Sunday Family BBQ (Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Caprese Salad & Strawberry Poundcake)

The hubbs and I (okay mostly the hubbs) cleaned the house top to bottom yesterday. He got up at 6:15am expressly for the purpose of doctoring & putting his 7 lb pork butt into the gas grill for what would be a 14 hour cooking marathon. Was it worth it? A resounding YES! from the 6 adults who waited, and waited, and waited some more. It was AMAZING. Now if I can dig up the recipe. I have already been turned down on my request for him to "guest blog" because he doesn't want to "have to write it all down".

My contributions to the evening were: Caprese Salad. Strawberry Poundcake. Recipes below.

Garden Grown Caprese Salad

Here's what I used:

2 dozen fresh-picked cherry tomatoes (usually use roma)
1 lb fresh mozzarella cheese
1 bunch fresh sweet basil
2-3 tbsp good olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
S&P

Here's what I did:

I halved all my homegrown cherry tomatoes (never refrigerated - please don't refrigerate your tomatoes!) and threw them into a serving bowl. Added olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and generously sprinkled w/ S&P. I then covered it and let it sit for several hours on the counter to marinate.

Once we got closer to eating (see "waiting" notes above), I plucked the biggest, best basil leaves, stacked them on top of one another, rolled them into a "cigar" shape, and chopped them across their width. This gives the basil a "string" shape. Then I chopped once across their length to shorten them. I also took my fresh mozzarella ball, and cubed the mozzarella into little 1/2 x 1/2 cubes. It probably would have been better to get the leetle balls, and half them, to mirror the cherry tomatoes - but alas they were not on SALE and mozzarella is "espensive" around here.

Throw cheese and basil into the mix, and stir. Serve immediately. AMAZING. And so satisfying that I grew the little "maters" myself.

~

Strawberry Poundcake

Here's what I used:

2 big containers of strawberries, pitted, cut into 1/2"-ish pieces
2 tsp splenda (or sugar)

1 loaf Sarah Lee Poundcake (CHEATER!! I know. I'm so ashamed)

1 can Whipped Cream

Here's what I did:

Super easy. Add strawberries to bowl, sprinkle with sugar. Cover and let sit for an hour or two. The strawberries will begin to break down and create a juice. When ready to serve, slice the poundcake (head hanging in shame), top with strawberries, strawberry juice and whipped cream.

The Caprese Salad was a huge hit with the family. Everyone said it was the best they've ever had. I attribute it to the fresh, never fridged tomatoes. They were so incredibly sweet, it was almost unbearable. The strawberries were delicious. I need to get the husband unit to give me the pulled pork recipe, it was ridiculously succulent and just amazing. He's a bbq master, I bow to his grilling power.