Dude Food, or How To BBQ Without A Barbecue?

Eight hours' sleep and several hastily discarded resolutions later, the Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches that rang in our New Year made an encore appearance at the breakfast table.

I am a weak, weak woman, easily undone by soft white rolls, tender meat and the sweet tang of simmering sauce. 

Dude food may be the flavor of the month (see Matt Preston on this trend), but for me, this little piggie is all about nostalgia. 

Lately, I've had a taste for a bit of barbecue - specifically, Rocklands BBQ & Grilling Company, a staple of my twelve years spent south of the Mason-Dixon line. 

Their signature sauce, poured hot over a beef brisket sandwich and a side of roughly mashed potatoes, sustained me on many a night (and morning after).  My carnivorous madeleine.  Sigh.

But what is a girl without a Webber, let alone a hickory-fed smoker, to do?

Improvise, with North Carolina-style Pulled-Pork Barbecue done in the oven (see the Cook's Note at the of the recipe, and my notes below). 

That's right - the oven.

Apartment dwellers and suburban rebels alike, heed my call:  you do not need a barbecue to make great barbecue. 

Never mind digging a pit for a whole pig or firing up the barbie - just whack what you need in a roasting pan, cover with brine and parchment, seal with foil, and away you go.  With a lot of time (largely unattended) and a little basting, the pork, cooking in a cider vinegar and it's own fat, will be falling off the bone and ready to be pulled into bite sized pieces.  Too easy.

For the all-important sauce, I played a bit of regional hop-scotch and jumped over to Kansas City, where they like it thicker and sweeter (the North Carolina version is bit thin and vinegary for my liking) and some simple, tasty coleslaw. 

One non-negotiable that both regions can agree on: soft white rolls.  This is not the time for anything vaguely 'organic', 'granary', or 'artisan'.  Think Bubba, not Buhdda. 

So, visit your butcher, mix up some brine, fire the oven, put your friends on notice and the beer on ice.  


It's barbecue time.

Note: although the Cook's Note indicates that oven roasting will take between 5-6 hours, depending upon the size of your pork shoulder, mine (3.5 kgs/7.5lbs) took the full nine hours - five in the oven at 180C, followed by four hours at 100C.  I also dispensed with the "remove the skin and roast on a tray, while you brown the meat" step - I didn't see the need.  Not that I don't love pork crackling, I do, but I didn't want to risk drying out the meat with the browning step, nor did I see the need - pulled pork is more about moist, succulent meat, not browned edges.  Otherwise, I followed the all the recipes (North Carolina pulled-pork,sauce and coleslaw) to a tee (though I did use a mix of green and purple cabbage for the slaw - a girl's gotta have a bit of color!).

Silly Scientist Party

Attention:      Silly Scientists

Experiment:   DB’s 5th Birthday Party

Hypothesis:    By combining friends, wacky experiments, and toxic

quantities of sugar, we will produce atomic 

levels of fun.

Laboratory:  Our address

Equipment:   Old clothes - science is rarely tidy.  Dress for mess!!!

Silly Scientist Glasses were issued.  

Coca-cola was exploded.  

Ooblek was investigated.  

Our sense of smell was used to identify secret compounds.

Atomic cupcakes sent the scientists into orbit.

Lollies were issued in test tubes.   

The buffet was covered with specimens.  

What did we learn from our experiment? 

Well, I learned plenty.  

Initially, I had much more elaborate plans for the day.  

Which the universe laughed at.   

The week of the party, at least one member of the family was home sick and/or requiring a trip to the doctor/vet every single day.  

This left scant time for sourcing and preparing.  

Consequently, 

• the milk-changing-color experiment never happened, 
• the giant bubble trough was never constructed, 
• the giant bubble solution didn't work (perhaps because I used a different brand of dishwashing liquid?), 
• I forgot to make the fairy bread, and 
• the watermelon never made it to the table.  

And it didn't make a lick of difference.  

Which proves that if you have enough sunshine and sugar and good friends, little else is required. 

Lesson learned.

Inspiration for this party came from Katie and Donna Hay's Kids Issue, Annual 6.

Peter Pan Birthday Parties

For the 4th birthday of each of my Washington, DC cousins, my brilliant Aunt Jane threw a Peter Pan Party.  

Girl or boy, the birthday person was always Peter, taking his or her turn in the costume Aunt Jane had sewn herself.  Uncle John played a mean Captain Hook, inciting a riot of preschoolers to take him down, with glee, year after year.

Researching options for DB's 5th Birthday Party, I came across two separate posts on Peter Pan parties (here and here), each done beautifully.

I suspect I've missed my window of opportunity - 5 just seems one year too old for the theme, and I am feeling the sting of regret.

I would have loved to make Peter and Wendy clothespin decorations for the cupcakes.

And Baby Smee, against the London skyline, is irresistible.

I hope the clever moms behind these special do's remembered to take a portrait of the birthday person and consider repeating the theme with younger siblings.  

The four photos Aunt Jane has framed of each child (the youngest is now 16), so sweet and cherubic in the family costume, are more precious than fairy dust.