Marinated Vegetable Salad

Looking for a cool vegetable salad recipe that can make a bunch or just enough and keep for a while in the refrigerator?  This is it:  marinated vegetable salad.  I've made a gallon  for a wedding reception over in Gulf Shores, Alabama this weekend.  I'd provided the food for the bride's uncle's wedding several years ago.  In a little community like Leakesville, you grow up knowing everybody.  The father of the bride and his little brother were both in Mama's kindergarten;  their mother is a class mate of Brother #1, their uncle a class mate of Brother #3.  I'd line out all the other connections but it'd get confusing after a while.  You might be tempted to make a Southern joke.  The South doesn't need one more joke...

There's no specific recipe to this recipe.  I'll show you what all is in this salad, but use what you and your family likes.  It's quick to put together.  So quick I forgot to show you all the veggies draining in the colander.

Here are the ingredients for the vinaigrette:

Apple cider vinegar
White vinegar
Grapeseed oil
Vegetable oil
Celery seed
Dill weed
Garlic powder
Granulated sugar

There's a ratio for a sweet and sour vinaigrette:  equal amounts of sugar and vinegar and half as much oil as vinegar.  And whatever herbs and spices your taste buds are set on.  I like the bite of apple cider vinegar but there is such a thing as too much of it, so I use half white vinegar also.  I've also been enjoying lightening up olive oil recipes with grapeseed oil but it's kind of pricey and is used sparingly.  Celery seed and dill weed are always good in a salad but if you don't like them, don't use them, it's just that easy.

Put all the ingredients into a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup and microwave for three or four minutes.  Stir and microwave again another couple of minutes.  All you're doing is making sure the sugar is melted and incorporated.

I know.  This is where I stand to ladle jelly into jars.

You can see splatters of jelly all over the front of 

the microwave.  I should probably clean that

tomorrow.

In the meantime, open all your vegetables and put in a colander to drain.  Asparagus is delicious in this, but I didn't add it.  It's one of those acquired tastes that not everybody likes.  Water chestnuts give a nice crunch, even if they aren't real flavorful.  They're cut into thin strips to keep from having a mouthful of sort of tasteless crunchiness.

That's a sweet onion.  I'd forgotten green onions

so used what was on hand.  

MMMMmmmmm.  Wickles:  wickedly delicious pickles.

Or in this case wicked pepper strips.  They're a little

hot and a lot sweet.  More and more often they're 

getting added to salads right along with

homemade sweet pickles.

When the vinaigrette is finished and onions (to taste) are diced, all the well drained vegetables are placed in  a large container.  Add the vinaigrette.

Tadadaaaaa!  That's all there is to it!

Let it sit a couple of hours for the flavors to marry.

It's much better the next day and even MORE 

better several days later (please don't call

the Grammar Police).

After I'd put the salad all together I thought about transporting it Saturday and the amount of room the gallon jug would take up in the cooler and having to leave the precious jug with the clients and depend upon them to get it back to me.  The better thought was to put the salad  into a large ziplock bag in a baking dish.  Ziplock bags conform themselves around other things in coolers.  I won't feel sad about leaving a bag behind...

Y'all enjoy!

A New Sauce for the Fambly Reunion: Chipotle Blueberry Barbecue Sauce

A week from today the decendants of Robert Prine and Matilda Louise will be gathering in this home for the annual fambly reunion.  I love fambly, love having them here under the roof and in the yard of this 105 year old late Victorian home.  It's a potluck affair, but Cousin Ronny and I supply the meats:  ham, fried chicken, leftover ribs and sausages from Friday night's barbecue, and roasted/smoked pork loin.

Earlier in the week Mama and I picked blueberries from her rabbit's eye bushes.  A gallon of the large delicious fruit was harvested in no time and it was sent home with me.  I wanted to do something amazing with them and Mrs. Mary posted this recipe on Facebook for me.  It's just what was needed to go with the pork loin for the fambly reunion!

It is not my recipe and for the first making, I didn't tweak it in any way, sort, or fashion.  I wanted to share it with y'all 'cause it's so easy.   It's a little on the warm-ish side.  If you don't like heat used the adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers and don't put a a chipotle pepper in it!

Gather all the ingredients.

The brown sugar is peeking in the corner of the photo.

Put all ingredients in a non-reactive pot and cook until it's as thick as you like it.

This is actually a double batch in the pot.  And you really will want to use

a non-reactive pot.  The high acidity of the juice and berries can pull

a metal flavor out of an aluminum pot.

Tadadaaaaa!  I used the immersion blender to make the sauce a little smoother, it's a personal preference.  

And that's all there is to it.  I like it a lot, thinking this will be the go-to sauce, replacing Jezebel sauce, for roasted pork loin.  It definitely has some heat to it, but not so much you'll need a glass of milk to stop the burn.  Most of the fambly is going to love it.  We're hot and sweet that way...

Y'all enjoy!

Dave's Dad's Dry Rub Mix: the ONE recipe I can't give you

Many years ago the Happy Family lived in Grenada, Mississippi.   The service repairman that worked with the Fellow's dad used this dry rub mix on everything he grilled.  His own dad had come up with the spice mix years before.   A Memphis-style dry rub, it's good on just about every kind of meat you can bake, fry, smoke, or put on a grill.  It took much pleading and begging to get the recipe from the repairman all those 21 years ago.  I promised to never give it out because they wanted to market it,  it's just that excellent of a dry rub.

The recipe is so good, though, there's been lots of bantering in the gray matter as to where 21 years is long enough of a time for those good folks to get it on the store shelves or not and I can share a much requested recipe.  Well.  I decided I couldn't give out the ingredients or their proportions but I can certainly show you so if you want to come up with a fascimile in your kitchen, you can - just in time for grilling/smoking season.

Here are all the ingredients.  Pay attention to the order they're in and how many of each.

The bitty one is ground mustard.

Y'all wrote those down, right??  Okay.  Here's how much of each one (in order):

I don't use nearly as much salt as the recipe calls for,

preferring to salt the meat before marinating with the rub.

These are standard pint jars.

And here are the smaller amounts of spices:

The black pepper and garlic powder are reversed (oops).

And these are standard half-pint jars.

Pour them all in a recycled gallon mayo jug and shake vigorously, mixing all very well.  Not really.  Mix however you like!  This way is easy and almost no mess.  Chili powder somehow manages to jump to the counter when I try using a bowl and whisk/spoon/hand.  The jug keeps it contained.

The catsup on the counter is for next week's post:
Mama's Sweet Southern Barbecue Sauce!

Tadadaaaaa!  Put in a tight fitting jar (the large one is ours) and share with your neighbor.  It'll keep almost indefinitely and won't lump, as long as the lid is tight.  

The amounts shown were for a double batch of rub.  It makes approximately six cups of dry rub.  Most of the spices were purchased at the Dollar General Store and weren't expensive.  The only thing here that brand matters on is the seasoning salt.  The inexpensive stuff has too much salt - not enough flavor.

The pork ribs for the family reunion will be taken out of the freezer next Monday, rubbed with this Wednesday, and smoked Friday afternoon.  They're a Southern delight, served with Mama's barbecue sauce on the side.

Try it.  Customize it any way you like.  Want a sweeter rub?  Brown sugar is excellent.  Like a bit of heat?  Add a couple of tablespoons of cayenne.  Don't care for heat at all?  Take out the pepper and mustard - no problem.

So there.  A promise has been kept:  the recipe hasn't been given out.  Y'all enjoy!