Laura, Christopher, and Lauren over for dinner

Sunday August 21

My sister Laura came up from Texas to visit Carr and Christopher. After a few days in Washington with Carr, Christopher and Laura came down to Portland. They called late afternoon and I asked them over for dinner; Christopher's girlfriend Lauren joined us. I was working on some jerked pork with cole slaw and corn on the cob. I was thinking it would be just Carla and me but what the heck. They brought over a few brats, some wine, and a big ol' watermelon.

I picked up the Dinosaur Bar B Que  book by John Stage and Nancy Radke a while back after hearing so much about the joint in upstate New York from a couple of guys in the office who hail from Rochester, NY. The first thing that caught my eye was a recipe for jerked pork. I've been wanting to make this dish for some time and figured there is no time like the present. The basis for most of the dishes in the book is the "Mutha" sauce. So before I could start on much, I had to make that on Saturday afternoon.

It's not all food pictures; there are some nice family pictures at the end.

'Mutha' sauce ingredients

A quick simmer

Saturday probably wasn't the best day to start cooking sauces; it was our first 90+ day. But we got to go over to Linda's house to hang by the pool afterward so we got to cool off.
The Mutha sauce is good but a little heavy on the tomato sauce. I think I've made some BBQ sauce that I  like better. But, I made 2 quarts of this stuff; it's good enough to keep using.

All that sauce just to use 1 cup of it for the jerk paste. After getting back from Linda's we made the paste.

Jerk paste ingredients

 I put all those ingredients in the food processor and whirlled 'em up.
Next it was time for the pork. Following the recipe, I took two pork loins and cut each one lengthwise into 3 pieces. The recipe called for 4 pork loins, but I figured it was only Carla and me so I cut it in half.

 After cutting them lengthwise, I flattened them with a mallet then hit it with the edge to make some indentations to hold the paste

Sliced and flattened.

After the cut and paste

Sunday Carla shredded some cabbage and then headed out with her sisters. I made some Asian coleslaw

Asian cole slaw ingredients

Using the shredder for the cabbage made it too small. It kind of broke down a bit.

It was summer so we needed some corn on the cob too. Laura, Christopher, and Lauren brought over some brats and more cord to make sure we had enough to eat. Heck of a note; ask them to dinner then make them bring the food.

I started the brats on a low temp while we brined the corn for just a bit. I lit the coals for the jerked pork in the Weber Kettle. No MAK smoker tonight. After a bit I added the corn to the grill

We ended up having too much fun chatting and what-not and the coals burned down a bit too much. The pork cooked okay but didn't get much of a sear. I haven't really done a lot of cooking over charcoal so still have to work on mastering that.

The jerked pork on the grill

The corn is done. Yum.

The meat is ready. The brats got a bit too much. Again, too much time visiting

 It was a perfect evening for dining al fresco; so we moved outside.

Laura, Lauren, Carla, Christopher

Great watermelon for desert

Eating, sipping, talking

A relaxing time.

We had a great time getting to know Lauren and I don't get to see either of my sisters enough, so that was a treat.

As for the food, I wasn't blown away by the jerked pork; I've got to hunt down another recipe to try. The allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon were a nice start. I think it needed a little more heat and a little more of the paste sticking to the meat.