California Girl does Carolina Barbecue

One of things that we’ve learned since we moved to the southeast is that people in the Carolinas take barbecue VERY seriously. In fact, barbecue is not a verb. One doesn’t “barbecue” meat. It’s practically a proper noun, as in, “Mildred is bringing Barbecue to the potluck so the line will start forming the day before.”

One of the distinctives of Carolina barbecue is that the sauce is always served on the side. The meat (usually pork) is usually smoky and the sauce is vinegar-based. It’s important to check the heat of the sauce before you smother your meat with it because many sauces contain vast quantities of red pepper. The meat might be cooked in a pit for many hours, it might be smoked in a smoker, or it might be slow-cooked on the grill with various types of wood chips for flavor in the smoke.

We’ve found a few local barbecue restaurants that serve amazing barbecue. The meat is moist and tender and the flavors are memorable. I really,  REALLY wanted to recreate some of this delicious carnivorous goodness. I don’t, however, have a pit in my backyard in which to roast a whole pig. I also don’t own a smoker. And I’ll confess that if it’s rainy and cold out, I’m not even inclined to slow-grill a pork butt over wood chips.

This recipe is my California-girl variation of a very traditional Carolina barbecue taste. I KNOW that this isn’t authentic Carolina barbecue, but it was a very popular dinner at my house nonetheless. And more importantly, it works for me! I tried to come up with a clever name by combining California and Carolina and could only  come up with Califina…so I think I’ll stick with:

Guacamole Chicken

I went into the kitchen this afternoon with no real inspiration regarding dinner. But as I started pulling out things from my fridge, this meal began to take shape. It was wildly successful, I’m happy to report!

Amish Friendship Bread, Part 2

Little did we know that the Amish Friendship Bread recipe that we posted 14 months ago would become the most-viewed post on MSK ever. The comment section has grown to 130 comments, all full of great questions and creative ideas for variations on AFB. What amazing readers we have!

A few weeks ago, I got a wonderful email from a helpful cook named Anne with the following variations that I just need to share with you all. Anne writes:

Sharon’s Egg Bake

A dear lady in my Bible study brought this classic egg dish to a recent brunch, and it was so delicious that I asked her for the recipe.  She graciously shared it with me–it’s a winner for brunches and potlucks.

Tuscan Pesto Chicken Panino

At 5:50 p.m., my husband asked me, “Is there a plan for dinner?” And I stared blankly at him. Thirty minutes later, we put this on the table:

I will post the things we put on it, but I do hope you realize the point of this post is to show you how to produce something fabulous with what you have on hand (and it WAS fabulous–eyes-rolling-back-in-my-head fabulous!) You could substitute any number of ingredients and still end up with something delish.

Post-Chinese food conversation

So we were driving home after a scrumptious dinner at PeiWei Asian Diner, one of our current favorites.  Ian, age 6, had taken a fortune cookie to go.  He asked me to read the fortune to him, and it was, “You will become a great philanthropist in your later years.”

“What’s a philanthropist?” he wanted to know.

“Well, a philanthropist is someone who likes to give a lot of their money to places that help people.”

“Awww!” he said, “I only have FORTY-NINE BUCKS!”

Marinade for grilling meat and more

It was brought to my attention (thanks, Mom!) that we have never posted a marinade for grilling meat here. That is clearly an omission of major proportions which requires immediate attention. So without further ado, here’s a bit of rambling in general about marinating, and instructions for the marinade most frequently used in my house. (I’ll let Barb chime in with her own flashes of brilliance on the subject.)

Ham Calzones

Wanna know what’s cooking in Laura’s kitchen tonight? (In Minnesota, where we are getting what I HOPE will be the last blizzard of the season–supposed to be up to 9″ of white by morning!) We are making Ham Calzones. (”Calzone” is the Italian word for pants, and these little inside out pizzas are called calzones because they supposedly are shaped like the traditional Italian-style trousers.) I’ve got a beautifully fragrant lump of dough rising in the kitchen now, and in about 15 minutes, I’m going to pull some boys in there to help me assemble the calzones.

An unusual Easter feast

Remembering last year’s unique Easter “dinner.”

This year’s Easter celebration looked VERY different than the last several years’. This year, for a variety of reasons, I (Laura) took a leave of absence from the church choir, and so I was not at church yesterday from 7 a.m. to noon, involved in all the musical hoopla. Where I would normally go home and collapse, and sometime after 4 roust myself to get the ham out of the crockpot, and serve it with only a salad and pre-made bread for accompaniment, this year’s food looked completely different, and I LOVED it!

Happy Easter

We wish each and every one of you a truly Blessed Easter and a joyous celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Barb and Laura