Central BBQ...I love you.

Yesterday we had lunch at Central BBQ. Luckily for us its only a block away from where Ryan is in school so I have a feeling we'll be returning.

Its in a small building that probably only seats about 50 inside with a patio outside. When we first got there, the line was out the door which usually means we go somewhere else. Lucky for us we decided to stay. Ordering takes place right at the counter not once you're seated which accounted for the long line outside. After we ordered we barely had enough time to fix our drinks before the food was already out. Really really fast service!

I had a small BBQ pork sandwich since one of the locals in front of us told me that in Memphis BBQ means pork not beef :) The BBQ sandwiches normally come with cole slaw on them but since I hate cole slaw I ordered mine without it. Ryan had the large BBQ pork sandwich with the cole slaw and he said it was probably the best BBQ sandwich he'd ever eaten. They also have BBQ nachos which we passed on this time but saw another persons order and they were huge so that's what I'm trying next time!

For both of us to have a sandwich, me to have fries, and 2 sodas the price ended up being $16. The service was good even though to order so fast after you walk in you really need to look at the menu ahead of time. The building was really neat, and the food excellent. Central BBQ, you win my love. Oh, and they sell their sauce online. I liked the mild and wasn't a big fan of the others, but Ryan loved the hot BBQ.

Today? Neelys. Lets see how they measure up!

Memphis

If you have to be stuck in a town for a work related reason, its best to be stuck in one with great food. Luckily for me, its Ryan's work related reason so I don't actually have to do anything other than eat and shop!

We're in Memphis this week, and I figured why not blog about the places I find that are good to eat. My poor blog needs a few more posts and I can't bake my TWD since I don't think the hotel will let me use their kitchen.

The first place we went when we got all settled in yesterday was a burger place called Hueys. I had the Bluff City Burger which was really really great. It had smoked cheddar, bacon, bbq sauce and onion straws on it. Normally I don't like my onion straws on the burger since they're usually crispy and most of the time it just hurts my mouth so I ordered them on the side. They were great. They weren't crunchy but they had a good texture. Ryan had a salad which he said was really awesome. And the fried pickles were good, but not worth $5.95. Either way, for $25, it was maybe a little high but well worth it seeing as how it was probably the second best burger I've ever had.

This morning we went to a place called Cockadoo's. We were originally after a sub or some sort of sandwich but since we were pressed on time and it was still breakfast hours we decided to give this place a try. Boy were we glad we did! I had the biscuits w/ sausage gravy and man...I think I'm still full and its been 5 hours! Prices were reasonable, even though they think a side order of bacon is 4 pieces of bacon that are about 2inches long each. I'll forgive them for that only because I was so full and the service was really great. Oh, and for my hometown crowd, this place was in a building that looked like Sojourners did, even the ceiling tiles. Cockadoo's was just a little more updated. Here is a menu.

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Chockablock Cookies chosen by Mary at Popsicles and Sandy Feet.

These cookies have a little bit of everything in them. I chose dried apricots, raisins, chocolate chips and pecans. Pretty much everything I had in my pantry. I'm a huge hater when it comes to molasses. I couldn't find this Lyle's Golden Syrup that everyone kept talking about, so I had to keep the molasses. I compromised though, and used 1/4 cup molasses, 1/4 cup honey.

I have to say. This is one of the weirdest cookies I've ever eaten. It doesn't have too much of a molasses taste, which is a great thing. I'm not too sure about the fruit in it, and they're a little sweet and odd textured. I suppose I'll eat another just to make sure they're OK to give out. It's like one of those cookies you keep eating just to figure it out. (Its torture).

Go to Mary's blog and check out the recipe, or buy the best baking book ever!

Our Garden

I love growing things. I usually have better luck with food than with flowers. I'm still amazed our rose bush has any roses on it each year seeing as how my husband thinks that's the proper place to pour hamburger grease...Anyway. These are a few pics of our garden we took today. We planted near the beginning of April and man have they grown a lot since then! We have jalapenos, squash, and bell peppers planted. I'm going to add some okra later this week since my mom keeps bugging me to grow her some.

Garden



Bell Peppers



Squash



Jalapenos


Roses

Wednesdays with Dorie? It'll have to do.

So as I posted yesterday, I'm a day behind with this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie. The weekly recipe is Sweet Cream Biscuits picked by Melissa at Love At First Bite. These came together very easily. I was actually surprised. I made a half recipe and got 8 biscuits and one mini biscuit out of it which I don't think is too shabby for a cup of flour, some random teaspoons of stuff and about a cup of cream. Taste wise, I like them. They're flaky and are great with butter. If only I would have made these earlier in the day they would be really good with eggs. Oh, and I think I have a new scar on my arm too. Go me. Cmon Keri, that cookie sheet was at 425 a few seconds ago, don't rest your arm on it!


This guy had an issue...


This coming up week, I'm going to try to be on time for next Tuesdays recipe Chockablock Cookies and I'm going to do a rewind and get April 13th's recipe the Sweedish Visiting Cake done as well. Maybe that'll help me make up my severe lack of participation lately.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

Ok...I'm making these tomorrow. But I felt like I should post today just to prove that even though I haven't baked with the club in way too long, I am still paying attention. Melissa of Love at First Bite picked the recipe this week and I can't wait to make them.

Now, I must go shopping for flour. I've been fairly exclusively using King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour lately, and need some regular all purpose flour. I don't think brownish looking biscuits would be a good plan.

Get the best baking book ever and make these this week. I'm sure they'll be great since everything else out of this book is wonderful.

This makes me happy...

I would link the video, but its too wide for my format or whatever.
Click on THIS to see one of the most inarticulate congressman in the country, who is also probably lacking most brain cells.

Guam, will capsize...Poor island. This makes me sad he's from Georgia...

Anyway, I will post food this week...I'm a lazy blogger. I apologize!

My Dogz

My sister (the camera thief) emailed me these pictures today of two of my favorite fellas.

This is Max, our Husky pup who pretty much runs the place now. He's so stinking cute its almost possible to forget how much he likes to run from us instead of come to us, and just how much he can poop in their pen overnight.



And Buster, master of the universe at least until Max outgrows him. My ultimate guard dog, I'm pretty sure he'd eat intruders alive...until he smells them and realizes he'd rather play than bark anymore. At least the initial bark is scary.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week's recipe was chosen by Kait of Kait's Plate. She chose Dorie's "My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies."

My sister STILL has my camera, even though as I've said before, she has some super duper awesome camera and mine's a regular point and shoot contraption. Either way I can't post pictures, but its a good thing.

Most of the other members seemed to have the problem I did. My cookies were super flat, and even though I left space between them on the cookie sheet, I ended up having a cookie sheet sized cookie that I had to cut apart. But, even though they're really ugly, they're really good.

My only changes were that I am out of regular chocolate chips so I used about 6oz white chocolate chips, and 2oz of semi-sweet chocolate that I sort of shaved off the block into slivers. I also added about 1/2 a cup of pecans. Everything is better with nuts :)

I'm not sure if they're the best chocolate chip cookies, but they are really good. If we could find a remedy to the flatness problem, they'd move up in my book. Either way, if you want the recipe, go to Kait's blog or buy the best baking book ever.

TWD: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

I actually baked my Tuesdays with Dorie recipe this week!! I know, I can't believe it either. But I did it!

This week's recipe was chosen by Kristin of I'm Right About Everything. Which by the way, is the blog name I should have chosen. Darn you for getting it first!

The bad thing is, my sister, who has a far better camera than my own, stole my camera and has not given it back. She did try to talk me into bringing cake to her house and letting her take the picture there, but I'm lazy.

So...no picture of the mini chocolate cakes. Sorry.

On to my changes and opinion of the cake. I didn't make the swirl in the recipe, mostly because I am extremely lazy and couldn't be bothered to read it...(instead of lazy, read very very tired.) I also didn't make the glaze, but that's because I'm not a big fan of icing of any sort. I thought this cake had really good flavor. But mine was fairly crumbly. If you want the recipe, go to Kristin's blog or buy the best baking book ever.

Overall, I'm not entirely sure I'd make it again. Its hard for me to like a chocolate bundt better than this one or this one. Also, I really want to like mini bundts since I love big ones, but they just seem like a waste of time for me. Always such a big pain to get the little devils not to stick.

I'll leave you with a video. A really old one, but one that cracks me up still.

TWD: Rewind Recipe Perfection Pound Cake

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was supposed to be Mrs. Vogel's Scherben chosen by Teanna of Spork or Foon where you can find the recipe. I didn't end up making it for a number of reasons. 1. I can't pronounce it. 2. I refuse to fry, unless its shrimp or onion rings, but who can blame me there? and 3. I'm lazy and didn't want to go grocery shopping.

I did want to make something by the TWD club this week though, so I chose to make Dorie's Perfection Pound Cake, originally chosen on January 22, 2008 way way way before I became a member. I chose to make this one a chocolate pound cake because I've had such good results with adding cocoa to my go to pound cake recipe.

Now, my thoughts on this cake? It was way dry. I thought so when I was looking at the batter, so I even added an extra egg. No luck. Another dry chocolate cake for me. I'm so sad. Apparently this time, its not just me though because after google'ing the TWD posts from that week in 2008, more often than not people said their cakes were dry too. In almost all recipes for pound cake that I see, people add sour cream or cream cheese. This one did not, and maybe that's the issue.

Either way, Dorie is still queen of the baking world. And her book is the best baking book I've ever owned. And I have a LOT of baking books. Go buy it!


And on a sad but getting a little better note, we had to put Ryan's dog Maly to sleep yesterday due to illness. :( Ryan wanted to get another puppy soon, and we found the last of a litter that was the only huskies within 100 miles so soon ended up being today.
Meet Max. Ryan calls him Mad Max, but I've never seen that movie.

TWD: Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake

Well, you would think, being the Cocoa-BUTTERMILK Birthday Cake, I would remember the buttermilk when I went shopping this afternoon. I...did not.

But I tried anyway! I tried to make a buttermilk substitute using lemon juice and regular milk. I'm not really sure if that was the problem, or the minute or two over that I baked it since I was busy stuffing my face with dinner while watching Jericho. Either way, my cake is supa dry. And I'm extremely sad. The flavor is great though, so one day when I don't forget my head at the store, I'll make it again. Did I mention I had a list in my hand when I was at the store?

Oh, and for the icing, I made a chocolate cream cheese icing to go on it. I was feeling lazy so I didn't make the one called for in the recipe.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary to the TWD club members!

If you want the recipe to my failure, its on pgs 256-257 of the BEST BAKING BOOK EVER!