I have a slew of things that I have wanted to tell y’all about. Little tid bits of information, recipes, a review, etc., and I just wasn’t sure if I should update the previous posts, write a new post or what. I decided to combine it all under one new post and hopefully when I’m through, I’ll have made sense. Here goes…
I had family come to visit over Labor Day weekend. We did lots of eating out. Friday night, we hit Mac’s Speed Shop on South Blvd. here in Charlotte. This place is, what I refer to as, a yuppie biker bar. It’s a converted old transmission shop (i think) with a biker theme and they serve up pork bbq, brisket, burgers, wings and other standard bar food. I always get their brisket with hushpuppies and slaw. They have a nice long list of beers and it’s typically a very busy place. We had a good meal and everyone in our party enjoyed the food and the rowdy atmosphere. Saturday afternoon we had lunch at Lulu’s on Central Ave. This is, hands down, my favorite restaurant in Charlotte. I don’t get over there very often, but when I do I fall in love with the place all over again. All my out-of-town guests had to try the Lulu burger. A thick angus patty topped w/ house made pimento cheese, sweet jalapeno relish and a fried green tomato on a challah roll. Stunningly good! I, being the egg whore that I am, had to have their country eggs benedict. This is muffins topped w/ Grateful Growers pork sausage, sweet jalapeno relish, fried green tomatoes, poached eggs and hollandaise. Good God, I swore I had died and gone to heaven! They don’t have mussels on the lunch menu but when we inquired the server checked with the chef and returned to say they would make us a batch. We ordered the Portuguese mussels which are served in a velvety broth with cherry tomatoes and chorizo. Their mussels come with a cone of frites too. Perfect for soaking up that beautiful broth. Monday night we cooked and this is where it gets interesting folks. I picked up some chicken thighs and some local sweet corn. We tossed together a farmers market pasta salad and I roasted the thighs in the oven on high heat. When they were done I tossed them in a huge mixing bowl and poured KEATON’S BARBECUE SAUCE all over those crispy chicken thighs. I am hear to tell you that I believe I came as close as is humanly possible to recreating Keaton’s dipped bbq chicken. It was total food porn! So, if you make it up to Statesville and to Keaton’s do yourself a favor and pick up a couple bottles of their sauce. Yee-haw!
Oven-roasted chicken thighs - Keaton's
Next up: jambalaya. Yep, I had me another hankerin’ and this time it was for jambalaya. I had never made it before so I did what I always do, I asked my Chowhound friends and searched the boards there. Several folks had mentioned Paul Prudhomme’s recipe so I went with it, except I substituted Spanish chorizo for the Tasso ham and threw in some chopped shrimp because his recipe wasn’t “dirty” enough for me (you dirty diggers know what I mean!). I wasn’t sure about finishing it in the oven but I crossed my fingers and went with it and what resulted was deliciously spicy and chockful of flavors and textures. Click on the link for the recipe. Note: If using chorizo, make sure you get the Spanish style chorizo (cured), not Mexican (fresh). My resulting jambalaya was tasty, to be sure, but I think I overcooked the rice somewhat. There wasn’t that nice “bite” to the rice that defines good jambalaya. My bad. I’ll do better next time. A picture of what I ended up with:
Chicken, Shrimp & Chorizo Jambalaya
I made another batch of Italian-stuffed peppers, but this time I switched things up and used marconi peppers. One of you commented on my original post and suggested changing up the type of pepper and I took heed, and glad I did. I also used orzo in place of the rice for extra spin. Thanks for the feedback!
My husband and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to go see the Carolina Panthers put the smackdown on the Washington Redskins a couple of weeks ago. It was an ass-whupping of gia-normous proportion. My favorite part, however, was that we sat in The Gridiron section (i.e. box seats) and ate and drank until we were fat and happy. I took pictures and will post about the festivities soon. Stay tuned!
