Monday, March 15, 2010

Jewish Penicillin


15 days after the end of February, also known as March 15, the Ides of March, or spring allergy season in Mississippi. It's beautiful, but I started coughing and wheezing and being generally pitiful.

Mama used to make chicken soup for me when I got sick. After church yesterday I decided to make some for myself with some extra love.

In a large pot I placed a whole chicken, parsley, a sliced lemon, sliced shallots, carrots, celery, salt, crushed garlic, basil and black peppercorns. I let this simmer together for about 2.5 hours. I saved the broth and added 2 bags of frozen vegetables and the meat from the chicken. Into the soup I added a teaspoon of curry, more salt and pepper, more basil and chopped parsley. I let this simmer for another hour and added frozen dumplins and a cup of cream. This cooked for another 40 minutes or so.

My mama made homemade sho' nuff real buttermilk cornbread and my daddy ate 3 bowls. I'm not exactly sure if it cured me, but I promise I feel much better. I'm pretty sure this was 1 matzo ball short of being the perfect Jewish Penicillin.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Loose Caboose Festival in Newton, MS

I saw the first signs of spring this weekend: sunburned scalp, pecan wood smoke, ribs, mahogany colored whole hogs. Ah yes, 28 degree nights and 60 degree days, 18 hours of smoke. BBQ Spring has sprung!

The town of Newton hosted the first contest of the year, the Loose Caboose Festival. What a great contest. The first contest of the year brings out some major heavy hitters: Diamond D, Party Q, 10 Bones, Magnificent Steve, Red Hot Smokers, just to name a few. We found our way into a 2nd place whole hog (that in my opinion was THE hog to compare hogs to), 4th place shoulder and 5th place ribs. Our friends Red Hot Smokers won a Grand Champion with their shoulder.

What a great day! I'd suggest that all of our friends make a plan to come for next year's event. If you're new, or new to the MBN, this is a great contest to start with simply because there isn't a team there who won't help you figure out what you're doing.

I've been thinking about putting together an outline for doing a barbeque on site presentation. Any interest in this?