I wanted to do some stuff on my Big Green Egg last week, so I got some really thick pork chops and the makings of caprese salad (what I understand to be tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil), along with some ciabatta bread.

The set up was easy; get some coals going on the egg and get it heating up. While doing that, I opened a bottle of wine to breathe, which I thought was perfect for the meal… a bottle of Le Snoot Cabernet Savignon!

I also got the pork chops out of the fridge and seasoned them with grey salt, black pepper, oregano, onion powder and garlic powder. Since these were really thich (like 1 1/2″), I seasoned them pretty heavily.

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We’re just past Memorial Day weekend. I have to say that I’m a bit saddened that Memorial Day isn’t really observed for what it’s meant to honor, which is fallen U.S. soldiers. I don’t go out of my way to do a lot for the day, but I do think about the sacrifices made by others. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of other celebrations going on, too, that had nothing to do with that; people are just confused, I guess.

On Saturday, Pat of Patrick’s BBQ held his annual customer appreciation event by cooking anything that he could fit in his smoker (which is a whole lot). While there, I noticed a field of wildflowers, and I had to wander down to get a better look.

It is a long weekend, and it unofficially denotes the start of summer. We had incredible weather for Saturday and Sunday, with Monday not too awful. On Sunday, my dad and stepmother were in Ohio, and they spent the afternoon and evening with us, which was all the excuse I needed to put the XL Big Green Egg through it’s paces, just to see how it did with a variety of tasks.

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Okay, first things first. I do happen to know the Superbowl is over. And I apologize for not posting any foods prior to the Superbowl, for those looking for ideas.

But I did fix some stuff, and I had some thoughts on Superbowl foods. Here are my thoughts:

Food should never be fixed for the Superbowl if someome could categorize it as ‘gourmet’. That’s it. Everything else is fair game.

‘Gourmet’ foods don’t mix with the NFL. Fatties and pulled pork and wings and ribs fit pretty well. I can’t imagine a bunch of people sitting around watching the game while eating foie gras with blackberry balsamic glaze, or fish eggs on toast (sorry, caviar on toast points, forgive me!). Football food is meant to be stuff that you can chomp on and enjoy without having to pay too much attention to etiquette. Fancy foods have their time and place; half time at the Superbowl isn’t one of them!

So I kept it simple… Smofried wings and ABTs.

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I can hardly believe that my trip to Pittsburgh was only 2 1/2 weeks ago; our October has been really full! When I was there, I got a great candy bar that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, from Chocopologie, that was dark chocolate with burnt caramel and sea salt. Great stuff!

If this is the only entry you’re reading here, you haven’t yet heard about the wine party we had last weekend, but it was not only a great party, it also has provided me with all kinds of stuff to write about. I made a dessert for the party to mimic the candy bar I got in Pittsburgh.

The dessert started with something I saw as I flipped through the channels a while back. I found a recipe for chocolate creme fraiche pot; I don’t really care much for the show it came from, but then Alton Brown is about the only food show host I really like, but the dish looked interested because it 1) sounds good, and 2) is really easy to make. So for a big party or just when you don’t have time, this is pretty cool to try, especially with my additions.

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Here it is at last! The foie gras I’d been so looking forward to preparing and eating. The big question: was it worth it?

The answer: a definite YES!

This stuff is like heaven on a fork. Here’s the progression of how things went:

If you look at any posts this week, they’ll most likely be from our 2007 wine party. This was, I guess, the featured dish of the party (outside of the wine, that is). I’d been looking into whether I’m pro-foie gras or anti-foie gras in an earlier post. My conclusion was that I’m pro. So I put in my order, and the foie gras got here last Thursday.

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It’s been a hectic few days getting ready for last night. My wife and I had our 5th annual wine party. We’ve gone from just a few people, to a dozen to twenty. That’s about 2 1/2 times what is recommended for a wine party, but we don’t care… We’re not trying to do a really formal wine tasting; we’re trying to enjoy the night with friends and finding some wines that we might like that we hadn’t tried before.

It’s almost more fun to try some wines that are the worst wines. But more on that later.

The way our wine party goes is pretty simple, and pretty much against the accepted wine tasting process. We start with the food, which is supposed to be later, after the tasting. I fixed all the food. Then we start tasting wines. Each couple that comes brings 2 wines, a red and a white. The theme this year was French wines, so all the wines were French.

As I’ve said before, I try to do a couple of main dishes with several cheeses and bread. Thursday, I made crepes. Friday, I made dessert and started on French country bread and brioche. I’ll go through all of the dishes separately, to spend the time each deserves.

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