Review of Ed Mitchell's Barbeque Cookbook

This cookbook has been actively used in my kitchen this summer. It is Ed Mitchell's Barbeque--a compilation of recipes written in collaboration with his son, Ryan Mitchell, and Zella Palmer.  I won the cookbook in a giveaway on The Book Club Cookbook website.  Ed Mitchell is one of the most famous pitmasters in the nation, dedicated to authentic Southern, whole hog pit cooking which has led him to rise from a local legend to a national sensation. 

I was attracted to this cookbook after reading the story within the cookbook of how Ed began his pitmaster career. Ed, the grandson of a small farmer, had the privilege of growing up surrounded by delicious and wholesome food. He cherishes fond memories of those flavors and moments from his childhood. However, for many years, his education, military service, and employment with the Ford Motor Company kept him away from Wilson, North Carolina. It wasn't until 1990, when his father fell ill, that Ed returned to lend a hand to his mother.  When his father died he went to the local Piggly Wiggly to buy a thirty-five-pound pig, which is considered a small one, and fired up the coals. As smoke filled the air and the pork skin started to crackle, the few customers at the family restaurant started to inquire about lunch and what smelled so good. By chance, Ed discovered a talent for barbecuing, which quickly became a habit and brought him success.

This story reminded me of one my Italian-born husband always recalled about a tradition in his hometown in Calabria that was held every January called "Maialata," where each family would gather and help each other render a pig they raised. They butchered and cooked the meat from head to tail-- nothing went to waste. They preserved every bit to eat during the winter months ahead.

I also remember my father, who grew up in a coal mine town in eastern Pennsylvania, telling me how his family would make pickled pig feet and "head cheese" from a pig. He sometimes bought vinegar pickled pig feet in a jar that he found in the grocery and I even learned to enjoy them. Sure enough, Ed's cookbook includes a recipe for pickled pig feet and "North Carolina Souse Meat," also known as Hog's Head Cheese. This shows how different cultures have very similar food traditions and recipes that are cherished and handed down from one generation to the next.

The cookbook is full of delightful stories about the family history behind Ed's recipes.  

 "Ed's Mouthwatering Baby Back Ribs" on page 56 recounts how his rib recipe is the one he used to defeat Bobby Flay on the Food Network television show "Throwdown with Bobby Flay." 

I prepared the ribs the night before with a rub of his special blend of herbs and spices, such as paprika, black pepper, dry mustard, coriander, cumin, and salt.

The next day I had intended to grill the ribs as the recipe instructs but as luck would have it we had a very thunderstorm rainy day, so instead they cooked low and slow in my oven for two hours. Toward the end of cooking time, they get brushed with Ed's Eastern North Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce which he gives the recipe for on page 74 of his cookbook. 

They were delicious, moist, fall off bone, ribs!  

 

To accompany the ribs I made "Ed's Shing Slaw" on page 98 of his cookbook.

I was happy to find Duke's Mayonaise locally and also a pre-shredded mixture of cabbage and carrots which made preparing this coleslaw a snap!

So crunchy and good!

The coolness of the coleslaw was the perfect offset to the spicy heat of the ribs! I served it for dinner with a saute of vegetables.

My garden is full of ripening tomatoes so I was excited to prepare the "Hellwig Raleigh Country Club Tomato Pie" recipe on page 160. Ed says tomato pie is a country boy's lasagna and it is on the menu in his restaurant--John Hellwig is his sous chef--and it is a customer favorite. 

My only change in Ed's recipe was not using a prepared pie crust.  I have been eating low carb since May --see why on this post-- and so I baked the tomato pie in a springform pan with parchment paper on the bottom and instead of using bread crumbs I used ground pork rinds. Ed's mixture of cheddar cheese and gouda with the addition of his cayenne pepper hot sauce and brown sugar, along with fresh herbs from my garden made this pie taste fabulous!

The Tomato Pie was so good!

I have many bookmarks in Ed Mitchell's Barbeque for other recipes I want to try-- there are many for appetizers, biscuits and cornbread, salads and slaw, beef and pork, poultry, seafood, and even tofu, rice, grits and mac' n' cheese, vegetables, beans desserts, libations and instructions for building an authentic barbeque pit. He tells many interesting stories about his life, along with meeting with chef Anthony Bourdain, becoming a celebrity pitmaster in competitions in the Big Apple--NYC, and what he believes is the future of barbeque.

I hope I have enticed you to look for Ed Mitchell's Barbecue Cookbook to try some of his outstanding recipes.

 

Thank you, again, to The Book Club Cookbook for this wonderful cookbook!

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Review of Italy On A Plate

"In her debut cookbook, Susan Gravely celebrates 40 years as Founder and Creative Director of VIETRI, a lifestyle brand offering handcrafted Italian tabletop and home and garden accessories." 

So begins the description of this beautiful cookbook, Italy On A Plate,  that I won as a giveaway from my favorite website The Book Club Cookbook. 

Information from the VIETRI website: 

"When Susan, Frances, and their mother, Lee Gravely, took their first trip to Italy in 1983, they fell in love with the Italian culture. During their stay at the San Pietro Hotel in Positano, they went to lunch and found themselves captivated by the hotel's colorful, handcrafted dinnerware. The next day they arranged to meet the artisans at a nearby factory in the town of Vietri sul Mare. As they watched the artisans paint, glaze, and fire each piece by hand, they were inspired to share the treasure they had discovered. The Gravelys returned home with an array of pieces with mixed patterns all related to nature. The collection would become known as Campagna, VIETRI's flagship dinnerware."

Italy On A Plate is a compilation of Susan Gravely's memories and recipes that she collected in her travels in the various regions of Italy to add to her line of fine dining ceramics and resulting friendships. I love a cookbook such as this that not only is comprised of delicious recipes but also stories of the people behind them.  The photography inside is exquisite, with each completed recipe presented on a piece of her company's dinnerware.

 

There are many recipes I'd like to try but this recipe for "Zucchine Al Gorgonzola--Zucchini With Gorgonzola" on page 38 caught my eye and was the first recipe I made.  Comprised of zucchini, eggs, sour cream, gorgonzola cheese, and spices, this is cooked up with a souffle-like top with a buttery sliced zucchini bottom.  It was delicious and made such a pretty presentation.

I paired the dish with roasted trout and salmon, as well as steamed asparagus and broccoli. The addition of Zucchine Al Gorgonzola provided a luxurious touch to the meal. My son-in-law was so pleased with the dish that he asked if he could take the remaining food home.

The second recipe I tried was "Involtini Di Melanzane--Eggplant Rolls," on page 156.

This is Susan's favorite dish!

I have made Eggplant Rollatini many times in the past--you can see my recipe that I blogged about a long time ago when I lived in Brooklyn, New York, on this link.  If you peek at that post you can see that I used to dip the eggplant slice in egg, then bread crumbs, and then fry them before stuffing them with a ricotta cheese mixture and then baking them.  Susan's recipe was lighter with no breading--the eggplant slices were brushed with olive oil and baked to soften them, and included a slice of prosciutto placed on the inside of each slice before stuffing them and rolling them up. Susan served hers with a hint of sauce on top,  but we like them smothered in sauce with mozzarella cheese on them. We did not miss the breading at all and the prosciutto gave the eggplant rolls an extra layer of flavor.  I'll never make them any other way from now on.

I've saved a lot of recipes that I'm excited to test out, ranging from soups and appetizers to main courses and desserts. 

Italy On A Plate is truly lovely and I plan on always cherishing it as part of my collection.

Thank you to The Book Club Cookbook for such a wonderful giveaway prize!

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Winter Days

This is life around here these days...slushy and icy roads, tree branches white with snow, and my husband and I working hard to clear our driveway. Nonetheless, I love winter! To me, this is the cozy season where life slows down a bit.

When I open my window shades in the morning I often see a herd of deer passing through my backyard, foraging for food.

On some days the deer fill my window views all day long! 

They are inquisitive and have excellent hearing, so they look up at me when I take their photos.

They are such beautiful and graceful creatures.

For the most part, my husband and I have been hibernating at home this month as Omicron coronavirus numbers were high in our area. We had an errand to run in Boulder last week and we drove there by US Highway 36, which we have not driven on in a long time.  We stopped at the "Scenic Overlook" or Davidson Mesa Overlook. It was nostalgic for us because the first time we visited Colorado nineteen years ago we stopped there to take photos. Our son was attending the University of Colorado at Boulder for his Master's Degree and we drove cross country to give him our car, as we had purchased a new one. Back then US 36 was a two-lane highway, and now with population growth in the area, it is a six-lane highway in some sections!

Double-click on the photo to enlarge it to its largest viewing size

The overlook has also been modernized as it has benches, an information placard, and a small booth with tourist information brochures.

The views from the overlook of the Boulder area foothills and Rockies are beautiful!

More views.

The Flatirons--the iconic mountains of Boulder, Colorado.

Sadly, although we were not close to the epicenter of the Boulder County Marshall Fire, a wildfire that burned 6,000 acres, destroyed over 1,000 homes and businesses, and killed two people, we still could see burned-out grass, trees, structures, and smell the horrible smell of burned debris.  It was unbelievable how hurricane-force winds the day of the fire made the fire pass right over a six-lane highway made of concrete and asphalt!  Flying embers in the wind carried it far and lighted objects arbitrarily.  There is an investigation going on now that a burning underground abandoned coal mine that dates back to 1863 may have possibly caused the fire--click here-- to read that story. 

One thing we have been doing is preparing ourselves for the possibility of a wildfire in our area, as the weather seems to be getting hotter and dryer every summer.  Following up on the blog post I wrote about the lessons learned, we have made videos of our house and possessions and uploaded them to the cloud, and we are in the process of scanning all our older family photos and uploading them to the cloud. We practiced opening our electric garage door with the stand-by pully system it has as a backup in case we lose power and we have localized all that we would want to evacuate with us to make it easier to pack.  Once before, years ago,  our community had a practice evacuation drill and, hopefully, they will do another one soon, as I'm sure this time more residents will take it seriously.  It is good to know all the routes of evacuation and how long it takes one to get ready, no matter where you live.

On a happier note, I won this wonderful cookbook Treasures of the Mexican Table, full of classic recipes and local secrets from all the states of Mexico, in a giveaway sponsored by The Book Club Cookbook.  The Author, Pati Jinich, is on the PBS three-time James Beard Award and Emmy-nominated cooking show called Pati's Mexican Table. Her cookbook is full of delicious recipes from soup to desserts that I can't wait to try. Expect to see some in upcoming blog posts!

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