It doesn’t matter what the occasion in my house, it’s all about the food in the end. How we celebrate is by cooking. In my hometown, that means grilling various cuts of pork.
There’s the locally famous (no other city or town does this as a matter of course) household staple, sliced pork butt nicknamed “pork steaks” just to make them sound fancy. Since the cut of meat is really rather fatty, they are grilled on low with a cider vinegar and water baste. Once they’re done, they are smothered in sauce. Maull’s is the go to if you’re on a budget, but local joints like Bogarts, Pappy’s, Sugarfire and more sell their sauces in the grocery store.
Of course, you can always make your own.
And then, there is the St. Louis style rib. As one writer put it once, they’re manicured. The skirt is cut from the rack, and then they are grilled low and slow over a period of hours, only to be steamed for a bit at the end so that they slide off the bone. (Literally, put one in your mouth, and pull out a bare bone the meat just falls off. My Godfather is a master of the art.) Of course, they must be smothered in sauce.
And then there’s the kabobs. I grabbed my recipe file to get my recipe and it’s not there. 😣 So, I’ll have to try to recreate it, but I remember it was chicken breast chunks, olive oil, honey, ginger and garlic for the marinade, and you put it on the skewers alternating with onions, sweet peppers, pineapple and mushrooms. Sort of like this:
We also grill bratwurst from a local maker and chorizo from family recipe that’s classified, do fresh corn on the cob, watermelon, oil and vinegar slaw (not every year), sour cream cucumbers and more.
So, what are your favorite summer recipes for the Fourth of July? Every celebration needs a good spread. How do you do it?
Start your 4th of July celebration off right with your favorite ice cold lemonade and a slash of Texas’ own…
.
#### CAUTION ####
It’s so smooth you won’t believe there is any alcohol in your lemonade.
Enjoy responsibly.
🇺🇸 God bless our Republic! 🇺🇸
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*splash
Definitely gonna smoke some pork ribs and FG&G’s lemonade reminded me I need to get some lemons and tequila for yuccas! 👍🇺🇸
I have a weird theory that I’m going to run past y’all.
At a certain stage of our evolution as “human”, the survival strategy of “hunter/gatherer” defined “great success” as cooked meat. Since then, in the radiation of humanity from Africa, this definition has prevailed all over the world — though the meats have changed and the cooking has changed from skewers (pretty ancient) and roasted (ancient) — to smoked and braised. Grilled is actually pretty modern because it requires materials that sit above a direct fire and are not consumed.
Current hunter gathers the hunters get all the status but the gathers supply more calories. Plus there is a social credit system. Ie if you kill / catch something that’s more than you can eat you share it. Then when you come up short and you friend doesn’t you get some of theirs.
It’s no coincidence that fairness is one of the first abstract concepts That toddlers develop. And they are obsessed with it
Also social structure may have evolved around the exchange of sex for meat
See Matt ridleys the origin of virtue
DP’s Guacamole – all ingredients can be adjusted to taste (I eyeball it, so I have no idea if these measurements are correct)
3 just ripe avocados
1/2 lime, juiced
about 2/3 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
1-2 jalepeno peppers, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Combine all ingredients in a glass mixing bowl, and use a potato masher to mix together. Add Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Pack mixture into a bowl with as few air bubbles as possible. Press plastic wrap to the surface of the mixture, and chill in the fridge for a couple hours to let the flavors mix.
Sounds yummy!
I know what you mean about eyeballing it…because it depends on the size of the avocados.
Sometimes the only ones that we can find are small.
Or medium ones with an extra large seed, and less good stuff.
Lately though, we’ve been lucky and have found large ones with smaller seeds.
Which is great. 😀
Since I have developed a darned food allergy to raw onions…I can no longer have them.
😕
So I have to make a separate batch for myself with no onions.
But I can tolerate onion powder, which is not as good but better than nothing.
Instead of lime juice, I use a tomato, finely chopped and add the juice as well.
If I have it…I add a couple of dollops of sour cream.
hmmm…it’s an allergy?
I experience discomfort from onions but not onion powder…now I can say it’s an allergy and sound sophisticated rather than just turning up my nose and going eewww get those away from me!
thanks wheatie!!
Favorite potato “ salad” in our family if no one makes German Potato salad.
One large white onion per 2 lbs baking potatoes. Both cut into about 1 sq. In. cubes. Onions, a bit smaller and broken up. Olive oil the pan.
Drop a layer of potatoes in pan, sprinkle on onions, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with seasoned salt, store or homemade, garlic and pepper. Repeat layers. Roast 400 degrees covered for about 45 min. foil covered with foil until onions start juicing.
Uncover, stir up so olive oil distributes well, keep roasting to brown, stir and bake as needed to finish cooking.
Let it set after baking so the awesome olive oil is absorbed into the potatoes. Tastes even better the next day.
This dish reheats and leftovers freeze wonderfully.
I made some of this for DIL with Hanna potatoes and regular salt and pepper ,garlic and onions. She cannot eat paprika nor white potatoes. Wish I would have put a bit of Italian spices in it to offset the blander plain salt, otherwise, quite good. Will add when I reheat it tomorrow.
KC Baked beans…
2 (15 oz) cans pork and beans, drained
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup raisins Golden preferred
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
3 bacon slices, halved
Stir together first 8 ingredients in lightly greased 2 qt. baking dish.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Serves 6-8 servings
The koala IS eating
i usually make vegetable pizza for picnics…
baked and cooled crescent roll crust, cheese layer (cream cheese, cottage cheese, mayo, Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix) spread on top of the crust. then topped with diced veggies: tomatoes, green peppers broccoli cauliflower, green onions.
and I always serve angel food cake ripped into chunks, dollops of cool whip with strawberries and blueberries.
So, a couple of years back, I got an electric smoker for my patio. It’s the Masterbuilt red one with window (which quickly was covered in opaque stuff) and remote (?).
It’s actually easy and fun to use, and works best when I load it up — maybe 6-8 pounds of chicken on the top two shelves and 6-8 pounds of tri-tip on the bottom two. I load more wood chips about every 30 minutes. I haven’t had enough practice to get nuanced yet, but an initial dose of hickory and a couple of hours of mesquite seems to work well.
My biggest disappointment with it is that the provided cover is not weatherproof. Rain goes right through it. And that led to the plastic shield over the controls falling off, so now I have bare unlabelled switches.
My biggest surprise was that the default temp (180) doesn’t seem to smoke right. At 190, you get a little wisp of smoke out of the vent and your smoking wood gets slowly consumed. At 180, it appears to be a low-temp oven and the wood lasts forever. Another thing I found interesting is that you really have to choke the airflow.
I’ll probably get another one once I get to NC, and have a large covered utility area with electricity. I can’t see moving this one because any moving container would then smell like smoke.
This is particularly in my mind because my local supermarket had a special on tri-tip for $3.99/lb. (California). But when I got there this afternoon, they had been cleaned out. I got a rain-check, but it is dubious whether they’ll resupply for a smoke over the weekend.