I had some folks from the neighborhood over last night for a winter barbecue. I made about ten pounds of pork barbecue and had green beans, corn bread, potato salad, cole slaw, banana pudding and pecan pie. And lots of High Life. The pork barbecue turned out really well, I put a BBQ rub on the picnic shoulders, doused it in a little liquid smoke, wrapped it up in foil and roasted it for about three hours before taking it out of the foil and roasting it for another seven or so. The pork shredded quite easily and didn’t have an overwhelming BBQ flavor, the pork was still very much evident. The BBQ sauce I made wasn’t like Nashville or Kansas City sauce, and was good, but still needs a bit of work. It had a slight spicy tang to it, and some sweet notes, but the main body of flavor was still uninteresting.
The big surprise of the evening was my banana pudding. It was ridiculicious. I was brought a petunia primrose, a home gnome, a jar of Tremont-grade grape jam, a 3‑year old bottle of cabernet, and chocolate chip muffins. I told people not to bring anything, dammit! Today there is cleanup, but it shouldn’t be too bad, only requiring one trip to the recycling drop-off.
I have just enough leftover barbecue for a couple of sandwiches. Man am I looking forward to that.