Yes you read that right.

There’s coffee. In this. BBQ Sauce. You never have to choose between the two again! And it’s perfect for just about anything this 4th of July and beyond.

The idea came about last year when I went to a press event at Mohawk Bend up in LA and they had bbq chicken that had a hint of coffee flavor to it and I was like wait what’s going on why have I never put coffee in my BBQ sauce.

The good news for those of you that don’t like coffee (witches) is that it doesn’t taste like you’re putting coffee on your ribs, there’s just a really great richness that you get from using the coffee. I mean when you think about it, the characteristics we find in coffee are the same ones we look for in a good BBQ sauce. The smoky notes, the acidity, even certain berry notes make up the perfect base.

And I’ve even gone ahead and made it ketchup free for those of you that are emoji girl crossing her arms to having it in your BBQ sauce. I’m not 100% opposed to it but in this case it was covering up more of the coffee and just making it all taste like sad watery ketchup, not the kind of BBQ sauce I want. We’re taking the tomato paste highway and getting to use more coffee. Win Win Win.

Be a strong person and sacrifice a cup of coffee from your morning pot to make this because girl, it’s worth it.

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Happy 4th of July Pre Game Week! Next Monday is the big day which means this weekend you’ll probably be at some sort of bbq pool grassy field version of hunger games where hopefully there’s enough food and beer to keep you juiced up for the fireworks.

Good news is I’ve got some of your bases covered with these sliders and a few other recipes the rest of this week, things like my favorite bbq sauce, easy pickles, pie if I can get my shit together, etc. It’s like a private bbq week but since last week was popsicle week we can’t use week so we’re going to call it the calm before the bbq™©.

The recipe for these bebes actually comes from my friend Jon’s brand new book The Slider Effect, that just so happens to come out into the world and into your hearts today! For those of you that don’t know Jon (who are you even) he writes the blog The Candid Appetite  where he makes all kinds of fun goodness (taco hot dogs, zebra doughnuts, cajun stuffed pasta shells, just to name a few) and his book is no exception to all the fun.

The great thing about the book is that there’s not only recipes for slider combos but he supplies all the recipes for buns, biscuits, spreads, sauces, you name it. Basically it’s a giant blueprint for building your perfect slider.I settled on these because we all know I luv a good not meat burger and I figured you all need something in case your  vegetarian friend says yes to the rsvp and shows up and doesn’t like potato salad (u can actually send them away if they don’t like potato salad it’s a law).

These are also insanely easy, it’s all pretty much done in the food processor and there’s zero chill time needed. Mix ’em up, form ’em into patties, live your life. As if an easy patty wasn’t enough we’re topping it with avocado and a cilantro lime aioli because we can.

If you luv sliders then go get this book. If you know someone else that luvs sliders then also buy them this book. It’s only $11 on Amazon right now so go pretend you’re abc family and make christmas in june/july happen.

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I present to you one of my favorite summer desserts in my favorite summer dessert vessel: da cobbler popsicle. It’s my #popsicleweek year 4 (!!!) contribution and also maybe my new boyfriend but don’t tell Steve because it’s only like making out and stuff. Yes there’s baking involved with the use of a stove top but it’s 100 percent worth it, Dr. Phil says relationships take werk.

Before we get into it though can we just talk about how much bigger and out of control popsicle week gets every year? 100+ popsicle recipes this year, and I can only imagine how much bigger it’ll be next year. I’ve already got some things in the works and I’m v excited but I have to wait a whole year now to make sure they’re still in the works but it’s okay because I luv it.

and I luv you.

I know maybe it’s a little weird to have several steps in making a popsicle but maybe you should just do them all and live your life. The effort is actually pretty tiny, especially for this popsicle. We’ve got the fruit filling that we quickly cook on the stovetop to make sure it’s not icy in the final pop and a quick cobbler topping that we bake up in a loaf pan. We break that up into chunks that get nice and chewy once the pop is frozen and it’s just kind of magical when it’s mixed with the melted ice cream base of sweetened coconut milk and sour cream.

If blueberries aren’t your thing (I originally wanted blackberry but the grocery store didn’t have cute ones and I was too lazy to drive to another one) then go ahead and do you and really use any berry or fruit you want. Apricot or peach would be amaazing in this or even something like rhubarb with a little extra sugar would be great.

You do you, live your life, but make some popsicles first.

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I shared these glasses of magic last week on my Nom channel. That magical place where I get to cook live and answer questions and wait 15 awkward minutes for my oil to heat up for doughnuts because I use a portable burner so you don’t have too much opportunity to check out my ass with my back turned to the camera at my actual stovetop.

I’d have to charge for that.

I think the greatest thing about these besides the fact there’s a shot+ of tequila in them is that they’re incredibly easy to make. The idea of juicing a watermelon sounds like me trying to fit into last summers swim trunks but trust and believe it takes all of about 15 min of hands on time, a blender, and a strainer.

No juicer, no need to go out and buy some bullshit watermelon water, and you can use whatever the hell melon you want. I saw something called a Santa Claus Melon in the store. Does that sound like something I want to eat? No. But the opportunity’s there!

The idea of the mint is sort of a play on the popular mint and melon salad that was popular a while ago, that’s still delicious no matter how long ago it happened. The other thing about mint is that it’s one of my favorite flavors to mix with tequila. +10 points on the refresh scale. Perfect for the summer, perfect for the day drinking.

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Today’s post is one of those ones where I go back in time, grab an old post to fix, not flirt with my mom, watch out for Biff Trump, save Doc, and give life to said post, like Ariana’s new album is giving to me.

The old post we’re in talks about is one of the more popular girls of Wit & Vinegar High. She’s been re-pinned more times than your mom and her name is blackberry pie bar. I know the post was a good one, but since then things have improved. Things like: my photography, the recipe, site design.

You know, minor things.

For those of you not familiar with the pie bar, it’s sort of a mix between a cookie and a pie, a lot of people call them crumble bars but in my head that just sounds really hard to eat. With the 2.0 version of the recipe too, we use a grater to incorporate the butter to help a little with the flakiness (courtesy of my girl Adrianna), pushing them even closer to the relation of a pie. I tend to lean towards the pie bar because I’m in favor of the fruit to crust ratio.

One of the reasons I love these so much (there are many) is that the dough for the base is the same dough used for the crumble, so there’s less bowls to dirty, less things to measure. Another thing is that just like a pie, once you master the dough (in probably the first try) you can swap in whatever fruits and flavors you want to switch it up. Even though they’re not difficult, I’m showing you how to make them in this morning’s nomcast. If you read this before 9am est come watch me live and even if you miss it live I’ll be there forever and always to show you what’s up.

It’s also Memorial Day Weekend so it’s kiiiind of the perfect time to make these. A batch will easily serve a crowd, and if you’re gathering is smaller you can make an 8×8″ batch too just by halving the ingredients but you’ll regret all your life decisions later when you want a pie bar for a night snack and they’re all gone.

Last thing we need to discuss are the variations we’ve got going on in this post. Obviously there are some different options going on here, we don’t need Maury to tell us I’m not the father.

The three options here all kind of show how to incorporate different flavors either in the dough itself or in the filling or both at once if ur extreme. Today I bring you strawberry apricot (my grandma’s favorite fruit combo), rhubarb lime, and berry bourbon vanilla. Because berries love bourbon and so do I.

Even if you don’t have Memorial Day plans this weekend just make a batch and go outside with your dogs and eat half a pan all by yourself but don’t do that because you’ll get sick so cusion it with potato salad or maybe ribs.

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Yes you possibly read that right. We’re taking what we’d normally just throw in the trash and use it to infuse some vodka, like a more mature, creative Captain Planet.

Please don’t hate me but I got this idea from one of those extra long pins on pinterest with different ways to infuse your water so you actually want to drink it (pro tip: just be an adult and drink your water so u don’t die of dehydration!). Then I was like wait, what if I just put strawberry tops in vodka instead would that get me to drink more vodka let’s try it.

I’d successfully done it a few years ago with strawberries and rhubarb and it was so perfect so the other day when I used up a pound of strawberries I took the pile of strawberry tops that are usually trash bound like half the people on MTV and put them in some vodka. Flash forward two days and I had the nicest blush colored vodka with the perfect hint of strawberry that’s low enough where it doesn’t make me feel like I’m downing a wine cooler.

And look at that bonus drink! Clink Clinks are gonna come back this summer and I’m stoked about it. This bebe if you haven’t calculated already is just a strawberry top vodka twist on the classic moscow mule and doing that little twist means that you and I can drink it in whatever glass I want without the asshole drink police telling me I should be using a $20 copper mug (insert sunglass wearing emoji).

Also bonus is the new fun thing I’ve been working on over at a new site called Nom. Twice a week (wed and fri at 9:30am pst) I go live and make food for your pretty faces and chat live with you and answer any questions. The thing that I really love about all of it is that after the nomcast is done streaming it’s archived so you can watch it whenever you want, 100 times a day. Clink the link up there and subscribe if you want to be alerted/reminded when the nomcasts are going live so you can watch and ask me questions about food, or boys, and spoiler alert: tomorrow’s nomcast is all about infusing vodka with fruit. BEYOND THE STRAWBERRY TOP.

Go out rn, buy a pound of strawberries and start your strawberry top vodka so that come friday you can TGIF ur life.

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