Brooklyn BBQ

Ron and I have been taking advantage of the short time he's living in NYC by spending about every other weekend there - I still make him come home to Philly the other weekends! A couple of weeks ago we wanted to get out of Manhattan and do a Brooklyn bar crawl. One of Ron's coworkers gave him a list of places for us to check and at the top of that list was Fette Sau (that's German for fat pig). We got to Brooklyn a bit before they opened so we had a beer and a pickle plate at Spuyten Duyvil, an awesome little bar right across the street.

So back to Fette Sau - this is serious BBQ, beer, and whisky. The menu is a constantly rotating array of smoked meat and awesome sides. Ron went to the bar to order a couple of beers while I waiting on line to order our meat by the pound. We went for 1/2lb brisket, 1/2lb pork shoulder, brussels, broccoli salad and baked beans. You pay for everything then find a seat, we were there early so we didn't have any problems but soon after we sat down the line was out the door.

There are a few different options for BBQ sauce - some sweet, some hot, some mustardy...all good. The meat was a little bit sweet, just smokey enough and perfectly fall apart-y (that's a word, right?). Mmm.

We washed it all down with a couple of Blue Point Oatmeal Stouts and had a hearty base to continue on our bar crawl!

We have to stop meeting this way...

You know - this awkward "Oh hey, long time no see" thing. I make lame excuses why I haven't been around and you obviously don't buy them. Well sorry about that, I'll try not to be such a bad blogger!

I could keep make excuses...the holidays or wedding planning but really I just haven't been cooking all that much. Ron's been working in New York during the weeks and when it's just me I'm sticking with the basics. I'm also on the I-just-stuffed-my-face-for-an-entire-holiday-season-and-I-have-to-wear-a-wedding-dress-soon diet (you know the one!) which doesn't really lead to drool worthy meals. I've been eating well, don't get me wrong, just not a lot of new recipes. I currently have a Whole Foods rotisserie chicken addiction. I eat the dark meat for dinner the first couple of nights then turn the white meat into salads, soups or stews that I take for lunch all week. I even make stock out of the carcass - lots of bang for my buck!

Stick with me people...life's about to slow down a bit and I'll post some healthy recipes soon! But to hold you over how about a crappy picture of not healthy spicy caramel popcorn?

Another fantastic recipe from smitten kitchen. I used the entire amount of popcorn kernels but only made half the caramel, I also went heavy on the salt and light on the cayenne, I though it was perfect. This is really easy and super delicious, we made for our New Years Eve party and it went quick!