BBQ For Our Guests - Good Tomatoes

Madison’s visiting grandparents requested BBQ during their visit with us, so after the breakfast frittata, we served pulled pork and ribs for supper along with slaw and Potato Casserole Yum Yum from Drick’s Rambling Café.  Check out Drick’s site for the recipe which I followed and used Benton’s bacon.

The BBQ came from the freezer and had to be thawed and reheated prior to serving.  The pork butt was actually still in one piece so I slowly heated it in a 205* oven (the original final cooking temp) to an internal temp of 170* then we pulled it. 

For the ribs, I let them come to room temperature, added a little liquid to the foil wrapping and cooked them in a 250* oven for about an hour.  When they came out of the oven, I brushed on some Cranberry Delight BBQ sauce from Tennessee River, and sliced them into individual ribs.  We served the meat on a platter along with some buns and variety of sauces.

Bev made up a batch of her delicious slaw and along with Drick's yummy potatoes, I believe our guests walked away with a pretty good BBQ experience - I sure enjoyed everything, and I believe we’re turning Madison into a BBQ lover.

This was our first time to freeze the pork butt without pulling and I thought it was just a bit drier than when we pull it first, then freeze and reheat.

Good Wintertime Tomatoes - Finally
As you know, I grow tomatoes but what you may not know is that Bev is a raw tomato-o-holic and knows what good ones taste like.  She brought home some maters from the new Publix in Knoxville and has raved about how good they are for this time of year, so I did a little research. 

They came from Red Diamond Tomatoes in Wimauma, FL and are a new variety called Tasti-Lee.  Per the Tasti-Lee website "Tasti-Lee brand tomatoes have been bred to stay on the vine until fully ripened by Mother Nature, yet remain firm all the way to the store shelf and your kitchen counter!" 

Being able to ripen on the vine and still be shipped is, of course, the key to their better flavor as most tomatoes are picked and shipped while still mostly green.  Keep a look out and give them a try if you find them.  They make a great BLT with a little crispy Benton's bacon.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/30/13 meal date