Weekend in review

Last weekend was a recovery weekend, with Saturday spent catching up on the farmer's market (first summer stone fruits!) and chores (immense piles of laundry). The Ollalieberries are coming on strong and early this year. I have a whole large Ziploc freezer bag full, ready for jam and plenty fresh to put on cereal in the AM.

I ate three of the first four Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. The plant in the pot ripened before the one in the ground, but it's 1/3 or less the bulk - I guess that in-ground planting is really the way to go. Nonetheless, they were delicious.

Sunday I moved some stuff around in my project room with Juli's help and managed to clear half the room out. This is good, since I will need the room to put my clothes while I install the French door in my bedroom this summer - only weeks away. I'll need to organize and pare down more before then.

Sunday I used an amalgam of recipes to create a North Carolina style pork BBQ. I rubbed a 10 pound bone-in pork shoulder (Boston butt, or just butt - don't get the picnic ham) with a blend of spices inspired by this recipe here, then cooked it slowly off the heat in my Weber kettle for 7 hours, feeding the coals every 30 minutes or so until cooked mostly to perfection. I then let it rest, pulled the best parts with two forks, and sauced it with a cider-based BBQ sauce inspired by this recipe. Traditional pulled pork sandwiches are served with coleslaw in the sandwich, and I used the second recipe to build a slaw that is a necessary foil for the rich pork.

North Carolina BBQ is highly regional, and I'm sure my recipes would fit in someplace, provided I could remember all the ingredients and quantities. I will say that a pint bottle of apple cider from Ha's Apple Farm (from the farmer's market) made a notable difference in taste from the usual grocery store cider. Also, surprisingly, it was only barely enough by the time I sauced two slaws (hot and not hot) and the meat.

The meal was capped with watermelon slices.

This was enjoyed with an old vines Lodi Zinfandel that wasn't an incredible match. Perhaps it was the American oak. Beer might be a better match, as might an austere Rose. Yep - my mouth is watering for that rose.

I'll continue to enjoy the pork for at least the next week.