Lexington Barbecue

On a recent trip to Greensboro, North Carolina, my husband and I knew we wanted to have barbecue on the way home. I've had the Lexington style barbecue many times in Greensboro at a place called Stamey's, but I pushed to try barbecue in Lexington, North Carolina since it would be on our route home.

We went to a place called Lexington Barbecue in Lexington, North Carolina. This would give us the Lexington style barbecue for sure. If you're not familiar, this style of barbecue uses only the pork shoulder and has a very, very thin sauce made of ketchup, vinegar, pepper and probably water. It's very, very thin. There are no ribs, your only choice of meat is chopped, sliced, or roughly chopped.

The slaw I'm convinced is made of simply finely chopped cabbage that's left to sit in this same sauce until the cabbage is soft. And when you have a barbecue sandwich, you put the slaw on top of the meat. That's just how it's done.

With Slaw

The menu also of course had Cheerwine, and the sandwiches and almost everything included the slaw. The food was really good, our waitress was extremely friendly. The hush puppies were excellent! I had to request unsweetened tea (of course, sweet tea was the norm).

Lexington Barbecue is on Business I-85 which branches off Interstate 85. I would definitely recommend it as a place to try authentic Lexington style barbecue.

Cheerwine

6X12 Bundle Of Joy

Who knew I would enjoy my little garden so much? Not me. And now I think I'm addicted. It really doesn't require that much time out of my week, just watering when it's needed and occasional weeding.  I do walk out there every morning, just to see what's happening. And there's always something to pick. Right now it's green beans, butterbeans and tomatoes.

I planted black eyed peas about three weeks ago....they're going crazy. Not blooming yet, but we should have a lot of peas from just this one row.

Black-Eyed Peas

Okra

About a week and a half ago, I planted a row of okra and a small section of cucumbers called Lemon Cucumbers. Don't ask me why I planted them in an "X" configuration. I think I thought it would be easier to force them to grow up a trellis....we'll see.

Lemon Cucumber

We have five tomato plants and they all produce really well. We had to put netting over them because the birds were having a feast! The bell peppers are supposed to be red and yellow. So far, they're gorgeous, but I'm leaving them to see if they turn the color they're supposed to be. As for the carrots, well I think I need to leave them in the ground a little longer! But we did taste these minis and they tasted great!

Cooking Party: Southern Style

Last weekend was another installment of a monthly client in-home cooking party. The theme this week was cooking Southern style.  There were 12 guests and everyone was eager to learn how to cook something new.

I made a couple of appetizers to get us started: Butterbean Hummus and Pimento Cheese. Both were a big hit and gone by the time dinner was ready.

The menu for the meal: Homemade Chicken and Dumplings, Sauteed Collards and Spinach, and a Black Eyed Pea and Fennel Mix. The sauces you see on the plate are a tomato jam and an onion and pepper jam I made that were both really good with the peas and the collards.

Dessert was Peach Cobbler.

All the food was completely made from scratch. Everyone who came participated in cooking at least one dish and the food was great! Such a fun way to get people together for a night of learning and enjoying good food.