Dinner

Baked Penne with Italian Sausage

Cook the pasta, cut up and saute the sausage in some oil.  Toss that together with some red sauce, some red pepper flakes or hot italian pepperoncini, some grated ricotta salata, some bufula mozzarella or other fresh mozzarella, and some parmigiana.  Put in a dish, top with more parmigiana and bake at 375 until it just looks right.

Garbonzo Asparagus Salad

Just like it sounds.  Blanch and cool the asparagus, cook the garbonzos until warm, and toss all together with parsley, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Serve cold or at room temp, it doesn't really matter.

Dinner Last Week, the Week Before, or the Week Before That

Germany vs. France, the Rematch

Cassoulet and Weinkraut

and butter lettuce with apples and roquefort

For the cassoulet, cook up some navy beans with a smoked ham hock, some parsley (with stems) thyme, bay leaves, onion, garlic and salt.  While that's happening, heat up some butter in a pan until hot, chop up some bacon and cook it until browned, then do the same thing with some veal stew meat and some cut up bratwurst (the white kind).  Then add some onions to the pan, some chopped garlic, and a few tablespoons of tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes, making sure not to burn it.   Put all of that together with the drained beans, tear up that ham hock and add it, then cover with breadcrumbs and bake at 350 covered for an hour, then 275 or 300 for another hour uncovered.

For the kraut, saute some onions, then add some chopped apple, then a cup or so of white wine, then a bag of kraut and some caraway seeds.  Make sure it boils and then knock it down to a simmer for an hour or more.

Salad is just as it sounds, just whip together a tsp dijon, a mashed garlic clove, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and four of olive oil and toss it.

Dinner at Some Point in the Last Month

Scallopini of Veal with White Wine Garlic Sauce with Linguini Pesto

And butter lettuce with fig balsamic dressing

For the veal:  pound out, salt and pepper, bread.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, it'll help the breadcrumbs stay on.  Heat up some oil in a nonstick pan and when it's really hot, toss the veal in and cook for a minute on each side, then transfer it to a 200 degree oven or so to keep it warm.  In the same pan, toss in some minced garlic and immediately some white wine, and let it cook down for a few minutes.  Pour it over the veal when ready.

Pesto: puree some blanched almonds, some parmigiana, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and whole bunch of basil.  Toss with pasta once the pasta is done cooking.

Dressing:  teaspoon dijon, tablespoon fig balsamic, four tablespoons olive oil, salt, pepper.  whisk

Do it.

Now.

JMueller's BBQ - Austin, TX

The apple fell 37.7 miles from the tree, which given the 24,900 mile circumference of the the blue planet, equates to 0.1526% of the farthest it could have fallen.  

THAT, my friends,

is called a rounding error.

He done good.

Backstory:  trailer off South First opened by a member of the legendary Mueller family out of Taylor, the pioneers and operators of my second favorite barbecue joint in the state (technically, it bounces between one and two but its sitting at two now, not because of a subpar experience, but because my last meal was at number one)

Anyway, this place is G - O - O - D FANTASTIC.

Notice the handwritten menus with items crossed out.  That was at 12:30, so get there early.

Here's how I ordered.

"Give me a little of everything you've got left, some chipotle cole slaw, some cheese, a jalapeno, and some potato salad."

And here is what I received:

Brisket.

BAM!

Pork ribs.

BAM!

Sausage.

BAM!

Beef Rib.

HOT DAMN!!!

Winner winner chicken dinner.  Axe the bird and fly with the cow.  

So, I don't want to ruin how good this was with words, so I'll be brief.

Get the beef rib.  Period.

It's incredible.  Thick, coarse ground salt and pepper crust makes for an incredible bark, while the bone and the fat inside keep the meat as tender as it could possibly be.  My brisket was comparable, I lucked out and got the fatty cuts, which I prefer, but if you're going to go one or the other, my guess is the beef rib is going to have more consistency.  Do NOT, under any circumstance order your brisket lean.  Here or anywhere.

Pearl of wisdom coming....wait for it.......wait for it............



Life's too short for lean meats and light beer.



Pork ribs are great, sausage also good.  Do yourself a favor and get a chunk of cheddar cheese and some saltines and make yourself a little sausage cheese appetizer.

Sides were great, but come for the meat.  They give you sauce, but just think of it as a "thank you for dining with us" after dinner mint type thing.  Not that it's bad, it's not, but it isn't what this barbecue is about.

I'd be hard pressed to find better barbecue.


Summary

Atmosphere:  food truck with a bigolesmoker out back, plenty of outdoor seating some with umbrellas for shade, great for lunch on a nice day, great for bbq any day

Food:  Texas barbecue

Dog Friendly:  yep

Crowd:  country folk, hipsters, business casual crowd, students, you name it they're there

When to Go:  lunch, get there early

What to Order:  beef rib (short rib)

Dinner Sometime a Couple Weeks Ago

OPA!

Roasted Lamb with Onion and Tziziki

Greek Salad

Greek Potatoes

Trying to remember how I did this one, my apologies for the lag in posting and the effects of late posting to my recipes.  

So I think I mixed up dijon mustard, a bunch of garlic, olive oil, a little oregano, salt, pepper, and maybe a little cumin and squeeze of lemon.  Think I roasted it at 500 or so for 30 minutes and then knocked it down to 325 or so for another hour.  Small boneless leg, maybe three pounds.

What I do know is that when it came out, it looked like this

And after I let it rest for twenty minutes and sliced it, it looked like this

And it tasted DAMN good.

Served it with some sliced white onion that I dusted with sumac, and homemade tziziki.

I know, not my best picture.   That said, it's easy and good.  Seed and chop a cucumber, salt and let sit in a strainer for an hour or so.  Add it to some greek yogurt, a little olive oil, equal small parts of red or white wine vinegar and lemon juice, a mashed up garlic clove, salt, pepper and a little oregano.

Potatoes:  quarter some yukon golds lengthwise, toss in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic and pepper.  Put them in at 450 until they look good.

Dip em in the yogurt.

Clean up with

Valentine's Day Dinner

For MLWMG (my lovely wife, Mrs. Gordo)...

Roquefort crusted filet mignon

Green Beans

Radishes with melted butter and chives