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Photo Shoot: The Wood Pit BBQ

by Amy Roth Photography

Earlier this week, I spent a great afternoon with Lawrence and Kim at The Wood Pit in Montclair, NJ, shooting images for their website. Gil and I have been a huge fans of this restaurant since we fortified ourselves there before a Willie Nelson concert last year, so I was thrilled to finally go behind the scenes and watch Lawrence work his magic. I so rarely write about restaurants here, I’m sure I didn’t tell you about it on any of the occasions we visited, but if I had, it probably would’ve gone something like this: “Amazing BBQ. Go. Now.”

It’s a small, friendly place that gets all of the essentials so right I’d have a hard time recommending anything in particular, but if pressed, I’d encourage you to start with an order of chicken wings followed by the brisket on your first visit. Brisket’s the true test of a barbecue place (IMHO) and I’m pretty sure they’ve earned the tag “The Best BBQ in New Jersey” on that dish alone. And don’t forget dessert when […]

Mother and child reunion

A couple of months ago, I was inspired by Maggie Mason‘s Mighty Life List (a Bucket List for the young, healthy and positive-minded) to make my own (though I’m not so young and some might argue the other two points). As you probably could guess, quite a few cooking-related items are on there, despite their relative unimportance to the bigger stuff. But I’d argue that perfecting my smoker technique or turning out a sublime focaccia could add more value to my daily existence than seeing the Northern Lights, becoming fluent in French or going on an Auntie Mame-style journey around the world. (OK, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea.)

Not one to dawdle when I have a goal in mind, I took my first steps to making the Weber Smokey Mountain my bitch this weekend. I’ve selected Gary Wiviott as my mentor/guru/pitmaster for this journey, based on Jason Perlow’s review of his program […]

More grilling? Well, if you insist…

I fully intended to give you a rundown of our July 4th menu today, complete with a couple of lovely side salads inspired by Mark Bittman’s picnics column from last week, but today’s fare was ribs and there’s just no way I can write about vegetables at a time like this.

Since I first posted about the grilled vegetable salad I found on The Kitchen Sink, it’s been a weekly fixture on our table, so I knew Kristin’s featured recipe for baby back ribs wouldn’t disappoint. As ever, through poor planning or simple willfulness, I adapted the recipe a bit, but can’t imagine them being any better even with the full complement of ingredients.

The adaptations were fairly minor, but worth pointing out. To start, as embarrassing as it is for a Southern girl to admit, I have no bourbon in the house. Lucky for me, there is a lot of Jack leftover from some party or other, so that went into the glaze instead.

Though I seem to have an extremely well-stocked spice rack (okay, […]

They all axed for ‘cue

And I aim to please. With gorgeous weather predicted for this Memorial Day weekend, I knew I’d have to break out the smoker, and what better way to kick off the summer than with a 7 1/2-pound pork butt?

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Carolina in my mind

pork.jpg

Flexibility is the key to a happy marriage. Gil doesn’t complain about picking me up at the train station when I work late, and I don’t complain when he snores like a congested bulldog at night. Also, I suck it up when he changes our dinner plans on the fly by proposing to pick up BBQ from Bourbon BBQ, the new temple of smoked meats in Hawthorne, NJ.

Right. Like I’d ever turn that down.

Tonight, we ordered pulled pork and sausage along with beans and potato salad on the side, but was that good enough for me? Oh, no. Not when I can come up with some way to make things a little more difficult for myself.

I felt like Carolina pulled pork sandwiches, so I threw together a quick vinegar sauce (though I used only one teaspoon of salt instead of the full TWO TABLESPOONS –which must be a typo — called for in the recipe) and tossed it with with an even quicker slaw made of thinly sliced fennel and napa cabbage, sprinkled with brown mustard seeds. I was a little worried that the fennel wouldn’t be so good in […]