Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

I don't have one but I have had many a deep fried turkey. We had a friend that had a side business for doing them during the holidays.

Now I grill them. Quick and so good.

 

Two nights ago we finally finished off the Christmas pork loin roast. We had one "rib" left after Christmas dinner and one round of leftovers. I used the remaining rib to make escarole soup. This is how you do it. Heat up a little bit of olive oil and saute some garlic and fresh oregano, then add chicken broth and bring to a boil with some orzo. After a few minutes add thinly sliced escarole and let it do its thing with some grated Parmesan cheese until the orzo and escarole are cooked to within a minute or two of perfection. Add fully cooked and chopped pork and simmer a bit longer. Ladle it up and add some more grated Parmesan cheese.

 

Tonight I am making a chicken tagine. It is a North African style dish and you'd like it if you like chicken, fennel, brined olives, cumin, paprika, cilantro and cous-cous. You southern boys should trust me on this one. It is delicious.

Tomorrow my wife is making shrimp and grits. So good and a true Southern dish from South Carolina.

 

I am assuming the back strap is venison.

I used to eat at a place called Cafe Bohemia in Chicago.

You could get all kinds of exotic game meat there depending on what was available: bear, moose, elk, and beaver were common and even African meats like hippo, zebra, lion, etc., on occasion.

 

Having some company over.

3 T-bomes and 2 Rib-eyes. Scalloped poblano potatoes. Escarole and endive salad with roasted red peppers and other stuff.

 

Tonight it got dialed back a bit, but very delish.

First I poached some rapini while grilling sweet Italian sausage. During that garlic and a a couple of anchovies were sauteed in olive oil as well as cooking some penne in the leftover hot water from poaching the rapini.

It all gets mixed together and sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan.

 

Two huge slabs of St. Louis cut ribs with a Memphis-style dry rub just started getting smoked. Should take about 4 hours, but sometimes it goes a little faster.

One slab will get a second helping of rub at the end and one won't. My wife prefers hers with not as much crust and I like it either way, but do enjoy that final caramelized spice on the outside. Sometimes I make a special rub with much less salt and cayenne and more brown sugar for "finishing" the ribs, but I had enough left over rub to use that I didn't make it this time.

 

There's a football game tonight?

I am still delirious over yesterday's basketball game and looking forward to Opening Day on the 17th, or is that Opening Evening?