Cooking Through Snowpocalypse II

Snowpocalypse II or Son of Snowpocalypse? Why don't we have a poll to see what people prefer.

I made my way home relatively quickly on Tuesday, only an hour and a quarter. (Sadly, several of my friends were examples of the many people who fared much worse.) What does a food nut do when she can't leave the house? Cook, of course!

For my main meals, I worked on some meat I had saved up in the freezer. This is a section of a brisket that I cooked a few weeks ago. Add some Arthur Bryant's sauce (thanks to my sister and brother in law) and a loaf of freshly made 100% whole wheat bread, and it's a meal. I used a pork roast and a can of beans for a pretty tasty bowl of chili.

I saved most of my cooking for recreational dishes. This is a batch of chocolate truffles I whipped up on Tuesday night. Truffles are pretty simple---just add chocolate to boiling cream---but they do give you a sense of accomplishment. I also made a batch of brioche dough and used a bit of it for pecan sweet rolls this morning; sadly, they disappeared before I could photograph them.

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Asheville NC: Luella's BBQ

Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.

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Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

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