A RETURN TO THINGS OUTSIDE
Living in Texas, you essentially have three seasons: hot, warm, and beef, beef season lasting year round. So you can basically get outside and cook at any point of the year, depending on your tolerance of the occasional cold spell or the not so occasional stifling heat and humidity. That said, there ...
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CHARCUTEPALOOZA CHALLENGE #3 ADDENDUM: A PASTRAMI SANDWICH
Staring into the waiting arms of death, Warren Zevon dished out one of life’s more salient pieces of advice: “Enjoy every sandwich.” This is one for Warren: homemade pastrami on rye with imported Swiss, spicy okra pickles and Stadium Mustard. It goes best with “The French Inhaler” played at ...
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CHARCUTEPALOOZA CHALLENGE #3: CORNED BEEF, PASTRAMI, AND ONE OF LIFE’S GREAT BARS
The March Charcutepalooza challenge brings us to brining. Which for me meant corned beef, pastrami and a stinky, stinky attempt at sauerkraut. The process of making corned beef started with a very nice looking locally raised, grass fed brisket. Brisket being the national steak of Texas, this one ...
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THE TWO BEER LUNCH, AND A NEW BEER WORTHY OF ONE
I remember as a kid running down the stairs to the basement fridge to grab my dad a beer when he got home from work, while he told my mother about his day at the office. It was a regular routine and a very good one: he got home, we got to say hello and feel like a good Samaritan, delivering Dad a ...
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A FINE SIMPLICITY: TOMATOES, ONIONS, GARLIC AND HERBS
I love my wife. She gives me a reason for many, many things, not the least of which is cooking for two on a pretty regular basis. Which, no matter what anyone tells you, is always a much more fulfilling and rewarding activity than cooking for one. In addition to her many other fine qualities, she’s ...
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CHARCUTEPALOOZA CHALLENGE #2: SIZZLIN’ BACON, A LATE WINTER DALLIANCE
If anybody ever tells you they love bacon, your answer should be something like this: “No shit.” Everybody likes bacon. Saying how much you like bacon is sort of like going on and on about how much you like smelling things that smell good or how funny things make you laugh or how rat poison is ...
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AN ENDORSEMENT: POT ROAST
It’s hard to beat a good pot roast: its 100% pure unsexiness, its unapologetic brownness, the fact that as a dish it’s basically an exercise in the textural submission of its ingredients. Even the name “Pot Roast” is so perfectly unassuming it sounds like something brown and unglamorous. And ...
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