In my family, and in my region, barbecue is a big deal. Everyone has their favorite. I'm very, very lucky that I married a man that grew up only an hour away from my hometown. He understands barbecue. He likes the same type as me. Whew. I'd hate to be in a mixed marriage. Or worse yet, in a marriage with someone that considered grilling out hamburgers "barbecue".
Thank you, God, that you care about the small things.
So, this week's meal is two meals. The first is simple. Barbecued pork butt, corn on the cob, and baked beans. Generally, in the summer, my husband does the butt on the grill, but if the weather doesn't cooperate, I've had good luck slow roasting in the oven. It isn't barbecue, but it's pretty good. We like a variety of barbecue sauce in our house, from vinegar based to ketchup based to the hybrid unique to my hometown, half vinegar, half ketchup based. It's good stuff. If we have pork for supper, I generally make 2 or 3 sauces to go with it. This (without the liquid smoke) is one of them. And, for baked beans, well, y'all, I'm still in love with the lowly pork n' beans in a can from my childhood. There you go. Dirty food secrets.
Pork--on sale $1.69/lb--cook it all, eat about 1 pound--$1.69
Corn--on sale 4/$1--$1
Baked beans--approx $0.50/can--$1
Ketchup--on sale buy one, get one free--$0.87/bottle--1 cup for sauce--$0.30
spices, brown sugar, worchestershire for sauce--$0.20
Total cost for this meal--$4.19
Then, for the leftovers...Brunswick stew. In talking to my friends from other parts of the country, many of them have never had this meal. Shocking! Honestly, that's crazy talk to me. There are as many ways to make this as there are people, but here's how I do it. This is based on a recipe from the cookbook, Best of the Best from Georgia. We love stew, and anytime I can talk Mike into barbecueing, I get him to make extra meat just for the stew. Extra meat also freezes well, so sometimes I get him to do a ton, so we can have this meal anytime.
1 pound leftover pork--on sale--$1.69
1 pound leftover chicken--on sale--$1.69
Hot sauce, to taste, 1+ teaspoons
Worchestershire to taste, but 2+ tablespoons
Barbecue sauce to taste, 1/2 cup+--leftover from your barbecue meal--free
Lemon juice to taste
White vinegar to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups ketchup--on sale--$0.45
2 cups diced potato, cooked--on sale $1.97/5 lbs--$0.40
1 package frozen corn--approx $1
Enough water to get it to a soupy consistency (how's that for precise? LOL)
You just throw all that in a pot, simmer for 30 minutes to 3 hours, then serve. You'll noticed that there is a lot of "to taste." It's because stew is really very, very personal. In some parts of the world (um, Alabama), they put lima beans in the stew. Here's another (chicken only) take on the recipe from southernplate.com (she has some great recipes so if you haven't already, check her out!).
In my house, we also run the whole thing through the food processor so that it has a more chopped texture. That's just us, though, cause we love a local place that does the same. Lots of people just leave it as is, and that's not bad, either. Brunswick stew serves a lot. We usually freeze half for another busy day (and it's a huge treat to find it in the freezer), so I'd say it easily serves 8.
We eat this with white bread, potato chips, and slaw. Healthy I tell ya, healthy.
White (loaf) bread--nothing fancy here--approx $1
Chips--approx $1
Slaw--we'll be generous and call it $1, too
Total cost (for 4)--half of stew, plus sides--$5.62
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