Foody Moody ... Blueberries and Brisket

After days of rain, yesterday was spectacular here at PFHQ. The temps cooled down into the mid-80's and it was wonderfully breezy ... plus ... it did not rain here for one whole day!

You might think the constant rain is due to ... well, summer in Florida, and Hurricane Alex spinning southwest of us, ... but you would be wrong.

Last week, we power washed the house and I bought a trailer load of 5 gallon buckets of stain to give PFHQ a needed face lift.

THAT is why it has rained almost each day for a week.

Let's talk about the two B's ... blueberries and brisket.


In my constant search to utilize my bumper blueberry crop ... which is still bumping by the way, I am exploring all kinds of things.
One day last week, I was trying to decide what to make for breakfast, when a bowl of blueberries caught my eye. They had been picked a few days ago, the last of a full colander and were starting to show their age.

Pancakes!

Now standard blueberry pancakes are good, but they would not use up near enough of these very ripe berries, so I decided to substitute blueberries for the 3/4 cup of water called for in the pancake mix directions.

First I whacked the blueberries into a slurry by placing them in the little Black and Decker food whacker thingie and holding the button down.

Then the slurry went into the dry pancake mix instead of water.

They were delicious!

I didn't even put maple syrup on them, although they could have used just a little sweetness.

Kinda like me.

The Southern Sisters catered a wedding reception this weekend, partly business, partly gift, as the family is close to all of us ... the Mom of the bride is a nurse who works with two of the sisters and the bride is a favorite ex-student of mine.

It was a southern picnic theme reception at a nice venue in The Swamp, indoors, but the food was all outdoorsy.

I was drafted to cook beef brisket.
Not slow and fall apart Texas style, but marinated steak style ... "not too smoky".

Stress.

Brisket is a tough piece of meat ... that's why those Texans cook it slow and long.

I had to cook it early Saturday morning for the reception Saturday evening. There would be no second chances ... kind of like wedding photography.

Friday morning, I placed each brisket into a big ziploc with a marinade. No secret recipe involved, it was Tone's Canadian Steak Marinade from Sams.

The briskets marinated all day and overnight Friday.

At 6:00 am yesterday, I lit the charcoal and cooked until about 10:00 am.



My basic procedure was:

1. Each roast received some direct heat time to sear and char a little.
2. After that, they went to the side of the grill away from the hot coals.
3. They cooked with the lid down for a while.
4. Lid opening involved spritzing with vinegar from my BBQ spray bottle and occasional forays back on to the coals as needed.
5. After a few hours, each roast was wrapped in foil and left to rest at the far, "cool" end of the grill for a half hour or so.

When time was up, they were placed together (still wrapped in foil) in an ice chest, and shipped off to the Sisters.

Late in the day, while working around PFHQ I got a phone call from the reception ... "Everyone loves the briskets, they are AMAZING!"

Whew .. de-stress.

Happy Independence Day!

... don't shoot your eye out.