Back for the 7th time! The photo is from 2001 where they put us on a special stage in the round, right in the middle of the main stage crowd. I’m stoked to see my friends in Canada this summer. It’s a biggie. The Ottawa Blues Fest welcomes 250,000 music fans over a period of ten days in July and I have two shows there on July 14. I will also make a stop at the local homeless shelter on the 13th. This and more in June and July. Here’s the Schedule. For details and ticket links sauceboss.com/tour
6/16/2023 Leesburg, VA – Macdowell’s Beach 6/18/2023 Franklin PA – Franklin Blues and BBQ Festival 6/21/2023 Sharon PA – The Keg 6/23/2023 Pittsburgh PA – Steamworks Creative 6/25/2023 Lorain OH – Beaver House 6/28/2023 Buffalo NY – Sportsmens Tavern 6/30/2023 Syracuse NY – 443 Social Club and Listening Room 7/8/2023 Durham NH – Private Event 7/9/2023 Tamworth NH – The Barn at Farmstand 7/13/2023 Ottawa Ontario – Ottawa Mission (private show for clients) 7/14/2023 Ottawa Ontario – Ottawa Blues Festival 7/27/2023 St Augustine, FL – Plaza de la Constitucion
Live at the BBC! Check out our latest on Youtube. February 11th was our last gig at the Bradfordville Blues Club a few weeks before the iconic club closed its doors. I brought Extra Sauce, (Brett Crook and Neal Goree) and we got pretty wild, evidenced by this video shot by Ian Weir, and edited by Mary Wharton. The audio was recorded by Walter Potter and mixed by Doug Oade.
Sounds highfalutin, uptown, top shelf, out of reach, $$$$, and downright French! Au contraire, mon ami. Yes it’s French; no, it’s not unattainable. This 30 minute, easy and fun recipe is hearty and healthy…and different than the normal pescatarian bill of fare. Instead of fat from frying, or piquant from hot peppers it offers flavors from fresh herbs seeping into the fish.
Parchment paper Filet of fish Asparagus Zucchini Carrot cut into ribbons Green onions Tomato slices Lemon slices Salt Pepper Rosemary Marjoram Savory Thyme
Preheat oven to 400 degrees If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can use the dried Herbes de Provence mix . I used asparagus, purple carrot ribbons, zucchini, green onions, and yellow tomatoes in layers on a sheet of parchment.
Place the fish on top, spray with olive oil, and shake some salt and pepper. Add sprigs of the fresh herbs, pressing them into the fish.
Place lemon slices on top.
Seal the parchment paper, crimping the paper all around the salmon.
Cook for 15 minutes, or when the thermometer says it’s done. Voila!
Making plans for our summer tour in June and July: Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire and Ottawa! And in May a Barbecue Festival (Charlotte) and Shrimp Festival (St George Island). Plus a gig at our old friends Dave and Elizabeth Claytor’s Inn on Moon River in SC. And I’m chippin away at my own recording project. Having this studio has changed everything musical for me. Here’s my schedule.
I admit it. I’m proud to be a tree hugger. I used to think of trees as my friends. Now I think of em as my family. I’m in St. Augustine this weekend celebrating Earth Day. Being a second generation Floridian has made me appreciate the rivers that bring lush life to this place where we live. I’ve lived close to water, my whole life. When I was young I never dreamed this resource would be threatened, Join me and a bunch of my tree huggin friends for some fine music on Vilano Beach on Sunday April 23
A History of Liquid Summer
This blurry photo taken by Matt Wilson sums it up. You know how history is written. It can get blurry sometimes. But in 1987, I decided to put my sauce in bottles and sell it, because all my friends would come over to my house and eat it all up. I’d make a couple of gallons of the stuff and it would be gone in a few weeks. They would have to take a taste home with em. So the bottle on the left was made with peppers grown in my garden. I had about an eighth of an acre devoted to Datil peppers. After the harvest, we’d buy the rest of the ingredients to make a batch and put em in a pressure cooker, a couple dozen bottles at a time. Then we’d cut out the labels that we printed and we’d glue em on by hand. Several years later, we got help from Stagecoach Sauces, a company that would make a 60 gallon batch for us. After 30 years, Stagecoach Sauces still produces the sauce for us. Liquid Summer Hot Sauce is still made with all natural ingredients without preservatives in 60 gallon batches. We had quite an adventure getting a hot sauce business together, preparing the soil; I bought a tractor trailer load of spent mushroom compost and dumped in the yard. It was a sight to behold, steaming in the early morning. I was so proud. Then growing and picking the peppers, chopping the ingredients, and pouring the sauce into bottles with a funnel. Now a days, I pick up the phone, and say, “Make sauce. Thanks, Bye”
Cahill’s Market and Chicken Kitchen 1055 May River Road, Bluffton, SC 843-757-2921 cahillsmarket.com
Sometimes, all I want is some vegetables. Cahill’s specializes in fried chicken, but the rest of the fare is tasty, totally southern cookin. Chuck burgers, pork chops, meatloaf, shrimp, and catfish rounds out the menu. The market has fresh veggies, eggs, and canned goods from the farm, and they also sell plants from the greenhouse. I bought a nice marjoram plant for my herb garden. All of it looks great, but sometimes, all I want is vegetables.
Gettin to be camping season. Can’t wait to be gourmeting in the rough again. Here’s my rig, Gumbo cooker and a small paella pan makes a very fast and efficient kitchen.
Perfect for searing fresh from the Bay of Fundy Scallops on top of a caesar salad with local smoked salmon and some of those cold water oysters.
Some cool gigs coming up. We are booking our summer right now. I’m sooo looking forward to visiting my old Northeast haunts. Also I just booked one of the largest blues festivals in North America! Details soon come. For booking: sauceboss.com
February 11th, this Saturday night, we will play the BBC for the last time. Another one of the great blues jukes is ending a chapter. (Possibly the whole book) At the beginning of April, The Bradfordville Blues club will close its doors. It’s with a heavy heart that I write these words. The BBC has been a huge wellspring of blues music for Florida; a place where some of the best in the business have hung their hats for an evening, delivering an experience of the most authentic down home blues that you will find anywhere. Evidenced by the portraits of blues players on the tabletops, its a virtual who’s who of the blues. The list is too long to even begin saying who has played the BBC. But it’s safe to say the best bluesicians had the best time ever, and that is when the magic happens. For 21 years Gary and Kim Anton have brought us that magic and good times, but now it’s time for them to kick back have more time for themselves. So here’s a tearful “Thank You!” to you both, and to all who helped make it happen. Comehelp us celebrate the Bradfordville Blues Club this Saturday. Act now for tickets. This one will sell out.
While working on some of my new stuff, I have also wrapped the recording, mixing, and mastering of an album for Dick Kraft. I met Dick in the late 60s when he was a teacher in the Florida State University Art Department. At that time he was also heavily involved in the folk scene, accompanying a fledgling Rita Coolidge. Relocated to St. Augustine, Dick got into blowing artisan glass at his St George Street studio and playing at The Tradewinds, the Milltop, and other folk music venues. He became my neighbor when he moved back to Tallahassee, and now continues his music and painting. Like his painting, this album has an abstract, crystal clear, but gentle darkness that resonates in the twenty first century. An unpidgenholeable, indescribable, genre bending listen. Close as I can come to describe it is, “Jazzacana.”
Plantains
I am enjoying my first harvest of plantains now having gotten a cold hearty dwarf plantain pup last year. That’s a twelve foot dwarf, and it is tasty.
Plantains with Collards, Black Beans and Rice, slathered with Liquid Summer Hot Sauce ORDER LIQUID SUMMER HERE
While we are talkin about food, here’s the latest installment of “Foraging on the Highway”. The Bentons can tell it like it is, so here’s their story.
“The Benton Family has been making maple syrup for six generations. You might say it’s in our blood! When the sugar house was moved here from Millbrook Road, it began as a place to sell our syrup. With more traffic and visitors on the main road, we decided to turn the family farm into a ski touring center, and added a place where folks could sit and eat a small meal before skiing. We served hotdogs, hamburgers, chili, homemade soups, Ma’s famous baked beans, and the basic Pancake Platter.To keep up with the growing demand of loyal customers who were coming less to ski and more to eat, we added our dining room addition in 1999, and the rest is history!”
The Sugar Shack is known for the heartiest of breakfasts, and for their own hand made maple syrup. This family is a testament of hard working American ingenuity at it’s best. Thursday through Sunday, this family slings a slew of bacon and eggs, pancakes slathered with syrup and biscuits smothered in gravy, with a line out the door and round the corner. Once a year they shut the place down for a weekend and put on a HUGE wingding called the White Mountain Boogie and Blues Festival. I have played this festival twice and I can honestly say, “It’s one of the best times you’ll ever have with your pants on.”
Life Goes On
The curb at the Sheetz convenience store in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Here’s a French Fry.
I feel Like I’m in a wakin, bakin, ain’t no fakin, makin some shakin, and stakin all my takins till my brains are breakin kind of mood. I’ve been busy writing and arranging tunes and we have begun putting together a new album. I can’t wait to share this new music with all y’all. I will be joined on this record by the Tallahassee funk cartel, Extra Sauce, so get ready for this melange of funky, funky, blues.
Extra Sauce Three of us are alumni of the seminal Florida blues label, Kingsnake Records. Philip Gonzalez (bass) and Brett Crook (drums) were the rhythm section of Big Shirley, one of Kingsnakes’ most successful bands, touring nonstop for years. I recorded five albums with Kingsnake Records, The fourth member of the group is Neal Goree. Neal was Tallahassee’s young prodigy guitar player, who first heard Bill Wharton when he was still in the womb. He has matured into the monster that he is today. So you take my music, backed with a “seasoned” rhythm section, topped off with a stellar guitar phenom, and you have The Sauce Boss With Extra Sauce.
So here they are. People have been hounding me for a while for Sauce Boss shirts, and we finally got around to gettin em printed. NOTE. The new shirts will have this art, but the shirts will be dark chocolate brown in color. The same color as the roux that I use to make the gumbo. Preorder one today, and you’ll have it around the end of November.
Splooge yer Turkey for something quirky. Make yer stockins rockin. There’s a chill in the air. That always makes me hongry. Inject that butterball with the power and the glory of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce – The hot sauce for the new millennium. The road to culinary nirvana.
Bill Wharton, AKA Sauce Boss, has brought his swamp-funk, slide guitar, and a pot of gumbo all across the US and to Canada, Europe, and Asia. He slathers his show with his hot sauce, and splooges a big old mess of it into the gumbo. He invites the audience to participate in stirring the pot, and at the end of the show, everyone eats. He has served hundreds of thousands of bowls for free at his legendary live shows. Bill Wharton mixes media like cornbread in his performance. Hot sauce, blues, chicken, funk, onions and okra, peppers and gospel, soul and seafood and slide guitar, all go into the gumbo pot that we call community. All of this is the reason they call him The Sauce Boss. Bon Appetit!
Jimmy Buffett sings about him in “I Will Play for Gumbo”. Wharton’s anthem, “Let the Big Dog Eat” was included on Buffett’s “Late Night Menu at the Margaritaville Cafe” album. Albert Castiglia released his cover of the tune, and it hit #1 on blues charts. Let the Big Dog Eat has also appeared in the movies “Something Wild”(Jonathon Demme), and the Rock Doc, “Jimmy Carter Rock and Roll President.” This tune and sixteen other works in the documentary earned Wharton “‘Best Original Score” from the Los Angeles Film Awards.
What a blast traveling the last few months up north, but it’s nice to be back in Florida once more. It’ll give me a chance to do some recording, get my fall garden started, and hang with my Fla. peeps. Here’s the low down on where I will be.
SNOG People! You know who you are. I will be bringin it to St Augustine on Sept. 1 at the Plaza de la Constitucion. 7 pm downbeat.
Liquid Summer is here! You KNOW you want some!
Liquid Summer Hot Sauce Bloody Mary Will Change Your Life!
Recipe 1 cup tomato juice 1 Tbsp Liquid Summer Hot Sauce 1 tsp horseradish Dash of celery salt 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp lemon juice Couple shots of vodka Mix ingredients together and pour into a glass of ice.
This summer I’ll be up north. Why don’t y’all come with me? Follow my Quixotic journey to feed the masses (body and soul) with uplifting blues, great gumbo, and the “Best hot sauce on the planet!” Starting July 4th, I will be posting daily on TikTok. saucebossx is my TikTok handle. In keeping with the whole TikTok melee, I will be posting music, food, wildness, wardrobe malfunctions, alternative realities, and oddities that I find along the way. Follow me! Reserve a front row seat at the debacle known as the Sauce Boss Traveling Gumbo Show.
Charleston, Pittsburgh, Sharon PA, Buffalo, Johnson City NY, Marion OH, Detroit, Lexington, Wilmington NC, Stafford VA, Fredricksburg VA, Kennebunk ME. Sometime in August, I will make a surprise appearance at a very special event in New England. I’m looking forward to gettin back to this gig. Beyond the valley of the baddest of the bad. I am soooo happy to be out and about once more. Alert the troops! See ya down the road. Here’s the skinny.
But before I head north…this Friday, June 24th, I’ll be bringing Extra Sauce to the Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee, Florida. We will be slathering inside for this one. That’s the only way I can describe this band. Brett Crook and Butch Gonzalez have played together, off and on for decades, and Neal Goree just lays it on top. Slathered! We will be cookin in various ways, mixin media like cornbread. Bring yer funkiest dancin shoes and yer appetite too. TICKETS.
Many thanks came from the folks at The Community for Creative Non-Violence in Washington DC. Three blocks from the Mall. They now serve 2500 clients every day.
Planet Gumbo is back on the road! Since discovering Planet Gumbo, I have played well over 100 shows at homeless shelters and soup kitchens all over the USA. (And a few in Canada). It’s my volunteer work that I do, to share my gifts with those without. I do not receive a salary for this, but I consider it some of my most important work. In this photo, we are standing in front of a pile of blankets. That day, in 2003, I served gumbo to 200 people. During the pandemic it was impossible for me to do Planet Gumbo gigs. But now, I am super psyched to play shelters this summer in Charleston, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Lexington KY, NYC, Wilmington NC, and Fredericksburg VA, along with my regular paying gigs on this tour. The 501c3 Non-profit Planet Gumbo is entirely supported by individual donations. If you would like to contribute click here.
After all the quarantine. After all the hermitizing, sittin around, watching movies, reading, organizing your button collection, rethinkin, re-upin, re-doin and realizing; it’s time to MOVE! I am sooo ready to be back at it, I can taste the gumbo. Oh, to smell diesel fuel again. I am so lucky to have been so productive over the last couple years, but I have terribly missed all my friends out there. It’s time to move. So, we are all crawling out from under each of our little rocks to survey the damage and celebrate with the survivors. It’s a new world, with new challenges and new rewards. It’s time to move. So let us all get up offa that thing and GO! Here’s where I’m going.
Steve Huntington
The Sauce Boss joins Steve Huntington on Sirius XM Radio on Demand Tune in to catch Bill and Steveshoot the breeze and share lots of music that’s related to the exploits of the Guru of Gumbo. “The Steve Huntington Show” is on SiriusXM On Demand. To get it, you have to have a subscription and also download the SiriusXM App on your phone or device. On the App, you just hit search & type in “Steve Huntington” and you’ll see the four current shows come up. My show is available for three more weeks, and you can listen to it anytime, as many times as you like. Steve’s interview runs about an hour and a quarter with music from Bill Wharton, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Jimmy Reed, and Jimmy Buffett.
Word of [South], a festival of literature and music, is a unique blend of writers and musicians and an exploration of the relationship between the two disciplines. This year Jamey Johnson headlines and other musicians include Ricky Lee Jones, Rita Coolidge, and tons of others…me too. There are scads of best selling authors who will be reading and splaining their work. There is also a crossover where some of the musicians will play and talk about their books as well. I will join my daughter, Mary Wharton, and critic Steve Dollar for a “Making of” moment, in an exposé of our collaboration on her film, “Jimmy Carter Rock and Roll President.” There will be music, film, stories and lots of family. Annie is even flying in from LA. And…we will be splaining.
Xtra Sauce will be slathered all over the tunes when I open for Dumpstaphunk Feb.26 at 3 PM in the Railroad Square Art District. Free and open to the public. Gonna be a throw-down.
The hot sauce for the new millennium
That’s right! Straight out of Florida, Liquid Summer Hot Sauce will CHANGE your life. It changed my life, and it will change your life too. It will open your eyes to a new cuisine, liven up yer oyster, put some zip in yer trip, and you will feel it all over your body. Order it right here, right NOW!!!
Time to move…
Here’s a panorama of the goings on at Swampside Studio. I have begun work on a new album and I can’t believe how good this room sounds. The high ceiling makes plenty of space for those long waves to stretch out. It’s nice to have all the time I need, to get it right. , it’s time to move.
Capellini Salad With Almond Dressing Here’s a twist on a classic Thai dish. I’ve substituted almond butter for the peanut butter in the sauce and capellini for the rice noodles. Quick and easy. Great leftovers.
Half a package of Capellini 6 cups of julienned cabbage, carrots, , daikon radish, and sweet peppers (I used Caribbean golden sweet peppers) 6 green onions chopped 10 green beans chopped 2 baby bok choi sliced thin 1 bunch of cilantro 2 Tablespoons Liquid Summer Hot Sauce (more please) 1 cup roasted peanuts
For the sauce… 5 thin slices of ginger cut cross grain 4 large cloves of garlic 3/4 cup of almond butter with a little of the oil 3/4 cup orange juice 3 Tablespoons lime juice 1/2 teaspoon salt (I left out the salt)
Cook the capellini. Drain the hot water and cool it off with cold water Blend all the almond sauce ingredients Toss the veggies Add the cold noodles and toss once more Pour the almond sauce over the top and toss one more time Garnish with orange wedges
Here’s a final word of thanks to all y’all who have given me the time of day, applauded my mischief, laughed at my jokes, goaded me on, and given me hope on my Quixotic journey, a mission to communicate love through music and community. You have given this fool a reason to live. Keep Cookin, BW
See y’all at the Meeting of the Minds 2021! I’m playing at the Casa Marina on Thursday, November 4, at 3 pm. This one will be rockin! I’m looking forward to hangin in key west, bumpin into old friends, and doing some free diving, and fishing, and soakin up sun before the winter comes.
Here’s my schedule Nov. 4 Key West – MOTM Casa Marina 3 pm Nov 14 Brooksville, FL – Olive Grove Nov 20 Noontime Palm Coast FL – Florida Agricultural Museum Fall Festival Fiery Chili Challenge Nov 20 7 PM Tallahassee, FL Cascades Park Ampitheatre with extra special active Ingredients, playing before showing of “Jimmy Carter Rock and Roll President” movie Dec 6 Daytona Beach FL – Kids Rock the Nation benefit at The Bank and Blues, with Kenny Neal
Swampside Studio
Super stoked to begin puttin some stuff down. This 16 foot peak gives me plenty of space to stretch out. Swampside Studio is officially up and running. Stay tuned…
Mary Wharton’s rockdoc premiered at #7 nationwide! ICYMI, it will begin streaming on her birthday, November 11, 2021. I actually contributed some drum tracks for the Petty film, so “actually”…I’m proud to be a monstrously tiny part of this film. Here’s a link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1sU9Evua9I
Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Time to stock up for the holidaze. Liquid summer will turn any meal around. The hot sauce for the new millennium, the road to culinary Nirvana, Liquid Summer will CHANGE you life. It changed mine and it will change yours. Get yours right here!
Sashimi Avocado with Orange Miso Dressing
2 Tbsp miso 1/4 cup orange juice 1 Tbsp Liquid Summer Hot Sauce Dash of sweetener (you can use honey or ripe persimmons or a fruit preserve to taste) Mix all ingredients and spoon it over avocado slices
Time to hit it one more time! After a half dozen dates to dust off the tunes, and get the body limbered up, I’m ready to go. SUPER excited to get back to it, and this working vacation that I call Life is fixin to hit a new high. Starting with a stop this week in Ormond Beach, then trek north to Maryland, NYC, New England, Buffalo, Sharon and Pittsburgh. Please spread the word to all your peeps in these places. Here’s more info.
I am soooo looking forward to bringing my new music to all y’all up north, but it’s a gonna be a bitter sweet journey for me. When we first started booking this trip, we had planned to make stops in Virginia, Houston, Austin, Sante Fe, Las Vegas, LA, Salt Lake City, Colorado, Arkansas, and Pensacola. Many of these stops were to be at homeless shelters. Then covid gave new meaning to playin the Delta Blues. The mutated variant strain has put a hurtin on our gigs in the hot spots across the South, in California, and the Midwest. I am sorry for the cancellations, but I do not want to take my germs into a shelter, and I do not want to pick anything up either. For that reason we have had to cancel our westward leg of this little run. However, these gigs can be rescheduled, and they will be, as soon as we can find it safe to do so. Watch this space, and keep your face in the place, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Thank you all!
Director Mary Wharton and Sauce (as she calls me) Pre-show in West Palm Beach on Father’s Day 2021
Great hang at the beach with Mary. Here we are celebrating our recent collaborations. First, the award winning, “Jimmy Carter Rock and Roll President”. The Los Angeles Film Awards gave the movie Best Film, Best Editing, Best Documentary, and Best Original Score (by yers truly). Working on this project was the honor of a lifetime, thanks to Mary, her Squad of badass documentarians, and President Jimmy Carter. Then on “Somewhere You Feel Free”, the Tom Petty Documentary that Mary directed, I supplied some drum tracks recorded at my new Swampside Studio. After headlining SXSW and receiving their “Audience Award,” this film is destined for greatness. I can not wait for y’all to see it. That old 16 millimeter footage is gorgeous, and the story is the most personal, candid presentation I’ve ever seen.
Monkfish a la Sauceboss Y’all
Poor man’s lobster! Half the price of tuna, and so succulent. Influences from all over the world are in this recipe. I started with a Malaysian curry kind of thing, and added okra (Africa/southern USA), and peppers, (Jalapeno and Guajillo from Mexico), and Chinese string eggplant.
Saute: 1 lg onion 1 inch fresh grated ginger (or more) 6 cloves garlic mashed and minced 1 jalapeno chopped 1 Guajillo chopped
Add: 1 can coconut milk 3 Tbs curry powder Bring to a boil
Add: Eggplant and okra until they are cooked
Add: fish for a few minutes
Voila! One pot, easy peazy!
Thanks Joe Bonamassa, Keeping the Blues Alive, and so many others!
Well…crawling out from under this rock that harbored me for over a year is an exhilarating feeling. I had a chance to recharge and write, and build, and garden, and chill like never before. I am so lucky to be where I am. Still alive. Still kickin it. Still loving what I do. I actually kept busy, but at my own pace, and like so many others I got a glimpse of what it could be. Having hard work and also the time to kick back and see the fruits of my labor has been so fulfilling. I have to give some thanks to all who helped me during this time without gigs. To the folks who watched the live streams. THANK YOU!!! To those who contributed to the virtual tip jar, THANK YOU!!! To those who bought my hot sauce, records, CDs, and books, THANK YOU!!! To the folks who, out of the blue, just sent me money, THANK YOU!!! To my partner and gumbo wrangler, Ruth Wharton, THANK YOU!!! To all y’all on social media who gave me encouragement when things looked dark, THANK YOU!!! And a special shout out to Joe Bonamassa and Keeping the Blues Alive for the check, THANK YOU!!!
Northeast Run Details. Here ya go… Dec 4 Sportsmens Tavern, Buffalo NY Dec 5 120 Pub and Grub, Clearfield PA Dec 6, Moondogs, Pittsburgh PA Dec 7 Apollo Maennerchor, Sharon PA Dec 9 Maple City Bowl, Hornell NY Dec 10 Fanatics Pub, Lima NY Dec 12 Upper Deck Sports Bar, Mt. Airy MD . . . .and then a dash back to Tallahassee, FL Dec 14 Junction at Monroe 5th Anniversary Show with Revival
Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President I’m honored to be a part of this project. And I am super proud of my daughter Mary Wharton. For close to 30 years she has been in the thick of the music video scene in New York City. First with VH-1, she started as an associate producer working on 8 Track Flashback, then she worked on the Legends series. She wrote and directed the “Legends” show on Jimi Hendrix. When David Bowie did Legends, he said that Mary’s film was the best thing he’d ever seen about himself. She made herself indispensable and rose to the highest level of hands on producing. Could have gone further but was not into the smarmy executive culture, so she became a freelance producer, doing American Masters, Joan Baez.
From her bio: “Wharton’s work also includes the 2004 Grammy winner, “Sam Cooke: Legend” (VH1, PBS, BBC); the network television specials “Elvis Lives” (NBC, RTL, Channel 4 UK, 2002) and “The Beatles Revolution” (ABC, VH1, 2001); the platinum-selling concert film “Phish: IT” (PBS, 2004); and documentaries for the VH1 “Legends” series about U2, David Bowie, The Doors, Elton John, George Clinton and Jimi Hendrix. She served as a producer on the Grammy-winning documentary “Bruce Springsteen: Wings For Wheels, The Making of Born To Run” (Sony/BMG, 2005) and as an Executive Producer of “Tell Them Anything You Want: A Profile of Maurice Sendak,” directed by Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze (HBO, 2009). Wharton has become entrenched in the world of pop music, producing episodes of the VH1 documentary series, “Behind The Music.” Her profiles of Enrique Iglesias (2011), Pitbull (2012) and Train (2012) were big hits in the twitterverse and pushed an immediate surge in sales of those artists’ music – once again proving the power of a good story.”
Fast forward to the present and we have the 2020 release of “Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President.” Executive Producer and Director: Mary Wharton. It’s a documentary of how the music community rallied around Carter, as he made appearances at benefit concerts featuring America’s top shelf artists who not only played, but also made everyone aware that he was “one of us”. The benefit $$$ they made on the weekend provided an ad budget for Monday morning. It worked! The movie follows Jimmy through his time in office and his work up to today as he tirelessly works to promote peace and equality throughout the world. His indomitable faith shines through the whole thing. The concert footage is a virtual who’s who of the greats. Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Charlie Daniels, and U2, just to name a few. And I contributed 17 pieces of my music for the movie garnering original score credit. I’m truly humbled to be in such company, and a part of a really important work. When you see it, you will understand. As always, Mary’s timing is impeccable.
The $5 BBQ
E & J 5 Buck BBQ
1622 S Monroe St Tallahassee, FL 32301 Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m
Cooked to perfection with really good sauce at a super reasonable price makes this walk-up, the place to go when I want a right-now rib. At the E & J 5 Buck BBQ, the people line up to receive the communion of Q. A family operation, it’s almost a spiritual endeavor, providing sustenance to some that can’t afford to eat at a fancy restaurant. “A five-dollar bill gets you a meal!” is the motto. And it’s a good count. Ribs, two sides, and a slice of white bread to sop up the extra sauce. (get the extra sauce. It’s sublime. Yup, it’s that good) Highly recommended. Five star award from the Sauce Boss.
The perfect pairing. Liquid Summer Hot Sauce takes a really good bbq sauce and builds it into a really great taste experience. The creeper burn allows you to taste everything else in the Q, then swells like a symphony in your mouth. Liquid Summer Will Change Your Life!!! The Hot Sauce For The New Millennium.
Something special for the holidaze. Hearty and a whole lot of fun, these cakes will stick with ya.
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. fresh ground ginger
½ tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground cloves
1/8 cup flax meal (or a couple eggs)
1 cup cooked pumpkin
1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp. maple syrup
Sliced bananas
Walnuts
Sift the dry ingredients together
Mix the wet ingredients
Combine the wet and dry stuff
Pour the batter on a hot griddle and cover with bananas and walnuts
Serve with maple syrup
Oct. 19 Tallahassee FL – Bradfordville Blues Club
Oct. 24 Mobile AL – Cedar Street Social Club
Oct. 25 Pensacola Beach FL – Paradise Bar and Grill
Oct. 26 Natchez MS – Smoots
Nov. 1 Key West FL – MOTM Casa Marina Main Stage
Nov. 2 Key West FL – Key West Theatre
Nov. 3 Goodland FL – The Little Bar
Nov 4 Boca Raton FL – Funky Biscuit
Nov 10 Tallahassee FL – Fish Camp at Lake Iamonia
Nov 15 Jacksonville FL – Mudville Grill
NOV 16 Tampa FL – Skippers
Nov 17 Sarasota FL – Private Event
Coming in December: Tour of the Northeast Here’s more info.
The Meeting of the Minds is the international convention of Parrotheads at the Casa Marina in Key West, Florida for a week of tropical rock and roll, libations, seafood, and zaniness. Flip flops, boat motor margaritas, loud shirts, and hangovers in the making are the trademarks of MOTM, and little ol’ cornbread, the Sauce Boss, the red headed stepchild of trop rock is crashing this party one more time! It’s always a total blast. Thanks for having me.
Meeting of the Minds 2016
3:30 at the Casa Marina on Friday, November 1. And I will be at the Key West Theatre on Saturday, November 2, with Bill Blue and an all star Key West Blues throw down. Might wanna get yer tix for this one soon as it’s selling out.
A few new club dates on this run; I’ve been wanting to get down to the Little Bar in Goodland for a while. I’m also doing the Cedar Street Social Club in Mobile, and Smoots in Natchez for the first time. The gig at Skippers will be lots of fun with the Right Reverend Billy Wirtz, the Nighthawks, and myself, all in a great big pile, slathered in gumbo. Can’t wait for that one! But I gotta tell ya, all of these places on my schedule are great to play. I feel lucky as can be to be hanging out with the folks I meet on the road. Please share these dates with your peeps. And don’t forget to boogie! You know I will never... ever… Forget to BOOGIE~~~~. Longevity Omelette
(Sung to the tune of “Blowing in the Wind”)
How many times have you reached for the spinach in your refrigerator only to find part of the bag has gone bad? So you have to pick through it or else throw it away. Ugh… I love spinach, but it needs to be used immediately or it’s wasted.
Well, here’s the answer. Longevity greens will last all summer, they require little to no attention to grow bushy plants right outside your door. Problem solved. If you actually tried in your mind to sing that to “Blowing in the Wind”… my life is complete.
This omelette is made with longevity greens, a plant from tropical asia, rich in antioxidants-hence the name. The cool thing is they love the hot summer days which are killers to spinach. Long after other greens have wilted and died, the longevity greens will supply your table with a substitute for spinach. They may have to be covered in the winter on a cold night. Mine made it through the winter without cover in north Florida.
Jalapeño, sweet pepper, mushrooms, onion, potatoes, tomatoes, feta, and longevity greens. Stone ground white corn grits on the side and rye toast. The only thing this omelette needs is a big ol splooge of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce.
One more reason I feel like I’m one of the luckiest guys around.How would you like to have an unlimited supply of the finest tasting, most versatile hot sauce anywhere? You can get your own stash at our store.
Soul Vegetarian Restaurant
1205 S Adams St. Tallahassee, Florida
(850) 893-8208
Proud to say my Liquid Summer Habanero Sauce is the house hot sauce for Soul Veg. in Tallahassee. Y’all need to be eatin yer greens, now, and Soul Veg has the GREENS! Super cool folks making a difference in the community, one dish at a time. It’s not only good for your heart and digestion, it’s also good for your energy, your stamina, your brain, and it’s good for your soul. You douse those red beans and rice with that Liquid Summer, and it sings a high note! Oh…and the mac and cheese is to die for. Tell em the Sauce Boss sent cha. I’ll see y’all at Soul Veg.
Georgia and the Carolinas and back to Florida (Schedule) April 27 Thomasville GA, Rose Festival
May 3 West Jefferson NC, Civic Center
May 7 High Point NC, High Point Theatre
May 8 Hickory NC, Planet Gumbo show at Hickory Soup Kitchen
May 9 Morganton NC, Morganton NC Municipal Auditorium
May 11 Morganton NC, private event
May 17 Bluffton SC, Roasting Room
May 18 Columbia SC, BBQ Beer and Bourbon Fest
June 7 Lakeland FL, Union Hall
Sauce Boss and the Planet Gumbo volunteers at Mexico Beach: Su Ecenia, Ruthie Wharton, Sally Morton, Tanya Hollady, and Jeanie Barrett
THANKS! To all who contributed to Planet Gumbo‘s fund raiser for the Ground Zero Mexico Beach White Tent. We took $1200 in the form of Lowes gift cards. Great job, Linda Blythe at Ground Zero, and to all the Planet Gumbo volunteers who drove to Mexico Beach to help us. We had a great time on the beach playing and cooking gumbo with the survivors of Hurricane Michael! In 2006, Planet Gumbo also brought music and gumbo to New Orleans and Buras, Louisiana, where Hurricane Katrina hit so hard. The damage in Buras LA was similar to Mexico Beach, leveling houses and leaving only slabs of concrete. In Buras, I saw a refrigerator lodged in a tree fifteen feet off the ground. Watch the video that Mary Wharton produced from our trip to Louisiana.
Planet Gumbo is self contained. Able to bring music and gumbo anywhere this van can go.
Central Florida folks, check out my column in Static Live Magazine and online
My Book It’s a cookbook and a songbook with a memoir sandwiched between the photos, music, and recipes. There’s an address on the Internet to listen to the audio files of two-dozen tunes in the book, while you are reading. Listen to the song as you read the story, and also make a dish as you go along from the cookbook to get the taste of the Sauce Boss. The recipes are dynamite, the story is a page turner, and the music is smokin. All the recipes and songs follow the story of my life. It all fits together like the puzzle that is Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton. Available in paperback at all the shows and on Amazon. Perfect gift for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day!
Blind Boy Billy Single Release Date – October 19, 2018
If you are not already on the email list: go to sauceboss.com and join it to receive a free download of the song.
Produced by David Davidson
Engineered by Bobby Shin
at The Library Studios, Nashville TN
Cover art by Dick Bangham
One man Band: Bill Wharton
Fiddle: David Davidson
The single is from the upcoming album (Blind Boy Billy), which is the companion to the book, The Life and Times of Blind Boy Billy.
In addition to solo one-man band tracks on the album, the Sauce Boss has taken his one-man band and added violin, sousaphone, snare drum and backing singers to tell the ragtime story of an irascible traveling fiddler, Blind Boy Billy.
CD and Vinyl Album to be Released January 11, 2019
It’s no Moby Dick, or Ulysses, but it is unlike any book I have ever seen. From the press release:
The Life and Times of Blind Blind Boy Billy is a memoir. It’s also a songbook (with soundtrack) and a cookbook. Bill Wharton filets the story of his life, smokes it, and sandwiches it between photographs, tunes and recipes. It’s the backstory of a life of sharing food and music. It’s also a story of the outlaw grower of fine cannabis, and his brush with the law. The tunes and the recipes follow the story, with the Sauce Boss mixing media like it was cornbread.”
Kindle Pre-order for Multimedia Book which contains soundtrack of 20 mp3 songs
(Playable only on Amazon Fire devices and Kindle apps for Android phones and tablets)
Release Date October 19, 2019 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J37KRTX
Here we go again.
Saturday Nov. 3rd at the Casa Marina 5:30 on the main stage.
Sunday Nov. 4 at the Ocean Key Resort 4:30 on the Sunset Stage.
Of course I’ll be playing tunes from my new album, Including the Sauce Boss rendition of I Will Play For Gumbo. I am sooo looking phorward to this one y’all.
While in key west, I might need to have a pink er two. Here’s my cocktail sauce recipe from The Life and Times of Blind Boy Billy.
Cocktail Sauce
2 cups ketchup
Juice of a lemon
1 Tbsp horseradish (or more)
¼ cup Liquid Summer Hot Sauce (or more)
October 28 is a double. After the Jazz and Blues Fest, I will throw down at the Junction @ Monroe. with Mel Melton on harp and rubboard. Mel was Sonny Landreth’s harmonica man for years. He’s also a chef so we will be stirrin it up. Dylan “Ragpicker” Allen will open the show. On Halloween I will be cooking in Miami at a homeless shelter. And then…
THE MEETING OF THE MINDS The international convention of Parrotheads converging on key west for a week of trop rockin.
Here’s my schedule for MOTM.
Wed. November 1, at 6 pm. CW Colt Backyard Concert Charity Series. Proceeds to help the Keys recover.
Thurs. November 2, at 11:45 pm. The Casa Marina on the Beach Stage with Mel Melton.
Fri. November 3, at 5:30 pm. The Ocean Key Resort.
Then I’ll be workin my way back home.
Saturday, November 4, at the Titanic in Miami
Sunday, November 5, at Earls Hideaway in Sebastian with
J P Soars and the Red Hots
Tuesday, November 7, at Bostons on the Beach in Delray Beach
Thursday, November 9, at Rhythm and Brews in Zephyrhills
Saturday, November, 11 at the Alley in Sanford
Sunday, November 12, at the Riverhawk Music Festival in Brooksville
Friday, November 17, at the Downtown Getdown in Tallahassee
Friday, December 1, at the Monticello Opera House in…well, you know.
3 Tbs Liquid Summer Datil Sauce (or more!)
1 Tbs Horseradish
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Catsup to taste
Liquid Summer makes the best cocktail sauce. This is one of my favorite recipes. The datil peppers merging with the lemon and catsup. There’s an immediate zing from the horseradish, and then the datils come up slow from the bottom, crescendoing into a tart, heady, spicy, melange of flavor that explodes all over the fat of the shrimp…want some…
I have had a magical year. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I travel around and I play my own music . . . exclusively my own music! What did I do to deserve this artistic carte blanche? Well… workin my ass off for fifty years has helped, however, I couldn’t have done it without y’all. So here’s a HUGE thank you to everyone who came to the shows, to the venues and their staffs, to the festivals and the parties, to the promoters, agents, radio, and press, to the Parrothead clubs and the Blues societies, to the monster musicians that sat in with me, to Peach and Dale Hench, and to Ruthie Wharton. I’m talkin ’bout ALL Y’ALL!!
AND… THANK YOU,Jimmy Buffett! Your song, “I Will Play For Gumbo” has made a big difference in my schedule. All these guys in loud shirts keep showin up to the gigs. But more than that, I know now, that I can bring the good weather to the blues. It’s all about the attitude. So again, much love, keep cookin, and I’ll see ya down the road.
Sauce Boss Summer Tour took us from Tallahassee to San Diego and back, then up to Maine and back. 11,500 miles on those two runs. And that does not count the flight to Montana and back.
Here are some shots from a few of the the gigs, sightseeing, and some food along the way.
The Alamo
Pecos River
Judge Roy Bean’s
City of Rocks. New Mexico
City of Rocks
Sunset New Mexico
Sabino Canyon. 111 degrees
San Diego Parrothead Club with Washboard Willie.
Los Angeles Farmers Market with babes!
Zion in Utah
It gets HOT in Zion
The Utah Arts Festival
Jammin with one of the guests at the Volunteers of America Youth Resource Center in Salt Lake City. A homeless shelter for teens. These kids are as cool as it gets.
Wilsons Arch Utah
Piedra Canyon near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We spent a couple of days at the hot springs, hiking, soaking and expanding our minds.
Santa Fe Holiday. The food, the art, the music, the culture. Beautiful!
Amarillo, Texas.
The Central Oklahoma Parrothead Club in Oklahoma City really threw down on this one.
The lovely and Super talented Vanessa Collier joins me at the Greenwood Blues Cruise, bringin down the house. What a spirit this young woman has!
Caught red handed! That’s not on my diet!!!! Sittin on the curb, eatin South Carolina BBQ Hash after my set. I just could not resist. When I was a kid, my grandaddy made this stuff. Life is good!
A Taste of Summer. Billings Montana
Pictograph Caves. Billings, Montana. 2000 year old paintings.
Earth Wind and Fire in D.C.
Baby Jake and Walter Tates joining me at Big Owl Tiki Bar. Always epic at Big Al’s place.
Gorgeous day off in D.C. While trecking for museum to museum, we chanced upon this little tiny park with tis statue of Mahatma Ghandi. The man who broke the yoke of the British Empire. This man changed the world by making it clear that we can do the same. In this time of crazy world events, doing the right thing is imperative. His words: “My life is my message”
The Community for Creative Non-Violence. The largest homeless facility in the Country with 1300 clients.
For any railroad enthusiast, this is a must see, (hear, feel, experience). The screech of the brakes, the incredible mass of iron surrounding you, the power of half a dozen engines surging round the curve, kinetic, otherworldly. Unlike anything I have ever experienced.
The band apartment at Balloons in Ellicottville, New York. Talk about band friendly!
Erie, Pennsylvania.
Wild Alaskan Nova on pumpernickel. Russ & Daughters, New York City
CAUTION! Nawlins. Long Island, New York.
Black Eyed Salley’s. Hartford, Connecticut.
The crowd at the Jimmy Buffett Concert in Mansfield, Mass. Sold out in six minutes!
While in Maine…
Neddick, Maine
Turner’s Fettuccine with clams and lobster. Salem, Mass.
Memorial to those executed for witchcraft.
Gettysburg Battlefield. Very dark mojo in this place. There’s still something goin on here.
Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia with one of the greats, Walter Tates.
A VERY LARGE THANK YOU goes out to all the Gumbo Heads out there who came to the shows this Summer! Without your ears, I would be nothing. Together, we have broken down the barriers between audience and performers, transforming the nights into celebrations of community and love. Keep Cookin!
Sauce Boss to be honored. On March 5th, I’m gonna party down with my good friends Albert Castiglia, and Selwyn Birchwood, along with Les Dudek, Rick Derringer, and Mike Pinera, at the Florida Musicians Awards Hall of Fame. Burt Reynolds will receive the Humanitarian Award. and Jerry Mathers will be stirrin the gumbo. Yep, that’s the Beaver y’all. The Beave is hosting the event, and it’s gonna be one hell of a jam. Seating is ticketed, so now’s the time to reserve a good seat. Check out the video here. And more info here
One of my favorite dishes using Liquid Summer Hot Sauceis spaghetti sauce over angel hair pasta. I will use just a little bit, where it’s almost imperceptible. But it marries all the other ingredients together, giving the sauce a character, like almost an identity, a presence that says, “Hello!” without the burn.
The Awe Shack
2510 Conway Rd. Suite 101 Gambrills, Maryland 21054 410-721-5022 TheAweShack@gmail.com
When I saw the name, I was skeptical. However when I tasted the food, I was a believer in the awesomeness of this little kabob place between Baltimore and DC. (Right near the intersection of I-97 and Hwy 3. It’s a nice ride if you want to avoid the DC traffic) And when you get there, you will be rewarded. …I promise. Once in a great while, a truly great meal comes out of nowhere. A surprise, a sleeper, a complete flabbergast, that hits you up side the head like a brick… of pure flavor. I had a meal like that at this little kabob house between B’more and DC. The name is a play on “Aushak”- an Afghani handmade ravioli stuffed with scallions and leeks, topped with a traditional mint-garlic yogurt dressing, ground sirloin, and cilantro. All meats and vegetables used at the Awe Shack are organic, and the veggies are locally grown. The “Right-out-of-the-tandoor bread” is crazy good. . The quality of ingredients, the attention to detail, and obvious love of cooking makes The Awe Shack truly awesome.
Thanks for the award, But… Gotta say thanks to all who have congratulated me with the “Bout Time” comments on the social media. When I got the call about the Hall of Fame gig, I was blindsided. I must admit, it was kinda fun to puff up for a couple of days. Feel important, give the big bad world a little “I told ya so”. Then I came back to planet Earth, and the humbling began. I couldn’t have done it without folks who have supported me for all these years. Back when I began my quixotic gumbo crusade, I had no idea that traveling from A to B would involve such an effort. All along the way, some people would tell me, “I would never go up north in the blizzards of winter”. Or, “Don’t you get tired of riding in the van and waiting around in airports”? But for those smiling faces at the gigs, it’s all right here. It’s all right now. Not a rehearsal. This is it, for whatever it will be. I guess I’ve been traveling from A to BE! Yeah, the “Be” is where I ended up. Everything between the A and the B is the “Be”. All for the better. And there’s one person who I must congratulate, and thank more than any other. My friend and companion for my lifetime, Ruth Wharton. On February 25th, we will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I am giggin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she will be at my side. Yup, braving the blizzard or the sunshine, we are in it for the long haul. And THAT’S… why I call it the “Haul of Fame”.
It’s gorgeous down here in Florida. Nice and warm. So I’m bringin the heat for the holidays. Scorchin Slide Guitar Boogie, Steamin Gumbo, and Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. Comein to ya. I’m takin it to New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North and South Carolina. But first. I’m playin Boston’s in Delray Beach. Here’s the info.
Albert Castiglia and Sauce Boss gettin the Big Dog
First time playin the rub board. Haven House, Jeffersonville, Indiana
Planet Gumbo celebrates 14 years of feeding the homeless. I’ve been volunteering my music and gumbo to those in need since 2002. Planet Gumbo is our charitable 501c3 foundation that supports my efforts to bring gumbo and uplifting music to homeless shelters, and soup kitchens all over the country. It’s not hard for me to take a day once and a while and share. However it was a really big deal for this little girl in Jeffersonville, Indiana. And also for the little brother stirrin the gumbo. They had a blast! If you’d like to help: Donate to Planet Gumbo.
25th Annual Meeting Of The Minds 2016 “Here We Are” IS SOLD OUT!
And there’s more options to see, hear, taste, and yes, smell the Sauce Boss while in the Keys!
Wednesday November 2nd. 8 pm to 11:30 at Island Dogs 505 Front St. key west
Thursday November 3rd . 10 pm at the Casa Marina
Friday November 4th. Boondocks 27205 Overseas Hwy Ramrod Key
Sunday, the Highlands Fine Art Festival in Sebring, Florida 1:30 pm
Can’t wait to see all my phamished, phood phondling phriends, phlirtatiously phoraging my phantastic, phamous GUMBO THROWDOWN!!!!! (You know what I mean, Vern?)
“Cool stuff happenin. Cool stuff ahead.” I told myself this lie so many times, it came true.
Benefit for Barnacle Bill’s Employees.
Saturday, August 13 The Junction @ Monroe
Tallahassee’s legendary raw bar burned down on August 1, and so their employees are out of work. I played many a night at this place back in the day, or as I call it, “The BAD ol days”! Come on down to The Junction @ Monroe, and join us for a great party and a great cause. I’m on at 9 PM! For details and complete tour schedule see sauceboss.com/tour
Whooee! What a Summer! Here’s just a few of my meanderings.
The BMW Owners of America International Rally 2016 Hamburg, New York
Smoked Mackerel with summer salads. Dressing? Liquid Summer Hot Sauce! Get your Liquid Summer Hot Sauce HERE!
Warm Springs, Virginia.
I have “taken the waters” from hot springs in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Costa Rica, Germany, France, Hungary, Peru, and now Virginia. Jefferson Pools is at the top of the heap as far as the feel good factor goes. A warm 98 degrees of heavy mineral content refreshes and invigorates when you step out of the pool into the cool mountain breeze. And your skin feels like silk. The Gentleman’s Bathhouse was constructed in 1761, making it the oldest spa structure in the US. The Pool’s namesake described the water as of the “First Merit”. Yes, Thomas Jefferson loved this place. So do I…
Big Al’s Big Owl Tiki Bar: Another Dimension!
Sauce Boss Life Hack. Hydroponic basil stays fresh in the cup holder. Smells good.
THE BACON EATING CONTEST! The Last Supper of Bacon. Epic carnivorous adventure at the Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ Fest
Worlds End State Park
The rock shelf makes for a nice swimming pool/mountain stream kinda feel. Take a dip in this river and your whole body tingles.
Rustic Buckwheat Cakes with walnuts, oats, bananas, and mangos, slathered with maple syrup. This will hang with ya. SLAMMIN!
Watkins Glen, New York
Tiki Tom! Nuff Said…
Third set of wheels for my baby. Keal Cases are the best! They sent me new replacement wheels both times. For free!
Taste of Buffalo. 450,000 hongry people hit the street. I love playin for foodies.
This impressionist painting is actually a photograph of pebbles on the bank with the reflection of the sky and trees, melding with the lake bottom. 8th Lake Adirondacks.
Big Dog: Albert Castiglia’s album featuring my tune “Let the Big Dog Eat” has been #1 on Roots Music Review for ten weeks! Here’s Me and Albert, and Rockin Jake jammin “Let the Big Dog Eat” at the Niagara Falls Blues Fest. Photo: Colleen Mary Johnson.
Road Trip: New York, Hartford, DuBoise, Rochester, Syracuse, Sharon, and Pittsburgh. Yeah, it’s that time again. Every December, for a quarter of a century, I’ve made the trek to the Northeast for my annual holiday tour. I love the way the people come out of the woodwork for indoor sports. Makes me feel like the Creole Santy Claus. Ho, ho, ho, I’m rollin your way!
For those in the NYC area, I’m excited to be playing for my good friends at the Bayou in Mount Vernon for their Hot Hell Fest on Thursday December 3rd at 9:00 pm. Spicy food, plenty of sauce, and a hot chili pepper eating contest. This is not for the feint of heart. It’s gonna be HOT!
Time to re-up! Still time to order yer holiday gifts y’all. Click Here for CDs, LPs, Hot Sauce (Buy a case & share the heat), T Shirts, and Hats.
So many have asked about this guitar. What is it? OK here is the skinny on the fat sound I get with this amazing guitar. This is the Bill Wharton Special, made by my friend Mike Lewis. Mike is a Parisian luthier who makes resophonic guitars. His company moniker is Fine Resophonic. http://fineresophonic.com/ In addition to being a beautiful instrument, it’s also and incredible work horse. You can hear the National/Dobro “cone” sound clearly, even at high volume. It blows everything else I’ve heard out of the water. It stays in tune, even with the Sauce Boss heavy hand. Mike also makes resophonic ukes. Check out the Fine Resophonic website. It’s a trip. I am honored and humbled to have this great model guitar named after little ol. Thanks Mike!
Soul Vegetarian Restaurant 1205 S Adams St. Tallahassee, Florida
(850) 893-8208
Proud to say my Liquid Summer Habanero Sauce is the house hot sauce for Soul Veg. in Tallahassee. This is great, healthy eating. Y’all need to be eatin yer greens, now, and Soul Veg has the GREENS! Super cool folks making a difference in the community, one dish at a time. It’s not only good for your heart and digestion, it’s also good for your energy, your stamina, your brain, and your mind. Indeed it’s good for your soul. You douse those red beans and rice with that Liquid Summer, and it sings a high note! Oh…and the mac and cheese is to die for. Really good. Hey, do me a favor. Tell em the Sauce Boss sent cha. Make my day. I’ll see y’all at Soul Veg.
GingerGlop is a hearty snack that will get you down the road. A no brainer. Quick and easy, a little sweet, and gingery. Kinda like an energy bar all in a lump.
2 cups oatmeal
1 ½ cups flour
4 bananas
¼ cup applesauce
¼ cup honey
¼ cup maple syrup
1 cup walnuts
1 cup raisins
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbs cinnamon
2 tbl fresh grated ginger
1 tbs vanilla
350 degrees for 10 ish minutes
Wishing all y’all the happiest of holidays, and the best New Year yet. 2016 is lookin mighty sweet. Keep Cookin!
AAAAWWWW RIGHT! Here I come for my annual Holiday Tour! I am holdin. Loaded with a fresh batch of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, CDs, and swag. Here’s the details of the tour schedule. I begin the tour at a Homeless Shelter near Louisville. Then I’m gigging in Lexington, Connersville IN, Wheeling WV. Sharon, Pittsburgh, and DuBois PA. Cleveland, Syracuse. I will celebrate my birthday on December 20 in Maryville Tennessee with family and friends. Don’t miss this party!
100% PURE Sauce Boss is Smokin! If you haven’t picked up the new album, here’s your chance. Available HERE on CD, or download (or pre-order a limited edition on 180 gram vinyl). This record is getting the best response I ever received from friends and critics alike.
The perfect Holiday Gift Set: Autographed copy of 100% Pure CD and 2 bottles of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce–one Datil and one Habanero.
Order— Cds, vinyl, hot sauce, gift sets, t-shirts or chef hats–from the Sauce Boss store, and receive a bonus “cracker jack prize”.
Zamorah’s 106 NE Main St Simpsonville, SC 29681
(864) 990-6167 Soul food with a big heart.
Why is it that those with little, are ready to share? Could it be that they know how it feels?
This little soul food restaurant outside of Greenville, South Carolina blew my mind. Ribs, chicken and the fixins. They bring new meaning to a “generous meal”. Thank you Zamorah! You have made my day, just knowing about what you do for people. We all can help in some way.
Bill Wharton has blended brilliance and darkness, true-life stories, and the legends surrounding his outlaw mystique. The album mixes blues songs with genre-bending selections, however, it is “100% Pure” Sauce Boss! Mostly recorded in the one-man band format, “100% Pure” grooves hard and deep, with a very large sound. Plenty of bottom, with a voice begging for mercy, and a slide guitar that crawls out of the swamp like a twelve foot gator.
It’s happening! You can order the CD now at the new Sauce Boss Store. While you are there, you might want to order a case of of Liquid Summer hot sauce for the relatives or the company holiday parties. 180 gram Vinyl version of “100% Pure” should be available in early December.
And you can listen to three of the tunes from the album on the sauceboss.com website music player at the bottom of each page
Tour Dates Here. Hangin’ down South for November. Then Up to the Northland for my annual Holiday tour.
Sauce Boss Coffee Cake OK, y’all have been pesterin’ me for my fool proof coffee cake. Here’s the deal. Ya need to have a sifter. After you memorize this little formula, you can improvise whatever kind of bread/cake you want to have. Let’s go step by step.
Oven at 350 degrees
I take a cup of whole wheat flour and put it in the sifter .
Then I take:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup of flax meal
And I put all that in the sifter. Then I put another cup (or more) of flour on top of the stuff and sift it all.
In a separate bowl I mix:
Walnuts
Fruit (for this coffee cake I used a banana, black currants, and applesauce)
1 can of pumpkin
Honey
Milk
Mix it all together and put in into a greased frying pan. Then I apply a heavy dusting of cinnamon, completely covering the top.
The vinyl is 180 grams of pure Sauce Boss The “100% Pure” Kickstarter project is half way there. Recorded mostly in the one man band format, with a large rig, the sound is grand. Y’all! Come and get it! The Kickstarter project ends on Sept 16. That’s not even two weeks away. Pre-order “100% Pure” autographed vinyl or CD HERE. Also, PLEASE, share it with your friends.
Here’s a video of “Peckerwood”, shot at the Big Top Chatauqua in Bayfield, Wisconsin. That gig rocks! Always nice to get a standing ovation. The video gives you an idea of what the album sounds like. Peckerwood is a mythical land somewhere in North Florida. Mythical because when you get there, it’s mainly in your mind.
This guy is the best. From the Sound Shop in Detroit, Michigan. Easy does it, Motor City Josh. In the studio, he’s way cool, super chill, and highly efficient. Thanks for making it easy for me in so many ways. That’s what I like about Detroit. Good people doin good work. It’s a tradition.
And thanks to Eric Ilasenko for getting the shots.
This album is gonna be a great package of my best work.
And thanks to all y’all, friends and family, for hangin’ with me all this time.
100% Pure is the latest opus from the one man band. A serious traveling, gumbo slingin, slide playin, drum kickin, high hat stompin, low down, gut bucket blues singin, romp through twelve original tunes. Straight out of the true life adventures of Bill Wharton, as I manifest my way through the ether that we call “existence”. Twelve songs, mostly autobiographical glimpses into the happenings and goings on, down in the counties that count.
You can get your copy of “100% Pure” through my Kickstarter program. Click HERE to order.
The album features my one man band format. This is a radical departure from any production I have ever done, but one that feels perfectly natural to me. One thing I know, it was the easiest burst of creativity I ever had. From start to finish, the whole thing swirled and coalesced onto the disc in Detroit at the Sound Shop Studio. Recorded and mixed by Motor City Josh Ford. We had a gooood time. It will knock you out. I got a lot of noise out of this little kit. Should be out in a few months on Vinyl, CD, and Download formats. Check out the Kickstarter video. If that doesn’t make you grin, you need to see a doctor.
Upcoming Shows: Takin it easy for the next couple of months so I can do the artwork and packaging. However, I’m excited to get back to a few of my faves and turn y’all on to the new tunes. First off, Friday, August 22nd, I’m hitting the Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee. Hope to see some ol time friends and neighbors this coming weekend. Saturday August 23rd, I will be at another one of my haunts. The Alley in Sanford is always a stone cold hoot! I have a lot of friends in Sanford, being part of the Kingsnake Records family for so long. Here’s the tour schedule.
Noble Fish 45 E 14 Mile Road Clawson, Michigan 48017
248-585-2314 http://noblefish.com/
Yellowtail, Umbashi Plum, Veggiemaki, and Salmon Skin Handroll
Noble Fish is a Japanese market with a little tiny sushi bar in the back. I love down home sushi. It feels more authentic, like the simple and modest food known for increasing longevity, that the fishermen have been eating for centuries. The fish is verry fresh and the casual, relaxed atmosphere is fine with me.
The Packard Factory in Detroit. A beautiful ruin from a long time ago.
Sauce Boss One Man Band Traveling Gumbo Showis hitting the road for Summer tours. Feelin good, feelin good. I’ve had some monster gigs. You take that 53 Telecaster, pump it through that 48 Fender amp, add a bass rig, mix in some drums, all simmered down over some funky swamp blues, and smothered with gumbo, and you got a recipe for the largest one-man band on the planet. It’s HUGE! AND..it feels SO good. It’s been incredibly rewarding, going out solo, and getting the love and respect from my audience. Thanks to all the venues, friends, and fans for believing in me. Right now, I’m on top of the world. CATCH ME HERE!
AND THIS SUMMER . . . you can get a FREE bottle of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce when you buy a Sauce Boss CD at the gig AND at the Sauce Boss Online Store. That’s right, for a limited time, we are coming down, coming way down. $15 will get you a CD and a FREE bottle of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. I don’t know how I can afford to do this. Better get in on this soon before I come to my senses.
This recipe is totally yum, it’s hard to believe that it is also healthy and vegan.
Pumpkin Banana Walnut Gingerbread Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. fresh ground ginger
½ tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground cloves
1/8 cup flax meal
1 cup cooked pumpkin
1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp. maple syrup
Sliced bananas
Walnuts
Sift the dry ingredients together
Mix the wet ingredients
Combine the wet and dry stuff
Pour the batter on a hot griddle and cover with bananas and walnuts
Serve with maple syrup
Over 1000 gigs sez it all.
Here’s my latest endorsement. Keal Cases. No, these guys did not pay me to say this. I’m just passing along information. This case has saved my amp’s life many times. One time it rolled off of a six foot high stage, and landed upside down, on the concrete. Testament to the quality of both the case, and also my 48 Fender Pro, the amp still worked perfectly.
2014, I Love You! A very wise man once said,”Got to admit, it’s getting better”. Or was he a fool? Well..it gets better when I start cookin. I’m a fool for music and I love to cook. Join me for some good times. Friday, Jan. 10, I am playin Lake Worth, where there’s a low of 74. Of course it will be much hotter inside the Bamboo Room. Playin and swayin, and kickin butt with the gumbo. Saturday you can find me at Sundowners for the Key Largo Wine and Food Fest. Crystal clear day, high of 79, low of 76. Y’all come on down. Schedule Right Here
COMING SOON: Midwinter Meltdown near D.C., Lancaster PA Roots and Blues Fest, Iron Horse (Ashland), Panama City Beach Mardi Gras, Music on the Bay in Tampa, Earl’s (Sebastian) & Docksider (Marathon)
Salmon Haystacks with Artichoke, and Collards
Salmon Haystacks
You cain’t get more down home than when your Mama fires up that ol cook stove. My Mama, I say MY MAMA, MY MAMA could COOK, y’all! She knew all the different prices of all the different foods in all the different stores. Where to get the best deals, and how to streeetch that hard earned dollar. She fed a family of seven on a teacher’s pay. But she could make some biscuits and gravy. Mama once entered a recipe contest and she won it. She was my inspiration.
Here’s the prize winning recipe for her Salmon Haystacks:
Bone one can of salmon, 15 ounces approximately (It’s pretty good with smoked wild caught)
3 or 4 slices of bread
1 small onion minced
3 tbs mayonnaise
Mix salmon, onion, and mayo
Form into little haystacks
Roll in toasted bread crumbs
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
YUMMM
Mama and me circa 1951
Angkor Cambodian & Thai Cuisine 2350 Noblestown Rd. Greentree-Crafton (Pittsburgh) 412 928-8424 If you are flying in or out of Pittsburgh, and you’re hungry, there’s a little restaurant not far from the airport that I would recommend. In addition to the Thai menu, they have a number of Cambodian dishes that will give you a different slant on the Southeast Asian cuisine. The dish I had was the Moarn Chha Ktom (Original Khmer Dish). Typical veggies, with a funkier, earthier pungency in the sauce than the Thai. A unique lemon grass sauce, none the less sublime. I got off on this place. They will cook to order. Good service. Good feeling in yer belly.
April 2013 @ The Moon Tallahassee, Florida Photo Bob O’Lary
Here’s the latest scoop on the street about that night on the Moon, along with some ancient history. Tour schedule —First stop: Terra Blues in Greenwich Village, then on to Niagara Falls Blues Festival, some favorite NE haunts, and the Port Credit Jazz and Blues Fest (Toronto). Then a mad dash down to Delray, and Pensacola Beaches.
Stumbled on this place in Ellicotville, NewYork
Ten miles out o’ town, the Griffis Sculpture Park. Between the way cool sculptures, you can graze on wild raspberries.
Talk about a forage on the highway!
Sauce Boss Store: CDs, Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, T-Shirts, Hats, Click Here.
Vegetarian Low Fat Pad Thai Noodles
OK, here’s one for all y’all who think that healthy food is bland, and tasteless, and no fun. The reason that some folks think that, is that they have had “healthy” food cooked by someone who can not really cook healthy food properly. Here ‘s a recipe that’s as flavorful as all get out.
Half pound tofu
Soy Sauce
Nutritional Yeast
1/4 pound snow peas or sugar snap peas
4 green onions, chopped
2 carrots, grated
1 cup vegetable broth
½ pound of linguine sized rice noodles
½ cup powdered peanut butter (to get crazy healthy, I use PB2, which is PB without the oil)
Juice of 2 limes
¼ c Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Mung bean sprouts
Fresh cilantro
1. Cut tofu into ¼ inch slices, sprinkled with soy sauce and nutritional yeast, grilled until brown and then cut into bite-sized pieces
2. Put carrots, peas, and onions into vegetable broth and blanch just about two minutes and remove from pan
3. Cook noodles until al dente (about four minutes) and drain and rinse.
4. Mix peanut butter, lime juice, Liquid Summer hot sauce and broth in pan.
5. Add vegetables and tofu into peanut mixture.
6. Add noodles and stir it up.
7. Serve dish with bean sprouts and cilantro sprinkled on top.
Someday, when y’all are a bit older, I’ll tell ya the backline about that April Night on the Moon.
All American BBQ Fest in Pittsfield, PA, Erie, PA, Ellicottville, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Sharon, PA. Talk about STOMPIN grounds! Hear is the schedule
Downloads! For all y’all who are loading up your phone with blues for the beach, I know you love you some Sauce Boss for that road trip. 99 cent gets you a song. $9.99 buys you a whole album. iTunes or CD Baby. And if you want CDs or hot sauce, you can always get them at the Sauce Boss Store.
Whole Oats I’ve been doin this whole oat thing for a while. When I discovered steel cut oats, I was blown away with how much better they were than oat meal. When I began using whole oats, I was again blown away with how much better than steel cut oats, they were. Whole oats are to steel cut, as steel cut are to oat meal. So good. I mix the oats with brown rice for a very sticky, very tasty, and much healthier sushi. Really good. Then there’s Oat Cakes. Just mix the cooked oats with a little flour, a little flax meal, walnuts, and raisins. Make em into patties. Bake em on a cookie sheet. Super good. Oh, and then there’s the traditional oats for breakfast. Oats with raisins, and blackberries picked from the garden. The best.
Sauce Boss BBQ Hash As I promised all my Facebook friends, here’s my recipe for my Grand Daddy’s South Carolina Low Country BBQ Hash. Of course, I have put my own spin on the recipe with my Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. I have many fond memories of my grandfather, William Watts Wharton Sr., AKA “Pop”, used to take out his false teeth and scare the hell out of us little ones. He told war stories from World War I, hunting tales from the turn of the century Florida, and jokes for all the grand kids. Christmas at Mimi and Pop’s was the most magical of times with all the trimmings on a gorgeous tree, surrounded by presents, and an unforgettable feast . Sometimes he would make BBQ Hash, and we would pig out, till our little bellies were tight as ticks.
First, Smoke the Meat
Here’s how I make it:
2 Lb. beef chuck roast (or goat meat. Pop would sometimes use goat)
3 Lb. pork boneless Boston butt
Two 12 oz. bottles of Heinz Chili sauce
1/2 cup vinegar (or more if you like it tangy. Pop used 12 oz.)
3 Tbs honey
1/4 cup of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Trim excess fat from meat and smoke it in a charcoal smoker for 3 hours. Cut it up in one inch cubes, and cover with water in a large cast iron pot. Boil the meat until tender. Take the meat out and shred it discarding any bones or fat.
Put the meat back into the broth. Add vinegar, chile sauce, honey, and Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. Cook it down till the juice is almost all gone. Serve on a bun with a splash of Liquid Summer and a big slice of onion.
Make more than you need, ’cause you will always want more than you have.
This is what you need for eternal culinary bliss: Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. It comes in the original Datil and Habanero (extra hot) flavors. Get yours HERE.
The hot sauce for the new millennium.
Luigi’s Italian Restaurant
105 N Main St Akron, OH 44308 (330) 253-2999
In 1949, Nick Ciriello, the son of a cheese maker, bought a small steak house on North Main Street in Akron, Ohio. As it happened, the simple pasta and pizza recipes became more popular, and so the grill was shut down in favor of the authentic Italian bill of fare. Over 60 years later they are still crankin out the real deal pizza. This ain’t no disco, this ain’t no messin around. These guys know what’s up with the pepperoni. Luigi’s hit the big time in 1972 in Tom Batiuk’s comic strip Funky Winkerbean. Montoni’s Pizza, the local pizza parlor that Funky co-owned with Tony Montoni, is modeled after Luigi’s Restaurant. Luigi’s is the embodiment of everything Italian. Warm and friendly, accommodating, and very tasty.
Sanford (The Alley), Tampa (Skippers), Jammin’ Jambalaya Cajun Crawfish Jamboree at the one and only Florabama, then the Northeast and Midwest.Here’s the skinny on where we gonna be at when
Green Papaya Salad
1 small green papaya
2/3 cup roasted peanuts
2 tomatoes, cut up
4 cloves of garlic mashed and minced
Fresh cilantro chopped
2 hot peppers julienne
2 Tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce (or more)
DRESSING:
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
Juice of two limes
Shred the Papaya with a grater
Crush the garlic and tomatoes
Mix all ingredients
Add dressing
Let it all marry for an hour or more
Lonnie Mack called Skipper’s “The club that washed ashore”. Now celebrating 32 smokin’ years, this venerable Tampa Bay landmark has grown from a small smokehouse takeout operation with a casual Sunday jam to a full-service restaurant and much-loved purveyor of world-class music. The architecture is a smorgasbord of “cracker” and islandy-Key West styles with overturned boats, wooden walkways, large murals dot the landscape while artfully rusted walls contain the sounds of revelry. In the Oyster Bar, a vintage moonshine still hangs over the bar.
Raw oysters, smoked mullet, gator tail, fish dip, beer boiled shrimp, black beans and rice, deviled crab, conch fritters, fried okra, and key lime pie, gives this place a real Florida feel. The list of performers who have played Skipper’s is a who’s who of music. And the dance floor is always…interpretive. We will be back to Skipper’s once more on Saturday, April 4th for your dining and dancing pleasure. Y’all come on down to Tampa, ya hear?!
New Years Eve 1989, I made gumbo on stage for the first time at a little place north of Tampa. 190,000 bowls of gumbo later, here we are. WOW! What a feeling. Servin up the gumbo night after night got me thinkin that there’s got to be a way to put some of this energy back into the community. So 10 years ago, I discovered Planet Gumbo. A super cool place to dwell. Now I live on Planet Gumbo. I have always liked to share. However on Planet Gumbo, sharing is a way of life. Now when we’re out on the road with a day off, we take the gumbo show to a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. We have shared a meal and some uplifting music with good people in shelters all over the country. And the good people have shared their stories with us.
Please share this story with your friends in your social networks. And follow us on Planet Gumbo’s Facebook page.
WOW!
We have a winner for the Best Way to Use Liquid Summer Hot Sauce Contest. Actually we have a bunch of winners. Just reading all of the ways that people use Liquid Summer made me HONGRY. I put on five pounds in the last two weeks, thanks to all who sent their ideas and recipes. They were all so good, that I have decided to give everyone who entered a little something for sharing.
Here are the top 10 winning entries.
1. “With collard greens… of course! :)” by Wanda Graham Schlib (Wanda wins a case of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce)
2. “I carry a bottle with me in my purse, no other “hot sauce” will do, I use it on EVERYTHING… I even crave it and slurp spoonfuls if there is no food in sight to slap it on.” by Tracy File (Tracy wins a “Recipes” Multimedia CD and two bottles of hot sauce)
3. There is a tie for Third place: 3A. By Lori Basch Siler”Frozen summer strawberry sizzler.
Ingredients
3 cups of Sweet Ice tea
1 Tbsp. Honey
2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 bottleLiquid Summer Hot Sauce
2 cup ice cubes
Pour all ingredients in blender. Add ice cubes, one at a time, and process until blended. Serve immediately.”
3B. By Barbara Sorensen: “I love my Liquid Summer hot sauce in my Sunday Bloody Caesars and in the cocktail sauce for the shrimp mmmmm mmmmmm goooood” (Both Lori and Barbara win a bottle of hot sauce and a “Recipes” Multimedia CD)
Winners 4-10 will each win a download code for “Live at the Green Parrot” CD.
4. “Quite simply, the Datil Pepper sauce on raw Apalachicola oysters.” by Shaun Kern.
5. “As many of your friends have indicated, there is an unlimited number of uses, but my personal favorite is on my eggs. Over easy eggs on seperate halves of an English muffin or toasted bagel with a topping of hot sauce. This breakfast is not only an eye opener, but a start to your day with a smile on your face.” by George Jakulsky
6. “I LLLL my Liquid Summer Hot Sauce on my Popcorn! Winter or Summer! Popcorn popcorn popcorn!!!! MMMmmmmm the hotter the Mo’ Bet!” by Hollymae Smith
7. “Tonight it’s going in my shrimp and grits. Hurry up dinner time.” by Kelby Marlett
8. “Shish kabob on the grill…” by Dan Hall
9. “Liquid Summer Habanero mixed with a little drawn butter and soy sauce is my universal marinade, baste and seasoning sauce for all my veggies. Gotta have some warm on the table side and dip in it too! MMMMM-Goood!” by Brian Everheart
10. “I do not care what Barry uses it on, as long as he uses it!” by Irene McIntyre
“10 Mix Datil into the Chillie
09 Add to mayonnaise for what ever you use mayonnaise on!
08 Add to the Hot Salsa to correct the flavor
07 Kick up your Ketchup for the burger & fries
06 Hefty dose for the pulled pork
05 GUMBO, yes GUMBO
04 Wing Sauce any one!
03 Mix into scrambled eggs serve on pita
02 Seafood Linguine
01 Add to rim of garbage pail, keeps the squirrels out”
All other participants will receive a download code for my album, “Florida Blues”. (If you want to see all the suggestions for using Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, click here)
Here’s a FREE mp3 of my version of “Goin Back To Florida” from my 2004 CD “Come and Get It”, a song originally done by Bumble Bee Slim in 1937.
Wet Willie in yer ear, and Sauce boss in yer tummy!
Hangin in FLA: Orlando, Tampa. Englewood. Bradenton, Jupiter, Brooksville, Deland, Tallahassee, Sanford, and back to Tampa.
Please “Like” me on Facebook.
Everybody wants to be liked. Me too. If you dig the Sauce Boss, go to my page and “Like” me. If you really dig the Sauce Boss, Go to my page and “Like ” me, then comment, “Like, Like, Likey, Like”. Or you can just comment using my new acronym. LLLL. If you do this, I will LMAO.
Win a Case of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce!
Enter your favorite way to use my Liquid Summer Hot Sauce on the Contest Event on Sauce Boss Facebook Page, and on March 31, 2013, I will choose the top ten. My favorite entry will get a free case of hot sauce sent anywhere in the continental US. First runner up gets two bottles of sauce and a “Recipes” multimedia CD, second runner up gets a bottle of hot sauce and a “Recipes” CD. Top entries 4-10 will each receive a free download of “Live at the Green Parrot”. Comment there as many times as you like; however, entries must appear on this event to be considered. In case of duplicate entries, first one gets it. The top ten uses will be featured in the “Sauce Boss Blog”.
Jalapeño Sourdough Cornbread Making sourdough bread is a process that takes time. Some recipes require lots of time. However there are some recipes that depend upon the sourdough more for flavor than leavening. Like the sourdough banana pancakes I like to make. Here’s a recipe that uses a sponge for flavor and a little rise. It’s easy to make. And soo tasty. I got my starter from Linda C. Wilbourne. A very cool, accessible baker, who shares her recipes. She is all things sourdough. She originally got her strain from San Francisco.
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup of milk
2 tbs flax meal
1 and 1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
5 jalapenos diced
1 small onion diced
½ cup corn
2 tbs honey
Mix the starter, flour, water, milk, and flax, and let it sit for four or five hours in in a warm place (up to 85 degrees). I sometimes leave it overnight. This will be your sponge.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Saute the peppers, onion, and corn, then mix in the honey. For this recipe, I used dark, unfiltered honey. It’s really tastes great, and it gives the bread a beautiful tawny color.
Mix 1 cup of flour with soda, and salt
Combine wet and dry ingredients
Lightly oil a frying pan and add ¼ cup cornmeal
Shake it , coating the bottom with the meal
Add the bread mixture and bake for 30 minutes or till golden brown
Parking lot in front of S & W Automotive Buffalo, NY
Poetry in the Parking Lot This may seem like a waste of time, a completely dull and dreary hassle to wade through until your life resumes. This may seem like adolescent drivel, an old man’s ramble, an inconvenience, a contrivance of little or no value, but I think not. I call it poetry in the parking lot. Like the twitch of the discount liquor salesman’s moustache, like the journey of a flea, like the boot heel print in the snow, fifty five gallon drums, silent, waiting. Like the silent howl never heard, way down in the counties that don’t count. In the backyards of the harbors, in the empty lots, in the delapidated residence across the street, a for sale sign in the window. Why bother with the winter’s cough, a nose full of snot? Because it’s poetry in the parking lot.
2013 IS HERE!
And the Sauce Boss is still kickin hard.
Never thought I would get this far
I’ve been takin it on the arm
Got myself a cosmic credit card
Couple of times I almost bought the farm
From “Somewhere Down the Road”
That’s where I’m goin. Where the weather suits my clothes. Starting at Sundowners for the annual Key Largo Food and Wine Festival, then to Margaritaville in key west for a week of fun. Then way up north to Sarasota and Tampa for a couple of solo gigs. I will be singing in the shade of the coconut palms. Down by the sea.
My favorite recipe from 2012
Key Lime Banana Ice Cream 6 frozen bananas chopped
3 key limes
3 oz plain yogurt
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Juice the limes and dump all the ingredients into a food processor
Sauce Boss Opens for Willie Nelson 2010 at the Moon in Tallahassee
Sauce Boss Solo Couple of years ago, an old friend needed a front act for a show in Tallahassee. There was not enough time to set up a whole band, so he wanted a solo performer. The headliner was Willie Nelson. Although I had not performed solo in more than a decade, I took the gig, and I had a great time. The response was mega, as the audience was well lubricated, and I was on top of my game. I blew the roof off the place. Willie’s sister was back stage asking, “Who is that guy?” The crowd was in my hipsack. I was feeling pretty sporty. So now I have booked a few solo dates to let me stretch out a little bit. The first solo date will be Jan. 25th at the Myakka River State Park near Sarasota for their Moon over Myakka music series. The next is The following evening at The Yard in Tampa, Florida. Both dates promise to be high energy Sauce Boss Gumbo Shows. I’m fixin to make some noise.
Munchies 4:20 Cafe 6639 Superior Ave. Gulf Gate Village, FL 941-929-9893 Munchies420cafe.com
“Once upon a time, there were two guys who came home from the bar; and yes…they wanted food. There was nothing to eat around the house, and no one delivered at such late hours. They went to bed hungry, and then…”
So began the saga of Munchies 4:20 Cafe. From the portions served in this place, I thought the cook musta been high on meatballs. Monster sandwiches, fat, fat, wraps, hellaciously hot wings, foot longs, super subs, gimongous breakfasts, and obscene burgers, make this restaurant perfect for those who have imbibed whatever. And their timing is perfect. They open at 4:20 pm and close at 4:20 am…
Hmmmmmm…
It’s that time again. December is hitting me from behind. Hard to believe another year has passed. But we have one more tour before we bid 2012 adieu. We will be hitting all our old haunts on this tour. Here’s the scoop on our Baaaad Santa Tour.
Win a case of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce.
Here’s how to do it. Go to the Sauce Boss Facebook page and “Like” it. Post your guess as to what my best recipe of the year is. If you are the first to guess it correctly, you will receive a case of Liquid Summer in time to stuff yer stocking. Contest ends Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST.
My Grandmother used to make these sweet potatoes in oranges. She would put a marshmallow on top of each of them and bake em. This is my own version of “Mimi’s Sweet Potato Oranges”.
3 large sweet Potatoes
6 oranges
6 oz. soft tofu
Dash of each: Cinnamon, Allspice, Cloves
3 tbls maple syrup
Bake or wave the potatoes. Cut the oranges in half and juice them. Drink all but 1/2 cup of the juice. Mash the juice with the rest of the ingredients, and put the mixture in the orange shells. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 or 20 minutes.
Hunan Chinese Restaurant
386-328-0222 10 Eastgate Square Hwy 17 South East Palatka, FL 32131 Mon–Thurs: 11 am-9:30 pm Fri-Sat: 11am-10:30 pm Sun: 12 pm-9pm Lunch Special – 11 am-3 pm
Here’s a good one. I love it when I find a modest, out of the way place with true artisans doing what they love to do, and doing it soooo well. Our server, Linda was super attentive, and perfectly capable of making sure that our “special” dietary needs were met. Every dish from the kitchen was top notch and the portions were grand. Steamed dumplings. At most restaurants ya get six little teasers. I guess that’s why they call em appetizers. But at Hunan, there’s enough to fill up two people, never mind the entree. Every dish we had was more than enough. And the whole vibe and attitude was one of facilitating a great meal. It’s the difference between having a job, and doing your life’s work. The work that you were meant to do. The work that make’s you happy and prosperous in riches beyond money. Thank you Linda and you able partner in the kitchen for making our meal, our evening, and our lives better.
OK, I hope all you parrotheads are ready to PARTY at the Parrot. We are coming to get ya. Here’s a little laid back post for all y’all. We are gearing up for the meeting of the minds. Making our way down through Florida and ending up in key west. So why don’t y’all come on down and join us. We hit Sanford, Sebastian, and Delray Beach, with Planet Gumbo gigs in Lake Worth and Miami. Then on to the Green Parrot. Here’s the skinny on the gigs.
The perfect pick me up is the Liquid Summer Bloody Mary. No time to feel hung over when you have “minds” to meet.
LIQUID SUMMER MAKES THE BEST BLOODY MARY…EVER!
1 cup V-8
1 teaspoon LIQUID SUMMER HOT SAUCE
1 teaspoon Horseradish
Dash of celery salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
A couple shots of vodka
Mix ingredients together and pour into a glass of ice.
Fresh stalk of celery and olives
Show your sauciness with the Sauce Boss chef hat. The perfect attire for the food filled fun to be had in key west, or how bout Saturday nite in the boudoir. Just wear the hat with nothing else. It is guaranteed. We are holding a bunch of them for key west shows. If you can’t make the show, buy em at the Sauce Boss Store.
After a night of heavy meeting of minds, the place to go is Sandy’s Cafe. Amazing cuban sandwiches, and my favorite, the media noche. Scrumpdillieshish!
1026 White Street Key West, FL 33040 (305) 295-0159
When I think of all the places we went this summer it gives me a warmth like a swig o that ol Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Now we are fixin to hit it for the Fall. We will be in: Tallahassee, Palatka, Lake Worth (Blues, Brews, and BBQs), Sanford, Sebastian, Delray Beach, Key West (Meeting of the Minds), Dunedin, Atlanta.HERE’S tour info
Liquid Summer
It’s getting on toward the holiday season. You need a case of Liquid Summer. Time to stuff your stocking. Thanksgiving with out Liquid Summer Hot Sauce? I can’t imagine how that would be. A dark and dreary stuffing.
Liquid Summer will change your life! It will make all your meals jump up and kiss you. Don’t be caught without a supply. Lively up yourself. Git down wid da hot stuff. Order yours HERE.
We will return to Darwin’s in Marietta, Georgia on Friday, November 16th, so mark yer calendar. Been too long since I’ve seen all you guys from way up north in HotLanta. Can’t wait!
Very Fresh Mushrooms
So my son, Floyd, gave me some Chanterelle mushrooms that he found, and I made a stir fry.
Saute:
Half a head of garlic with a small onion, one jalapeño, and six Aji Dulce peppers
Add:
One tbs honey, three tbs rice vinegar, a splash of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, a few broccoli buds, half a cup of zucchini, one small bok choy, pineapple, chanterelle mushrooms, and Thai basil
I served it over a combination of brown rice and whole oats, with sushi on the side.
Enchiladas with beans and rice at a very reasonable price.
El Mercadito 863-533-4600 1455 Hwy 17 South, Bartow, FL
If you find yourself in South Central Florida around lunchtime, check out El Mercadito. It’s is a huge cavern of a Latin market with a little breakfast/lunch café in one corner. The staff is very hospitable, and ready to deliver a generous count of righteously delectable Mexican cuisine at a super reasonable price. Tacos -$1.25. Tostados – $2. Burritos – $5. Platters – $6.50. Tortas – $4. The antithesis of the Taco Bell gut bomb that has given Mexican food a somewhat sullied reputation. It’s light and flavorful, and not too greasy, not too gloppy. It’s food made by the Mexican Grandmother I never had. This food is GOOD. The Sauce Boss said so.
We have gigs coming up in The Villages, Englewood, and Bradenton. Then we head to Durham and Virginia. Then back to Orlando. Here’s the skinny on the fatness.
What a time we had in the north land. Three Florida bands–Selwyn Birchwood, Sauce Boss, and Southern Hospitality–invaded the White Mountain Blues and Boogie Fest (Blues Foundation’s 2012 choice for Best Fest). Big jam on stage at the end of the night, followed by gumbo for a large crowd. And the late night clandestin ninja jam at the ski resort where we all stayed was awesome.
Selwyn Birchwood, Damon Fowler, Chris Peet, Victor Wainwright, Chuck Riley, J.P. Soars, Sauce Boss
Then we were off to the Chenango Blues Festival, where we stole the show. We had the stage manager in tears. He said that in the twenty years since he’s done this gig, he’s never seen anything like it. What a wonderful, generous public to play for. I could not sit down!
Sauce Boss Attempts to Sit Down. He Was Unsuccessful
Of course there was a monster jam after the fest where everyone was mixing it up pretty good. Here’s Tab Benoit heavy on the back beat.
Tab! He can do ANYTHING! And do it well.
Then Justin grabbed the sticks and we hit it with Todd Smallie and Anthony Farrell, (bass and keyboard players for J.J. Grey and Mofro)
Justin, John, Todd Smallie, and the Sauce Boss
So then Justin and Johnny flew home, and Ruthie and I took our time getting home. First a recharge at Watkins Glen. Chillin by the finger lakes. The weather was crisp and clear. Gorgeous.
Watkins Glen, New York
Further chill was achieved for a few days at daughter Mary’s country house. How bout some R & R on Tohican Creek. Nice weekend digs to get away from the bustle of NYC.
Super Chill Site of an 18th Century Water Powered Grist Mill
OK, enough nature study. We then were off to the big city. Generally, the first thing I do when I reach New York City is eat. Not at a fancy, uptown restaurant, but at Russ and Daughters.
Actually you can’t eat there, it’s take out only. however I have had many, many, incredible meals sitting on the bench right outside the place.
Wild Western King Salmon Nova With Cream Cheese and Onion on a Poppy Seed Bagel.
Anthony Bourdain said, ” Russ and Daughter’s occupies that rare and tiny place on the mountaintop reserved for not just the oldest, and the last, but also the best”. Anthony Bourdain knows New York pretty well.
Good View of the Empire State Building From the High Line
After a meal like that, it’s time for a walk. I would “highly” recommend the High Line. An old abandoned elevated rail line which has been turned into a city park. Stretching from the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues, this space has been tricked out with beautiful landscaping, walkways, grassy spots, and benches. Makes for a relaxing way to soak up the city. Civilization at its best. Round about sunset the High Line buzzes with, gawking walkers, busking jazz bands, impromptu Latin music concerts, yoga classes, all kinds of get togethers, and just some neighbors meeting neighbors, kind of action.
If you are in town on a Wednesday night, drop into Greenwich Village and check out Slam Allen. When he’s not on tour with James Cotton, he bends a string at Terra Blues. Great musician, great guy, great spirit, jams like nobody’s business. I walked in there and he handed me his guitar. I put a slide on it, and hit a few licks, riled the crowd up a little, and when I gave it back to him, I realized, once more, why they call him SLAM! HOOOOEEE! Slam can jam! He IS New York City Blues.
After all this excitement and musical high jinx, finally made it home. What to do after a super cool trip? Make a home cooked dinner and a super cool dessert. Here’s the recipe:
Banana Chocolate Ice Cream (NOT)!
Four frozen bananas
Two Tbs carob
One tsp vanilla
Throw it all into a processor mix it until creamy.
Cover with fresh berries.
Without an ounce of guilt. and the best tasting dessert ever.
Here”s what I grew in my yard. The biggest fig I ever saw, just hangin on the vine.I always have to put a little cream cheese and a walnut on top of these sweet things. Yummmm.
Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Sharon, Rochester, Syracuse, Hartford, Grasonville, Erie. Key Largo and Lake Worth FL, and then back to festivals in New Hampshire and New York. Here’s where we’ll be.The Sauce Boss Trio is KILLING every where we go! In this review of our last show at Skippers Smokehouse in Tampa. Florida, the writer says, “. . . I can’t imagine I will ever see another show that matches that of The Sauce Boss.” Here’s a link to the whole story. http://www.onemusicbox.com/bill-wharton-the-sauce-boss-skippers-smokehouse-tampa-fl/
John Hart, Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton, Justin Headley in Chicago
Fat Free Sketti Sauce
Makes ya feel gooood! Here’s how I do it these days:
Lots of onions, a head and a half of garlic, and some wax peppers, (grown from seeds smuggled out of Sarajevo by a friend of mine). Tomatoes from Italy. Jalapeños, mushrooms, and little rounds of asian eggplant, mucho fresh basil and plenty of oregano (whole leaves from the garden). A bay leaf for flavor, and also to determine who washes the dishes.
Oh, my gosh! I forgot to tell you. I also used my hot sauce. The one and only Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. On Sale HERE!
New Sauce Boss Swag –Create your one of a kind Sauce Boss shirt with the new Poster Art at Cafe Press. Tons of styles to choose from in sizes from infants to XXXXL. Buttons and magnets and mugs and bags too. And if you want to print a free Sauce Boss poster, just go to the Sauce Boss Website and print your own. Thanks so much to Eric Ilasenko for the use of his great photo!
Laughing Seed Café
40 Wall St. Asheville, NC 28801 828-252-3445
Open every day except Tuesday
Organic, Seasonal, Farm to Table Vegetarian Cuisine With an International Flair Locally sourced ingredients from area farms
I’ve eaten at the Laughing Seed twice, and both times I ordered the same thing. The hemp seed garden burger. Good, good, good. Nestled downtown in Ashville, NC, with a gaggle of boisterous entrepreneurial foodie types, cookin a wide variety of nouvelleish bill of fair, this one stands out for healthy lunch and dinner choices.
Hearty, healthy, and really tasty!
I’m really getting into the veggies!
Yep, it’s great.! Vegetables make me feel so much better. I made sourdough banana rasin muffins, sweet potatoes, beans with mushrooms and onions, turnip greens, and a salad made with homegrown organic tomatoes, cukes, corn, olives stuffed with garlic, and capers. I then cut flowers for the table, and proceeded to CHOW DOWN! It feels so good to create nice stuff.
Local organic produce, and fresh baked bread makes this vegetarian meal delicious.
“Live at the Green Parrot” got up to # 7on the Florida Roots Music Report charts thanks to great radio promotion by Frank Roszak. But PLEASE call up your local public radio station’s blues DJ and request “Killer Tone” by the Sauce Boss to help us keep getting more airplay. Here’s a list of some of the blues shows all over the world that are already playing cuts from “Live “: BoomBoom Roadhouse Vinkovci, Croatia; 3Way FM Jusblooz, Warnambool, Australia; All Blues 558, France; Alternate Root, ASFM, Netherlands; Bendeboue Blues 217, France; Blues Cafe, Stevens Point WI, Blues Deluxe (Syndicated on 107 Stations) US; Blues Doctor, Toronto, Canada; Blues Palace KMHD, Portland OR; Bluezy, Ridderkerk, The Netherlands; CFRO, Vancouver, Canada; Chico News, Chico, CA; CHMR, St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada; CJRD, Bellerose, Canada; CKIA, Basseville QB Canada; CKUT, Montreal, Canada; Cross’ Blues, Gap, France; Dave’s Blues Mix Star FM, Australia; Emission Pulsions, Herserange, France; Full Time Blues, Louisville KY; GTFM Blues Wales, Pontypridd, UK; Hotel Du Blues CKUT, Montreal, Canada; Jazz and Blues Tour, Alphen aan de Rijn, The Netherlands; Jazz Jazz, Germany; KAFM, Grand Junction CO; KAOS, Olympia WA; KBRZ, Houston TX; KCOR, Kansas City MO; KFAI, Minneapolis MN; KFSR, Fresno CA; KINK FM, Portland OR; KIPO, Honolulu HI; KKJZ, Long Beach, CA; KMBH, Harlingen TX; KMCE, Willits CA; KMXT, Kodiak AK; KSPQ, White Plains MO; KTEP,El Paso TX; KTUH, Honolulu HI; KWCW, Walla Walla WA; KXCI, Tucson AZ; Maxwell St (Terremarine FM), Echillais, France; Midnight Flyer, Norman Davis; Mystery Train, Italy; Nashville Blues Society, Nashville TN; Radio Blues Intense, Correze France; Radio Canut, Lyon, France; Radio Carcomo, Madrid, Spain; Radio Coteaux, Saint-Blancard, France; Radio Holstebro, Holstebro, Denmark; Radio Quartz, Mons, Belgium; Rock Times, Germany; CKRL, Quebec, Canada; Smokestack Lightning (Syndicated on 10+ stations), Orlando FL; Sweet Home Chicago Radio 666, France; The World of Blues.com (April 11, 2012), Internet; WBGU, Bowling Green KY; WFPK Louisville KY; WCMC, Raleigh NC; WCNI, New London CT; WCVF, Fredonia, NY; WDPS, Dayton OH; WDST, Woodstock NY; WDVX, Knoxville TN; WFHB, Bloomington IN; WFPK, Fort Mill SC; WGLT, Normal IL; WHUS Storrs CT; Wildman Steve, Auburn AL; WKCC, Kankakee IL; WMEB, Orono, ME; WMRW, Warren VT; WMWV, Conway NH; WQLN Erie PA; WRFG, Atlanta GA; WUMA, Amherst MA; WWCU, Cullowhee, NC; WWNT, Dothan AL; WXCI, Danbury CT, XM Radio on BB’s Bluesville station
Schedule Tampa, Orlando, Leesburg, Orange Beach, Mobile,
Ashland, VA, D.C., and North Carolina.
Album release parties as we go. Please join us.
Aw right! Live is HERE! Get it NOW! Today–April 24–is the official release date of “Live at the Green Parrot”. Now available for your listening pleasure, you can hear it and order it on CDBaby and I-Tunes. You can also buy it at the Sauce Boss Store. The early buzz have been great, beyond all expectations. It already made #8 in the Roots Music Charts in Florida. This one is over the top, out the box, down the street, and completely gonzo. I hope y’all enjoy it. Here are a few reviews:
And from the German magazine, Jazz Jazz:
“…` he plays somewhere between JB Hutto, ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin. In combination, this is completely nuts unique and wonderful. So far one of the most remarkable live albums of 2012”
After a lifetime of music, travel, and food, over a million miles on the road, over 180,000 bowls of gumbo served for free, thousands of gigs, tons of hot sauce, over a hundred original songs on thirteen albums, scores of free concerts at homeless shelters and soup kitchens, after all this . . . it’s time for a live album. Recorded in November 2011 in Key West, Florida, “Live at the Green Parrot” is definitive Sauce Boss. It’s edgy, slide guitar, rockin blues grooves, with a large serving of fun in the Sauce Boss tradition. These songs come straight out of the life of a true character, adventurer, raconteur, and poet. Come and get it.
Sauce Boss- Guitar & Vocals
John Hart – Guitar
Jassen Wilber – Bass
Justin Headley – Drums
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE: call your favorite Blues DJ and request a cut from “Live at the Green Parrot”. Time’s a wasting’! Betcha ya they have a copy already. We just sent out over 600 CDs to radio stations all over the US and in Europe and South America.
THE GOOG IS OUT TO GETCHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s right, Brother. That’s right, Sister. Google knows what yer thinkin at this very moment. Just the fact that you’re reading this message could very well lead to a monstrous inconvenience. When the “powers that be” find out that you ….well…I’m just sayin…just because I’m paranoid…What I mean is…When the Goog finds out what you are doing, yer liable to end up in hot water.
What are you doing, and why are you here?
What are you doing, and why are you here?
What are you doing, and why are you here?
What are you doing, and why are you here?
CAFÉ ACADIA 337-942-7645 732 SOUTH UNION, OPELOUSAS, LA
You ride three or four hundred miles on two wheels, ya get hongry for some real food that will hang with ya for a good long while. Lucky me, I just happened to be passin through Opelousas round about dinner time and so I stopped for fuel for me and machine. For the real deal Acadian cuisine, this is the place. I tried the Catfish Gerald – grilled catfish covered in etoufee. Lunch specials are from around six to nine dollars. There’s plenty to choose from on the menu. Steak, all manner of seafood, po-boys, burgers, salads, and the typical Cajun Creole bill of fare. Etoufee on top of a ribeye will keep you going all afternoon, and into the evening. Hey Laba’!
Machine thirsty, stomach growling. Had to take a break from the road on a 700 mile ride. Recharge with some authentic Cajun cookin. SWEEEET!
ORDER YOURS HERE. You’re gonna want one cause it’s HOT! A live show with a gumbo-slinging swagger that only the Sauce Boss can deliver. After a lifetime of music, travel, and food, over a million miles on the road, over 180,000 bowls of gumbo served for free, thousands of gigs, tons of hot sauce, over a hundred original songs on thirteen albums, scores of free concerts at homeless shelters and soup kitchens, after all this . . . it’s time for a live album. Recorded in November 2011 in Key West, Florida, “Live at the Green Parrot” is definitive Sauce Boss. It’s edgy, slide guitar, rockin blues grooves, with a large side of fun in the Sauce Boss tradition. These songs come straight out of the life of a true character, adventurer, raconteur, and poet. Come and get it.
UPCOMING SHOWSTallahassee, Pensacola Beach, Tampa (CD Release Party at Skippers), Sanford, Leesburg, Orange Beach, Mobile, Ashland, VA, and D.C.
Green Curry With Vegetables
Here’s a really healthy and hearty meal that’s also really easy to make. Coconut water
Bok choy
Green beans
Mushrooms
Grilled Tofu
Onions
1 heaping tbls green curry paste
1/4 cup of Peanut butter
2 tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
1 tbs honey
Brown rice
Cut up all the veggies and saute in 1/2 cup of coconut water in a wok. Add tofu.
Sauce: Mix peanut butter with a little coconut water, honey, Liquid Summer, and curry paste
Add the sauce to the veggie mixture and simmer for a minute or so. Serve over brown rice.
Robert Is Here
19200 SW 34th St. Homestead, FL 33034
fresh@robertishere.com
305-246-1592
8 AM to 7 PM
Closed Sept. and Oct.
When Robert was six years old, his father set him down with some cucumbers to sell by the side of the road. Nobody bought. So the next day he put a sign on the table that said, “Robert Is Here”. Within a few hours, the cukes were gone. Fast forward to 2012 and Robert is still selling cucumbers at the road side stand in Homestead, Florida. However since that time way back when, Robert Is Here has blossomed into an incredible cornucopia of a fruit market. On yer way to key west you’d do yerself a favor by stopping and loading up on papayas, passion fruit, mangos, jack fruit, sopodilla, bananas, oranges, guavas, sapote, a plethora of tropical fruit not found in key west. They have cold coconuts that they drill a hole and stick a straw in for a refreshing healthful beverage. These guys just love sharing good food with folks. So on the way to the keys, I stop to see what’s up at Robert Is Here.
We have done this December tour annually for the last twenty one, and we are excited to see friends in some old haunts. Every year we are thankful for all of our friends and people who appreciate what we do. We are also very grateful for the donations we receive in the gumbo pot at our performances for Planet Gumbo. The annual fund-raising campaign for Planet Gumbo (our 501c3 nonprofit foundation) which also helps to cover some of the costs of bringing Sauce Boss shows to homeless shelters and soup kitchens is just about to kickoff AARP honored us by sending NY film crews to our homeless shelter show in St Louis and airing the spot in 2011 on their national PBS TV show “My Generation”. Planet Gumbo is truly a grassroots effort. If you would like to be a Planeteer and make a tax-deductible donation to be a part of our cause, please visit http://planetgumbo.org. You can also watch the “My Generation” video clip there
Datil Peppers
For perfect stocking stuffers: Get a mixed case of Liquid Summer Datil and Habanero at the Sauce Boss Store. Time to get the presents together. T shirts, hats, CDs, hot sauce, LPs, for your one stop Sauce Boss shop. Check out these Datil Peppers. They will do you RIGHT! They’re in every bottle of Liquid Summer Datil Hot Sauce
Butternut Squash Soup with Jicama Slaw
1 medium Butternut squash, steamed whole (about 40 minutes)
1 cup soy milk
1 cup vegetable broth
I tsp agave syrup
1 four-ounce can chopped green chiles
1 tbls Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
After the squash is steamed, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and discard. Scoop out the cooked squash and place in a blender with the other ingredients and blend until smooth. Place the soup into a saucepan and warm it up to desired temperature.
One half-pound jicama, peeled and cut into ¼ inch cubes.
2 carrots grated
¼ cup raisins
Juice of one-half of a lemon
2 very ripe persimmons, mashed into the mixture
BLUES CITY DELI 314-773-8225 http://www.bluescitycafe.com 2438 MCNAIR AVE. ST. LOUIS, MO 63104
Mon. – Sat. 11 AM – 4 PM Thurs – 11AM – 8 PM
Totally cool. A deli with the blues. Kim Wilson was playing there the week I stopped in for lunch…for free. This tiny deli is run by a player himself with a serious ear for the blues. That’s the way it goes in old St. Louie. The whole town is hip to high quality music and food. Muffulettas and po-boys share the menu with Italian subs, BBQ, pastrami, and the 1904 Worlds Fair Chili Dog. The specials are out of this world. Finest quality ingredients put together by some real nice folks in an atmosphere of serious blues memorabilia makes this place a must for lunch in St. Louie.
NOTE: Our date in Pensacola has been changed from Saturday Oct 22 to Friday Oct. 21.
New T Shirts now available. Are you tired of the same old politics? Make a difference. Wear the Sauce Boss 2012 t shirt to show your solidarity with the Gumbo Party.
You know you need one of these too.
Oyster Season is here!
In Florida, we tend to shy away from oysters harvested in months with out an “r”. Last week I went to the mountain in terms of eating oysters. (No, I wasn’t eating mountain oysters, I was eating Apalachicola oysters). Apalachicola oysters are renowned the world over for good reason. They are that good. At the Franklin County Oyster Fest they were fifty cents each. So what was I to do? HAVE SOME. What a great time jammin on the beach, eatin oysters, good company. Life is good.
Love that Florida Seafood!
Oyster Cocktail Sauce
1 cup of Ketchup
Juice of a lemon
2 tbsp horseradish
2 tbls Liquid Summer Hot Sauce (or more)…(lots more)….(Time to load up for the holidaze.)
OR…You could just use it straight out of the bottle on yer oyster. Man, that’s gooood.
Christie’s Pub 3261 S. 13th Milwaukee, WI 53215 414-672-3500
In 1954 Harry and Martha opened the doors to Christie’s. Today when you walk through the front door, it’s like stepping through a portal for time travel. The same pictures hang on the walls, the same counter, the same mirror in the men’s room, basically the same place. The kitchen has been modernized, but the pub has a serious retro vibe. Amazingly well preserved. Jason, son of Harry and Martha runs the place now. Martha’s still doing stuff around the kitchen. (Making dessert, doin the dishes, helping out.) It does a body good to see a family endeavor survive. When I went to Christie’s, the chef was ready to accommodate my crazy diet requests, and the result was mighty tasty. A little whole wheat pasta, with marinara sauce and grilled eggplant, with a delicious salad, and a glass of red wine. YUMMM!
Last week I was mowing the grass and each time I passed my fig tree, I would reach up and grab a fresh, juicy, succulent fig. It’s that time of year and it’s great to have fruit trees in your yard. It’s like free food.
FETA FIGS AND DATES Slice the figs in half
Fill with feta cheese
place a walnut on top
Slice the dates enough to remove the seed
Fill the date with feta or cream cheese
“Andouille is what you need.” Or so goes the diddy from my last CD. Here’s an mp3 of “Andouille” from Hot n Heavy. But there’s truth to the little tune about the Cajun delicacy. Sometimes, nothing else will do. Say you got your red beans cookin, and you need some flavor, just a few slices of that spicy Louisana sausage will make dem beans and rice jump up and sing, “halleluiah!”. Savoie’s has been putting out the andouille since 1949. Along with pork, or beef, or turkey sausage, they have pork and alligator sausage, as well as pork and venison sausage, all smoked to perfection. Then you got yer boudin. And yer tasso, yer sliced pickled pork, yer seafood pies, gumbo, etoufee, and don’t forget about the roux. Made in big cast iron pots, it’s all about the taste. These guys know how to get the flavor, and they do not cut corners just to make a buck. At Savoie’s they have been doing a family operation for over sixty years. Here’s what they say about their product. “We use only the finest cuts of meats, poultry, or seafood, and blend in special Cajun seasonings based on garlic, bell pepper, parsley and onion tops, which we Cajuns are noted for. Our cooks develop innovative yet traditional and affordable family foods, using the recipes of our cultural origin.”
I went there. Rode my bike to Opelousas, walked in and said, “I’ve been wanting to meet y’all.” They were as nice as they could be, and down home. Just folks making dinner. And after using their real Cajun products for more than a decade, I can say, “Yes, this is the real deal”. And the good thing is they ship all over the country. Call em up, get some andouille, and tell em that Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton sent ya.
Sauce Boss & the Ingredients on top of the dugout at Akron Aeros game
We are kicking off our summer with a trip to Key West, Destin, Wisconsin, and Delray Beach. Then we’re headed up to the North East. Here’s the schedule.
Here comes a wild and crazy Summer. We are off to new places, as well as our old haunts. chompin at the bit to see some miles. The new line up is the best yet. See ya down the road, and don’t forget…Keep COOKIN!
I thought I was cool when I grabbed a beer bottle and played slide guitar with it. This guy puts me to shame. Check out Danny Gatton with bottle and towel
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfBF4rr7FiA
“It looks like . . .Fudge!”
Roux
What’s the first thing a Cajun cook does when he goes to make coffee? Make a roux. An exaggeration, but not too far off the mark, there’s a lot of roux makin goin on in Loosiana. Transplanted from France, the roux underwent some changes. I learned to make roux (and gumbo) from Shirley Neal. She’s Kenny Neal’s mom and Raful Neal’s wife. The Neal family is from Baton Rouge. That Baton Rouge roux is much darker than its French counterpart. Roasted to a rich mahogany to give that smokey flavor. When I cooked gumbo for two weeks at Le Meridien in Paris, the chef who made the roux for me looked at me in absolute horror when I compared the color of my roux to a dark ceramic bean casserole dish. Le Meridien was a trip. There are five restaurants in that hotel. A sushi bar, their own bakery, butcher shop, and the top dog restaurant has a menu with no prices on it. So little ol Sauce Boss (you can just call me “Cornbread”) is telling this five star chef, “NO, NO, NO, it’s gotta be very dark. LOL!
So here’s how I make my roux. I use a very large cast iron frying pan. I have also used a wok. Put the oil in and turn it all the way up. Start stirring in the flour a little bit at a time. I do 3 parts flour to two parts oil. I stir constantly, scraping the bottom of the pan as I go. Twenty to thirty minutes later I have a mocha colored pan full of glop. I generally turn off the flame at this time, and let it cool a bit. It will darken to a milk chocolate color when it’s cool. Or you could keep cooking till it’s darker. I usually make a big batch of it, and use some immediately, putting some on the shelf for later use. This cuts my roux making time in half or a third, or fourth, depending on how much I make. You can also freeze it to keep it longer.
SONNY’S DELI
494 LANDING RD. ROCHESTER, NY 14625 585-288-7820
When I walked into Sonny’s Deli in Rochester, New York, Rick was makin the pizzas from scratch. I explained my crazy diet requirements, and he was all about accommodating me. What a great pizza! Sonny’s is a classic American Deli with your typical bill of fare. In addition to pizza, there’s burgers, dogs, phillies, reubens, hot and cold subs, wraps, salads, fries, seafood, and Italian dinners. AND… it’s also a grocery store. Nice guys cookin good food and dispensing the necessities of life with a laid back attitude. The way it oughta be.
St Augustine, Ohio, Detroit, Pensacola, Gulf Shores, Sanford, Gainesville, Sebastian, Palatka, Green Cove Springs. After a short run to Ohio and Michigan, we’ll simmer down south for the duration of this vacation in my mind.
The Gamble Rogers Folk Festival When I first began playing the guitar, I started with folk music. One of my first “guitar heros” was Gamble Rogers. I was in awe of his finger picking style, and his story telling, and everything else about him. A consummate musician smack dab in the middle of the folk revival of the 60s. Hot stuff. We played the same coffee house in Winter Park, The Carrerra Room. Years later I would see him at the Trade Winds. I played the Trade Winds, the Milltop, the White Lion, and I had a good ol time. It’s one of the few towns that nurtures original songwriting. So for me to once again play in St Augustine, is something of a reunion. I’ll be glad to see some old friends, and play some of my old tunes, along with the new stuff. I’m going back to the roots with the stuff I’m doing now. Here’s a folked up song from my latest CD, “Hot n Heavy”. Click here for A FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD of “Somewhere Down the Road”. Enjoy!
Sauce Boss Chef Hats Now Available. You need one of these! Find your own inner Sauce Boss: Git yer’s here
Korean BBQ
2624 W. Tennessee, St. # E Tallahassee, FL 32304 850-574-4151
When I first met Seung (Swan) Lee, I walked into his little Korean market, and started browsing around to see what’s up. After a while I realized that there was no one minding the store. Just then I heard a voice with a thick Korean accent coming from the back of the building, “I’m sorry about the smell, I’m cooking!”. I was instantly smitten. I can relate to this guy. In the back was a makeshift kitchen where he was getting down on some “Seoul Food”. Awright! That was many, many years ago. Since then, the New Seoul Oriental Market has moved to a larger location and opened up a small restaurant next door called Korean BBQ. It’s a real authentic dining experience. Very down home and comfy. How do you say “simpatico” in Korean? It’s tres cool. The menu is eight choices hand written on a board. Serve yourself barley tea, kim chee, and pasta salad to go with your entrée. I have often considered converting to the Korean Baptist Church just for the Sunday night dinners.
Tae Baek Kim Chi
Tae Baek is a radish, very similar to daikon but more crunchy and short and round rather than long.
2 large radishes cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 3-4 pounds)
1 onion cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 apples peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 ½ heads of garlic minced
½ cup of sea salt
3 tbs hot chili sauce
3 tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
4 tsp sugar
2 tbs grated fresh ginger
Put the cut up radishes in a big bowl. Sprinkle the salt over them and mix it in. Let it stand for 45 minutes. Mix the remainder of the ingredients in a separate bowl. Rinse the salt out of the radish. Repeat rinsing after a few minutes. Mix everything together and leave it in the bowl with a towel over it. After two days at room temperature, spoon it into jars and put it in the refrigerator.
PAPPY’S SMOKEHOUSE 3106 OLIVE ST, LOUIS. MO 314-535-4340
Speakin of St Louie…While I was there, all those I asked about ribs… every last one said, “Pappy’s”. So I just had to go and try em for myself. This is the place that closes when the ribs run out. And they always run out. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a huge line of hungry devotees, salivating, chompin the bit, holding their place in line with the tenacity of resolute solidarity with the carnage they were about to devour. Hoo boy, let’s do take out. And so we did. Styrofoam boxes, heavy with slaw, beans, and yes, the best St. Louis ribs in St. Louis, spirited away to BB’s club where we could eat in peace, like a bulldog in a dark closet with a large hunk of flesh. Don’t get too close. Get the picture? Fallin off the bone, succulent, perfectly cooked, spiced, and as good as any. Meats also include: pulled pork, beef brisket, pulled chicken, turkey breast, and hot links. Sides: potato salad, baked beans, slaw, sweet potato fries, baked potato, applesauce, and green beans. Sounds like a BBQ place to me.
Mon. – Sat. 11 am – 8 pm Sun. 11 am – 4 pm (or until they run out of BBQ)
Veggie Dinner With Brussels Sprouts
That’s the last ribs I had. I’m a veg-head these days. I like my vegetables. If every one in America ate one vegan meal a week, it would make a big difference in the greenhouse gas situation. Greenhouse gases have been determined to be a major cause of climate change (by REAL scientists). The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health suggests we go meatless on Mondays. Just one day a week without meat can reduce your consumption of saturated fat by 15% and reduce your chances of heart disease. Scientists estimate that if every American lowered meat consumption by just 20%, it would lower greenhouse gasses as much as if everyone in the country switched to driving Toyota Priuses (and think how much cheaper and easier eating less meat is!). Here’s a great vegetable dinner with acorn squash, salad, and brussels sprouts. Simple, easy, and very tasty. Bake the squash. And sauté the sprouts in olive oil.
Well, I took y’all around the block on this one.
Thanks for hanging with me.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
Marco Island, Tampa, Steinhatchee, Panama City, Destin, Pensacola, Naples.
Not a bad place to be in February. We will be crisscrossing back and forth around and through Florida for the next couple of months. You guys have got to check out what’s up with the Ingredients. I have stirred my band up to a frenzy, grilled em like grouper, tossed em like salad, sautéed em like peppers and onions, BBQed em like pork chops, fried em like chicken, whipped em into shape like a mile high meringue on top of a lemon pie. All for the perfect gumbo blues.
Potato Crust Quiche
1 large potato
8 eggs beaten
1 onion chopped
1/2 lb crumbled feta cheese
2 apples diced
1 quonk fresh spinach lightly steamed & drained
Cut thin rounds of potato. Line an lightly-oiled pie pan with the slices of potato, and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Saute the onions. Mix the remaining ingredients. Pour them into the pan and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Turn down to 350 for another 20 or so. Splash with Liquid Summer Hot Sauce.
APPLE VALLEY MARKET
228 Main St. Lander, WY 82520 307-332-5536
We came in for lunch at this grocery/café in Lander, Wyoming, and had a great time with the folks there. Homemade is the operative term. Nestled between the emporiums and trail shops in the charming downtown of Lander, the Apple Valley Market hits the spot. The menu proclaims, “Lunch! Fill that belly.” And that’s what they do. “$6.00 per lunch. All soups served with homemade bread. Sandwiches made on homemade bread.” So after I’m almost done with my vegetable soup, the baker of the bread comes out and says, “Y’all want some more bread?” Sure! Bring it on. Pipin hot, right out of the oven. Son! Couple o soups, couple o salads, a veggie wrap and a special is the whole menu. The grocery features healthful stuff, local homegrown produce, and some of the most gorgeous pies I have ever seen. I got some local plums. Delicious. The guys running the place are nice as they can be. You can tell that they love Lander, Wyoming. No wonder. ALL the inhabitants of Lander love the place. I got so happy that I went next door and bought me a banjo.
COME ONE AND ALL TO THE ANNUAL PLANET GUMBO BENEFIT ON SATURDAY FEB. 5.
We created the 501c3 Non-Profit Foundation, Planet Gumbo, in January 2003, in order to bring upbeat music and delicious gumbo to folks in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and disaster shelters. Sustenance for body and soul. Planet Gumbo also works to bring public awareness to homelessness in the United States. Check out the list of shelters where Sauce Boss and the Ingredients have brought their Traveling Gumbo Show.
SAUCE BOSS GUMBO SHOW
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2011
AMERICAN LEGION HALL, LAKE ELLA DRIVE, TALLAHASSEE, FL 32303
DOORS OPEN AT 8:00 PM. Cover charge is $10 per person.
The event includes a silent auction with art, gift certificates, and really cool stuff from local artists and businesses. Bowls of steaming-hot gumbo will be served to all at the end of the performance. We hope you all can come. But if you can’t make it, you can still be a part of Planet Gumbo by donating online.
Shelter in Baltimore, MD
This will be our first performance in Tallahassee since my heart attack last October, and I am looking forward to seeing all our buddies, who sent so many good vibes to speed my recovery. The good news is that I’m feeling much better now.
Shelter in Jacksonville, FL
Last summer a camera crew filmed the Sauce Boss in St. Louis MO for eight hours to produce an upcoming segment of a nationally syndicated television show, “My Generation”. The crew accompanied us to a homeless shelter and I talked to them in depth about our work with Planet Gumbo. That show will be broadcast to 60 major television markets in the US, on March 21, 2011.
Shelter in Washington D.C.
We just got back from a week at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. While in Key West, me and The Ingredients also entertained the clients of The Sunrich House transitional homeless shelter. Jimmy Buffett and his two Margaritaville co-owners underwrote the costs of that show. Thanks guys, and best wishes to Jimmy for a speedy recovery.
Shelter in Syracuse, NY
In the past 21 years, the Sauce Boss has cooked gumbo at concert halls, clubs, festivals, parties, culinary institutes, schools, homeless shelters, and disaster areas to over 175,000 folks…FOR FREE
Sauce Boss Returns To Margaritaville (Photo: Rick Zimmer)
Orlando and key west should start the new year out with a bang.
Y’all come on down south for a good time in the sun. Here’s where we’ll be.
Make plans now to attend Planet Gumbo’s Annual Benefit at the American Legion at Lake Ella in Tallahassee FL on Saturday February 5th. Sauce Boss Gumbo extravanganza with a silent auction of donated treasures.
PHOTO JIM MCKINLEY
WHAT A COOL GUITAR!
People ask me all the time about my guitar. “Who makes that silver guitar?” Here’s the story. The guitar is a “Bill Wharton Special”. It’s made by a friend of mine, an English gentleman, who lives in Paris. He hand crafts resophonic instruments. His name is Mike Lewis, and he is truly gifted. You can see all of his models at his website, http://www.fineresophonic.com. One of his clients is Eric Clapton. The “Special” has been an integral part of my sound, standing up to a rocking band, delivering a huge slathering of BBQed slide, night after night. Never complaining, always there, like a trusty hound dog, only better. Thanks, Mike. I’m spoiled rotten.
GRILLED EGGPLANT WITH HOT & HEAVY PEACH SAUCE Hot n Heavy Peach Sauce is the perfect marinade/BBQ sauce. If you haven’t tried it, you have led a sheltered and deprived childhood. So… Come on, kids! Slather up yer eggplant and get cookin! This is unbelievably good. Just slice the eggplant, dip it in the peach sauce and throw it on the grill. Whoooooee! ORDER HERE
OK. If you have read this far, you obviously are willing to take a little “Sauce Boss Diversion”. What I want to know is, while reading my last blog, did you actually try to sing my mullet gizzard rant to the tune of “My Favorite Things”? Please let me know at boss@sauceboss.com.
Pepe’s Cafe 806 Caroline St. Key West, Florida 33040 (305) 294-7192
While you’re in key west, you need to stop by Pepe’s Cafe for a great meal. These guys have got it goin on. Casual, down home, and classy at the same time is a winning combination, and that’s the modus operandi at this little cafe on Caroline St. The sign proudly proclaims, “Under Old Management”. From the bar to the entire menu, only top shelf ingredients are used. They have great seafood, an awesome veggie plate. and if you are a serious carnivore, you might try the Steak smothered in Pork Chops. Every Thursday is Thanksgiving with turkey and dressing. Every Sunday is BBQ day. Nothing tops the BBQ ribs, slathered with Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, which you can find on every table at Pepe’s. Here’s Julie Bowland, hangin at Pepe’s, augmenting her breakfast with Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. Incidentally, the breakfast at Pepe’s is da BOMB. By far the best breakfast on the island:>)
JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS: YOU CAN NOW BUY AND SHIP SMALL ORDERS OF LIQUID SUMMER HOT SAUCE TO YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES. You can buy a single bottle or two and send it anywhere in the world. Also you can package bottles with CDs and t-shirts for a complete Sauce Boss experience. Visit the Sauce Boss Store.
Datil Pepper
THE DATIL PEPPER
This is the pepper I have used in my sauce for thirty years. There is nothing like it in the pepper world. A mellower habanero, with a funky sweet burn that comes on slow. The “hot” is concentrated in the low to mid range, unlike it’s high end habanero cousin. If used in moderation, Liquid Summer Datil Pepper Sauce adds a heap of spicy flavor without burning your taste buds out. If used in abundance, you’re in for a wonderful culinary sleigh ride to hell. I like it both ways.
As 2010 comes to a close, we want to thank everyone who has been to our shows this past year. We really appreciate your support. And many thanks for your generous support of the non-profit Planet Gumbo foundation by tossing money into the gumbo pot, or by donating through the PLANETGUMBO.ORG website and through causes on Facebook. We also want to thank the Amish Parrotheads who organized a benefit for Planet Gumbo and the Washington DC Area Parrotheads who organized a silent auction at one of our shows in their area and to all the groups who donate the ingredients for shelter shows.
We are about to embark on our winter fund raising campaign for Planet Gumbo and want to remind you all that Planet Gumbo is a 501c3 non-profit organization, so all donations are tax deductible. Once a year we ask for your help to continue to cover the costs of bringing the Sauce Boss gumbo shows to homeless shelters throughout the country. You can donate online or send a check to Planet Gumbo, 678 McDonnell Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32310.
MULLET..ETC.
(Sung to the tune of “My Favorite Things”)
Mullet… the lowly collard green… the totally neglected salmon skin… the under rated kim chee in the back of the fridge, the over looked miso, the corn bread, the black eyed peas, the unrecognized, the grits, and the forgotten sourdough starter. These are the things that give our meal variety… if we could only… remember.
Ya ever had mullet gizzards?
SPICY TURNIP SOUP
(With Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, of course)
And then there’s the unassuming turnip. I forget just how good a turnip can be. And then I bump into one at the market, or it hits me in the head when I’m trying to think of something different to cook. I love me some turnip greens with the root chopped into little cubes. That’s some good eatin. Some places in the world revere the turnip. It’s featured in Asian cooking, and in France the turnip is considered a delicacy. (But you know the French consider chiterlins to be pretty good also. I was shopping at a high end gourmet market in Paris one time and they had a kilo of mullet roe. They were askin $150 for it. Had I known, I woulda stopped in Steinhatchee or Panacea on the way to the airport and smuggled a trunk load of roe on the bird, making my fortune as the mullet roe king. So later, when I get back to the Gulf coast, I’m sittin in Panacea, Florida, munchin on a big yellow egg sack o’ red neck caviar, with a great big, gimongous splooge of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. That roe is goood! I like being the Boss of Sauce. But I diverge… Back to turnips.
1 lb. turnips
3 carrots
1 sweet potato
1 large onion
1cup rice
1 gal water
1cup non fat milk (or if you like the fat, use 2 cups of heavy cream)
3 tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Peel and chop the vegetables
Throw them in the water with the rice
Cook covered for 20 minutes
Take the veggies out of the water and puree them
Throw em back in the broth with the milk, Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, salt and pepper
Bring up the temperature without boiling.
ASIAN CUISINE
140 North 7th St. Lander, Wyoming 82520 307-335-7171
Someone was “Yelping” about how it’s the best Thai restaurant between San Francisco and Chicago so I gave it a try. Well, that’s a tall order to fill. But I will say that the Pan Asian place is kick ass. Total attention to detail makes it so happening. And the selection from Indian, Japanese, Indonesian, and Thai give you plenty of choices. Plus… sushi. Oh, one more thing. If you visit the Asian Cuisine Restaurant, bring a friend. The entrées are way too big to finish by your self. Yumm.
One Half Of A Papaya Salad
The folks at Living Like a Pirate are holding their own Planet Gumbo fund raising campaign by contributing $3 per shirt sold of for their Treasure the Season Shirt shown below to Planet Gumbo.
THANK ALL Y’ALL FOR THE GOOD VIBES! I have received hundreds and hundreds of well wishing phone calls, letters, cards, emails, prayers, good vibes, and posts on my guestbook and Facebook pages. I had a good run, and I was resigned to whatever would be, but I guess I have a few more strings to bend, a few more songs to sing, a few more mouths to feed, and a few more souls to fill with the spirit of brotherhood. I will see y’all somewhere down the road.
HEART ATTACK SPECIAL
The song “I Broke My Heart” written after my first heart attack in 2003 appears on my “Come and Get” It CD. You can get a copy for $5 from now until December 1st, or you can get a copy free with every case of Liquid Summer (any flavor or mixed) until then too. Bout time to think about your holiday gifts.
We recently took a trip to Yellowstone to commune with nature and do some hiking. Here’s some highlights on Facebook.
Time to harvest the herbs. Here’s my Basil.
Freeze the leaves in little bags and have basil through the cold months
Chorizo
1 Page Avenue Asheville, North Carolina 28801 (828) 350-1332
Asheville, North Carolina has been called the Paris of the South. You get the vibe hanging out at the Biltmore Mansion where Granny Clampett meets Marie Antoinette. The folks up near Mount Pisgah have perpetuated a somewhat sophisticated, albeit rough-hewn sensibility over the years that makes for some fine grazing around lunchtime. Organic veghead bill of fare is typical, and the charming little downtown is vibrant with artisan shops selling exotic chocolates, doggie treats, antiques, and hand made belt buckles. The craftsmen share the sidewalk with color seekers, banjo buskers, and hillbilly rastas. All in all, a colorful place to hang.
Hector Diaz is from the Dominican Republic. He came to the US as a young boy, and worked in restaurants from a very early age. He worked his way up from the bottom, and became a chef. All of his clients said, “You need to open your own place.” So Hector made them an offer they could not refuse. He asked for $100 from all his friends. He started a restaurant, and every one who gave him money was reimbursed in food. Hector Diaz is not just a regular chef. He’s a creative and innovative artist who has perfected a Pan Latin cuisine all his own. Local, natural chicken and pork, natural Angus beef, and organic eggs, assures that all ingredients are top notch. He makes his own bacon, sausage, and chorizo by hand. He cures and smokes the salmon. He makes his own habanero pepper sauce. I like dis guy. The ever changing menu is breakfast and lunch with Senor Diaz’s fresh, savory, style. Killer salsa, great hot sauce, and wood fired organic tortillas are three things rarely available in restaurants, but all three in one place? I’m ready to order.
This tour takes us all around the East in a few days. Sometimes, that’s the way she goes. Here’s where we are going.
SAUCE BOSS LYRICS AVAILABLE
I’ve had some inquires about the lyrics of my songs. Over the years, a lot of singers/bands have covered the Sauce Boss. I’m always glad to hear a different version of my tunes. So now you can access the lyrics from four of my albums. Here’s the link.
SAUCE BOSS TO BE ON NATIONAL PUBLIC TELEVISION
The nationally syndicated show, “My Generation” will feature the Sauce Boss. The program sent a crew to St. Louis to film eight hours of performance and interviews with Bill Wharton and his band. Stay tuned for air times.
I have eaten a lot of Thai food. I’m a spicy guy. And there’s none spicier than your Great, Great Grandma from Thailand. Whooooeee! Deeze guys will light you up!
So when I found Soong Thai, right off the Sunshine State Parkway, right on the way to south Florida, right at supper time, with a frightful hunger for a HOT meal, I was in heaven. Truly a great restaurant. Not too pricey, but with an attention to detail which guarantees every dish is it’s own dining experience. Here’s their description of their restaurant: “At Soong Thai, we take great care in preparing cuisine handed down for centuries, adjusted to today’s tastes and served in an authentic manner.”
I believe em. I had to try the frog legs. My friend Jeffrey Clements said, “If I had to choose my last meal, the Soong Thai frog legs would be it”. And, believe me, my friend Jeffrey knows his food. Pad Thai as light and flavorful as I have ever had. Tom Kai Gai Soup. Yumm. I also tried the “Amazing Eggplant”. Made me stupid. I kept saying, “Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!” Hence the name.
Fried eggplant, over a bed of steamed broccoli, in a big puddle of spicy peanut sauce. Garnished with green onions and red peppers. And more glistening peanut sauce dribbled over the top. “Over the top” is the operative term here. The dumplings are sublime. I’m looking forward to my next trip south.
Lunch: Monday – Friday – 11:30 AM to 3:00
Dinner: Monday – Saturday – 4 to 10, Sunday – 4 to 9
WOW! What a tour. Here I am in Ottawa, jamming with the Voices of the Wetlands. From the left to right, Cyril Neville, Sauce Boss, Tab Benoit, Johnny Sansone, Marsha Ball, and Anders Osborne. Lighting it up! Thanks to all on this tour, Scott Sterling at the Dinosaur BBQ, Mark Monahan and everyone at the Ottawa Bluesfest, the great folks from the Cape Fear Blues Cruise, Daughter Mary who put us up at her country estate, the Washington DC Parrot Heads, for their generous benefit for Planet Gumbo, And the Big Owl Tiki Bar on the Maryland Shore for an unforgettable afternoon adventure.
HOT N HEAVY AIRPLAY
Sirius Radio’s Bluesville channel has been playing “Marquis de Swamp” a whole lot. Justin’s mom said she heard it four times one day. Keep it rolling. Here’s the link to request yer fave Sauce Boss tunes.
A real find, a people’s restaurant, none of that Miami glitz. Just great fresh seafood, superior service, fabulous prices, and unpretentious friendly vibe. This is what I’ve been looking for. These folks are really proud of what they do, and there is an esprit that’s evident the moment you walk in the door. It’s the Old World reverence for sustinance. The rice is light and fluffy, the whole grilled snapper is two pounds of marinated bliss. Five kinds of Paella share the menu with varied preparations of seafood and home made pasta. A surprising $12 bottle of Napa Valley cab blew my mind. Ten minutes after opening, it mellowed down into a smooth finish. Breakfast with dynamite café con leche included starts at $2.99, and it’s served all day long. Try that at Starbuck’s.
A Refreshing Liquid Summer Bloody Mary
LIQUID SUMMER MAKES THE BEST BLOODY MARY…EVER!
1 cup V-8
1 teaspoon LIQUID SUMMER HOT SAUCE
1 teaspoon Horseradish
Dash of celery salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
A couple shots of vodka
Mix ingredients together and pour into a glass of ice.
Fresh stalk of celery and olives
PLANET GUMBO RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE PUFFIN FOUNDATION This is Planet Gumbo’s first foundation grant and will be going to help cover the costs of one of our Planet Gumbo Shelter shows. Many thanks to the Puffin Foundation. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our shelter shows, please email to info@planetgumbo.org for more information. You can also make a tax deductible donation to 501 c3 Planet Gumbo at the Planet Gumbo Website or through Causes on Facebook.
HOT N HEAVY PEACH BBQ
“Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street.” This recipe will have your taste buds dancing like Martha and the Vandellas. Based on my granddaddy’s recipe for Carolina BBQ Hash.
AND SPEAKING OF HOT AND HEAVY . . . we have a special at our Sauce Boss Store. A 12 ounce bottle of Hot n Heavy Peach Sauce, along with a “Hot n Heavy” CD for only $19 plus shipping. Get yours today. Limited time only.
1 Lb. beef chuck roast
2 Lb. goat shoulder steak
3 Lb. pork boneless Boston butt
¼ cup vinegar
3 Tbs. honey
1 bottle of Hot N Heavy Peach Sauce
Trim excess fat from meat and smoke it in a charcoal smoker for 3 hours. Cut it up in one inch cubes, and cover with water in a large cast iron pot. Boil the meat until tender. Take the meat out and shred it discarding any bones or fat.
Put the meat back into the water. Add vinegar and honey. Cook it down till the juice is almost all gone. Add the Hot N Heavy Peach Sauce. Serve on a bun with a big slice of onion.
VALENTINA’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT
956 ST. AVE. RAHWAY, NJ 07065 732-381-4477
Here’s a restaurant for a casual, laid back dinner. Located about a half hour south of the City, just off the NJ Turnpike. We were hongry, hongry after an afternoon show, so we took a detour off the pike to find some authentic Italian cuisine. Boy, did we find it! Classic family owned and operated, they make the food like in the Old Country.
One of the specialties from an ample menu is organic penne pasta. Seafood galore, (raw or cooked), steak, veal, ribs, lamb chops, chicken, and traditional Italian specialties all give you plenty of choices for your evening of dining. Fast food it’s not. Good food it is. I had the Pork Osso Bucco, a small ham with a mushroom brown sauce over pasta. Falling off the bone. The ricotta cheesecake is the best I ever had.
Pork Osso Bucco
It’s so very satisfying to spend a couple of hours with a family of cooks who are truly proud of what they do and who don’t mind taking the time to make it all top notch. Congratulations to the Valentinas for doing it right.
Mon. to Thur. 11 am to 10 pm
Fri. and Sat. 11 am to 11 pm
Sun. 12 to 9 pm
DANNY GATTON AND BUDDY EMMONDS
Once in a while you see someone playing the guitar and you say to yourself. “I’ve never seen any one do that on a guitar. These “gifts” from the masters are few and far between these days. However, this video of Danny Gatton and Buddy Emmons jamming was one of those times for me.
After a smokin’ tour of the North East, we’re back home in Fla. It’s time to chill in the cool waters of a grotto spring. Have a sip of a refreshing beverage and get together with friends
Need the new “Hot N Heavy” CD? Hot Sauce? T Shirt? How bout vintage Sauce Boss LP still in the wrapper? GET IT HERE!
Potato Onion Soup With Smoked Chicken
4 medium potatoes peeled and diced
3 onions, peeled and diced
1 smoked chicken breast diced
1 quart water
1 cup almond milk
2 Tbs butter
½ cup parsley chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Put potatoes, onion and chicken in a pot and boil for 30 minutes
Mash the potatoes in the soup pot and add milk, salt and pepper
Add butter and parsley just before serving
AUNT BEA’S CAFÉ AND OTIS CAMPBELL’S BAR AND GRILL
111-113 BROADWAY STREET WEST BURLINGTON, IOWA 52655 319-752-2696
In a word – Americana. In the 60s, it was high tech, state of the art, Americana. From 1960 to 1968, every week, America tuned in to see what Sheriff Andy Taylor was up to. 248 episodes indelibly etched upon the psyche of millions of people, smack dab in the middle of television’s heyday. The Andy Griffith Show was hokiest, yet possibly the coolest ensemble of TV characters, ever assembled. Plus, when you have the Dillards for the house band and Clarence White dropping in for a tune, you’re doing something right.
So it’s no wonder you can find homage to Andy, and Opie, Barney, and Aunt Bea scattered all over the place. But to find Aunt Bea’s Café in West Burlington, Iowa was a surprise to me. And if that ain’t enough, and it sure ought to be, Otis Campbell’s Bar and Grill is right next door! Don’t adjust your set. Whoa! Somebody’s messin with the horizontal around here.
When you walk into Aunt Bea’s, you almost expect to see Floyd or Howard munching on a fried chicken leg. Classic home cooking made with fresh ingredients, augmented with a healthy salad attitude makes Aunt Bea’s a welcome change of pace, from the “Truck Stop Glop” that you find on the road. I had the spinach salad. Highly recommended.
Yep, you pick from “Gomer’s Starters”, “Howard’s Hoagies”, “Sara’s Salads”, or “Aunt Bea’s Finest Dinners” for your dining pleasure. Breakfast is served all day, and if it’s five o’clock somewhere, step next door for a drink and an “Otis Overnighter”. A pizza with Pepperoni, hamburger, sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, and, “Plenty of Cheese”. Those farmers out in the mid-west love their cheese. I never heard of putting sauerkraut on pizza, however, you can have it at Otis’. The good news is, they deliver. From 10:30 am – 2 pm, 4:30 – 10 pm seven days a week.
Vintage Sauce Boss LP still in the plastic now available. This is the album released on Kingsnake records in 1989 featuring Lucky Peterson, Pat Ramsey, Drew Lumbar (Grinder Switch), and the Kingsnake Studio Band. Recorded at 15 ips, this is no pro tools session. The tape was SATURATED to the MAX. It’s warm and lively. The insert contains recipes from all the participants, as well as Raful Neal’s fried turkey recipe. Highly collectible, we just found a couple of boxes in the vault. If you dig the Sauce Boss and have a turntable, this is a must-have item.
COUNTRY CORNER CAFÉ
8950 STATE HWY 59 SOUTH, FOLEY AL 36535 251-943-4409
They musta changed the management. There’s no more Country Corner Café private label jelly everywhere, not as homespun, not as countrified. Unless, of course, you are talking about a different country. There’s a whole lot more of a Latino feel to the place. The salsa verde is monster tasty fresh. The gravy/sauce laden Honduran style liver, with onions and peppers is sublime. Huevos rancheros with very fresh home made flour tortillas. I’d say that beef tongue, or tripe soup is pretty ethnic. “Tipical” as they say. Seafood, chicken, pork and beef, all prepared by one hustling Mamacita tearing it up in the kitchen. Great food. This one is a find.
HOT N HEAVY PEACH STIR FRY
3 tbs olive oil
1 bell or ancho pepper
1 head of broccoli
1 medium onion
1 squash
1 baby bok choi
1 head of garlic minced
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 splooge of Hot N Heavy Peach Sauce
In a wok, stir fry the veggies. Add the sesame oil, fish sauce, and Hot N Heavy Peach Sauce. Serve over rice or pasta.
The Hot N Heavy Peach Sauce is a hit. We are shipping this stuff all over the place. Truly versatile, from stir fry to slathering BBQ, from dippin to baking on fish or meatloaf. It makes a great salad dressing, and it goes on anything. Put it on yer girl friend. Here’s where you can find the Peach Sauce, as well as the Hot N Heavy CD.
key west, Spartanburg, Knoxville, Palatka, New Jersey, Rochester, Pittsburgh. We are cookin the shrimp all over the place. TOUR DATES HERE.
GREEN PARROT LIVE WEBCAM HERE
If you can not make it to key west, you can dig the Sauce Boss via the Parrot’s live webcam.
Show times are:
5:30 on Friday afternoon, 10:30 Friday nite, 10:30 Saturday nite, and 5:30 on Sunday afternoon.
THE SAUCE BOSS STORE IS KICKING.
It’s not like the old site with a couple of choices for sauce and some CDs. Now there’s mix and match specials, single bottles, cases, package deals, t-shirts…all kinds of stuff. And stay tuned for limited run sauce and music items. Coming soon is Sauce Boss vinyl. Check out the store here.
PINKS!
THE SHRIMP SHACK GRILL AND AUTHENTIC FISH MARKET
6840 FRONT ST. KEY WEST (STOCK ISLAND) 305-294-33040
Y’all ready for the freshest seafood in key west? The last best kept secret in the keys? The newest hush-hush, only known to locals, off the beaten track, completely chill, right next to the boats, bringing home the catch to the few, the chosen, the truly hip, the lucky dogs who are in the “know”?
Try the Shrimp Shack. My good friend Ray runs the place. Ray and the Sauce Boss go back 20 years. After retiring from being GM at Margaritaville, he took over the chores of a little restaurant on the docks of Stock Island. The Shrimp Shack gets the seafood from the fish market which is in the same location. It has huge piles of right off the boat key west pinks, lobsters, snappers, mahi, tuna, oysters, clams, conch, mussels, squid, smoked fish, and fresh catch. (whatever’s coming off the boats at that moment)
This place is right on the docks. Right next to the shrimp boats tied up to their moorings, with the charm and surly character of the wild and fiercely independent professional fishermen. This is a part of key west which has sadly disappeared as condos, upscale eateries, and t-shirt shops have replaced the true character with sanitized imitations of the old key west, suitable for a cruise ship crowd. I don”t know about you, but I would rather eat with the fleet.
Dining On The Docks
Shrimp Cocktail With Liquid Summer Datil Sauce
Boil or steam some of those key west pinks just long enough to be considered done. Do not over cook the shrimp. Mix a half a cup of ketchup with the juice of a lemon, 2 tbs of Liquid Summer Datil Pepper Hot Sauce, 1 tbs horseradish, and proceed to chow down.
The Torta is an egg and potato breakfast/lunch dish. You find it in train stations and walkups all over Spain. It’s a hearty, on the go, kind of fast food. Quiche Lorraine is the French version. I have combined the two with a potato crust making it gluten free.
4 strips of bacon
1 medium onion chopped
¼ pound cheese grated
2 raw potatoes
Left over baked or mashed potatoes
8 eggs
3 to 4 Tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Oven at 400 degrees
Cut the raw potatoes in very thin rounds
Grease a pie pan and line it with the potato thins
Put the potato crust in the hot oven for 10 minutes
Fry the bacon, and chop it up
Use a little bit of the grease to sauté the onion
Beat the eggs and Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Pour half of the eggs over the potato crust
Put down a layer of the mashed potatoes
Add layers of onion, cheese, and bacon
Pour remainder of the eggs over the top.
Bake until the eggs are done.
PIRAMIDA PIEROGI GRILL
1535 GULF TO BAY BLVD. CLEARWATER, FL 727-216-3055
Stuffed Cabbage and Potatoes - Ultimate Comfort Food
Piramida is pyramid in the Polish language. The name in this instance is a vestige from when they first opened. Originally, the owner, Marek Pietryniak, featured Polish and Middle Eastern food. The décor is heavily influenced by ancient Egyptian art. Marek had eighteen months to wait for county and city permits to be approved, so he spent that time dabbling – carving hieroglyphics, a beautiful chestnut bar, salt and pepper shakers, lamps, napkin holders, single handedly customizing the restaurant, lending his personal touch to everything. He commissioned a life-sized statue of a pharaoh bearing his own likeness. After all this, he decided to pare down the menu, so all that’s left of the Mid East cuisine is the Greek salad. However, The salad is scrumptious, and the Polish stuff is great. I recommend a very garlicky chicken soup. And of course the homemade Perogi are fabulous. I tried the stuffed cabbage rolls – nice and light with rice, beef, and pork, stuffed in a cabbage leaf and covered with tomato sauce. YUMM! Full bar includes Polish beer. The Eastern European chefs have got it goin on for comfort food. Come on with the Goulash, y’all.
That’s right! Hot N Heavy is coming soon. If you want to be one of the first to get yours, you can pre-order it at our new SAUCE BOSS STORE. You can also pre-order our newest sauce: Hot and Heavy Peach Sauce. We have the recipe for a good time DOWN. Yer not gonna believe how gooood this stuff is. Our official release is March 23rd, but for our special friends, we’re sneaking a few discs and bottles for early release parties. Here’s where we will be in the next few weeks. Tallahassee, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Pensacola, Pelham GA, Coral Gables, and Melbourne.If you can’t make any of our Florida and Georgia shows, you can listen to a live Sauce Boss show this Saturday night (3/6/10) at the BBC (that’s the Bradfordville Blues Club). Hank 99 FM is going to be broadcasting it live over the air and on the internet from 10:00pm to 11:30 pm.
Grouper Amandine a la Sauce Boss
1 pound grouper filet
4 Tbs olive oil
1/2 pound almonds chopped
2 Tbs mustard
2 Tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
1 Tbs honey
Grease a cast iron frying pan with half of the olive oil
Slop the fish around on both sides coating it with the oil
Bake at 350 degrees
Mix remaining ingredients
When the fish is almost done, put the almond mixture on top of the fish and finish it off in the oven.
Serve with lemon
LAFAYETTE CONEY ISLAND
118 W Lafayette Blvd Detroit, MI 48226 (313) 964-8198
“Coney Island hot dog (also Coney Dog or Coney) refers to a hot dog made of beef with casing, topped with an all meat chili, diced onion and yellow mustard. The variety is a fixture in Detroit Michigan, served there and in the “heartland” states of the American Midwest. Despite the name, the preparation style has little direct association with Coney Island itself beyond recognition of the birthplace of the original hot dog… Coney Islands generally offer a choice of either Flint or Detroit style coney dogs. Flint style is characterized by a dry chili more similar to ground beef than chili, while Detroit style is more soupy, heavy with chili and cumin powders.” So says the oracle, Wikipedia.
Late Nite Coney Customers
There is a debate raging as to which style and indeed, which Coney Island restaurant is the best. In 1917, Gust Keros and his brother established the American Coney Island in Detroit. Soon after they opened, an argument ensued, and they split the restaurant, starting a culinary feud which has lasted the better part of a century. To this day, the Lafayette Coney Island and The American Coney Island stand in resolute defiance of one another, right next door, dishing out what each considers the best chili dog in the world.
I have eaten the Flint and Detroit varieties, and I must say the slop, goop, mish mash, hot dawg soup of Detroit has my vote. It’s like playin slide guitar. You don’t want it to be too clean, to clear, too pristine. You need the proper amount of extortion in the amp. You want slop. You want the notes to blend together, like cane syrup and butter on a big stack of hoe cakes. It’s this blending that galvanizes the rich overtones. Pure sound. So it is with coney dogs. I mean it’s three in the morning after a balls to the walls jamming set at the Greektown Casino. Any body want a salad? I don’t think so.
CAESAR SALAD WITH SHRIMP AND ASPARAGUS
1 head of romaine cut up
1 bunch of lightly steamed asparagus, cut into one inch pieces
1 small onion, sliced thin
Fresh milled pepper
1 pound of very fresh deveined boiled large shrimp (do not over cook)
Parmesan cheese grated
Dressing
Juice of a lemon
Juice of an orange
2 eggs
2 oz. of anchovies chopped
Olive oil
Croutons
1 head of garlic minced and 2 or 3 slices of bread cut into one inch pieces, then sautéed in olive oil
The trick with a Caesar salad is to get the croutons and coddled eggs to the table when they are still warm. So I get every thing ready except for the eggs and croutons. While the eggs are boiling, I throw the bread and garlic into hot olive oil. After one minute, mix the eggs with the rest of the dressing, then mix with the rest of the salad. The last thing is the croutons. That way, the dressing is warm, smooth and comforting, and the garlic croutons are nice and crunchy on top.
MYKONOS
628 Dodecanese Blvd. Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 727-934-4306
Ready for a Mediterranean scene? Complete with lively, slightly tipsy, giggling, revelers, having some fun after dinner. Complete with the flamboyant Old Man holding court with the locals and tourists. Complete with the jostling flow of patrons hungry for an authentic Greek salad and atmosphere to go with it. Complete with a menu that might be offered on the island of Mykonos. Then, Mykonos is it! The Old Man knows what he’s doin. The grilled octopus is fabulous. Oven baked potatoes. YUMMMM. They bring a complimentary apple drizzled with honey and powdered with cinnamon with your meal for dessert. Every thing I ever ordered was good. It’s like my Mama’s old southern cookin with olive oil instead of bacon grease. (Don’t get me wrong. What she did with it was sooooo tasty. My Mama could COOK. DON’T SAY NOTHIN BOUT MY MAMA! She could make a feast out of a can o salmon and a loaf o bread. How did she do it? I think it was love… I digress.) Any way these guys have that same attitude about food and service. When my Mama made dinner, she served you in the classic sense of “serve”. As Bob Dylan said, “It might be the devil or it might be the Lord, but you got to serve somebody”. And some people know how to “serve”. I digress again… But I’m talking about these Greek guys at Mykonos. What is it about a satisfying meal that’s so hard to come by in this day of ApplebyMackyDeeKFCWendyArby, you know what I mean.
And I haven’t talked enough about the food other than a cursory glance at the octopus and potatoes. So…Actually… if you really want to know the truth… I’ve eaten there many times but I don’t remember ordering anything other than…OCTOPUS! And octopus, grilled to perfection, is very hard to come by. Every time I walk in the door, the waitress is carrying some scrumptious, absolutely gorgeous dinner to someone – smelts, pastistio, moussaka, grilled shrimp, lamb chops. What do I get? Octopus. All I ever get. That’s all.
Liquid Summer Hot Sauce, Sauce Boss CDs, and “Recipes” CD rom Gift Box. You can find the perfect winter time presents guaranteed to heat up the coldest of nights.
SWEET POTATO PECAN PIE
Couple o very large sweet potatoes baked and scooped from the skins
3 eggs slightly beaten
1 cup cane syrup
12 oz. evaporated milk
1/2 of a nutmeg ground
½ tsp cinnamon
3 cups pecans
Beat the eggs and mix in all of the ingredients
Pour into two pies shells
Bake at 325 for 45 minutes
Turn the oven up to 400 for 15 minutes
Pull em out, cut em up, and stuff em in yer pie hole
TACOS ACAPULCO LUNCH TRUCK 678-891-7020 843-227-0001
It’s the American way. Eating dinner standing up, or in your car, or in the middle of a parking lot. . As you drive east through Blufton, South Carolina, there’s a lunch truck parked on the south side of the road with a large “Tacos Acapulco” painted on the side, and some serious tacos inside. The beef taco is not ground beef. No, it’s little pieces of marinated steak on a real tortilla. The menu is small. Some of the items are unavailable. But for excellent tacos, you’d be hard pressed to beat em. Self serve drinks iced down in the cooler include coconut juice. A little piece of the real deal makes a welcome down home stop after the izod, buttoned-down, golf culture of Hilton Head Island.
CLICK ON THIS PHOTO AND CHECK OUT THE LIQUID SUMMER ON THEM COLLARDS
Number one daughter, Annie was just on Project Runway modeling her redesigned wedding dress which won the design challenge of the week. She was baaaad. Last blog I mentioned number two daughter, Mary, kickin ass at the Toronto film fest with her Joan Baez biopic. Those Wharton girls are sooo…TV.
Mary and Joan Baez
NEW ALBUM SOON COME
The recording is almost done. Now to mix and master for a 2010 release. The album is funky, gospel, blues, with some zydeco, and a heapin helpin of Slide guitar. Featured on the CD will be Justin Headley, drums, Robert “Freightrain” Parker, bass, and also Biscuit Miller on bass. This is the funkiest and groovinest yet. Stay tuned for the good tunes.
BOSSA GANOUJ
Here’s my own slant to Baba Ganouj. Instead of tahini, I use home made almond butter and also a little bit of my Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
2 Cups almonds
3 or four Tbs olive oil
Juice of one lemon
Two Tbs Liquid Summer Hot Sauce (With the holidaze upon us, do NOT forget to order yours HERE)
2 one Lb. eggplants
4 Cloves garlic finely minced
Pita bread for dipping
Cut eggplants in half and place on a greased cookie sheet (cut side down) for 45 min at 375 degrees. Grind almonds with blender. Put powdered almonds into a food processor and add olive oil until the mixture is the consistency of humus. In a bowl, mix almond butter, lemon juice, garlic, and Liquid Summer. Scoop out the eggplant and add it to the mixture. Mix well
Bossa Ganouj
MARINA OYSTER BARN
505 BAYOU BLVD. PENSACOLA, FL 850-433-0511
The little disclaimer on the take out menu gives you an idea of what goes on at the oyster barn. “When we are filled to capacity, we regret that we will not be able to fill take out orders.” Situated on Bayou Texar since 1969, the Rooks Family Seafood Restaurant has been filled to capacity a lot of the time, dishing out real fresh seafood. The service is great, the food cooked to perfection, the ambience, casual as a marina setting can be. $6.50 gets you a mullet sandwich with fries or slaw. And Dale’s Special is cole slaw, cheese, and grilled onions on any sandwich for half a buck. In addition to the regular seafood dishes, the lunch specials (from five to eight dollars) include chicken and dumplins. And the hush puppies are fabulous. I can’t stand it. Once in a while, I must have a hush puppy. Of course…don’t forget about the fresh shucked oysters!
Tuesday – Thursday 11 am – 8:30 pm
Friday & Saturday 11 am – 9 pm
Sunday – 11 am – 2 pm
AS THE SUMMER FADES INTO FALL, WE’RE COMING HOME TO TALLAHASSEE.
HERE’S OUR SCHEDULE
Check out the highlights of our Canadian odyssey. We had a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD time.
London, Ontario was a blast!
Sunset in Windsor, Ontario
The crowd in Windsor was hot to go!
Me and the Devil in Toronto
Then we all got religion
If any one who saw the show in Windsor got a movie or photos of the gumbo taking a tumble, please let us know. We’d love to see em.
DAUGHTER MARY RECEIVED A STANDING OVATION AT THE TORONTO FILM FEST
Yep, at home in my spare time. The Grammy winner (“Sam Cooke: Legend”) strikes again. Here’s a link to the film “How Sweet the Sound” she directed and produced about Joan Baez that airs October 14th on PBS as an American Masters specials.
VEGETABLE SOUP
Sometimes I just put a bunch of fresh vegetables in a pot, with a big splooge of Liquid Summer Hot Sauce and make some soup.
AL – AJAMI RESTAURANT 14633 W. WARREN AVE.
DEARBORN, MI 48126 313-846-9343
Totally authentic Arabic Cuisine says it all. Classic lamb dishes, baba ghanooj, hommous, grilled quail, fresh juices, beef tongue, grape leaves, seafood and steak, veal brains…BRAINS? Sounds yucky, doesn’t it? Well, actually it is. This is once…maybe a first where I just couldn’t get it. I am ready and willing to go native, to leave the beaten path, to venture where no man has gone, to eat about anything. I have finally been stumped. Veal brains did it. Stopped me in my tracks. Whoa, that’s weird. I kept thinking about Hannibal the Canibal, sawing Ray Liotta’s skull and sauteing his brains. Making a little to-go package for the plane. Some stuff from Dean and Deluccas’s along with left over brains….yum, yum. However, the lamb chops were great. The baba ghanooj, smooth and silky, the hommous also, the falafel sublime, and the portions are huge. Too big to leave room for dessert. Shame. They look great. And if yer into brains…
PEPPERS! PEPPERS! AND PEPPERS!
MAKE YOUR OWN PEPPER SAUCE
You can make sauce at home. Take those used Liquid Summer Pepper Sauce bottles, cut up some hot peppers and put em in the bottles. Pour boiling vinegar over the peppers. Let it sit for a week or two, and then slosh it all over yer collards.
Whirlwind! Just call me Hurricane Bill. I’m comin’ to get ya. Here’s where.
Whoa! I gotta slow down a little bit. “I been hittin the road way too hard. Gotta get back to my back yard” So the the song goes.
Coming up on the new CD. Right smack dab in the middle of all this gallavanting around the place, we have begun work on our 10th… 11th …12th (who’s counting) album. This one promises to be super funky, with a hint of zydeco, and slathered with Sauce Boss originality Soon come.
We miss you, Betty Teague. Betty was one of our favorite gumbo heads and a big supporter of Planet Gumbo. In fact she designated Planet Gumbo as a charity for her friends and family to acknowledge her recent passing. She and her daughter Elizabeth came to more Sauce Boss shows than I can count and they were always a big part of the party. Betty had a great life and we were proud to be a part of it. Party on Betty.
Planet Gumbo is now a cause on Facebook. Join the crowd and spread the word to all of your friends. To go to Planet Gumbo cause page on Facebook click here. And if you haven’t found the Sauce Boss page itself on Facebook yet, it’s at http://facebook.com/BillSauceBossWharton
Not Exactly Brunch at Brennan's, But Tasty All the Same
HOMETOWN BP & DELI HWY 98 CARRABELLE, FL 850-697-5111
Breakfast till close (2 pm) for $2.99. If you’re coming through Carrabelle after a late night on the island, the BP station is a good bet for breakfast. They also serve fried chicken, shrimp, grouper, wings, sandwiches, and daily specials. The specials are written on the little board next to the fishing poles and crab nets. The day I stopped in, the special was country fried steak, with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and roll for $7.25. There’s a few down home flourishes like homemade pepper sauce on the tables and real butter with breakfast. Add gravy to any meal for fifty cents. And… you can take home a full pint for a buck seventy-five. Boggles the mind.
Bluesfest International, Windsor, Ontario, July 18, 2009
Man, what a time we had up North. The weather was nice and cool, the gigs were happening, the crowds came out, and we cooked a lot of gumbo. In Windsor, Ontario, We were playing to a crowd of 9,000, and we had em going from the git go. We were smokin! I had just put about 10 gallons of ingredients in this HUGE BIG OL pot, and the crowd was eating out of my hand. At that moment I did the unspeakable. I was stirring the pot a little too enthusiastically, and the whole thing went over on the stage spilling the contents of the pot in a huge gumbo tsunami. I looked over at Ted Boomer. the promoter, and he was grinning like a Cheshire cat. So what did we do? We did what every Canadian does when trouble rears its head. We got out the SNOW SHOVELS! We sloshed it into the garbage, and we threw a bunch of fresh stuff in the pot , and kept on playing the gumbo. Luckily, the chicken, shrimp and lobsters, were not in the pot when it went over. We still managed to feed 300 people. Here’s the gig in London, Ontario. What a shew! Many thanks to Robert “Freightrain” Parker for helping us out on bass on our last tour.
FETA FIGS
I planted this weird fig tree and it got HUGE. However, it never produced many figs. And the figs were pithy and had no flavor. So last year I was about to chop it way back to nothing to contain it, because the tree was so HUGE. I got busy on the road and forgot about it. Then one day I came home and this fig tree was covered with juicy, succulent, figs. The tree had come into its own, producing 2-to-3 inch diameter figs that were delicious! So I cut em in half and stuffed a little feta cheese and a walnut into each half. Man, they’re good. I can’t wait for em to ripen up this year. Try it Sam I Am.
LIL’ RAYS
500A COURTHOUSE ROAD
GULFPORT, MS 228-896-9601
Their positioning statement: “Poboys, Boiled Seafood”, says it all. Coastal Mississippi is almost Louisiana. Lil’ Ray can MAKE a poboy. In addition to the typical fried stuff, there’s all kinds of grilled items on the menu. Grilled fish tacos, ahi, shrimp, mahi, catfish. Or how bout a smoked yellow fin tuna sandwich? Their seafood gumbo is good also. (I know gumbo) And of course, boiled shrimp or crawfish, oysters on the half shell, and steamed royal reds. All affordable, all cooked right. Lil’ Rays
In Macon Georgia there lives a legend. Mama Weeze. In the hey day of Capricorn Records, the likes of Duane and Greg, Otis, and virtually everybody in rock and roll came to the H & H Restaurant. Mama Weeze made sure that those boys had a great meal of soul food under their belts before returning to the studio. Before they hit the road, Mama Weeze made sure they were well fortified. Now if you want the real deal with a heapin helping of rock ‘n roll history, the H & H is required reading. Check out the pictures on the wall, the ambience, the vibe, the food. And a true spirit of hospitality like nowhere else.
Here’s the veggie plate with lima beans, okra and tomatoes, turnip greens and squash casserole–definitely comfort food and when we left, it was ALL gone.
RED ROE WITH SALMON, MANGO AND SALSA
Here’s a totally over the top recipe for those who love seafood.
One lb. of red mullet roe
Filet of Salmon
4 or 5 mangos cut up with a splash of Liquid Summer and Grande Marnier.
Salsa made with Tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Put the filet in a large frying pan. Place the mangos and roe around the fish. Top with the salsa and bake.
OK, HERE WE GO…
Columbia, MD for the Festival of the Arts, Bethlehem, PA for a great little blues club, 2nd Story Blues, the classic Lyric Theater in Stewart, FL, AJ’s in Destin for Fathers’ Day, and don’t forget every Monday at Harry A’s on beautiful St. George Island, way down in Fla.
Here’s the famous Datil Peppers that I use in my Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. The flavor of the Datil is unparalleled. That creeper burn takes 10 to 15 seconds for the heat to “arrive” and it comes up from the bottom with a hot, sweet, funky rush of flavor that cries out for more. Buy some of my Lquid Summer hot sauce here.
R & D SAUSAGE COMPANY
HOMADE SMOKED AND FRESH SAUSAGE
15714 Waterloo Road Cleveland, OH 44110 216-692-1832
Joe Zuzak makes the sausage and wife, Carol makes the cinnamon bread. Daughter Nancy helps out running the store. Those guys from eastern Europe can make some great sausage. While in Cleveland, you might want to check this place out. The garlic sausage is the garliciest I ever had. It’s super bad!
PEANUT BUTTER AND PICKLE SANDWICH
Here’s Sam, my grandson. He makes peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Cut the little gherkins up and … well, you know.
WASHINGTON D.C. AND ST. LOUIS MO LOOKOUT! (WITH SOME PLANET GUMBO GIGS ALONG THE WAY). Then back to Florida. HERE’S WHERE WE WILL BE. Check out the photo below taken by Dwight Dougherty at our old DC haunt, Madam’s Organ. Situated in the Adams Morgan district.
Sauce Boss gets em happy at Madam's
SAUCE BOSS INDUCTED INTO THE CANADIAN BLUES MUSEUM
On February 27, 2009, Bill Wharton was inducted into the Canadian Blues Museum. Here’s the star on the wall. A smoking blues set and gumbo pot lit up the town of Windsor, Ontario that night. The party went late that night and the band and fans had a few Canadian beers to toast the occasion.
THE STAR
SPRINGTIME MEANS CRAWFISH ETOUFEE
Yep it’s getting on toward crawfish season. Time to pinch the tail.
1 pound crawfish tails, thawed (you can find these in Louisiana for sure, but nowadays many of the larger supermarket chains have it in their frozen seafood section)
1 green pepper
1 large onion
1 stick of butter
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
1 cup water
Salt to taste
1/4 cup LIQUID SUMMER HOT SAUCE
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Sauté onions and pepper in butter 10-15 minutes. Add crawfish tails and sauté another 5 minutes. Add rest of ingredients, and simmer down for 30-40 minutes, stirring often. Taste for spiciness and salt. Serve over rice or over broiled fish like trout or grouper. Feeds 4 as a main dish, 6 if served over fish.
CHEZ SYLVIE ET FILS 941-923-9020
CORNER OF CLARK AND SWIFT ROADS, SARASOTA, FLORIDA
Once in a while you meet someone who is so connected with the natural universe, that they are totally alive every second and aware of everything that is happening around them. Such a person is Chef Sylvie. She subscribes to the “cuisine biologique” method of cooking, using totally organic ingredients. The water she uses to cook with is Jolival, which is bottled in Cognac, France. The fruits and vegetables are grown with out pesticides or chemical fertilizers. This lady is all about food being your pathway to good health. Chef Sylvie and son Richard invite you into their home for dinner. At least, that’s how it feels when you dine at Chez Silvie’s.
SYLVIE'S VEGGIE CREPE WITH WARM GOAT MILK CHEESE
THIS IS NOT FAST FOOD! So chill out and take your time.
This is the only 100% certified organic restaurant in the state of Florida, and it’s a French Bistro!
Think about it! 100% organic Crème Brulee.
(The best I’ve ever had and I’ve been to Paris many, many times)
Awesome.
Tuesday – Saturday for dinner
Wednesday – Saturday for lunch
Sunday for brunch
I love living in a place where you can go out in your yard on January 14th and pick a big ol basket of fresh organic oranges. YUUUUMMMMM!
Fresh Organic Oranges from My Backyard
So we are going to soak up the Florida sunshine for a couple o weeks till we take it up north for Fat Tuesday. Here’s where we will be. The Florida State Fair in Tampa, the International Fiddler Crab Festival in Steinhatchee, the Paradise in Pensacola Beach and the St. Andrews Mardi Gras Celebration in Panama City, Florida. Then Tomkins College in Dryden, NY, the Lafayette Tap Room in Buffalo on Fat Tuesday, Cayuga College in Auburn, NY, the Blues Museum in Windsor, Ontario for a Sauce Boss induction into the Canadian Blues Museum, and then back in the states at the River Raisin Center for the Arts in Monroe, Michigan.
And make plans to attend the Planet Gumbo benefit on First Friday March 6th at Railroad Square Art Park in Tallahassee, FL. Admission is free and open to the public and the show starts about 6pm. If you would like to donate to the silent auction or to volunteer to help Planet Gumbo on that day, please email info@sauceboss.com. Or you can make a donation to Planet Gumbo RIGHT HERE.
IT’S TIME TO RECOGNIZE OUR ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS!
Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts–now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues. http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html
CAP’S CUE CLUE
Once in a while, you’ll be driving down the road on a Sunday afternoon and you see some old codger in his old 60s Cutlass convertible, or even better, an old Goat (Pontiac GTO) idling at a stoplight, and it just gives you a good old nostalgic feeling. The ’60s were good to me. That was before we all woke up to the realities, which are all too apparent today. We blissfully went about our biz, oblivious to the storm brewing over our heads. That makes it all the more poignant if you’re still here after all this time. So all those relics we have hanging around are precious. Such is a place in Syracuse, New York. Cap’s Cue Club is a time capsule right out of a Paul Newman/Jackie Gleason movie. From the handmade wooden cue lockers to the bleachers, to the old guys playin’ the game they have played for fifty, sixty years, this place is O-riginal. The ghost of Minnesota Fats wafts through the hall as the clack of breaks and the bumps of rails and thumps of sinkers provide a sound track for your own pool hall movie.
Here’s the band, sharkin’ the afternoon away. Gotta make a livin somehow. Majic John, Sauce Boss, and the new guy, Justin Headley, causing trouble at Cap's
Dickey and his sister have carried on the tradition all the way into 2009. They have taken great care to keep it just as it was when the place was brand new. The scene is super chill, and the food is like home. No fast food corporate recipes here. NO SIR! The meatball recipe, is a family secret, and a mid afternoon meatball sub between games hits the spot. The prices are ridiculous. Check out this breakfast menu! They’re giving it away, and the folks here are down home nice to be around. A place like this is as hard to find as a ’62 Goat Ragtop. So why not have a few games, sit at the counter for a snack, soak up the atmosphere, and remember how it was. Rack em.
Cap’s Cue Club
1895 Teall Ave.
Syracuse, NY 13206
Phone Number is (315) 701-0101
AND FOR ALL Y’ALL WHO DON’T HAVE FRESH ORANGES IN YOUR BACK YARD, HERE IS A GREAT RECIPE FOR PORK ROAST USING MY LIQUID SUMMER ORANGE MARINADE
Mix in a small bowl:
1 large can of orange juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 bottle of Liquid Summer Datil Pepper Hot Sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons mustard.
1 head of peeled garlic cloves
Take a 2-3 pound boneless pork roast and poke 1″ deep holes all over it. Insert a peeled garlic clove into each hole. Put the pork roast in a one gallon zip loc bag (or plastic bowl with a tight fitting lid) and pour in the orange juice mixture. Shake it up and put it in the refrigerator. Shake it up several times a day for the next couple of days (or longer). Put in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes per pound, or until thoroughly cooked. Baste the roast as it cooks with the marinade.
Check out this video taken on New Years Day in St. Augustine, Florida. The Sauce boss is in trouble…AGAIN!
GROUPER ALMONDINE A LA SAUCEBOSS
1 cup raw almonds
1/8 cup brown mustard
1/8 cup honey
1/8 cup Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
1 to 2 lb. grouper filet
Process the almonds
Mix all the ingredients and coat the grouper
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
KIMCHI AND MORE KIMCHI
PERSIMMON KIMCHI HOUSE
277 E. 10TH ST. NY, NY 10009 212-260-9080
In New York City every few years there rages a culinary fad, a hot, haute if you will, where a certain type of restaurant becomes so very vogue. So a bunch of new places are added to the cornucopia of choices available. A few years ago it was Tapas Bars. Lately it’s been Korean. Being a Korean cuisine freak for a long time, I was ready to try out some real deal kimchi. So try I did. The Persimmon Kimchi House did not disappoint. A long table seats everyone family style. A prix fixed menu with 6 courses for one price. Serious kimchi, shares the menu with eggplant with tofu dressing, sliced beef with melon sauce, spicy sautéed rice cake, and my favorite – the sliced braised pork belly, which is totally obscene. Silky fat, rolling down your gullet like…well,
It defies description. Very cool place.
And if you are in Augusta, Georgia, check out the Korean Restaurant of Ahrirahng. This place is really down home. The little dishes of kimchi include anchovies, squash, cucumber, mushrooms, broccoli, mung beans, radish, and cabbage. They bring it all with your entrée. I had to get the spicy squid. A tangy sweet peppery sauce simmers in your mouth with onions, green pepper, and cephalopods. Yeah. The TV was on with a Korean show of prodigy kids playing music and an audience going bonkers with adulation for the little tykes. The cooks in the kitchen were wrestling after a few drinks, and Mama (I guess that’s her Lincoln out front) pretending to keep order in the place. Great scene, and really good food.
AHRIRAHNG RESTAURANT OF KOREA
3008 DEANS BRIDGE ROAD, AUGUSTA, GEORGIA 30906
706-793-6800
Boy, what a good time I had in 2008. Played my heart out, rode my bike, went fishin, and hung out with some righteous folks. Here’s Saucey and Bossy in Sharon, PA in December. Thanks, girls!
Tampa, Sebring, Starke, St George Island, Atlanta, Hilton Head, Panama City, Ft, Myers Beach, AND THEN…KEY WEST FOR HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Boogie Woogie Washer Woman – Rubbin and scrubbin, Scrublee ub dub! Workin for a livin, the maintenance alone is KILLING me. Oh well, I gotta keep it movin, keep it grooving, keep it rollin down the road. Yes we can can, somehow we will make it. We’ll come out on the other end of this one someday. The blues will lift us up. That’s right, Brother. You KNOW that’s right. Like the Boogie Woogie Washer Woman, just keep on keeping on. Here’s the link to a FREE mp3 of the song that got me in the rubboard groove. This song was my first serious foray into the the realm of “rubboardification”. For the 1989 Kingsnake session, I used an old washboard, a kick drum, a cowbell, a hubcap and an ashtray for my funky little drum kit. Orginally released on 1989 LP “Sauce Boss” on Kingsnake Records. Re-released 2000 on “Best of the Sauce Boss”. There are a very few “Best Of” CDs available. Get it here.
Since then the rubboard has traveled with us everywhere. All over the country, up into Canada, it’s even flown to Europe many times. It keeps on chuggin away. Something about that rhythm makes you want to get up on your feet and dance.
Photo by John Kelly
Fall is in the air.
Oyster season.
Time to make Gumbo
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oil
1 chicken (no bones)
1 gallon of chicken stock
2 large onions
2 large green peppers
1/2 cup LIQUID SUMMER
1 pound smoked sausage
2 medium zucchini
1 pound okra
1 pound of shrimp
1 pint of oysters
1 pound of crawdads
Make a roux: mix 2 cups of flour into 1 1/2 cups hot oil. Cook on high, stirring constantly until brown. Add the chicken, chicken stock, onions, and green peppers. Bring to a boil, then simmer down. Add salt to taste and 1/2 cup of . . . (drum roll) BILL WHARTON’S LIQUID SUMMER HOT SAUCE. Slice and add: 1 pound of smoked sausage, 2 medium zucchini, and 1 pound of okra. When the okra is done, bring the gumbo to a rolling boil and add shrimp, oysters, and crawdads. Cook for 3 minutes, or until shrimp are just barely cooked. Serve over rice and splash with more Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. This recipe feeds 8-12 people.
We are the Traveling Gumbo Show and we are coming to your town! This fall we are bookin down the road. Labor Day is a sold out show in Oklahoma, then Pittsburgh, Fredonia, NY, Charlotte, NC, Tampa and Sebring, Fla. And some where in there, we will be doing the coolest of the cool.
Pete Seeger
On Saturday, September 27, we are playing the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Chile Fest along side of an American treasure. Pete Seeger will headline the date and we will be playing right before him. This is a dream come true for me. A champion for individual rights, Pete Seeger stood up to the McCarthy witch hunt of the 1950s and survived to become a voice for the laborers of America. His songs, “We Shall Overcome”, and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” were anthems for the civil rights and peace movements of the 60s. He is credited with single handedly starting a movement to clean up the polluted Hudson River. AND…if that ain’t enough, he’s a heck of a banjo picker, and in my book, he was one of the most incredible singers I’ve heard. When I saw him twenty years ago, he blew me away with just his voice. It was one of the best concerts I ever witnessed. Out of all the shows I have seen in the last fifty years, three of them stand out as the absolute best. Jimi Hendrix, Charles Mingus, and Pete Seeger. This will be a show to remember.
GINGER/BASIL/VEGGIE/LIQUID SUMMER HOT SAUCE SOUP
I had a few leftover steamed potatoes and about half a winter squash, so I mashed em up for thickening the broth. Here’s how I did it.
Sauté in olive oil in a large pot:
4 oz. chopped shallots
1 stalk of celery minced
1 chopped green pepper
Peel and mince 4 oz. ginger and put it into a tea ball
and throw it in the pot along with:
1 qt. chicken or veggie broth
1 bunch of basil leaves
1 hand full of chopped carrots
2 yellow squash chopped
A few leaves of greens (kale, mustards, or Collards)
2 potatoes and half a winter squash, roasted and mashed
2 tbs. Liquid Summer Hot Sauce
Bring to a boil
A few minutes before serving, add 2 chopped fresh tomatoes
Miko spreads the love
HEALTH GARDEN VEGAN AND WEST INDIAN CUISINE
350 State St. Rochester, NY 14608 585-262-2880
Monday – Friday 8am – 6 pm
So it’s the middle of the winter, and Rochester is covered with snow and slush, and it’s cold and wet, and you haven’t gotten enough sunshine, and your endocrine system is wacked out, and your blood sugar is out of control, and you’ve had about enough of this crazyness, and..and…and. Wait a minute. Take a deep breath. Relax, Mon. Get healthy. Get right with a laid back head space. Right across from the Kodak offices is a funky little breakfast/lunch restaurant and health food store with three or four tables an a very large smile. Take a load off and chill out with a Caribbean attitude at the Health Garden where vegan and Ital meet oxtails, jerk chicken, and beef patties. Vegan curries and BBQ share the menu with real chicken, fish and beef entrees. When you walk in the door, it’s obvious that the owner, Miko, cooks with love of food and people. When I arrived at four pm after a slammed lunch time rush, the veggies were still succulent and fresh to the taste. She has a great feel for herbs and spices, making everything savory as well as comforting. With a juice bar, healthy shakes, bulk herbs, catering, and healthy beauty products, in addition to the restaurant, this café is jammed full of goodness. In a word, sustenance. When’s the last time YOU had callaloo?
Hooo Boy, I had a good time. As the song goes, “I have had my fun, if I don’t get well no more.” Check this out. We were goin to do four days on Beale Street, so I decided to ride my bike from Tallahassee to Memphis and back home – a journey of 2000 miles. What an adventure.
As I was finishing up at the Blues City Cafe, I heard that the very next day, The Honorable Reverend Al Green was going to be preaching at his church, The Full Gospel Tabernacle. What a poor sinner to do when he can get the Word from the real deal source of spiritualistic funk? And so I putted down to the church bright and early Sunday morning, ready to get some religion, and Son, did I ever! Before the Rev. even showed up, I was feeling the Spirit. What a beautiful scene this church is. The opening music was truly inspirational. However, when Al began his sermon, all heaven broke loose. There was singing and praising, rejoicing, and thanking, crying and hollering, and feeling the Spirit like nobody’s business. I was just about to throw all my credit cards in the plate when the good reverend said, ”I know that times have been rough for you folks, so today, don’t bother putting any money in the basket. I have taken care of it for you”. I ask you, Brothers and Sisters, when was the last time you heard a preacher say that?
I left Memphis with a good feeling way down in my soul. I needed it for I was about to ride straight into a hailstorm. First I hit the heavy winds. Then I rode through a dust devil – a mile high cloud of dust and debris. Visibility was about fifty feet, sometimes less. I was looking for a funnel but none appeared. And then the rain and hail came down clackity clack on my helmet. By the time I reached the next overpass, I was drenched. “This is the life”, I said to myself, almost believing it. However I met some nice people under the bridge and I had time for a little nap before continuing to Hot Springs, Arkansas. A couple of days soaking in the hot springs had me ready for my next adventure.
Honey Boy Edwards June 08
I headed south to Greenville, Mississippi for the Leland Blues Fest. I was able to catch heard Honey Boy Edwards doin the real blues in Leland down by the railroad tracks. It don’t get no bluesier than that. Deep in the delta I hit the blues mother load. While embedding myself in the local scene I heard that B.B. King was in town.
BB King at Club Ebony June 2008
So on Saturday night I was sitting with my boots up on the stage at the Club Ebony, eating a bbq pork chop samich. And incidentally, the food at Club Ebony is very good at a very reasonable price. I hear the catfish is to die for. So anyway, I’m chowin down on my BBQ pork chop samich, watching B.B. King hold court at his hometown juke. He finished the show and walked right by me. He took my hand and I helped him with the steps. All I could say was, “Thank you. Thank you.” The photo here is B.B. as he leaves the stage. Truly a magnificent personality, he has done so much for so many. Thank you Mr. King.
So after all this blues and gospel, it was time for me to head for the house. My trusty steed was waiting patiently as I mounted up for the 10 hour ride back to Florida. But do not fret. I’ll be sliding back to Mississippi to soak up some more of the real deal another time.
THE OTTAWA BLUESFEST WAS JAMMIN AS ALWAYS.
Who’s that guy in the Gumbo pot?
PAPPY’S GERMAN RESTAURANT 850-785-6611
St Andrews Marina 1000 Bayview Avenue Panama City, FL 32401
Serving authentic German food since 1982. When’s the last time ya had some real Bratwurst? Or real Wiener Schnitzel? Roladen? How bout Spazel with Gravy? Schweinebraten? Sauerkraut? Once in a while I get a hankering and Pappy’s is the place to fill the need without killing you with grease. Munich born Christine Jamieson opened the restaurant when her husband retired from the military. She loved to entertain at home, and so restaurateuring was a natural step. Twenty-five years later she still holds court at this charming little restaurant/bar right across from the marina in the St. Andrews neighborhood. Take a walk through the park and check out the world’s only cultivar of a four headed Butia Capitata – commonly called the Pindo Palm. Or take the boardwalk through the trees to the shore of St. Andrews Bay. Saunter down to the marina and check out the yachts and fishing vessels. Pick out some fresh shrimp, right off the boat. Work up an appetite.
Pappy's Dinner Plate
Then it’s time to relax with a chilled German Beer (Pappy’s has a great selection), let the sun go down, and sample the homemade soups, the authentic German dishes, or the traditional Panama City shrimp. (they gotta be fresh). The gumbo gets the Sauce Boss seal of Approval. It’s a Gulf Coast seafood, tomato and okra based gumbo, spiced just right. And… if yer real lucky, you may catch Kieth, the seventy-five year old drummer. Sometimes, on Friday and Saturdays, Keith Unger kicks out the oom-pas with pre-recorded tracks for your dining and dancing pleasure. Just a guy with his drum set jamming with the stereo, doing Frank Sinatra, John Phillip Sousa, and Einzug der Musikanten. A bowl of Bavarian cabbage soup, Polish sausage, a couple o Warsteiner pilsners, some polkas, and some good company makes for a cozy, albeit pungent evening. Don’t get no better. Carry outs available. That’s a good thing
SUMMER SQUASH / PAPAYA BISQUE
This is sooo yummy and so easy to make
1 Lb. of summer squash steamed
½ Lb. fresh papaya
1 Pint fresh organic almond milk
Dusting of ground nutmeg
Put every thing in a blender and that’s it!
Incidentally, I found the best almond connection. They are organic unpasteurized almonds which are so creamy, the milk is like half and half. Here’s the link.
Posted by Sauce Boss 
RED ROE WITH SALMON, MANGO AND SALSA
Dickey and his sister have carried on the tradition all the way into 2009. They have taken great care to keep it just as it was when the place was brand new. The scene is super chill, and the food is like home. No fast food corporate recipes here. NO SIR! The meatball recipe, is a family secret, and a mid afternoon meatball sub between games hits the spot. The prices are ridiculous. Check out this breakfast menu! They’re giving it away, and the folks here are down home nice to be around. A place like this is as hard to find as a ’62 Goat Ragtop. So why not have a few games, sit at the counter for a snack, soak up the atmosphere, and remember how it was. Rack em.
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