.

Remove the stems and seeds and cut into quarters. Lay them on a roasting pan that’s got a prophylactic of parchment paper properly prepared.

These will roast in a preheated 425 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. You’re looking for blistered skin because we want to peel these bastards prior to turning them into a dip.

After roasting let the peppers cool in a bowl with some plastic wrap on it to assist with the steaming of the skins. When cool enough to handle, peel off the blistered skins, chop the peppers into a few bits and drop them in the working bowl of your food processor.

Next add in the feta, the lemon juice, ah the hell with it. Toss in all of the remaining ingredients.

Give this a few spins around, not too many because having some feta chunks is totally cool.

Spoon into an appropriately sized bowl and you are in fucking business. Serve with pita chips.

This stuff is fucking amazingly delicious. Outstanding. Hell you could just grab a bag of pita chips and the bowl of dip and just sit by yourself and gorge like a crazy person.

OR?

Maybe we can make a main dish and use this dip as an accompaniment? Shit yes! Let’s do that.

Yogurt Marinated Harissa Chicken!

recipe courtesy of my very own twisted imagination

1-2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 containers of plain Greek yogurt

2 lemons cut into slices

4-12 cloves of garlic – fuck it I made this shit up use however many you want. Think I used about 6-7

1 tablespoon of harissa

1/2 teaspoon of kashmiri chili powder – Aleppo pepper would be great also

1 teaspoon of salt

some grinds of black pepper.

Let’s start with the marinade. Score some Greek yogurt.

Whole milk yogurt is better but this is the only plain Greek yogurt they had. Bunch of savages.

Have your harissa handy. I DID mention we would be using harissa again after all.

Once again the idea for this dish came because I had leftovers, harissa this time, that needed using up before it went bad.

End of season, man. Nothing goes to waste.

Pilfer a couple of lemons.

Lemons are in peak season right now. Thinly slice these up. Remove the seeds if you encounter any.

Take all of your marinade ingredients and toss them into a 1 gallon zip top bag. Moosh and squish around until everything is evenly mixed then add in the chicken.

Store in the fridge overnight.

The way I did this was I made the htipiti and the chicken marinade on the same day and refrigerated both overnight prior to serving.

Oh you KNOW I sampled the hell out of that htipiti though! That shit will last in your refrigerator for 7-10 days too.

Let’s pause at this point.

You’re hosting or attending a get together where there will be football and grilled things. These 2 items are now prepared and ready for action. All the chicken needs is some fire. Take these premade items to that gathering and blow some goddamn minds. See where I’m going with this?

Next day I made a yogurt dipping sauce that basically is a mimic of the marinade. It was a container of greek yogurt, 1/2 tablespoon of harissa, couple of cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper, squeeze of lemon and a dash of the Kashmiri chili powder. Combine and let hang out in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

This is one of my proudest Sunday Gravy tricks. You put together a mean ass marinade that you know is going to work but you can’t use that marinade once the raw meat has been soaking in it. I found a way to solve that by making a mimic of the marinade that you can gladly drizzle all the fuck over your cooked meats. I learned to do this by writing Sunday Gravy. I really do get inspiration that carries over to my cooking techniques for LIFE!

See? This shit ain’t all just hard work.

Now that meat is just screaming to be grilled over charcoal. AND IT SHOULD BE! It can however be cooked for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven – turning the chicken once about halfway through – and you will still have a lovely dish.

For serving suggestion how about you warm up some pita bread?

Spread out some of that htipiti – like a cheese spread! – then some chicken and a dollop of the yogurt dip. Like so,

Look at that sexy motherfucker!

I tell you right now, that htipiti will fucking haunt your ass. It is wonderful. A little spicy with the richness of the feta, that roasted red pepper is sooo damn good in there too. I’mma make that shit often.

Hell, if you did grill the chicken why not make a grilling party out of it and serve two dynamic and diabolically delicious grilled proteins for your guests?

Like maybe some smoked paprika pork chops that were fucking BORN to be thrown on the grill.

recipe inspired by cooking.NYTimes.com

You will require:

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon pimentón de la Vera or smoked paprika

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

⅓ teaspoon ground coriander

A small pinch of ground cayenne

Start off with some of our remaining “basically free” pork chops.

Yep, still some in the freezer.

Let’s get exotic on our spices. Not too exotic.

Coriander! The real shit too. Not the powdered kind.

Give it a quick toasting.

Then give them a proper grind in the spice grinder.

Gather the other spices.

That would be smoked Spanish paprika, cayenne, sugar and salt. Add the ground coriander in the mix and toss them all together in a small bowl.

Drizzle a small bit of olive oil on your pork chops then apply the spice rub. Liberally. Do this a day ahead of time for bigass flavor potential.

Again, marinate at least a couple of hours but these fuckers can handle up to two days with the rub.

These are designed for the grill to double your smoky pleasure but you can also simply sear these off in a skillet with a goddamn quickness too.

Heat up some olive oil in a skillet.

Get those chops in there.

Just 4 minutes then flip.

Four minutes more then serve.

They are exactly as tasty as they look. These fuckers are REAL good. As good as any chop I’ve ever had.

You can also serve them with a full meal if you prefer.

Spinach, strawberry, red onion salad. Olive oil rosemary bread, Real Italian bucatini – thanks again 2Pack – with the leftover sauce from our shakshuka! See? We did use that too! Finally our delicious Spanish paprika rubbed pork chop.

What the fuck are you even doing still sitting there? Let’s get busy cause it’s time for FOOTBALL!

Every single one of these items are showstoppers by themselves. Imagine doing all of these suggestions for the same menu?

The only downside is some of the motherfuckers you feed will never want to leave you again. Which may be problematic.

So here we are! Made it through another season with just a handful of cuts and kitchen burns. That shit is part of the process, man. I’m used to it.

It was a fun year and I’m extremely glad you all were a part of.

Thank you.

Once again we come to my end of season message: May your teams stay healthy and may all of your games be competitive. Except for the Packers. Fuck them,

I’m off on vacation folks. I’ll be checking in now and then and I’m pretty sure you’ll be seeing a “Boots on the ground” soon.

Much love people. See you in the comments.

And one last time…