Porky Goodness

Ahhh it's that time again... time for smokin! I had planned on making a brisket for Memorial Day weekend, but those plans changed when I was shopping and BJ's (that's a wholesale club like Sam's or Costco, in case you didn't know that or don't have them in your area). They did not have any brisket at all the day I was there. So looking around I thought I'd go with ribs, but then like a light shining down from the heavens, the pork shoulder revealed itself to me. And at $1.59 a lb. it was meant to be!


Isn't that a thing of beauty! Oh yes. It was technically called a Pork Shoulder Butt Roast. Shoulder Butt... not sure how that works, but whatever.

So, the night before this baby is to go on the smoker, it needs to be rubbed. When I make a dry rub, I basically just look around at what I have in the house and toss it together. This was no exception.


3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1 T. dried oregano, 1 T. lemon pepper, 2 T. paprika and about 2 T. of Penzy's Northwoods seasoning (which contains salt, paprika, black pepper, thyme, rosemary, garlic and chipotle).

Once it's all mixed together, the shoulder butt gets a massage and then gets put in the fridge overnight.


In the morning, and you better believe it needs to be early because this shoulder butt is going to take a LONG time to cook, get your fire going. I use regular charcoal and when it turns an ashy gray, it's ready. This should take about 20-30 minutes. And while the coals are getting ready, have your wood chips soaking. Generally I use hickory, but this time I tried apple wood. Make sure you have your water tray in place and with water in it (this fits in in the middle of the smoker).



As soon as you put your soaked wood chips on the hot coals, the smoke starts and you want to get the smoker closed and as sealed as you can, as fast as you can. Losing smoke is bad!


My smoker does not have as good a seal on it as I would like it to have so I usually end up needing foil to wrap around the lid and try and keep in as much smoke as possible. This time I got to thinking that if I make a foil lip and put it all around the lip of the smoker, then put the lid on, maybe it would fit more snugly. And it worked! It took a little longer than I would have liked, but it worked



Now, the shoulder butt is on and all we have to do is wait. This is where you have to learn to trust. Trust that the smoker is doing what it should be doing. And after 5-6 hours, add more coals to the bottom. But DO NOT open the lid, ever.

And unfortunately my friends, things did not work out well this time. After about 3 hours of smoking time, we got a huge downpour. I kept my trust in the smoker, that it was doing what it was supposed to, thinking it was pretty sealed up and therefore, still cooking. I added more coals (I used a charcoal chimney to get them ready) and I thought all was well. It wasn't. It was a very very sad day when, after 10 hours, I opened that lid.



Looks nice and all, but it was not even close to being done. So at 7:00 pm on Memorial Day, we had no pulled pork :(

The next day, the shoulder butt went into a 300 degree oven for 6 hours. And then, the heavens parted!! The angels sang!!! Harps were played!!! Porky goodness was achieved!!!


Oh yeah, that is a thing of beauty! It didn't work out exactly how I planned, but the end result was damn tasty. Take a look at this bark!



I served it on some nice Kaiser rolls, with vinegar slaw.


And we lived in porky heaven for close to a week! Yeah that was one big shoulder butt!

I Finally Made It!

Back in 2006, my family went on a vacation to Charleston, SC. You may remember a little discussion about this trip when I blogged peach pie (mmm peach pie). During that trip, we went to a restaurant. I can't remember the name but it was near Fort Sumpter. Anyway, at this restaurant I had a Grilled Romaine salad. It was so good, and I said back then that I would make this when I got home. Well I never did but it was always in the back of my mind.

No longer! I saw Romaine hearts in the store for a good price and snapped up with this salad in mind. Romaine hearts have all the outer leaves removed and what you get is all the tender inner leaves, so one whole heart serves one person. Clean the Romaine hearts and split in half but do not remove the core. The core will keep the heart intact on the grill.


Drizzle the halves with olive oil and place on a hot grill.


Don't walk away because this does not take long. After a few minutes turn the hearts and grill the other side.


You want them to be just starting to wilt down and have a some nice char marks. But if you go too far, the leaves will get brittle.

Once it's done, chop up the lettuce and put it in a big bowl. Add your fave salad fixings! I added grape tomatoes and fresh edamame and dressed lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I think a nice lemon vinaigrette would be good with this too. This salad is a really delicious change of pace from the norm.

Lunching at Michael Symon's B-Spot

I wasn't lucky enough to have the experience my friend and fellow blogger Tom had when he went to B-Spot. Michael Symon did not greet me at the door, nor did he show me to my table or set a spell and have a chat. Damn! Ahh well, I kind of knew that wouldn't be the case since I had read he was off shooting his new show for the Cooking Channel (yes a new network, a spin off of Food Network) called Cook Like an Iron Chef. But I did hope a little bit, that he would be there. Not to be.

At any rate, my gal pals Cindy, Denise and I had a fun filled morning of shopping around Eaton Collection in Woodmere, Ohio and then lunching at B-Spot. Really, what could be more fun than a trip to Penzy's, Sur La Table, and Trader Joe's and then having a great lunch at an Iron Chef's restaurant!? It's my kind of day! Penzy's was awesome as usual. I picked up some saffron because I've been dying to make arancini and saffron is kind of an important ingredient in most recipes I've seen. Sur La Table is my favorite store to gawk and dream in. I don't often purchase there, but I love to go in and have a look see. And Trader Joe's, well let's just say I did the most damage there! And I'm still kicking myself for not buying the delectable sounding pistachio and dark chocolate toffee. Next time for sure!

So after shopping our hearts out, we walked over to B-Spot. It's a pretty unassuming little place.


Inside is small and fun. Nothing too fancy. There was a whole wall of beer cans that reminded me of my brother's collection (that he still has by the way) back in the day. There was this really cool wall art, kind of like a 50's pin up soda fountain girl and basically not much else. It was dark and intimate and just fun vibe.


We were seated right away and looked over the menu. I was going to go simple but then Denise said she was getting the Thin Lizzy burger and it sounded too good to pass up. I'm in! The Thin Lizzy is a burger with cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, pickles and mayo. I also ordered the Lola Fries, presumably named for one of Symon's other restaurants, Lola Bistro. There was no way I was passing up these fries which merely were seasoned with sea salt and rosemary. Sounds simple but delicious! So with Denise and I getting Thin Lizzy and Lola fries, Cindy mixed it up and ordered the Reuben burger and onion rings. We all had iced tea which was deliciously freshly brewed.

Over in the middle of the restaurant is a pickle bar. Our waitress told us that when we get our burgers we can head over to the pickle bar and have whatever we'd like. There were different kinds of pickles, pickled tomatoes, pickled jalapenos.




When the burger arrived with pickles already on it, I decided that was enough for me so I didn't head to the pickle bar. Feast your eyes on this glorious burger!


Seriously, it's a thing of beauty. The roll looks like it's going to be hard and crusty but it's perfect. Soft but not soggy. The pickles are crisp and full of flavor. The meat is perfectly cooked and so incredibly flavorful. There was just the right amount of mayo on it. Not dripping in mayo but definitely there. I did have to pull some of the onions off because well, onions are not always my friend. But the ones I did eat melted in my mouth. I dare say I'm in love with this burger!


The portion size is perfect. It's not huge and overbearing, it's just enough. And did I mention that it tastes absolutely incredible? There is no contest, this is the best burger I have ever had. And I've had some damn good burgers. This one blows them all out of the water..

Now those fries. OK, I'm not a skinny fry lover. I like my fries hearty. But if I had to have skinny fries, I would want these skinny fries. They were cooked perfectly and seasoned incredibly. Not too much rosemary, not too much salt. The flavors were there without slapping you in the face with them. Incredible!


And in a league all their own were the onion rings. Oh. My. God. These onion rings are a freaking work of art. The batter is golden and delicious. The onion is incredibly sweet and thoroughly cooked. Like I said, onions are not always my friend, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and take one for the team. I had to try them. I just had to. Could you pass these up?


Yeah, I didn't think so.

I will be returning to B-Spot, oh yes. I definitely will be!

Wilton Course 4 - The Final Final!

Well this is it. The final cake class, the final exam, the final cake! There are no more courses after this one. This course we worked with fondant and gum paste. I had hoped for no contact with vile buttercream, but alas, there still was some. It was limited, but still the disgusting concoction of shortening, powdered sugar, fake butter flavoring, and meringue powder continues to haunt me. Gross.

In class the week before the final final, we made several different flowers from a gum paste/fondant mixture. I was actually rather pleased with them. Here are my daisies...


Cute huh? And here is my carnation. A carnation is pretty labor intensive, with several steps involved. But I was very happy with my outcome. I painted the tips with food coloring and the picture shows that it's still a little wet, but all in all, a pretty decent effort here.


Now as I prepare for the final final, I had to make a cake, fill it, frost it and then cover it with fondant. The decorating would take place in class. Here we go again! Boxed cake mixes are not my friend! I baked it, cooled it and then planned on trimming and freezing it. Well the trimming went fine. But when I picked up the layer to place it in plastic wrap to freeze, that is when the problem arose. The cake fell apart in my hands!


Urgh! It didn't seem like it was all that fragile. It was completely cooled. These dang things just don't like me. They're sick of me talking smack behind their backs about making scratch cakes and leaving them on the shelves. It's payback I tell you! It's a boxed cake mix revolt!! They'll show me, and they sure did!

Well, I smooshed the cake back together and wrapped it up tightly, determined to get what I needed out of this damn thing, which was a canvas for the decorations to come. The second layer stayed intact. Thank goodness.

When I took the cakes out of the freezer a few days later to prepare for class, the broken cake stayed together, fused by freezing. I would use it as the bottom.


With no other real options I filled the inside of the cake with vile buttercream, then iced the whole thing with the nasty stuff too.



Then rolled out my fondant and began the smoothing process.


It smoothed pretty well, and so I was ready to head to class for the... say it with me, final final.

The first part of class we learned how to make a fondant candy box. You can make this and put it on top of a cake and fill it with M&M's or jellybeans or tiny fondant flowers. Whatever floats your boat. Me, I think it's kind of ugly. Well, no... not ugly but just not something I would put on top of a cake.


Granted, I took the photo before it was totally dry and the lid would be stiffer, but still. Meh, just not my thing. It came out good though.

So now it's time to decorate our final cake. I had a plan and I was only mildly confident I could pull it off. But I wanted to do it. It was my last hurrah! I had to give it a shot. So I found a photo, I found black fondant and I got to work! Since my classmate Jill decided to be a slacker and not even bother to make a cake for the final (HA!) I put her to work on the border for my cake. And while we only got halfway finished in the time that was left of class, I am rather pleased with the result!


Oh yeah it's a zebra striped cake! Black fondant is a little messy and if you use the gum glue (made from a small amount of gum paste and water) as adhesive, it can bleed the black into the cake. But all and all, it is my tour de force!

Thanks to Jill for the help. Your balls are magnificent lol. Thanks to Alicia for putting up with me for 4 courses. And to all the other ladies I've met along the way. It was great fun, thanks for putting up with my cursing and my constant chatter. Alas, I don't think I'll ever be hired by Duff or Buddy. But it was fun and I did learn a lot =)

More Plantains

Yes, more plantains! I once feared them now cannot get enough of them. This time I decided to mix it up a bit. They are delicious sauteed. They are wonderful with rice. But this time, yeah I'm going a little kooky with the plantain. Last year when I was at the Fabulous Food Show, I saw Tyler Florence make mashed sweet potatoes with bananas. I'm sure when Tyler makes it, it's delish, but it sounded a little off to me. I just can't wrap my hairdo around that flavor combination. So, why not try it with plantains!?

I didn't follow Tyler's recipe, I just winged it with stuff I had in the house. I started with two decent sized sweet potatoes, stabbed with a fork a few times and placed them on a cookie sheet.


Then I took my plantains, cut them in half and peeled them. I had three plantains. What else, what else? I looked around the kitchen and in the fridge and found one green apple so I washed, cored and cut it into quarters. Then wrapped the plantains and apple in foil and put it on the cookie sheet with the potatoes.


After about 40-50 minutes in a 350 degree oven, the potatoes were nicely soft and the plantains and apple were roasty toasty soft as well.


I then peeled off the peel of the sweet potatoes and the apple. You can probably leave the apple skin on if you like for some added texture, but I opted to take it off. Then dumped them all in a bowl. I added stuff you would add to regular mashed sweet potatoes... about 2 Tablespoons of butter (I'd add more but I'm trying to watch myself with that kind of thing), a teaspoon of cinnamon, and about a quarter of a cup of brown sugar.


Mash, mash, mash away!!!


It turned out really delicious! I served it with some of our leftover Easter ham. And just to clarify, this was several weeks ago. I don't still have Easter ham! :)

My Very Own Cake Wreck! Wilton Course 4, Class 2

Thank goodness I'm not a professional or my debacle may have actually ended up on Cake Wrecks! It all started out pretty good, and ahead of schedule I might add. Class is Thursday night and I made the cake on Tuesday. And I will say right here and right now, yes I should have frozen the layers. I didn't. In fact, I never even thought of it. But I'm putting it out there. I should have frozen it. So with that out of the way, the cake in question was a Duncan Hines banana cake. Generally if you read this blog regularly you know that I won't touch these class cakes with a ten foot pole. I hate vile buttercream and fondant isn't any better. But someone eats it so I do want to make sure it's edible. So without further ado, here is the cake that wasn't.

It started out all nice, cake trimmed and vile buttercream around the edge so the filling doesn't seep out.


So far, so good. I planned on filling it with vanilla pudding. OK, maybe a little too much vanilla pudding but that isn't exactly the problem.


Once the top cake is put in place, this is when bad stuff starts to happen. There's a crack on top, but I blob the vile buttercream on and start to spread.



It really doesn't want to spread, even though the consistency is good and not too stiff. The cake is starting to come off in big chunks and the pudding is oozing out a little.



As I frantically try and get the vile buttercream to hold the cake together, it's becoming more and more clear that it's just not happening!


The cake is a mess. It's fallen apart. There's no way at this point to salvage it.



What an absolute mess. There is only one thing left to do.


Toss that sucker in the trash!

Grandma's Easter Bread - Revisited

As Easter approached, it was once again time to think about making Grandma's Easter Bread. Last year, if you recall, it was quite an undertaking. The recipe was huge, and even cut down it was huge. This year with the help of Nick and my friend Tom, it was cut down again. And this year, the whole process was much more manageable.

But I had more help this year. It was the use of Grandma's Kitchen Aid. I had it last year, but I hadn't cleaned it yet. Truth is, it took me about a year and a half after she passed away to actually do more than look at it sitting on my counter. But one day I finally decided to start using it and cleaned it top to bottom. She wanted me to have it so the least I could do is use it. Year after year she made Easter bread with that Kitchen Aid so it only seemed right to use it for that purpose again. Hers is much older than mine, but these are machines that are built to last.


So this time, I started out with a much more logical amount of yeast, 1 1/2 teaspoons, dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water.


While the yeast is proofing, take 2 cups of milk and put it in a pan on the stove and scald it, which basically means heat it but don't boil it. Then off the heat take the lard... you remember the lard right? Honest to goodness, real, it comes from a pig, lard. Not shortening. LARD. So take your 1/2 lb. of lard and put it in a pan on the stove with 2 cups of milk and 1/4 stick of margarine (2 Tablespoons). Stir so it all melts together.


After it's all melted, then add 6 beaten eggs and 2 cups of sugar. Mix well. Then add that to the Kitchen Aid that already has your proofing yeast. To that add 1/8 cup of anise seeds. You can use more if you like, I did.


Now it's time to add the dry ingredients and this time it will all fit in the Kitchen Aid! You will need 1 Tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 3 3/4 lbs of flour. It all fits, trust me! And look how beautifully it came together.


It was absolutely perfect. So then take a damp towel, place it over the top of the dough in the bowl still and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Don't forget the damp towel or the top of your dough will be all crusty and that doesn't appeal.

Once the dough has rested, it's time to shape them. You can shape them like this...


Or with eggs.


I color the raw eggs and then put them gently in the dough. But this is the last year I will be making them with eggs. As it turns out, no matter how pretty they are to look at, the majority of people I give these out to do not want the egg. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 - 30 minutes. But watch them. You do not want to overcook them because they can dry out easily.

Once they are done, it's time to ice. Place the cookies on wire racks and then inside a cookie sheet. All it takes is some powdered sugar and some lemon juice. You want the icing to be thick but still run. So just use your instincts and stir small amounts of lemon juice into about 2 lbs. of powdered sugar until you get the right consistency. It's easy to add too much juice and get a watery icing but all you have to do is add more powdered sugar. Once it's right, drizzle over the cookies and immediately top with sprinkles. If you don't sprinkle immediately, the icing will dry and the sprinkles will not stick.


And yes, I still like to lick the icing and sprinkles off the bottom of the pans :)