Happiness Is Maine Strawberry Season

The rain we had a few weeks ago energized the berries--so our Season is early.  And the berries are sweet.  I am going to make shortcake biscuits today.  (G doesn't eat strawberries or shortcake)

The burgers last night--not so good.  I tried a new patty and we both--didn't like it.  All the toppings were good.  And our disappointing dinner made Dairy Queen mandatory.

Last night I put my $5 (on sale) pork butt in the crockpot (on high) with five cloves and 2 peeled onions and ½ cup of water--(remember I found crockpot recipes in one of the old library book notebooks).  Last time I used the crockpot I had it plugged in on the sunporch (keep smells out of the house) and the meat was not tender as I think the power fluctuated between on/off all night.  So last night I plugged it into an outlet on the kitchen counter.  Tender.  Success.  But smelled pork cooking into the night and morning hours. Perhaps next time I will use an outlet in the garage--make the cars smell like BBQ.

This morning I poured off the juices (let fat rise) and then picked the meat and used my mini cleaver to chop the pork like I had seen on television cooking shows. This is something I hadn't ever done but I think the texture of the finished product will be better. Then I added the defatted meat juices to the chopped pork and poured a bottle of BBQ sauce over and turned the crockpot back on for a few more hours.  Adding back the juices was also new and they moistened the chopped meat and the meat did absorb all the added juices.  So that was a good idea.  G is not sure he wants any. I have mentioned he is a very picky eater--making cooking a real bummer most of the time. He prefers restaurant food to home cooking.  I do not like eating in restaurants more than once a week.

I like the BBQ served on top of a mixed greens salad.  Instead of salad dressing.  I do add a bit of shredded cheese before scooping BBQ on top of the salad.  I'll be adding thin sticks of carrot to the greens, cucumber and tomato and I will be the only one eating the BBQ, I guess.

Southern BBQ places serve a BBQ salad plate.  And my favorites had waiters who all looked like Elvis impersonators.  And they served Banana Pudding.  On one road trip from South Florida to North Carolina our friend Charlie stopped at about 4 BBQ places.  And we drove way off course to an old house that served Fried Chicken.  And only Fried Chicken.  Amazing.  Charlie was also a "traveling man" like G and they got used to eating out all day/everyday.  When Leonard was traveling with us-- we would have stopped at 6 to 8 BBQ places on that same route from Florida to North Carolina.