kayb

FWIW, I think good barbecue, and here I mean specifically pork shoulder, has to be smoked for a long, long time, so the smoke taste permeates the meat. Memphis-Mid-South style involves rubbing it down 24 hours or so in advance with a dry rub and letting it marinate. Then it's "mopped," or basted, with a thin, vinegar-based sauce periodically as it cooks. This combination seems to yield a good flavor and texture. A full shoulder (or grill-full of shoulders) should be cooked 18 hours starting at 180F and gradually working up to 220F. Some variations in taste can be achieved by what cooking medium is used -- charcoal, hardwood, a combination, specific types of hardwood, etc. A "table sauce" here is an entirely different thing from a cooking sauce. It never gets anywhere near the fire. Most table sauces are tomato based; some are sweet, some are hot, some are in between, and most barbecue joints will serve at least two -- a hot and a mild. I've never seen a mustard-based sauce east of the Appalachians (although when I tried it in South Carolina, it was surprisingly good; I just couldn't look at it and eat it). In Alabama, they make a white barbecue sauce, but I think that's mostly for use with barbecued chicken. Recipe is here. I think it sounds disgusting, and have never felt the necessity to try to make it (nor sample it at the restaurant, when I've been down that way).

Love your best friend. The roast is pretty spectacular, too.

I'm intrigued with what Las Vegas style barbecue might be, as well. The pulled pork LOOKS fairly similar to Memphis style. Did it have a nice crust/bark on it? What kind of sauce was served with it?

Oh, @Nicolai. That all looks wonderful. I wish I had a plate piled high with all of it!

Was on a work gig up in South Central Missouri this week and ate lunch at a local diner. Pork tenderloin sandwich. Classic. Pounded to about 1/4 inch thickness, breaded and fried, hanging off all the edges of a sesame seed bun. It came out with lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion and dill pickle chips on the side; I used the mayo and ketchup, along with the dill pickle slices, which made for a suprisingly good flavor combo. Very good. It also came with homemade potato chips, which were among the best examples of the homemade product I've enjoyed in a long time.

Yes, and yes. Among my magnet collection are an Elvis magnetic "paper" doll collection (two complete changes of clothing and guitars); an Elvis Cadillac bottle opener, a handful of Superman comic panels, a bunch of chip clip thingies, a couple of dry-erase note boards, my Thermapen knockoff, several palm trees, a flock of pink flamingos, and a Route 66 sign. Among the things they hold: birth announcements for all three grandkids; save-the-date magnet for the middle child's wedding 10 years ago; artwork from a couple of the grands; graduation photos from a family friend, photo Christmas cards from all the kids, and assorted bumper stickers. No, I have not had the fridge since I was in college, though you might think so from looking at it. Particularly the bumper stickers.

Add me as a vote for gochujang. It's very versatile, and very good. And as far as I know, it lasts approximately forever in the fridge.

Good one. I think I've found my house. @Smokeydoke, I'll PM you my address and you can just ship me a dozen of those almond croissants.... Looking forward to this. Wish I could remember the off-strip Italian place (it was in a strip center, maybe not far from UNLV (?), very unassuming spot) where we ate last time I was out there. It was fabulous. My personal favorites, though are the Bellagio fountains choreographed to Frank Sinatra.

You are a mother after my own heart.

A beach, even in the rain, is a fine place.

Apparently not. On the roadvforvwork now, but will repost tonight.

Not great, but you get the idea. Part of dinner (Meat loaf, roast potatoes, broccoli). I don't think I put bacon in this one. Here's a more tomatoey one. And this one, on the plate, from the above skillet.

Which brings to mind my tomato cobbler. The recipe is one I adapted from one that appeared in the newspaper a few years back. Dice, salt and drain tomatoes, and stir together with some sauteed onion and garlic. Make up a basic (non-sweetened) cornbread batter, but make it thinner than usual. Pour it into your heated and greased skillet, and dollop the tomatoes all over the surface. Sprinkle with cooked, crumbled bacon, grated Parmigiano or other hard cheese, and some green onions, and bake. I see no good reason avocados ought not be a fine addition to that. Depending on how thin you make the batter, this is either a casserole one eats with a fork, or it could be sturdy enough to cut in wedges. Fine flavor, though.

Here in the Mid-South, there's a strong Catholic presence along the Mississippi River (mostly because that's the original area settled/colonized by the French and Spanish). Consequently, every little meat-and-three establishment in the Delta, as well as in much of the rest of the South, serves fried catfish as one of its specials on Fridays. It's typically served with French fries, hushpuppies, cole slaw, and white soup beans, with sliced raw onion and pickled green tomatoes as garnishes. Onion rings are sometimes an option.

I hesitate to post this in the schnitzel topic, as it isn't pounded nearly thin enough to be a real schnitzel, but Sunday was the long-awaited country fried steak. Round steak, pounded, salted and peppered. I would have preferred the already-jacquarded "minute steak," but I was digging in the freezer and this was what I came to first. It was cut thicker than I wanted, and I probably should have just butterflied it. From here, I bagged it and sous vided it at 150 degrees for about four and a half hours. I did a higher temp/shorter cook because I didn't get it started until Sunday morning. Out of the sous vide, ready for a second pounding. Still didn't get them as thin as I wanted them. Breading station. Seasoned flour, egg-and-milk, cracker crumbs (regular Saltines). Frying. After that, they went into the oven turned on warm, on a rack. Dinner. I like my gravy on my potatoes, but not on my steak. The cream gravy was the leftover seasoned flour from breading, the bag juices from the sous vide, and a healthy glug of milk, along with more salt and pepper. A leftover piece of steak made a quite nice breakfast this morning on a biscuit. Thanks, @Shelby, for making me think about getting frozen biscuits so I could cook just one at a time! Dessert was "red hot apples," apples baked with butter and cinnamon imperials candy, topped with a bit of heavy cream. Haven't cooked that in ages.

I know Shelby and Rosedale! And I love me some Delta tamales. I get mine either at Pasquale's in Helena or Miss Rhoda's in Lake Village, both on the Arkansas side of the river, but I definitely enjoy the ones from both Abe's and Larry's in Clarksdale. I love the ethnic diversity in the Delta. In the small Delta town where I used to live, we had Italian, Chinese, Lebanese and Syrian families, all of whom had been there for generations. The Garden Club had as its big fundraiser an "international food fair" every year where all those little old ladies made dishes from their home countries, and it was a do-not-miss event. I still lust for the stuffed grape leaves, the tabbouleh, the toasted ravioli, the cannoli, the dumplings, the noodles...

Methodists (Episcopal-light, which in turn is Catholic-light) typically observe Lent in some fashion. I'm giving up Facebook (and finding I have SO much more time!). In the past, I've given up candy, soft drinks, things of that nature. Abstaining from meat was never a thing, for some reason. I knew better than to vow to give up wine.

The food is spectacular...but I am lusting for that tablecloth. So very beautiful.

Oooohhh. I LIKE that. And it doesn't look like it'd be too horribly difficult to replicate. Going back to Aldi to score me another bag or two of scallops...

And that's a fine thing. I agree, we all have our luxury items on which we're willing to spend. I have a friend who is horrified I'll freely spend $6 a pound for Rancho Gordo beans. Yet she doesn't flinch at driving a $30,000 pickup truck and pulling a $20,000 horse trailer/camper.

I will confess to being somewhat ashamed Saturday morning when I made Little Smokies in crescent roll dough (hey, for canned stuff, it ain't bad) for the kids. I knew Anna would frown at me.

A major "Ooooohhhhh!" for the sachertorte and the pear tart.

I guess I'm a Philistine; I just can't see a grand for a grill/smoker. Of course, my charcoal/hardwood smoker is a 24 x 36 galvanized sheet metal box, with no bottom but with a removable top (with a thermostat in it; one puts one's coals in through a door in one end, directly onto the ground) that my father, who was a welder, built 50 years or more ago. It will hold four pork shoulders or about a dozen racks of ribs, or a dozen chickens cut in half. It has an expanded metal grate with another one to lay on top of the meat, so two people can grab the extensions on each end and flip the entire rack at once; very handy when cooking in mass quantities. It has cooked for a family reunion or two over the years, not to mention many church dinners, Fourth of July and Memorial Day festivities, and so on. I would not part with it for anything in the world. Shoulders would have been put on the coals about 6 p.m. last night to serve for midday meal today. Which meant someone, or two someones, would stay up all night and drink coffee and tell stories while they tended to the meat, which needed to be mopped with a thin, vinegar-based sauce and flipped hourly, the temperature monitored to keep it in a precise range. Those two would go to bed about 5 or 6 a.m., when the second shift took over. Good times.

Now, that's just cute. Happy New Year!

Sadly, Lamb's is no more. Nor is the Curb Market. However, the old Sears Crosstown has been turned into a gleaming new retail/office/apartment development.