Saturday Was Cooking

Even though I was on-call today (always a bummer), I managed to get back into my element (i.e., cooking in my great kitchen). Last night and today I made some killer barbecued pork out of a Boston Butt roast (on sale), which I all but cremated in the crock pot overnight and today picked apart, excising all visible fat, and mixed with barbecue sauce and served for lunch. B. loved it (with a side dish of Publix Southern-Style potato salad doctored up with some lime juice and dill relish).

I also made a load of guacamole today. One of B's customers had given us some large avocados (not the small California kind, though they're OK). (I grew up in Florida with avocado "pears," as they were called--enormous, smooth-skinned, green [on the outside, vs. black] avocados.) I used one of those, along with two rather small "ugly tomatoes" (more expensive than the pretty ones but a helluva tastier and bright red on the inside), half a red onion, a clove of garlic, a lot of fresh lime juice, a lot of chili powder, some hot sauce, black pepper, and salt. Put it all in the food processor and made it into a smooth cream. It came out fantastic. I ate half of it for dinner, with white corn chips. [We also used it on tacos the next day. We prefer the Old El Paso taco kit.]

I also made a load of vegetable beef soup. (For some reason, B. hates soup, so it's his loss.) I used three pounds of stew beef, cut up into smaller, bite-sized pieces; a large can of crushed tomatoes; two cans of double-rich beef bouillon plus two cans of water; a bag of broccoli slaw; one leek, white and green part (cleaned of dirt [seriously]) sliced; one parsnip sliced; one turnip diced; one carrot sliced; one stalk of celery sliced; 3/4 tsp. marjoram; 3/4 tsp. thyme; a bay leaf; about 4 tbsp. chopped fresh dill; 1/4 cup dried beans; lots of salt; some ground pepper; and water to cover. I added about 1/2 cup pasta at the end and let that get tender, along with more fresh dill. (I used to add Locatelli Peccorino Romano cheese to this but it tastes just as good without the added fat, calories, and cholesterol [still I suggest it].) Came out great.