Leave Some Buns For Me

In Happier Times

During this time of the pandemic with all the restaurants closed, and “stay at home” orders (for most of the United States), and much of the grocery store shelves bare of toilet paper, sugar and flour, it may be time to make some strategic moves for your meals to avoid going out as little as possible.

Of course, I am referring to those kinds of meals that might last all week, or even weeks. Yeah, it might get boring to eat the same thing everyday, but it in this time of financial woes and health woes…boring might not be such a bad thing.

First off…I’m not the greatest cook, but I have been practicing a lot since I retired. But recently I tried one of my Mom’s recipes. Something I had craved for a long time, but just really never had the desire to tackle…but I finally tackled it. CHICKEN and DUMPLINGS.

Yep, I tried her recipe and they were great. This was a couple of months ago when I first made these dumplings, and her recipe made enough for me and Lee Ann to eat on for an entire week. So last week, I made another batch of dumplings and again, they made enough for the entire week again. The great thing about lots of leftovers is that many times they are better as leftovers than they are fresh…Mom’s dumplings are no different. I recommend highly that you begin to make dishes at home that are good for more than one meal.

And that brings me to the “namesake” and title of this blog post. I BBQ/SMOKE a lot of meat. My favorite thing to smoke is ribs and pork butt. The ribs are pretty quick and easy, but usually good  for only one (2 at the most) meals. But with a pork butt, I can get numerous meals out of just one pork butt, and nowadays I never cook just one butt. Most of the time now, I cook 3-4 butts at the same time because it uses the same amount of fuel to smoke them (pellets in my case). Once they are done and I chop up the BBQ, I put it in multiple containers and freeze it. When I am ready for some “QUE”, I just pull out a container the day before I want to eat and by the next day it’s thawed out. When I want a sandwich or two, I just heat up in a skillet or even in the microwave and it’s almost as good as when it’s fresh. The BBQ can be kept in the freezer for months without  any loss of taste when it is warmed up. Plus, the thing about the BBQ, not can you use it on sandwiches, but it can be added to a baked potato, made into nachos, or added to baked beans. There are so many different combinations to be used for the BBQ and can be a mainstay during these pandemic times.

My only request is that when you go to the grocery store and hit that bread aisle, “LEAVE SOME BUNS FOR ME”.