Last night was homemade guacamole which was: - 3 avocados - 3/4th of a tomato diced - a solid handful of diced red onion - 1 jalapeno pepper - a fistfull of cilantro - cumin and salt to taste Plus Sam Adams and an LSU victory.
Ol'reliable tonight getting off on the right track- Grilling barbecued chicken halves with twice-baked potatoes, fresh salad /vine ripe tomatoes, and really good cheese rolls from Ingles bakery. Iced cold Mich Ultras have been in play since 11:00am--you know the rule-- You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning...
Fresh Caught grilled Mahi, Mango salsa, citrus jasmine rice, fresh corn salad, and fresh grilled pineapple. And beer!
Went to Publix today to pick up a few things for making dinner from leftovers and saw pork shoulder on sale. My first thought was "Damn, we play on Friday night. Why couldn't our game be on a weekend.". My second thought was "WTF? I am now retired! I can smoke a shoulder on a Friday to enjoy with friends on a Friday night watching Gator baseball." I bought the biggest one they had. Maybe I should go back and buy a second. :^)
Country-fried cube steak, rice & gravy, fresh stewed squash with vidalia onions and fried cornbread--- And yes, that is after plenty of cheer.
Fried cornbread is SO GOOD! Grilled polenta is the "cool kids" variation on this that is all the rage right now. They think that they invented everything. LOL.
Pork shoulder finished two hours earlier than I thought it would. No big deal. Better than taking two hours longer than I thought it would like sometimes happens. Wrapped in foil and doing its final thing before pulling.
Shrimp and grits tonight. I hope that there is enough left over pulled pork for my 21 year old son that doesn't like shrimp and grits. And if there isn't it is mostly his fault because he has been grazing on it since yesterday evening.
Chicken Alfredo with fresh broccoli tops, fresh salad, and Multi-Grain bread tonight. Adult beverages required for desired outcome of the evening.
Tonight is as close as I can make at home to Chicago delicacy: Italian beef sandwiches. If only I can convince my wife that we really need that $400 meat slicer to cut the meat so thin you can almost see through it. I grew up in Chicago and frankly I don't really miss deep dish pizza that much. I do miss true Chicago dogs, but now the market is overrun by chains like Portillo's and Gold Coast. Their product is acceptable, but not quite the same as going to the local wooden shack of my youth and eating outside at picnic tables shooing away the flies and the sparrows begging for a french fry or two. Briefly there was a good place in Gainesville where you could get a true Chicago dog just south of the Original Pizza Palace on 13th. They didn't last too long. I am thinking this might have been in the mid to late 1980's. The guy running it was a real Chicagoan and he served up the real deal. I miss that place. But the best Chicago treat IMHO is the Italian Beef sandwich. The place in Chicago that made my favorite is no longer around: Dox's on Pershing Road on the SouthSide. It was a party in your mouth. What I make is just a shadow of that experience, but the taste is close. The texture is not close, however. Hence I dream about that $400 meat slicer. I cook it with a flavor really close to what I desire, but instead I shred the beef instead of slicing it really thin. I will be sauteing bell peppers and onions and I did bring a jar of hot giardiniera back from my recent trip to Chicago. These are the condiment choices for this sandwich. The closest thing that I can find locally for the correct bread is the Publix Cuban loaf.
To continue on in proper fashion of celebrating The Florida Gators National Championship Season of 2017 in Baseball--- It will be fried fresh catfish, home- made cheese grits, cole slaw and home-made sweet pickles. Ice cold longnecks are a must! Go Gators!!! Tomorrow for the July 4th Holiday it will be two racks of St.Louis cut ribs over apple wood on the Green Egg, Jan's home-made Mac & Cheese, fresh squash steamed with Vidalia onions, and fresh zipper peas. Just for Lurk and Wing I'll fry some cornbread too!
I am trying out something new tonight. Clams cooked in a tomato/butter/sambal/garlic/beer/shallot/cilantro sauce on the grill in a cast iron skillet and served over grilled hearty bread. We picked up a big bag of clams from Cedar Key a while ago and had some left in the freezer. It is time to use them up. I have no idea what I will cook tomorrow. It won't be anything smoked because I haven't rubbed anything to smoke. Maybe I will hit the local groceries that are open and see what is on sale and looks good. My local Publix had some gorgeous beef tenderloin today, but that is very pricey. Maybe if it doesn't sell I can get a deal on it tomorrow.
