The Big Apple BBQ 2012

Hi there! I'm blogging briefly today from a king sized bed in Las Vegas. The sun is shining, it's about 100 degrees and I have a full day of work ahead. I'll be back tomorrow to give you an update, but for today, I have a super guest post from you from none other than my handsome husband! Shaun checked out the Big Apple BBQ on Sunday (I couldn't join him since I was on a plane to Vegas) and did some reporting for TAA. Tough research project, right?! Hope you enjoy this post! I will (hopefully) be back tomorrow!

Once upon a time, in a faraway land there lived a boy named Shaun.  Shaun was very fond of pork and all of its glorious splendor, and being from the land of New Jersey he was especially affectionate towards pork roll which is very popular amongst those people (for further reading:  www.jerseyporkroll.com/about/)  As time wore on, this boy saw many cable television shows about the food industry and read many articles and books about the dubious practices of the pig industry (Yes, Smithfield I am referring to you Rolling Stone article) This new information (new to him at least) confused and disgusted him to the point that he decided to turn his back on pork and didn’t eat it for nearly three years!  That was of course until he went to Spain and was introduced to the sweet, delicacy known as jamón ibérico.

 That was then and this is now.  I was that boy who loved pork roll, shunned pork for three years only to return to the land of the hog after a deft push in that direction by days of eating sublime Spanish ham.  Now that you have an idea of how it got to this point, let me show you the great time that was to be had at the 10^th Annual Big Apple Barbeque Block Party that took place this past weekend in New York City’s Madison Square Park.

I got to the park at 11:30 which was only thirty minutes after the festival opened on Sunday and it was already bumping with live music, the smell of smoking pork, beef and turkey wafting at me from every direction and people everywhere just having a good time.  Most were either on the lawn, waiting in line for ‘cue, or checking out the sponsored booths in the park.  I picked up a map of the barbeque trucks and set out to find some smoky grub.

 

My first stop was the New York City based Rack & Soul Chicken & Ribs BBQ spot manned by John Wheeler, a former homebuilder and native of Mississippi who has been competing (and winning) BBQ contests all over the country since he swapped his hammer for a BBQ mop.  With this being a local joint, the line was much shorter than most of the other stops.  They were serving up baby back ribs with a side of their signature beans for $8.  The portions were substantial for a barbeque festival like this and were definitely delicious.  The smaller end of the ribs that I got were a bit on the dry side but past that first rib bone, the meat was tender, juicy and served as a perfect backdrop for the not too sweet and not too smoky sauce the ribs were slathered in.  My only complaint was that the ribs while plentiful were not very user friendly.  They were served in a nifty cardboard bowl with a compartment for the beans (which were incredibly flavorful) the whole thing was super unwieldy.  I will sum up the consumption situation in as few words as possible.  Saucy ribs…flimsy plastic fork…decision to use fingers for the remaining ribs…sweating from the hot and humid weather...napkins getting saturated with rib sauce…no use on rib sauce still on face…end result…people passing by seeing a man sweating with red substance covering parts of his face and  hands while he figures out to do with the pile of bones he has accumulated in a public park…I just want to prove to the young families with little children passing by that I am not the Manhattan version of those Miami zombies…I do not know if I am successful.

After I find enough wet wipes to make myself presentable (I will bring my own next time, as anything being given out for free is usually not good anyway), I decide that I will seek out a pulled pork sandwich stop as those are one of my favorite BBQ foods.  I pull out my map of the grounds and hunt down Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint which is serving up Western Tennessee style whole hog fare.  This joint’s food is being masterminded by pitmaster Patrick Martin out of Nashville, TN.  He and his restaurant have been spotlighted on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (yes, the one hosted by the ever annoying Guy Fieri) as well as many local and national publications…all to rave reviews.  While I stood in line for my pulled pork sandwich the pitmaster himself was at the helm while being filmed by a television crew.  He and his crew’s enthusiasm was clearly evident as I waited on line, and you know what…it carried over into the quality of their pulled pork sandwich made from pork that has been smoked for 22 hours!

The sandwich was a nice sized pile of juicy pulled pork, cole slaw, sweet pickles and their own secret barbeque sauce all on a soft white bread bun.  I loved every bite of this sandwich.  It was fall apart pork, crunchy slaw, slightly sour semi-sweet pickles and the sauce…oh, the sauce, it finishes the sandwich off perfectly.  It was my favorite of the day.

Ok, at this point I am an hour into the heat, pork and crowds that accompany the Big Apple BBQ Block Party.  I am getting full and slightly heat stricken (maybe I am starting to look more like a zombie than I would like to realize), but I push on albeit in the shade.  I take in the sights and the sounds of the festival.  I stop by the This Old House stand and pick up instructions on how to build my own cornhole set, and the next booth over has Dawn Perry from Real Simple magazine demonstrating how to make s’mores.  There is even a demo booth put together by Ikea showing you how to make summer cocktails out of the greatest fruit of the summer the tomato.

Unfortunately, there is a booth there sponsored by Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.  Which on any other day, I would say this is fantastic.  I love mayonnaise, most of the time it loves me and hey add mayo to anything and it makes it better.  Today it’s 81 degrees and they are serving free samples of Hellmann’s Olive Oil Mayonnaise pasta salad.  I hate Costco style promotions like this but as much as I fight it, mayonnaise is like a magnet.  It was not bad but it was not good either.  At the end of the day, what was I expecting from free pasta salad with semi-bootleg mayo in a park that after 9pm is mostly inhabited by hobos?

The heat is getting to me and I am exhausted and full.  I just need something refreshing and then it’s time to head home.  I am wandering through the park and the surrounding streets in search of something that fits the bill when I come across local restaurant Blue Smoke’s Dessert and Bake Shop tent on the Madison Avenue side of the park.  They offered fruit crumbles and other mouthwatering baked goods but I went for the root beer float.  Good old fashioned root beer soda with a vanilla ice cream iceberg floating in the cup.  It hit the spot and the sweetness of the root beer paired so well with the barbequed afternoon that it was obviously meant to be. 

My time at the 10^th Annual Big Apple Barbeque Block Party has come to an end.  The meat sweats are coming on, it’s over 80 degrees, shade is impossible to find and my root beer float’s comforting coolness must be conserved for as long as possible.  I take a turn down Madison Avenue on my out of the park past the rest of the BBQ spots and smile because I know what awaits me at home…a cranked up air conditioner, the Mets/Yankees game on the DVR (commercials are for chumps) and hope that Sunday never ends.  Barbeque festivals are awesome.

So what do you think?

Have you ever been to a barbecue festival?

Or a street food festival?

Ribs or pulled pork?

On Your 30th

Today is Shaun’s 30th birthday.

On one hand, years, ages, and birthdays don’t really matter. They are just numbers.

On the other, I can’t believe that 15 years ago {and the first time I met him}, I was an awkward sophomore in high school; just a {very young} girl with a {very major} crush on a boy.

If you would have told me then that 15 years later, we’d be married and celebrating his 30th birthday together at a quiet restaurant in Hoboken, eating sushi, holding hands, being silly in love...well, part of me probably would have fallen out of my chair.

With both surprise and glee.

And maybe some part of me wouldn’t have. Because I think some part of me always knew we’d end up this way.

at our senior prom in 2000

And so, my love, on your 30th birthday, I just want to say thanks...

for making me eggs in the morning.

for tickling my feet, even though I often shriek and sometimes kick you.

for agreeing to watch Bethenny Ever After and other equally girly shows with me...and generally allowing me to have free rein over the remote.

for building all of our Ikea furniture, including our new dressers.

for always being the driver.

for snuggling me up in the middle of the night.

for doing your own laundry.

for warming up my hands, when they are like icicles and you say they feel like those of a dead fish. or of a corpse. either way.

for having dimples and long eyelashes and just being so darn cute.

for listening to Sirius Hits in the car, even though I know it makes you cringe.

for making fun of the fact that I like my coffee super sweet.

for giving me 100 nicknames and counting.

for your constant encouragement of me (doing anything, but especially) writing + cooking

for your incredibly dramatic reaction when you get ‘shocked’ by little static electricity in the winter.

for always being incredibly smart, witty and handsome....and looking damn dapper in a suit.

for a million other things that I’m forgetting right now.

for being my world.

happy birthday my love!

He Cooks!

It may or may not come as a shock to you that I do a majority of the cooking in the Humiston household. That’s not to say that Shaun doesn’t like to cook. Actually, he likes it. A lot. In fact, he’s come up with some pretty amazing dishes. Since I also like it a lot, I usually demand offer to cook most of our weeknight dinners. Unless I’m tired and cranky and then Shaun (or our local pizza delivery man) is automatically on the hook for dinner. Luckily he usually takes the reigns with a smile (and probably secretly jumps for joy that I get out of his way in our avid kitchen for once). And he'll even pose for some pics when I mention the blog (which is in just about every conversation we have).

Tuesday was one of these nights. Since we try to order in once a week at most and it was so early in the week, Shaun offered to whip up a lil’ somethin’. After a close inspection of our refrigerator and pantry, turkey meatballs and whole wheat spaghetti it was!

And for as much as I like to create my own recipes or alter others’ recipes, Shaun really takes it to the extreme in that he hardly ever uses a cookbook or follows recipes. Ever. But somehow his creations are nothing short of yum-inducing. Though I leaned over his shoulder a few times to snap some delectable looking photos, I can't be sure of all the ingredients since I was the cookee, not the cook (a fun place to be, I might add)! But I do know that tomato paste and Frank's Red Hot were involved. And since I have yet to tackle meatballs or sauce until I can learn the secrets of the sauce from a one Sandy Cannon (aka, my Italian and very sauce-particular mom), this was really a treat. You see I never order spaghetti and meatballs in a restaurant since it's never up to par. This version? I'm still dreaming about it.

 

Served over some whole wheat pasta and ricotta, this was the perfect, filling dish on a cool evening at home. In fact, I may or may not have eaten this entire (and entirely inappropriately filled) dish:

So what do you think? Do you ever whip up recipes on a whim? Are you the frequent cook in your kitchen or do you leave it to your significant other? Or do you prefer to make cooking a joint effort?

Psst...wanna hear more from the Mr.? Let's see if we can't convince him to jump on a guest posting one of these days...