Boston Butt's and Football: A Marriage Made in Heaven

Warning:  The following may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13 and those who would hire Richard Sherman as their spokesman

This is one of the great "get together" times in sports.  The greatest Football day of the year is the NFC/ AFC Championship Game, followed two weeks later by the Superbowl.  This year featured two of the top five QB's of  All-Time facing each other.  And the best team won.  The NFC game featured the most physical teams in the league and it lived up to all the hype.  Here is a look into what happened after each game.

Brady, "Congrats and by the way, you really don't drive a Buick, right?  I've been meaning to ask.  Or do you deliver your Papa John's in it?  I don't have to do those lame endorsements because my Supermodel wife makes more money than we do combined."  Manning, "Dammit, I thought I finally got one up on you."

Jim, "Hey Pete congrats.  I know I looked angry all game, but really I'm constipated, so I have to run.  Then I have to go make reporters look like idiots."  Pete, "No worries dude, I own your sorry ass anyway.  Isn't that great?"

The Big Game should be all it's cracked up to be.  Take the Seahawks +2.  You are welcome.

We had some friends come over for the games.  Dan volunteered to smoke a boston butt and bring it over since we have three kids under five running around my house.  A side note, Dan recently was dubbed the Dry Rub Cinqo and he delivered on some delicious, mouth melting pork.

Here is his method that comes highly recommend:

The pork is cooked in the method from the new Adam Lang Perry's book "Serious BBQ", he is Dan's favorite chef whom specializes in meat.

He is also one of the few people that goes by three names and hasn't killed someone famous.  Think about it, John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman, James Earl Ray, etc.  If you become famous DROP THE MIDDLE NAME!  Or go Michael B. Jordan for obvious reasons (see Fruitvale Station, trust me).  If you are being referred to by all three of your names, the SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN.

Back to the Butt.  Start with the bone in boston butt (8.5lbs) "the shoulder" with green apple and red pepper flakes from Oak Grove Market - local and great meat!

Inject with apple juice and brown sugar.  Let it sit for two hours.

Use mustard rub with soy sauce and Worcestershire.  Then seasoned (chili/old bay/dry mustard/garlic/s&p) right before the Green Egg.

Use apple wood chips for flavoring- smoked 10 hours at 250 degrees.

Then wrapped it with cider vinegar/apple juice/brown sugar and butter. On the grill until temp hit 195.

Then wrap it in cellophane, to finish it off and place in a cooler for 1 hour.

Use the season again to blend over it.  Back on grill for another 30 mins and then swiped thick with enhanced BBQ sauce for 20 minutes.

BBQ sauce- base of Fox Bros Sauce with green apple micro-planed and red pepper flakes ground.

Animals were harmed to make this meal, but no animals were harmed making that shirt

Pulled the pork with bear claws and mixed with the sauce.

And voila!  This may be the most moist and flavorful pork I have ever had.  It went down like butter and we ended up in a food coma shortly there after.

Thanks for the great meal!  Can't wait for the Superbowl.

The General Muir

Warning:  The following may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13 and goyam.

The General Muir is self described as a true NY Jewish Delicatessen in Atlanta and it is as close as you'll get her in the ATL.  And it's properly situated near Emory University.  The General Muir has a good chance to dethrone the other culinary General, our friend General Tso.  Just kidding of course.  There is no Chinese food that is more "un" Chinese than pretender of a dish.  It's an embarrassment to Chinese food.  And probably an embarrassment to the General himself, may he rest in peace.

The General Muir Hamburger was in our Best Hamburger Tournament of Sixteen, but taken out by Miller Union in this Soprano's Tribute.  Their burger is close to Boccado's and Miller Union's offering ended up in the Championship Match, so there is not shame there.

We started out with quite a few appetizers.  The brussel sprouts were good, not as good as Valenza's, but tasty.  The deviled eggs were delicious too.

But the highlight of the app's was the Poutin.  It's a dish with fries, gravy, cheddar cheese curds, pastrami.  It should be renamed, "The Emory Cardiologist Special."

The Poutine- Tastes as good as it looks

The close second was this Pimento Cheese jar, with what else?  Pastrami!  I was very reminiscent the jars at Empire State South.

Pimento Cheese, Bagels and Pastrami.? Pass the yamaka!

Oh the other highlight was this nice bar......

Great bar area.  Melissa was great behind the bar and makes some great recommendations not just for drinks, but food

The Musar Jeune Red 2011 was a wonderful Lebanese wine from the Bekka Valley.  It was a delicious blend that complimented the Jewish fair perfectly.

I was surprised by how much I liked this wine

For my main dish I, of course, had pastrami.  But with a twist.  I had it with chopped liver, russian dressing on double baked rye.

My favorite deli meat is a good pastrami and previously the only good pastrami I could count on in Atlanta was Goldbergs (as I documented in our sandwich tournament), but the General Muirs is better.  And I love the many incarnations of the pastrami sandwich they provide.

Beth, our resident DR4 vegetarian Beth had the stewed lentils.  She couldn't help herself and dove in before we got this picture......

For a vegetarian dish, not bad, if you are into that sort of thing

The Hot Brown was ordered by two of our diners.  It's Challah bread, topped with turkey, pastrami, tomatoes and gravy.  They raved about it.

This dish was both hot and brown

Overall,  we loved the General Muir.  I really want to try their brunch which I hear is delicious.  We had a great meal with great wine and of course with great friends.

The Dry Rub Cinco!

REVISED Footnote (2/15/14):

I finally had the famous Smoked Hash with Pastrami at 8 am today.  Of course the one who said we had to be there at eight cancelled at the last minute, but we made it happen anyways!  And Katie, I couldn't do Chicken Liver at 8 am.  The pastrami and caramelized onions were a perfect compliment with the sunny side up eggs.

As good as it looked

SMOKED HASH crisped pastrami, potatoes, cabbage, peppers, caramelized onions, sunny eggs.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream- Westside Provisions

Warning:  The following may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13 and those that appreciate ice cream in the winter.

Also, please like our FACEBOOK Page as well.

Jeni's splendid ice creams is basically ice cream artistry.  The expectation is set high as they are setting up shop at Atlanta's infamous Westside Provisions.

Basically, it's gourmet ice cream with something for everyone.

Here are the flavors I was partial too.

This was my favorite, lots of flavor, the brittle was a nice texture change.  And anything with brown butter wins in my book.

The Brambleberry Crisp was my #2.  Which surprised me since I am not a big blackberry or raspberry consumer.  But this may be the most buttery ice cream I have ever had.  It was as smooth as a great Napa Valley Russian River Chardonnay or Johnny Walker Blue, but much more fattening.  Though it won't impact your decision making nearly as much.

This is their #1 seller and it was really good, but my #3.  If you like salty ice cream, I could see why this would be right in your wheelhouse.  They also had plenty of toppings as you will see below.

They also had some homemade ice cream sandwiches and had Bardorf & Bronson coffee as well.  If you want to head out for ice cream, I would highly recommend Jeni's over any chain parlor.

Here is a very satisfied customer!

Today's Footnote:

I have found one of the greatest YouTube clips ever.  Enjoy!