Varmint

I've had 3 kids with soccer practice today, and this is the first chance I've had to sit down. I'll post some pictures and brief descriptions, and hopefully phlawless and Al Dente will fill y'all in with some details. Al Dente couldn't get a date, so we hooked him up with a picture of Miss North Carolina. How to smoke a pork butt on a gas grill. Pecan-smoked pork butt with chipotle, cinnamon, star anise, cumin, garlic rub; Pecan-smoked chicken (spatchcocked) with coffee, dried chile, cumin, garlic and oregano rub. A most excellent 100% agave tequila. Mrs. Varmint even drank a couple of shots! No pictures of the incredible tamarind margaritas made by Al Dente and Mr. phlawless. Salsas and guacamole. Frying the chips. Chips ready to eat. "Two-toned" ceviche of sea scallop and tuna. Ceviche closer up. Baked tamal. Phlawless made three of these. One had chard, chile and cheese. Another was chicken and lots of good stuff. The third was braised short rib with chipotle, cinnamon, onion and raisin. Here's a slice each from all 3 tamals, served with phlawless' kick-ass mole, all dressed up. Time for a break and for me to show drunken pinkie technique. Tacos on homemade corn tortillas. The meat was the smoked pork and chicken shown above along with shrimp mojo de ajo. Close up of smoked pork taco with tomatillo salsa and queso fresco. Phlawless making pumpkin fritters. Fritters frying. The single best dessert I've had in 2003: Pumpkin fritters rolled in cinnamon sugar, served with goat cheese ice cream, cajeta and candied, spicy pepitas. Damn, this was awesome. Close up of the dessert. Too drunk to be truly inspired, Al Dente and phlawless pose for the traditional American Gothic shot, grabbing the first things they can find.

Details will follow later today. We're about 3/4 of the way through cleaning the kitchen -- and if not for the pig pickin', this may have taken the prize for the messiest kitchen after a meal. Well worth it. I need more coffee.

It's 11:10 and we still haven't even begun to get dessert ready. Tamarind margaritas rock. American gothic of Al Dente and phlawless to come. After I do a few shots of outstanding 100% agave tequila.

Thanks for all the awesome reports, Jason. For those of us who can't get there, we are certainly enjoying our vicarious gastronomic tour of NOLA.

In your dreams, buddy boy.

When I'm not serving something that comes from a Mason Jar, I usually describe the selections as "Red" or "White."

I still have a bottle in my freezer. And congrats, Katie!!!

But how do you get the skin off without the skinner? C'mon, you just use your generic primate skinner. The specific ones just don't make the process any easier at all.

Enough about garlic presses. Let's get back to truly useless utensils!

My replacement camera is fully functional, so you're sure to get more pictures than you truly want.

But you're the tool. BTW, my wife is also useless in the kitchen. You saw first hand how much she cooked the weekend of the pig pickin'.

I don't think it has anything to do with taste. In the amount of time it takes to slice the garlic to place it in the press and squeeze, you can mince a clove. Plus, there's less to clean up. Nope, nope, nope. At least, not for me. My local grocer peels my garlic for me. If I want 2 or 3 cloves, it takes me a total of 6 or 7 seconds to mince it with a press, and 3 seconds to clean before popping it in the dishwasher. Getting out a cutting board, making sure that it's the one for "aromatics", smashing the garlic, mincing it, scraping it into the pan, and then washing knife and board (by hand) takes far, far longer for me. Now if I want sliced garlic, or coarsely chopped garlic, that's an entirely different matter.

We're set on the cajeta: pumpkin fritters with cajeta and goat milk ice cream!!!

you've never lost track of your glass when there are 3 or 4 on a table? i have, and i use those things whenever i think of it. the problem is, i always forget which freakin charm i am. You're the pink clover. Those things were invented for my mother-in-law. She easily goes through 4 different glasses at a party if she didn't have one. Hers is quite distinctive.

I've argued this elsewhere, but I buy my garlic that has been already peeled at a cost around the same as unpeeled garlic. It's fresh. I can mince 2 or 3 cloves of garlic in 2 seconds, and I don't have a cutting board to clean up. The press is that easy. And I defy anyone to prove to me that finely minced garlic tastes any different when pushed through a press or when minced with a knife.

I'm still a big garlic press lover. Call me crazy.

Wine Clip.

I actually use a shrimp deveiner, although I usually get my shrimp peeled and deveined. My most useless utensil is an egg separator. I've only kept it because it's an antique.

Well, we're already planning for an eGullet tailgate party for the 2004 football season in Chicago. Check it out here.

This may be an old line, but it's new to me, sent by my oenophile associate: It Ain't the Beaus Ya Know... It's the Beaus Ya Lay!

I'll be thinking of y'all this weekend as I take a respite from this session and focus on my Mexican cooking skills.

I have an extra tank. Otherwise, I'll just build a fire in the damn thing. It's not as if I do much with it anyhow!

Is PhotoShop pretty much the gold standard for post-shoot manipulation?

I'll be attempting to smoke a pork butt on a gas grill this weekend, so I'll report back here with the details. I'm using chipped pecan left over from the pig pickin'.

Oops, I did mis-link, and horribly so!!! It's fixed now. Anyhow, here's the massive eating quest to which I had intended to refer: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=25596