Maybe it's the fact that we cruise too much... but, I always think of food around holidays. It gives me something to look forward too. For the 4th, I am grilling a couple of racks of ribs (and I am not talking about a sissy gas grill here) Real wood and charcoal will be involved! Of course, the obligatory barrel of beer will be present. I wanted to know how others celebrated the 4th.... is it food or fireworks?

I have a rack of ribs to do. What I usually do is get them done and then stoke the remaining charcoal and do the obligatory burgers, brats, and hot dogs. Corn on the cob and roasted potatoes and root vegetables too. I just toss the potatoes, carrots, onions in some foil with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and toss them on the grill for a while. And I have a loaf of Zingerman's Deli farmers bread I'll heat up.

Beer, rum punch, sodas.

Looks like the weather forecast for here shows likely rain today and tonight, so the fireworks may not happen.

We're going do smoked sausage, chicken, peppers and onions. Maybe some rice with it. My hubby will be consuming his beer and I'll be drinking water. I'm saving up for the cruise so I can have a few drinks then!

I got my cooking done before the rain starts. It seems to be falling apart before it gets to Limestone County so we've been dry all day. I didn't buy any new fireworks because I found a stash from last year that will suffice. Now the rain will come!

Oh, and someone hit my mailbox again. It usually happens while we are on a cruise, but today my wife comes home and says "what's up with the mailbox?". I go out and find it laying in the yard. While it being damaged bothers me, it bothers me more that someone hits it and doesn't have the integrity to let me know they hit it. And they can't tell me they hit a mailbox and didn't know it.

Four mailboxes since 2004.

Dave, glad you didn't have a soggy day of cooking. I've lost two mailboxes but it's been over 15 years. Mine is directly behind the neighbor across the street's driveway. Seems every time the house sells someone moves in who has teenagers learning to drive. They've let me know each time but the first was a guy who believed himself a do-it-yourself kinda guy and said he'd replace it. He put the replacement up crooked when he did. So I didn't mind so much when the second happened and let them know I'd take care of replacing it myself this time.

Cheers, Neil

Well, the weather here was lovely but it didn't help with my cooking abilities. My ribs were inedible... (much to my neighbors delight) I ended up going next door for the greasiest fried chicken that I have ever enjoyed. (oddly enough, he and his wife are cardiologists) Tonight, I am just going to try steaks.

i have to give myself a pat on the back for my first attempt at pulled pork over the weekend....came out fantastic!

a few pork shoulders, smoked for around 6 hours, then pulled and served with my own homemade BBQ sauce......went over really well with my friends, especially since us New Yorkers don't always get real BBQ

was actually really east to make, too

It's been a while since I did a boston butt for barbecue. It is so easy to buy it around here and the purchased pork is tastier than I can make it.

Dave, about 2 weeks ago we had our mailbox stolen. Not hit. I was out in the garden pulling weeds at 5:30 am, went in around 8:30 showered and dressed to go to town. Went to Decatur, filled up the car, had breakfast, went to the grocery store and went home. When I got home, no mailbox. I assumed someone had hit in since we it's on a curve, so I went looking in the bar ditches-no mailbox. I went across the street and asked a neighbor if he had seen anything, but he hadn't. I called the police, which did no good, and decided I'd go walking around to see if I could find it. About a half mile away in the middle of a pasture, I found it. I waited until my hubby came home because it was too heavy for me to lift. He went and loaded it in the back of his truck. Someone had beat the living daylights out of it, and left the rest in tack. They just sawed the post off at ground level. We put it back out after we beat it back into shape a little bit. They must have seen me leave for town, I don't know. I wasn't gone for more than 2 hours. Never did figure out why or who.

I made some fantastic ribs last night. I rubbed them in mustard and brown sugar, then poured on Jerk seasoning, let them marinate for about 30 hours. Put them on the coals for about 2 hours, finished them off with a little bar-b-que sauce-yummo!

Our problem is the people who live in the "upscale" subdivision down a ways from those of us on the main access road. The speed limit is 25mph but those people mostly do twice that speed just so they can blow through our area and get home faster. It's like Craft Road is some inconvenience that needs to be traversed as fast as possible. Of course since it is just a sub-division access road no police patrol it. And we are in the county so it'd have to be the sheriff or the state police - in other words it ain't gonna happen. Meanwhile I am thinking of buying a spare mailbox to have in reserve.

I know what you mean. We are in the county, too. The high school is about 2 miles down the road from us, so once in a while a state or county patrol will go by. The speed limit is 45, if they're going under 70 it's a miracle. There aren't subdivisions around, just a few horses and houses.

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It's been a while since I did a boston butt for barbecue. It is so easy to buy it around here and the purchased pork is tastier than I can make it.

This is a coincidence, I just got back from the store and bought one, then read this. It was on sale for $1.59/lb. I used to get them for $.89/lb. guess it's been awhile since I had bought one. Putting it in the crock pot tomorrow, still deciding on a sauce recipe though.

Dwayne

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Putting it in the crock pot tomorrow, still deciding on a sauce recipe though.

It is hard to go wrong with a crock pot. The result is usually great no matter what you put in it!

Dwayne, I made my ribs with the mustard, brown sugar, and jerk seasonings, then some bar-b-que sauce at the end. OMG, the flavor was wonderful. I'll bet it'd taste great on slow cooked boston butt. Mike the kid just made one as well, he didn't share his secret sauce with us, though.

SUPER EASY, SUPER SECRET SAUCE RECIPE (Carolina Style):

This sauce will add a good amount of flavor, without overpowering the flavor of the meat.

Cider Vinegar
Sugar
Red Pepper Flakes

Boil all ingredients. Done haha! Told you it was easy. I added about 3-4 tablespoons (I think) of sugar per 8oz. of vinger, and a pinch of red pepper. Adjust to your taste. The red pepper gets hotter as you cook it longer, so keep that in mind.

Give it a try! It’s a bit different from your usual tomato based BBQ sauces and I like it alot.

That's the Carolina version for sure. Big Bob Gibson's has the tomato base, but Greenbrier uses the vinegar base. I'm getting hungry!

We usually just get a pound of barbecue at the drive-up window at Whitt's or Lawler's. Both vinegar based in the saucing.

For those not familiar, barbecue stands in Alabama (and probably the other parts of the south) are the original fast food for these here parts. Most have a package deal with one or two pounds of barbecue, one or two packs of hamburger buns, a couple cups of the vinegar and pepper barbecue sauce, and a pint or so of slaw. The slaw is different in that it usually isn't in the white sauce but in it's own vinegar style sauce and is all cabbage. Side orders of beans and potato salad are also available.

You don't need to say pork. You just say "barbecue" and this is universally known as pulled pork. Some serve beef brisket but they are eyed suspiciously by the old-timers.

Nothing quite like taking a bun, piling on some barbecue, a spoon of slaw on top of the meat, and then a sprinkle of the vinegar sauce. I also hit it with some hot sauce (Red Hot or Tabasco usually). Mash that together with the top of the bun and chomp it down!

I think we will get some barbecue for dinner tonight. I talked myself into it!

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Originally posted by penny3333: I'm getting hungry!

No joke! This topic is killing me!