Text 18613, 109 rader
Skriven 2007-08-06 13:07:20 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Picnic 04 - Saturday
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Saturday morning, I made a triple batch of biscuits and some SOS
to go with them - cream gravy with sliced dried beef.  It proved to
be pretty popular; although some biscuits were still available later
in the morning, the SOS pretty much vanished.

Around lunchtime and through the day other stuff was prepared and
eaten.  Stuff we tasted in no certain order:

- Saffron risotto by Michael: Quite good, despite his
  grumblings about the rice not being very fresh.  Lynn, who
  adores risotto, thought this was marvelous.

- Million-bean salad (Brian):  I like bean salad anyway, and this
  was quite delicious, especially the chick peas which are my 
  favorite part.  Carol noticed that I was setting the chick peas
  aside and asked me what was going on; I told her that they were
  my faves and as such they were being saved for last. [g]

- My Stuff (Burt):  Delicious, though too "mushroomy" for Lynn, who
  commented that if we left some of the mushrooms out she would be
  happy to eat that for supper every now and then.

- Lundberg Wild Blend Rice (Ruth & Steve): Tender & chewy & ricy
  & nutty all in one.  I've had something rather like this before
  but not the same brand, and it's good for a change (though I
  would tire of it if we had it all the time.)  Lynn had several
  helpings of it, as she dearly loves rice.

- Crabcakes (Michael):  Today's batch were broiled.  Good, loaded
  with crab, not too much filler, but Maryanne, Lynn, and I agreed
  that broiling them was not the best way to cook crab cakes.

- Potato salad and devilled eggs (Helen): The tater salad was 
  exactly the way both Maryanne and my mother make it, and therefore
  I thought it excellent and had two helpings. The devilled eggs
  were tasty but a little underseasoned.  I fixed mine by parking
  a green olive on top and sprinkling with some paprika. 

- Smoked pork was, of course, the star of the show.  Dale brined
  three butts and Dave used his excellent dry rub on one other.
  Meltingly tender, loaded with flavor, the final results were
  excellent.  Dale's smoker is a wonder to behold, with little
  tending needed once the settings have been worked out and some
  experience gained.  His proficiency was evident and I tip my hat
  to him.

  I will comment only on the sauces provided by Uncle Dave, because
  I didn't taste any of the commercial ones except the old-school
  Bullseye sauce that Dale and Gail had stashed away from the pre-
  Kraft-takeover days (good, not too sweet but a little on the
  ketchupy side - still better than the nastiness Kraft turns out
  today.)

  Dave had made regular, Incendiary Habanero, and Smokin' Chipotle
  sauces.  The habanero variety was great: lots of heat and just a
  touch of the habbie's familiar rotten-apricot flavor.  Chipotle
  was my favorite of all: just a hint of smokiness, a pleasant but
  not overwhelming burn, and enough body to stay where it was put.
  Dave gifted me with the remainder of that one at the end of the
  picnic.  I brought it to Roger's place when we picked up the dog
  later on and, uh, we pretty much killed the bottle on some chicken
  that night.  Mighty fine.  The regular was mild and also delicious;
  it would make a great steak sauce with very little tweaking.

- Trabi Himmelblau Mittelscharf Senf: Brought back from Germany by
  Bryan, this translates to something like "Crappy Car Sky-Blue
  Medium-Hot Mustard."  The picture of the Trabi and the color of
  the mustard made it look like automotive touch-up paint, but it
  actually was a perfectly ordinary yellow mustard wearing a blue
  disguise.

- Cajun Meatballs (Dale and Gail): Delicious!  Although two 
  varieties of sauces were served with these, I opted to have mine
  without anyting at all upon them.  Later, I found that Michael
  had done pretty much the same thing - I didn't think the sauces
  were really necessary, and they didn't seem to be quite as hot
  as advertised.  Different tastes, eh?

- Smoked Almonds:  Not sure why these came out kind of rubbery, but
  they did.  I added some celery salt to them and shook them in a hot
  skillet to try to crisp them up and had varying degrees of success.
  Next time, I'm just going to bake them and be done with it.  
  But they were pretty popular for all that, and just about all of
  them got eaten.

- Peach Cobbler (Ruth): Deliciously simple cobbler made with 
  excellent southern peaches.  The nazz.

- Baklava (Brian): The best baklava I have ever had in my life.  I
  bow to Brian's baklava mastery.

- Pecan Pie (Gail):  Unlike some tooth-crackingly sweet pecan pies
  that I have had (hi, Mom!) Gail's finds just the right amount of
  sweetness.  Being careful of my blood sugar, I only allowed myself
  a thin sliver of the pie (and a small bit of baklava see above)
  but it was wonderful.

- Pate de tete de porc (me, via Michael): Michael had brought this
  to my place a couple weeks ago, but we never got to it, so I packed
  it along with us.  It was rather good - porky, almost corned-
  beef-like, with some dollops of creamy white fat and a bit of aspic
  here and there in the tender meat.  I put out some crackers to go
  with it, provided by Dale and Gail the crispy thin biscuits were
  laden with cracked peppercorns, which enhanced the pork nicely.

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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, 
minutus carborata descendum pantorum
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