Gotta Serve Somebody

Big Ed drove up from Southern Indiana to Brooklyn bringing with him sacks full of delightful pepper creations, tons of beer and a painting of the Piasa bird, the Illini Indian's legendary monster bird that devours men and whose painting sits on the bluffs in Alton, Illinois along the Mississippi River, where he and P grew up. The painting for inspiration as they were recording Ed's Folk Opera which he wrote centered around that same area.

Dried habaneros with sugar, Howlin' Dog multi-spice jalapenos, pizza flavored pepper rings, ginger-sesame-soy serranos. A truly overwhelming abundance of dried peppers. All from his garden and spiced by his lovely wife T. How cool is that?

The mucus membrane on P's a-canal was already burning and squirming at the sight of these bags because he knows that I'm gonna use 'em in so many fun ways until he squeals like a little piggie!

I always had a good imagination as a child, making up fun occupations and fantasy worlds to live in. So this week I imagined I was running the 'craft' service for P and Big Ed's week-long recording session. I set up a table with nuts, fruit, water and candies. I envisioned walking in with trays of lavish snacks and lots of down time but turns out beer, water and nuts were the only things on the menu for these two brothers who by the way have the smallest or weakest bladders on the planet!

But that didn't stop me from trying. I started with my roasted chipotle salsa and whacky guacky. I slow roasted a pork shoulder, Nigella Lawson's 24hr recipe. Figured the smell would get them but P gets freaky focused and doesn't usually let his guests eat when there is beer involved. I shredded it up and used some for pulled pork and some more for quesadillas, froze the rest.

Sigh.

You could almost call this a pork-fest because then we took him for BBQ at the Smoke Joint where we got all the great sides. We are lazy but this corner spot always pleases.

Then I did my version of pork chile verde with lots of tomatillos, green peppers of several varieties slow stewed with lots of Mexican oregano and lime, big chunks of braised country ribs. I believe they had some at night. No big reviews in the morning.

In between I made some baked stuffed jalapenos with smoked chorizo, garlic and Oaxacan cheese. Uh...hello, is this thing even on? What's it take to get some attention around here? I didn't even bother to take a picture. Matter of fact this was turning out to be just the same as having P here recording in the other room except for now I have TWO men ignoring me.

I had so many other dishes planned, but I started to understand my audience and packed it up by the third day. I did get food inside their bellies at the end of the night, however dried up and sad it was by then. I felt like the 'maid' in the Birdcage when he lost control of the dinner and just threw the eggs in the soup.

The last night was simple baked turkey burgers with green apple, corn,and red onions with roasted asparagus.

All in all it was a great visit and the recordings were finished, no one got hurt except maybe a bruised ego.

A pork shoulder to lean on

Pork shoulders were on sale down at the PathMark dontcha know so I slow roasted one last night with a garlic, vinegar, dried pepper rub. Oh my gosh, it looks and tastes so so good. I've done this lots before but I read a Nigella Lawson recipe where she left hers go for 24 hours on 275. I went 15 just because I woke up and had to taste it! The skin is crisp and amazing, the meat stayed nice and moist. Thank Goodness, because that was my fear, that it would dry up like my soul on a Sunday night.

Now pulled pork sandwiches are gonna happen no doubt this week but I wanted to go for something more interesting today. When we lived in SF, we started trying lots of Vietnamese food. They're soups were incredible. Here, they've opened a bunch of Vietnamese sandwich shops that serves these super cheap, super great pork sandwiches. So I'll do an homage to that 'Bahn Mi' (pronounced BUN mee) sandwich tonight in celebration of Tiger Wood's Jersey tournament 'come back' (we hope). So, they do a spicy butter-mayo spread on a toasted baguette and a julienne of carrots, cucumber and lots of cilantro. I thought there were jalapenos as well but I can't find a recipe. I'm going from memory and pics. Also, a big missing part is this amazing pate but this is an homage, not a total recreation so LAY OFF ME!

In place of the carrot, cucumber chop, I'm going to put in this fresh carrot, apple, radish, cabbage slaw that I made last night while I had my cuisanart out. I wanted to keep it light, so I opted out of the mayo and the sour cream and just went with rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar and lots of salt, pepper and fresh 'peno's. I'm adding a little heat with some chipolte mayo.

I've loved watching golf when Tiger was playing, like so many. This whole year has been tough with all that nonsense and what a shocker that whole fiasco was, huh?! This week the divorce went final and that's always rough to see but seems like the best thing. Hey we all got problems, hate our jobs, wanna kill our bosses, can't see any light until 'bout Thursday BUT or AND, no million dollar bankroll to soften the blow of it all. So, they'll be okay but our main concern is T's game. Will that recover? We're thinking possibly this will be the tourney that turns that boy around. I'm always looking for a good reason to make a small feast so I'll make some sides and call this a party. Sometimes you need a shoulder to lean on, even if he's a pig.