Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

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. :^)

 

Dee-lish.

Invite me over next time.

 

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.

 

http://www.hillbillycrackpot.com/how-to-catch-and-cook-a-possum/

 

Clam linguini with arugula salad.

 

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.

 

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.