Thanksgiving Sliders

 

FriendsGiving and Halloween

We live on a four-house private lane so the odds of trick or treaters is virtually zero.  Instead, we drive a few miles down the road to our friend Uncle Lou’s.  He and his crew from the Norwaldo group set up a tent and chairs and a fire pit and have LOADS of candy for the neighborhood kids.  And, all the kids who come in from other neighborhoods.  

In the past we’ve done the trick or treat thing and then had a lovely Friendsgiving.  Well, that’s getting tougher and tougher for those of us still working.  Friendsgiving has been moved to a non-school night so Halloween is heavy appetizers. 

My mind immediately went to the yummy ham and cheese rolls using Kings Hawaiian rolls. But how could I turn them into a pre-Thanksgiving treat?  How about turkey, swiss and cranberry sauce? 

I’ve got to tell you these were a HIT!  Lou made chili.  Bill made one of his famous concoctions (bourbon and apple cider were the base,) Diane made chicken salad sliders, somebody brought some wonderful gruyere dip, Jillian bought cheesecakes at Costco and we had our sandwiches.  Despite the spitting snow we kept warm and well fed and enjoyed watching all the fun costumes.  Well, that and catching up!

Ingredients: 

Kings Hawaiian rolls – 24 pack is what we used

Deli sliced turkey breast – we used the majority of a 22 oz package

Jarlsberg or Swiss cheese – enough shredded on the large holes of a grater to cover well

14 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 T Triple Sec or orange juice

Bell’s seasoning – I made my own

¼ c butter

 

Directions: 

Either buy Bell’s seasoning or make your own.  I found a great recipe from Mary’s Nest.  (https://marysnest.com/wprm_print/4855)  Connie is the one from Boston so he’s the expert on Bell’s seasoning since it’s not a Midwest kind of thing.  He took one sniff of the finished product and said OH YES!   Mary’s recipe called for putting this thru a coffee grinder.  I wanted a more “chunky” topping so chose to keep is as is.  

Melt the butter. 

In another saucepan, mix the whole cranberry sauce and the Triple Sec or the orange juice.  Let it simmer just a bit. 

Put the rolls on a piece of lightly oiled foil on a half sheet.  Cut them in half and put the tops to the side.  

Brush the bottoms of the rolls with the cranberry sauce.  Use all of it. 

Top the rolls with the sliced turkey.  Then, top that with the shredded cheese.  It’ll need to be pretty thickly covered.  What you see in the photo is about half the amount of cheese we used. 

Top the rolls with the tops and brush with butter.  

Top with sprinkles of Bell’s seasoning. 

Put another piece of foil on top and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flank Steak Fajitas

 

As with many of our friends, the last three plus years have been challenging.  On the one hand we’ve loved working remotely.  On the other hand, we had some significant staff turnover.  Now, I have the best team in the world!  We’ve celebrated many happy occasions and mourned many sad ones.  The most recent was the death of my brother John.  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April and told he’d probably have one to one and a half years with chemo.  It was three months and ten days.  I miss him like all get out.  A month after his death we celebrated his life.  First with a calling and family dinner on a Friday.  Then, with a service at church followed by a celebration of life at our local Knights of Columbus.  After that Connie and I had dinner for 34 at our home. 

We got home from the celebration of life with two and a half hours before our first guests due.  Time to fly!  I ran back to our bedroom and put the pretty pillows on the bed, opened the shutters and turned on lights so it’d look pretty when the ladies dropped their purses back there.  Then, out to the kitchen to finish up the last minute, ok last hour projects.  I hit a wall of heat.  There was just no way the sous vide could’ve created that much heat!  The thermostat said 78 but it was set at 70.  I clicked it down to 68 and still nothing.  Time to shout for Connie.  He was downstairs playing pool with our grandkids.  Long story short we had to put in an emergency call to our HVAC folks.  Our tech showed up just as our first guest did.  Bottom line was a blown motor that couldn’t be replaced until Tuesday…  34 people in the kitchen, dining room and great room.  Both ovens blaring.  No air conditioning.  Everyone kept a smile on their face through their sweat.  

My sister-in-law, Pam, had asked that I make John’s favorite meal.  That would be chicken green bean casserole, Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins and cranberry sauce.  I made a few things in addition.  LOL, a few things.  I think we wound up with close to 20 dishes once friends showed up with desserts.  One of the additions was flank steak with caper sauce.  That was our birthday dinner growing up.  Everyone inhaled the flank steak.  INHALED is a better word!  I cooked it to 125 degrees sous vide and then my brother Ken seared it on the grill two minutes each side.  Actually, one minute, one minute, one minute and one minute to get gorgeous grill marks.  I’d say he had the grill on nuclear.  Somewhere around 600 degrees.  Brother Matt and nephew Tom then were the designated slicers.  There was a lot of caper sauce left over.  I didn’t want that to go to waste so Connie bought some more flank steak the only place he could find it – Costco.  Yup, two large flank steaks.  I cooked them using the same method and we had flank steak with caper sauce for a couple of meals.  Then, I had leftover flank steak.  Like a really large flank steak. 

The first recipe that caught my eye was a flank steak niçoise salad in That Must Be the Place from Rachael Ray.  That was one yummy salad!  A couple of flank steak and tomato sandwiches with horseradish sauce followed.  Ok, fine, time to try making fajitas.  Can you believe that’s something I’ve never made?  I order them out all the time but have never tried making them myself.  John got me started on Serious Eats so that’s where I went to hunt for the recipe.  Yes, I pretty much majorly modified it.  But the bones of the recipe are still from Serious Eats.  Funny aside…  We had a peach, rosemary bourbon cocktail also.  Turns out its from Serious Eats!

 

Flank Steak Fajitas

 Ingredients:

¼ medium rare flank steak, very thinly sliced against the grain

1 T light olive oil

1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 jalapeno, finely diced

1 tomato thinly sliced

 

For the marinade:

2 T soy sauce

2 T lime juice

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 t sugar

1 t oregano

1 t cumin

 

For the sour cream topping:

½ c sour cream

1 T lime juice

1 t cumin

 

2 large flour tortillas

1 c shredded cheddar cheese

 

Directions: 

Make the marinade and toss the sliced flank steak into it. 

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet and add the onions and the green bell pepper.  Once the onions have turned translucent add the jalapeno.  To heat the tortillas, I laid them across the vegetables and flipped them over after a minute or two. 

Mix the sour cream while the vegetables are cooking. 

Add the tomato and the steak to the vegetables and warm them through.  

Put the tortillas on plates and top with the flank steak mixture followed by the sour cream and then the cheese. 

Cherry Chicken Salad

Connie isn't terribly fond of fruit.  Soup, fruit and corn.  That's pretty much his no-go list.  I could live on soup.  Mom's minestrone in particular.  But, I also love fruit and corn.  So, tonight when our cart at Costco looked like a Fruitopia, he wasn't amused.  Pears, peaches, cherries, clementines and red grapes all came home with us.  What are you going to make with all of that???  That was the question of the evening. 

I'd decided to make the cherry tabouleh I made last year.  But, we got home and didn't have cucumbers or parsley.  Most of my herbs are producing well.  Except for the parsley.  I'd bought a rotisserie chicken thinking I'd just go ahead and slice some to go with the tabouleh.  How about chicken salad with cherries instead?  Off to eatyourbooks.com and I found a plethora of such recipes.  Many called for tarragon.  Which I don't have.  A few called for dill.  Which I have in abundance.  I read all the ingredients in all the recipes and decided on my own recipe.  Which was fabulous if I do say so myself!

Cherry Chicken Salad
makes 4 good-sized sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 large chicken breast, cooked and chopped
2 ribs celery, diced
1 cup cherries, pitted and quartered
3/4 c walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 shallot, minced
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 c mayonnaise (or more to taste)
2 fronds fresh dill, minced
onion buns or bread, toasted or not

Grilling Peaches and Brats, with Sage Roasted Potatoes

My belly was very happy after a recent meal.  Here's how it happened:

During a conference call I'd downloaded a ton of recipes from a batch of 30 scallop recipes.  We'd made one and it was good.  I had more scallops frozen.  And, I'd not thought about the next few evenings dinners before that day so I kind of figured we'd try the scallops with chestnut sauce and maybe do tilapia sandwiches.  Not planning a meal ahead is rare for me.  I usually have all our meals planned out a week ahead.  During the same conference call I'd also downloaded one called Milwaukee dogs.  Brats with sauerkraut, Dijon mustard and Swiss cheese. 

Then, fate interfered.  My internet at my Greenwood office has always been lousy.  On cloudy days the modem just doesn't work well.  I'd left my modem in my Columbus office so figured I'd use my phone as a tether.  Well, that only works if you actually have a card to support it in your computer.  So, instead of spending the whole day in Greenwood, I did one meeting in there and drove back to Indy and did the rest via GoToMeeting.  And, I called Connie and said, "Please solve this problem permanently."  That meant that the next day he was in Greenwood with the folks to hook up real internet.  It also meant that he was going to be near Claus' Haus - the German meat market.  My mind immediately went to the Milwaukee dogs when he called and suggested that on the way home he'd stop and pick up anything I'd like.  I'd like brats, please. 

Now, on top of the brats, our friends Raquel and Steve had brought over some potatoes from their garden.  Amazing potatoes.  Lovely little reds.  Creamy.  Perfect.  I'd found a recipe on the New York Times website for sage roasted potatoes.  Connie adores fried sage.  I adore potatoes.  We were in business!

And, the peach truck had been here.  I'd texted my brother John to let him know that we were planning on heading there that afternoon.  He texted back that he was in line and was going to get me some.  I asked for a box since our friends Deb and Ken wanted to split a box.  Does John rock or what???? 

We had the makings of a perfect dinner.  Milwaukee dogs.  Sage roasted potatoes.  Grilled peaches with blue cheese and honey.  Connie tried the brats first.  YUM!  Then, he tried the potatoes.  WOW!  Now, since he's not fond of fruit, he saved the peaches for last.  His eyes pretty much rolled back into his head.  "Pretty good, huh," I said.  "That's an understatement," he said.  Then, he asked me to rate them.  First place went to the peaches.  Second to the potatoes.  Third to the brats.  But, seriously, if I had 100 points to distribute, they'd all be getting about 33!  He tried to cheat the system and give the peaches a 7 on a scale of 1-5.  LOL.

Here's a photo of the peaches, brats and buns coming off the grill:

Now, on to the recipes.

Milwaukee Dogs

Ingredients:

brats
Swiss cheese
sauerkraut
Dijon mustard
buns

Directions:

Heat the sauerkraut.  Grill the brats.  Just as they get done, slice them in half, move them to the cool side of the grill and put slices of Swiss cheese on them.  Toast the buns.  Schmear with Dijon.  Put the brats on the buns, top with sauerkraut and top with the other half.

Adapted from the Betty Crocker

Peaches with Blue Cheese and Honey

Ingredients:

peaches
blue cheese
honey

Directions:

Cut the peaches in half and remove the pits.  Grill cut side down until softened.  Flip and put a knob of blue cheese in each cavity.  Grill until the blue cheese melts.  Remove from the grill and plate.  Drizzle with honey.



Roasted Potatoes with Sage

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, cut in half
1/3 c flour
1 1/2 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced (I accidentally omitted this)
1/4 c chopped fresh sage leaves
1 T unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste
12 fresh sage leaves
1 T unsalted butter

Directions:

Put a large cast iron skillet in your oven.  Preheat your oven to 450F.  Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise. 

Put them in a saucepan of cold, salted water.  Put the saucepan on high heat and bring the water to a boil.  As soon as the water boils, lower the heat and simmer the potatoes for five minutes.  Drain them and pat them dry. Sprinkle the flour on a plate and roll the potatoes in it.  Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and pour in the olive oil, making sure to cover the entire bottom of the skillet.  Lay the potatoes in the skillet cut side down. 

Roast them for 10 minutes.  Remove the skillet from the oven and flip the potatoes.  It was at this point that I added the chopped sage leaves and forgot about the garlic.  You do NOT want to put the garlic now but you can add the chopped sage.  Roast another ten minutes. 

While the potatoes are finishing up in the oven, you need to fry the sage leaves.  Put a tablespoon of butter in a very shallow skillet (an omelet pan works well) and let it melt and get bubbly and hot.  Add the sage leaves in one layer.  When the first side is a bit brown, flip them.  They're easy to overcook so keep a good eye on them. 

When you remove the skillet from the oven, quickly add the last tablespoon of butter and the garlic.  Serve the potatoes topped with the sage leaves.

Adapted from the New York Times

Tomato Sandwiches

I thought BLT's were my favorite summer sandwiches.  Not quite sure how to say this, but I was wrong.  I've found something better.  Unbelievable, I know.  But, so true.  So, what is it?

It's a mash up of three sandwiches.  First and foremost, the BLT.  Bacon, lettuce and tomato.  Second, James Beard's onion sandwiches.  Third the famous Spanish sandwich, the pan con tomate.  Thanks to Melissa Clark writing in the New York Times, we have my new favorite.

You see, for probably the second time since we started this whole moving adventure, I went to the grocery store.  Because I was the logical one to be packing and unpacking and putting away, Connie did all the errands.  ALL the errands.  Other than work, moving and the fun things we've done, I've not been out and about.  I was itching to actually go shopping.  Not something I thought I'd EVER say because, quite frankly, I don't like shopping.  Unless it's a garden center or a hardware store.  Well, or the cookbook section of a bookstore.  Then, I like shopping.  Tonight I had the option to stay home and work on all the stuff I'd brought home from the office.  Or head to Sam's with Connie.  Now, I'll admit, part of the reason I wanted to head out with him was to have time to actually work on a couple of upcoming charitable events.  We've volunteered to participate for the third time in The ARC of Indiana's annual cook-off.  And, we're hosting a friendraiser for Actor's Theatre of Indiana in a couple of months.  I wanted time to chat about both of those.  We got the ARC solved.  Our entry will be Boss Tweeds.  One of my favorite drinks. Ought to be fun. 

We got home pretty late.  I'd read this recipe in the last few days.  We had one lovely heirloom tomato left.  We had some bacon left.  And, some rye bread.  Not what the recipe called for but one of our favorites.  This would be perfect.  Connie brought the haul in, I put bacon in a skillet and started putting stuff away.  Just about the time that I stuffed the last thing into the freezer, the last piece of bacon came out of the skillet to be drained.  Show time!

Connie stood on the other side of the counter juggling the camera and handing me the appropriate ingredients in the appropriate order.  

So, let's take a second and go back thru these sandwiches.  BLT.  Bacon, lettuce and tomato.  With mayonnaise.  A classic.  pan con tomate.  Toasted bread, garlic rubbed on it, tomato crushed over it and salt sprinkled over it.  Last, but not least, James Beard's onion sandwich.  Bread, mayo, VERY thin slices of onion. 

Here's how you put them together:

Toast the bread
Rub both pieces with halved garlic cloves
Drizzle the bread (both pieces) with good extra virgin olive oil
Sprinkle with kosher salt
Cut the ends off REALLY ripe tomatoes and smoosh those onto the bread
Slather on mayonnaise
Lay very thin slices of tomato on the bread
Top with very thin slices of sweet onion
Top that with cooked bacon (which, by the way, I sprinkled with garlic and freshly ground pepper as it cooked)
Top with the other piece of bread

This sandwich is messy.  No, it's MESSY.  It's also fabulous and worth every bit of messiness it generates.  Either count on washing your napkins afterward or use paper. 

Here's how it looked:

adapted from The New York Times

Turkey and Cherry Sandwich Minis

Every once in a while I read a recipe and just can't get it out of my mind until I make it.  These sandwiches were one of those recipes.  I bought the cookbook a couple of months ago.  One of those cookbooks that I got home and wondered what in the world I'd been thinking.  The Big Book of Easy Baking.  That sounds like something that someone who LIKES to bake would buy.  Except most of my friends who bake do so from scratch.  They use the real stuff.  You know, like yeast.  Me on the other hand, I use stuff someone else has baked!  Much to my delight, the cookbook has some great recipes.  Most use Pillsbury products.  I've used a lot of their crescent rolls in my life and really love the things.  I just couldn't shake this one recipe.

Saturday we worked all day.  Then, Connie dropped me off at the house to start cooking while he went shopping.  I got tapenade, dill dip, mustard dip, cranberry syrup, clam dip, chipped beef dip, roasted walnuts and a deviled cheese ball done.  You see, the Girls Night Out Holiday party is at our house on Monday.  While Connie plays bridge, I'll be hosting.  It's a pitch-in but I still wanted to make sure there's plenty of food available. 

Sunday, I worked on menus for when Connie's boys visit a bit later this month.  And, for Christmas Eve when we host my whole family.  And for Christmas evening when we're here by ourselves for a quiet evening.  And, for New Years Eve when we have our annual seafood fest.  There's a lot of cooking that's going to be going on!!!!

Sunday afternoon was our last home regular season Colts game.  Yes, we won.  Clinched the division title for the 9th time in 13 years.  And, probably watched Reggie Wayne play his last regular season game.  He's a class act.  I'm going to miss him. 

I was already feeling bummed when I got home to find out that yet another friend has died from melanoma.  Rip was a class ahead of me in high school.  His sister, Leesy, was behind me.  Our great-grandparents were friends.  A lot of tears and yet I had a lot of work to do to get ready for GNO.  Connie had run back to the store for a few things we used up or that the other store didn't have the evening before.  I'd had him buy cherry preserves for the day I wanted to make the sandwiches.  We didn't have the right bread but I didn't care.  They'd be perfect.  Easy.  Flavorful.  And, I had all of the ingredients.

What did we think?  FABULOUS!!!  We tried the blue cheese/bacon/mayo mixture on spinach leaves with and without a spot of the preserves.  Equally wonderful.  Connie'd bought four pepper roasted deli turkey.  I usually buy the honey smoked.  I think his choice was perfect for these.  I've already made more of the bacon/blue cheese/mayo mixture so we can have them again for lunch!

Turkey and Cherry Sandwich Minis

Ingredients:

16 small rolls or party rye
2 slices bacon, finely chopped (ok, I cheated and used six...)
3 T mayonnaise
1/4 c crumbled blue cheese
1/4 c cherry preserves
8 oz thinly sliced smoked turkey breast
4 large red lettuce leaves cut into quarters (I used spinach)

Directions:

Now, the real recipe calls for turning a can of Pillsbury refrigerated crusty French loaf into 16 buns.  Ummm, buying them is much easier.  So, I started with a loaf of party rye.  I needed one for the GNO party.  Connie bought three.  Let's use up the excess!  Brown and drain the bacon.  Mash the mayo and blue cheese together.  Stir in the bacon.  Assemble the sandwiches by spreading some of the mayo/blue cheese mixture on one of the buns. 

Spread some of the cherry preserves on the other.  Layer on turkey and greens.

Enjoy! 

Chicken, Sausage and Leek Pot Pies and Roast Beef Cornichon Sandwiches

Some decisions are tougher than others.  At the office, I'm pretty good about making decisions.  I mean, I'm the boss.  The buck stops here.  So, I've got to be decisive.  But, in my personal life I'm not always as good.  For several years now I've been a part of the Secret Recipe Club.  Over time, it's changed a lot.  Now, it's time to go so I can focus on blogging about the recipes I want to try from friends blogs, cookbooks, magazines...  So, I'm officially going to quit doing the Secret Recipe Club.  Whew!  That felt good to get THAT decision made!

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming :-)  We've been adopted by a three-legged feral cat.  We've named him Smokey.  He's VERY feral.  Stays at best 6-10 feet away.  But, he's now gotten to the point that he relaxes in our herb garden and occasionally on our driveway.  Even with just three legs, the boy can hunt.  He's fast.  We've tried and tried and tried to capture him and have him neutered.  No go there.  Turns out our neighbor captured him and thought he'd turn him into a pet...  Um, no.  Feral cats do not make great pets.  So, Smokey is VERY wise about traps...

 

Not too long ago we headed to Seattle to a lovely wedding.  While there I bought a couple of cookbooks.  Shocking, I know.  One of them was Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners.  I've never really cooked his recipes.  Now, I'm just kind of plowing through the cookbook.  The first dish was his chicken, sausage and leek pot pie.  Then, I made a carrot crunch salad.  And, a roast beef and cornichon sandwich.  We didn't care too much for the carrot crunch salad.  Gave it a three on a scale of one to five. 

The pot pie is another story.  We've already made it twice.  And, it will become our go-to pot pie recipe.  I did use Wolfgang Puck's cheese pastry instead of the puff pastry called for.  And, the sandwich.  We had those two days in a row.  YUMMMMM! 

Chicken, Sausage, Leek Pot Pie

Ingredients:

for the filling:
chicken - the recipe calls for 2 lb, I used the breasts of a rotisserie chicken
sausage- the recipe calls for 9 oz , I used a pound
2 leeks , diced and rinsed (or, you can use a sweet onion...)
2 carrots, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
2 t thyme
3 T butter
2 T flour
1/2 c white wine
1/2 c chicken broth
1 c cream


for the crust:

Follow this link...

Directions:

Shred the chicken. 

Brown and drain the sausage. In a large skillet, melt the butter.  Saute the leeks, carrots and celery.  Add the thyme and the flour. 

Cook for a few minutes so the flour isn't raw.  Slowly stir in the white wine, then the chicken broth.  When the sauce is thick, add the cream.  Pour into a baking dish.  Top with the crust. 

Bake at 425 for about 45 minutes. 



Roast Beef and Cornichon Sandwiches

Ingredients:

baguette
1/2 pound very thinly sliced rare roast beef
grainy mustard
horseradish sauce
cornichon
salad greens

Directions:

Slice the baguette in half length-wise.  Spread one side with mustard and the other with horseradish sauce. 

Layer on roast beef, thinly sliced cornichons and salad greens. 

Put the sides together. 

Adapted from Jamie's Dinners

Sweet Sensation Rub

Well, let's talk about everything we've missed talking about. 

Connie had a birthday.  Not one of the big ones but we celebrated nonetheless.  Three dishes and three cocktails.  Loved the meal.  Haven't blogged about it yet...  In truth, I can't find the recipes now...

Drove the Natchez Trace to a conference in New Orleans.  Amazing food and drinks.  Except for the food at the conference hotel - Hyattt by the Superdome.  Go to Borgne but do not stay at that hotel.  The food was the worst conference food I've EVER had.  And, I go to a LOT of conferences!  New Orleans, however, was stellar.  Antiones, Commanders Palace, Arnauds.  Oh, yeah.

Had a party.  90+ people at our house for a pitch-in.  We did BBQ from Black Diamond.  Except, we found out on Friday that we'd have 90+ instead of 70+ and we couldn't add to our order.  On to Sam's to purchase six racks of ribs.  Many dishes that I want the recipe for.  YUMMM

Went to Michigan for a long weekend with our friends Chris and Mark.  Saugatuck and the Hungry Village Tour.  AMAZING!  Then, on to Grand Rapids for the Meijer Gardens and the Gerald Ford Museum.  One fabulous B and B and one we'll not be back to.

Family party at my brothers where he cooked the PERFECT summer dinner.  Yup, it just doesn't get better than bbq chicken, corn on the cobb, sliced cucumbers, salad, cheesy bacon potatoes and pickled beets. 

Now, if I was to do a blog on all of those I'd still be typing tomorrow morning when I'm supposed to be at the office for the first of six appointments.  With an internet that's running at maybe 25% of what it's supposed to be doing.  Painful.  So, let me tell you about the ribs and the leftovers from the party.  Oh, and a few photos from the party.  Of course. 

Back in 1994, Cheryl and Bill Jamison published Smoke and Spice.  I bought it that year.  It was my first true barbecue cookbook and is still my favorite one.  I've tried rubs, marinades, sauces, entrees, side dishes.  They've all been wonderful.  So, when we wound up with a herd of ribs to cook at the last minute, I turned to Smoke and Spice.  I'd already decided to use the Maple Mustard Porter mop and sauce we made a couple of months ago.  Nice warm spices, thyme, brown sugar.  Those were the flavors I was looking for.  They were there.  In a rub recipe called Sweet Sensation rub that I first used back in May, 1997.  It was labeled, "WOW" back then.  Same applies today.

Here are a few shots of the party:

Then, we had leftovers.  Lots of our friends left goodies.  Sue left half a pan of baked beans.  These weren't just any baked beans.  They were so good that Connie stopped me in the hall outside our offices and asked who'd brought them and could I get the recipe because they were the BEST beans he'd ever had.  I had to agree.  Sammy and Sarah left chorizo mac and cheese.  Killer.  Just killer.  There was another half pan of REALLY good mac and cheese.  And, Nancy and Roy left some of her German potato salad. That I don't share.  Connie says he's not that fond of potatoes so I take that as a green light to hoard the potato salad all for myself.  It's the best I've ever had.  There was a big tub of a yummy bean, corn and red bell pepper salsa.  I have NO clue who brought that.  We also had some of Becky and Dave's loaded baked potato salad.  Yummy!  Brett and Gabe left a huge bowl of pimento cheese.  Not only is this one of our favorites, but Brett kicks it up with jalapenos and other goodies.  Connie said please, please, please get the recipe.  I've already got it somewhere in my email.  Thank goodness!  We had part of a pan of mostly pulled pork with a few flecks of beef brisket mixed in.  The meat was a bit crispy and dried out but I'm too Scotch to toss that.  As Connie said, it was kind of reminiscent of burnt ends.  We had a few ribs left.  Last, but not least, there were a few dried out pieces of smoked chicken.  So, an overload of protein and carbs.  What to do?

Lunch Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was ribs and baked beans.  Normally after two times I'm done.  Not quite sure I'm done after three even though we're out of beans...  Yes, I'll share the recipe as soon as I get it.  This will go to family dinners and be devoured!

Monday night was pulled pork and pimento cheese sliders.  On the side we had carbs, carbs and carbs.  And, boy oh boy was it all good!

Tuesday night some of the pulled pork got mixed into some of the mac and cheese along with some pimento cheese and milk.  The whole shebang was topped with toasted panko crumbs and baked.  The only thing missing was some red peppers.  Either roasted red bell or peppadews or another red pepper would've added a bit more pizazz.

Wednesday night was hot smoked chicken and pulled pork salad.  Topped with shredded cheddar and crumbled bagel chips that Brett had brought for the pimento cheese.  We paired that with a cherry cherry tomato salsa.  Yes, there are two cherries in that description.  I'll share those recipes in another post...

Sweet Sensation Rub

1/4 c ground allspice
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c onion powder
2 T salt
2 t ground nutmeg
2 t ground cinnamon
2 t dried thyme