smoke in the water

let's see...last wednesday was barbecue pulled pork salad. it was delish. corn, black beans, tomatoes, the pork, and cornbread croutons (made from the leftover cornmeal pancakes by breaking them into pieces and tossing them in melted butter and honey), all on a bed of mixed greens (spinach, red leaf lettuce, and some baby lettuce from jen and bryan's garden).

THEN, saturday we planned to smoke some pork in jen and bryan's electric smoker. jen, oliver, and i decided to hit the mall for a bit before dinner. all was going well until a crazy storm began and boston had us on lock-down. they made us all go into one corner of the store and stay there for like an hour, until the tornado warning had passed. funny thing is, though, while talking to mom on the phone a while into this whole event, she said said the news said there was no longer a tornado warning, only thunderstorm warnings. boston store also announced that a tornado had touched down in elm grove, but again, nothing reported on the news. so idk where they were getting all their info from, but we *may* have been kept there unnecessarily long. it was great for their women's clothes and shoe department business, though. well, we were finally released and we went home. there we found out that the smoker had shorted out or something in the storm, and so the meat hadn't been cooking and wasn't nearly done. just when we were out of ideas for dinner, mom realized she had some sausages in the fridge she could cook up. thus, she saved the day (once again)! so, we served the sausages with golden sweet cornbread that i had made to go with the pork, which was delicious as always (good job jen for discovering that recipe ;) ). we boiled the ears of corn rather than grilling, and the sliced apples, which i had originally intended for the smoker, were baked in the oven. i tossed the apples with brown sugar and cinnamon and dotted them with butter, and baked them in foil. for dessert we had rhubarb pie with a gluten-free crust and fresh rhubarb from the peters garden. all in all, it turned out alright. not as planned, but we still managed. :p

so on sunday, we sliced the pork and heated it up for dinner and served it with barbecue sauce. it was really good. i made some mashed potatoes, and also served the leftover cornbread and some leftover coconut lemon squares.

today i was supposed to go to work, but my boss karen called me and is not able to get into the office. our office is right near the fox river in waukesha, and due to all the rain, the water level rose so high and the streets are all flooded, and you can't get in them. sooo, hopefully that gets cleaned up soon.

oh, it's always an adventure!