Varmint

Bring it on!!!

There's absolutely no rhyme or reason to the spelling. I just spell it out as barbecue. But I'll eat any style, regardless of how it's spelled.

Here's the pictures. I failed to take shots of either pizza, unfortunately. The pizza gurus would have been proud of the char. Also note that after the first couple of dishes, the wine started to take effect, so I cared less and less about presentation.

I'll post pictures later, but I initially thought about doing an all pasta dinner, but then I went in a different direction. Many of the ideas came from Mario Batali recipes, with an occasional tweak here and there. Here's the final menu, with wine pairings: Pizza Margherita Duck Confit and Camembert Pizza 2004 Corte Majoli Pinot Grigio 2003 Corte Majoli Valpollicella Prosciutto di Parma with Fresh Fig Salad and Pomegranate Dressing 2004 Torre Leverano Rosato Pan-seared Triggerfish with Cucumber Soup 2003 Masciarelli Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Ravioli filled with Goat Cheese and Pesto, with Quick Tomato Sauce 2003 San Simone Pinot Grigio Fresh Tagliatelli with Wild Mushrooms and Black Summer Truffles 2003 Seghesio Dolcetto d'Alba Braised Beef Short Ribs with Parmesan Polenta and Horseradish Gremolata 2000 Zaccagnini Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva Molten Chocolate Cake with Whipped Marscapone Cream NV Selva Ducale Prosecco di Valdobbiadene

Thanks to all of you. Your kind words have meant a lot to me.

All of our kids are pretty darned good individuals and each have their charm. But Benjamin has always found a way to wrap people around his little finger better than his siblings. And Marcella and I are often referred to as big kids. Nothing wrong with that, right?

It's a quiet 4th of July in the house, as our two older children are attending tennis and basketball camp this week, which for some reason started today. Very strange. Anyhow, my oldest has never played tennis in his life, but he may as well learn -- we do have a tennis court in our front yard (aka, the site of the pig pickin')!! For lunch I had a BLT. I don't think there's a better sandwich on the face of the earth. In fact, it was so good that I had a second BLT. For dinner tonight, we're having fish tacos and watermelon. Not the most traditional dinner for the 4th, but it's what was requested.

What I did was just a simple boiled vegetable -- something all of us have done. The key is to use some sort of stock and then enhance the stock's flavor. In this case, I just added some green garlic to the stock about 15 minutes before adding the squash. Another common way to make squash in the South is to boil it whole. Once cooked through, you remove the squash and eat it sort of like a baked potato -- split down the middle with a bit of butter and salt added. That's how Mrs. Varmint loves it.

The blondies came from a recipe in Cooks Illustrated. I've actually added it to RecipeGullet.

My final meal of the official blog period was quite simple: fresh pasta with some homemade pesto, and some carrots and celery. After all the food I ate this past week, I was fairly full. And inspired by jackal10's summer pudding, I decided to try my luck with a quickly prepared berry bread pudding. I had about 12 ounces of blackberry, strawberry and blueberry coulis left over from the buttermilk pie. I added that to a couple of beaten eggs and about a cup of cream. Some stale, leftover Italian bread was cubed and tossed with the liquids. After sitting for 15 minutes, I poured it into a greased bowl and baked it for about an hour. It was quite nice -- tart and vibrant. Not a bad experiment at all.

Blondies Serves 24 as Dessert. This recipe was adapted from the July/August Cooks Illustrated. It's incredibly easy. Make sure you find the best available white chocolate. Also, you can add a cup of nuts if you'd like. Our family is nutty enough, so we went nut-free with this recipe. 1-1/2 c All purpose flour 1 tsp Baking powder 1/2 tsp Salt 12 T Unsalted butter, melted & cooled 1-1/2 c Light brown sugar, packed 2 Eggs, large 4 tsp Vanilla 6 oz White chocolate (or mix of white & semi-sweet) -- chopped 1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 13" by 9" baking pan with a sheet of foil. Spray with non-stick spray. 2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt in bowl and set aside. 3. Stir together melted butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and stir until well-mixed. 4. Fold dry ingredients into wet until just mixed. Add chocolate, and turn into pan. 5. Bake about 22-26 minutes until top is shiny and golden brown. Do NOT overbake. Allow to cool fully (something that I learned from Ellen Shapiro -- my knuckles still ache). Cut into 24 squares. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Brownies/Bars ( RG1325 )

Blondies Serves 24 as Dessert. This recipe was adapted from the July/August Cooks Illustrated. It's incredibly easy. Make sure you find the best available white chocolate. Also, you can add a cup of nuts if you'd like. Our family is nutty enough, so we went nut-free with this recipe. 1-1/2 c All purpose flour 1 tsp Baking powder 1/2 tsp Salt 12 T Unsalted butter, melted & cooled 1-1/2 c Light brown sugar, packed 2 Eggs, large 4 tsp Vanilla 6 oz White chocolate (or mix of white & semi-sweet) -- chopped 1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 13" by 9" baking pan with a sheet of foil. Spray with non-stick spray. 2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt in bowl and set aside. 3. Stir together melted butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and stir until well-mixed. 4. Fold dry ingredients into wet until just mixed. Add chocolate, and turn into pan. 5. Bake about 22-26 minutes until top is shiny and golden brown. Do NOT overbake. Allow to cool fully (something that I learned from Ellen Shapiro -- my knuckles still ache). Cut into 24 squares. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Brownies/Bars ( RG1325 )

Actually, I often take pictures of our meals when I'm on vacation, but I was a bit more concerned with getting decent shots. Moreover, I had to post several times a day to keep from falling behind. That's the big difference. Mind you, I had a blast with this blog and the vacation, and we experienced some adventures that might not have happened but for the blog. So don't misinterpret my sentiments as anything as positive -- it was fun, but it's a one-time deal. Plus, I have this little pig pickin' to organize. It's only 2 months away, so come on and join us!!! As far as the difference between grits and polenta, here's a decent resource.

Could this worcestershire be for Brunswick stew, by any chance????

Thanks for all the kind thoughts. I of course painted a nice Rockwellian picture of the week, where all was happy and content. But we also know that even Norman Rockwell was hardly the man we expected him to be, so we've had our ups and downs this week. Fortunately, however, I've shared over 20 consecutive meals with my family, and for that I am grateful. It's been a lot of fun to share a small portion of this experience with y'all, but don't count on me doing another one of these any time soon. I find that when I'm so focused on getting the picture right, I become more of a voyeur than a participant. That's not what food is all about. I've posted over 250 pictures from this past week, and I'm glad I have a nice little journal about it here on the eG Forums. But next time I get to share so many meals with my family, I think I'll take a few pictures and then focus on my wife and children, not getting the focus right on the camera. And by the way, at the Eno Festival today, I had black beans and rice, a Jamaican meat pie, and later on a slice of watermelon. Yum! Haven't a clue what's for dinner in an hour. Uh oh!

This piques my interest. How many of these desserts could you make without sugar, Varmint? Given that I'm acutely sensitive to sweetness, I bet that your many fruit pies with blackberries, blueberries and whatnot would taste marvelous without added sugar (at least to me, anyway), given the fructose that the fruits already contain. While a part of me asks out of selfishness--I hope to visit North Cackalacky soon and would love to partake of no sugar added-desserts--I wonder how these dishes would taste to an audience that is used to more traditional recipes (read: with added sugar). ← I really couldn't imagine making any of these desserts without sugar, as even the blueberries need a little help. However, I'm sure that's as much to do with my taste as anything else. If I were diabetic, I'd examine the situation in an entirely different light. I would mention that my corn pudding had zero added sugar, and it was noticeable. However, the pudding tasted like fresh corn, which is what I desired. Most corn puddings are slightly sweet -- often too sweet for my taste. Could my pudding have withstood a slight addition of sugar? Yup, but I just didn't want it.

That's exactly what I, like most of you fellow eGulleteers, do. And I'm trying to pass on to my children how important food truly is. It's not just sustenance. Food often defines our cultures -- it is across the dinner table where one truly begins to understand another, whether it be a future spouse, a stranger, a family member, or a business colleague. The joy I get from cooking and eating is not just a matter of gluttony, it's one of history, sociology, anthropology, culture, and family. My most vivid memories outside of the birth of my children are food-related. I don't expect my children to have the same passion for food as I do, but I hope they have some appreciation of its importance.

He'll wear anything soccer related, but when he visited England a couple of summers ago, learning to love fish and chips, he visited the big Chelsea store. That was because his traveling team was called Chelsea. I think his allegiance could be bought, however.

Blueberries are everywhere down here. Every vendor at the farmers market offers local blueberries. To me, blueberries alone aren't all that exciting, but when combined with other more tart berries, they're great.

For all practical purposes, this is the last true day for the blog. Tomorrow, we're going to an all-day festival, and I'm not sure how much food-related stuff I'll have to post. But today was indeed a good day. We slept in late and didn't eat breakfast until 11:00 AM. In the interim, I started working on one of this evening's desserts, buttermilk pie. Buttermilk pie is just a glorified custard pie, but the buttermilk (and a touch of lemon) give it an extra tang. It's a classic southern dessert that I can't eat often enough. First, we have to make a crust, and pre-bake it a bit. Then make the filling. Start by whipping up some egg whites. Then make a custard of butter, eggs, brown sugar and a touch of flour -- of course, we need a spot of nutmeg. Fold the egg whites into the custard. Put the batter into the semi-baked pie shell. Bake for an hour, and voila!!! We then headed over to Durham to meet some friends for brunch at Elmo's Diner. This is a VERY kids friendly place, as kids of all ages are encouraged to color Elmo the Duck and post the masterpiece near the entrance. Fortunately, the food appeals to young and old alike. My eldest got a waffle, home fries, and sausage patties. The pancake is a large chocolate chip (doesn't he get enough of these at home???). A friend had blueberry pancakes. Mrs. Varmint had huevos rancheros. I, of course, had to have something Southern. I chose the classic coastal fisherman's breakfast of shrimp and grits, with a couple of fried eggs. Damn, this was excellent. My in-laws, my niece, and some friends from Norway were coming over for dinner, so I knew a single buttermilk pie wouldn't be sufficient for dinner. I made blonde brownies as a second dessert. This is perhaps the simplest dessert to bake, and my kids love it. Here's the batter and the finished product. I used white and semi-sweet chocolate in today's version. Dinner, unfortunately, wasn't exclusively Southern. No greens, unfortunately. I did make a killer corn pudding. I started with a dozen ears of Fantasia corn, cut off from the cobs. I then made a custard of eggs, cream, milk, salt and nutmeg. Pour it into a casserole, cover with foil, add boiling water for a bain-marie, and bake for 90 minutes. Here it is, fresh out of the oven. For dinner, we had wood-grilled flank steak, 6-week peas, corn pudding, boiled yellow squash, and roasted red potatoes. Six-week peas are young variety of field peas know as cowpeas. They're excellent, of course, as are all field peas. Boiling yellow squash is a highly underrated way to cook this vegetable. I add several cloves of garlic to some boiling chicken stock. After 15 minutes, I remove the garlic and add the squash. I cook it for no more than 5 minutes. You want it somewhat crisp. I cooked the flank steak over a pecan fire. I do not marinate flank steak -- any sort of marinade just gets in the way of the beef flavor. A bit of salt is all I add. To go with the buttermilk pie, I made a simple fruit coulis of blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. These were the largest blackberries I have ever seen. Here's the buttermilk pie with the coulis. It was very tasty. Please feel free to ask questions as long as this thread stays open. I've tried to show you many different facets of Southern home cooking and how I like to present it to my family. No, we don't eat like this everyday, but I often try to throw some Southern twists in my cooking. The L'il Varmints are slowly, but surely, coming around. In another 5 years, I see a lot of fatback in the Varmint household. I hope I have something new to post tomorrow, but if not, I look forward to your questions. Thanks for indulging me, y'all.

I'm working on a buttermilk pie this morning, and then we head over to Durham for a late breakfast and then a dance performance at Duke for the American Dance Festival. I'll then get to work on the rest of tonight's dinner.

This is sort of dull, so let me get through the rest of the kitchen. Here's the upper cabinet above the dishwasher, where we store most of the everyday dishes. The other upper cabinet to the left of the sink. Our flatware drawer, to the right of the dishwasher. My organizational pride and joy, the tupperware cabinet beneath the flatware drawer. Yes, it's always this organized!!!! At the far left to the main sink is a full height cabinet that houses the microwave in the middle and some pull-out drawers in the bottom. This has been very helpful. Above the microwave is a deep, partially useful cabinet. It seems I've neglected to take a picture of one of my trash cans, but they're great. Much better than the old compactor we had. There's a couple of other cabinets that don't have anything to do with food. However, I do need to show you this cabinet above the refrigerator. Everyone needs one of these, of course. As I mentioned a bazillion times, I like my kitchen. It works well. Others can actually join me in the kitchen, as we have a couple of working areas. Clean-up is much easier with this flow, and the two dishwashers are a nice benefit. The space is quite compact and efficient. I'm having an "interactive" dinner party a week from today for 24, where the guests help cook a 5-course meal. We'll see how efficient it is then!

Several of you have asked how my new kitchen "flows." Be careful for what you ask. Let me first show you a somewhat rough sketch of my kitchen layout: Where the prep sink and second dishwasher are located is my eating bar, with enough room for 7 people to sit and eat somewhat comfortably. Where the wall oven is does not have upper cabinets, but large picture windows. My kitchen is wonderul. The flow is perfect. Dishes and flatware are stored very close to the dishwashers (to the right of the first dishwasher by the large sink). To the left of either sink is a large pull-out trash bin. To the left of either sink is a dishwasher. And, of course, I have a large pantry that makes most cooks incredibly envious. I took a lot of pictures of the cabinets and what's in them. I'll point out the single thing I'd change if I had to do it over again. Brace yourself, there's a lot of tedium ahead! In the lower cabinet to the right of the range are 3 pull-out drawers where I keep pots, colanders, and lids. I particularly like the pull-outs for the lids, as they maintain some semblance of order and I don't have to get on my hands and knees to dig in the back. Just above this, to the right of the hood, is an upper cabinet that holds a lot of my everyday cooking condiments and oils, as well as some other frequently used cooking implements. To the left of the hood, an upper cabinet holds my dried herbs, spices, and other seasonings. Plus my hot pads on top. In the top drawer to the left of the range are wooden spoons & tongs, which I use every day. Below that are less frequently used items. And even less frequently used implements in the two lowest drawers. Here's a quick tour of my pantry. Just inside the doorway is a wine fridge and a small wine rack. I don't "lay down" wines -- I just buy and drink. Above the wine rack is a simple pot rack where I keep some skillets. Beyond that is just places for food and other items. It's too narrow to get a good picture, but we keep all the baking supplies, cereals, canned goods, and other miscellany in there. Plus, I have the big ass beer fridge in the back! Back in the kitchen itself, near the wall oven and large picture windows, are several cabinets. The cabinet closest to the pantry door holds my coffee supplies. The drawer above that holds some sharp items that aren't used all that frequently. To the left is the only mistake I made in the entire kitchen. This is where I keep baking sheets and cutting boards. If I had to do it over again I would have made this a cabinet with a drawer on top, as there's no need for this to be full cabinet height. I'm wasting useful space. To the left of that is my wonderful wall oven, then left again is the coolest cabinet in the kitchen, the Magic Corner, which Daddy A implored me to purchase. He was right. To the left of there is my baking area, where the countertop is made of a piece of marble from my old kitchen. Below there is a large drawer containing many of the items I use in my baking and a cabinet with large bowls, food processor, and waffle irons. I'll take a break for now and get back to the rest of the kitchen after some coffee.

I love boiled (pronounced "balled") peanuts, but I only eat them when they're warm. I've boiled them myself, and that's the best way. After that, look for a roadside stand where the kettle is brewing away -- there's few traveling snacks more satisfying. However, many times the peanuts have been boiled at a remote location, brought to a store, and stuck in the refrigerator. I personally don't care for cold boiled peanuts.

I really don't know. I may know a little about NC barbecue, but that's the extent of my knowledge. Hopefully one of our true barbecue experts has some insight on this, as it may simply be a matter of North Carolinians moving to the mountains. Great question.