Soaking it all in

 I bought a small charcoal grill a while back for Mom and I to enjoy. Nothing fancy, just something we could use on the weekends to make burgers and stuff.  This past weekend I took a small pork shoulder Mom had in the freezer, marinated it with mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Spanish Mojo, BBQ sauce and herbs and spices. I wrapped the shoulder in tin foil for the first hour of grilling, then removed the foil and let if finish on the direct heat. I also bought some corn on the cob and soaked them in water for a few hours and placed them on the grill during the last hour of cooking. I also found some unsalted pork skin which I later tossed into my deep fryer for crispy Chicharrones (Fried pork rinds). I softened some butter in a nearly empty bottle of minced garlic.   I let the grill do all the work! Once done, I slathered the corn with the garlic butter and served up slices of the pork with a side of the fried pork skins! Simple yet delicious!

 Voting is important. Before you know it Nov. 3, will be here and you'll either have already cast your vote, or be caught waiting in long lines or completely discounted in your Civic Duty. I learned something extremely important today. In Georgia, you are allowed to request an absentee ballot and you have options to either mail it in or drop it off at designated poll locations during early voting and on Nov. 3. I ASSumed this was the case in all 50 states. It is NOT! Today I learned that in Tennessee the ONLY options allowed by law is to mail your absentee ballot by USPS, FedEx or UPS. Also the dates for early voting vary from state to state. In Georgia early voting starts Oct. 12. In Tennessee early voting is from Oct. 14 until Oct. 29. The deadlines to have your ballots mailed in may differ well. We all want our voices heard. It is imperative that you research the voting laws and requirements in your state and precinct. I'll be a first time voter in Tennessee this year so tha...

I’ve become a window watcher. I’m one of those folks who stares out the front window of my home each day just to see what is going on in my neighborhood.  Isn’t there a Hitchcock movie about this? My home office is set up in front of the two large windows in the living room. When I’m seated at my desk, I can glance out the window and see what’s going on. My window watching habit started off with the right intentions. You see, I have an old cat. She is 100 percent deaf. Can’t hear a dang thing! Zilch! Her name is Priscilla. But I call her Prissy (because she is). She is a polydactyl, which is a fancy way of saying she is a Hemingway cat, which is a fancy way of saying she has extra toes on her two front paws. In fact, her two front paws look like boxing gloves! Prissy has done well in settling into her new surroundings since the move. But she has always like being outside throughout the day. Mostly just watching the birds and sleeping under the covered driveway or shade tree. At our...

Like many folks trying to stay busy amid a pandemic, I’m trying my hand at gardening. I have zero skills when it comes to growing plants. My Dad had a green thumb, but it did not get passed down to me. I can kill a cactus, which seem to grow elsewhere with ease and no water.  I’ve seen some social media posts where folks are showing off their ornate raised gardens, bursting at the seams with watermelons, tomatoes and zucchini. I could get jealous but instead I message them and ask how they are tending to their garden to make it so lush and bountiful. I thought it would be easy to grow my own veggies and plants. I mean it seems simple. Buy some good soil, plant the seeds, or baby plant, add water and watch it grow. BUT IT’S NOT THAT EASY. You need the right type of soil for the plant. You need to feed your plants more than just water for it to grow. Some plants need 100 percent direct sunlight. Others need some shade, so they don’t burn and wither away to nothing.  Did you know...

The Florida Keys are set to open back up to tourist starting June 1. That stretch of islands surrounded by the aquamarine colored ocean is really the only thing I miss about living in Florida other than family still there. Years ago, we owned a tiny little RV that was permanently parked in a park in Key Largo. Years later we sold that RV and bought a mobile home in another park in Marathon, about an hour away from Key West. My fondest early adult memories were weekends spent at those two parks. The first park in Key Largo was smaller but we had a boat at that time.  These photos shows our first mini-mobile home in Key Largo. Yep that's a teenage (or younger) me getting some sun and fishing with my dog Fallon. Our second spot in Marathon was much larger and right on the water. It’s where Dad taught me how to captain the boat and also learned what not to do when stuck in a sand bar. It’s where I did some of my first offshore fishing with Dad, although not too fa...

When you think of tamales you tend to picture the ones you might buy at a Mexican or Latin shop, typically made with masa (corn dough) and cooked wrapped up in a banana leaf of corn husk. The tamale is stuffed with meat, cheese, chilies or vegetables depending on the taste preference, But Cubans invented a variation of the dish known as  tamal en cazuela , basically consisting of tamale masa with the meat, typically pork, stirred into the masa, and then cooked in a pot on the stove to form a kind of hearty cornmeal porridge . Mom and I took a pound of pork chunks and marinated them in some Mojo, cut onions, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Using a deep casserole pan we cooked the pork and onions in Olive Oil. Once cooked we set the pork aside. In the same casserole pan we added 1 and a half cups of finely ground corn meal and three cups of water, one seasoning pack of Sazon, some cumin, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Now is when the fun begins. Thi...

Mom doesn’t measure much as she’s been making this recipe for years. She uses a pressure cooker to soften the beans. If you don’t have a pressure cooker or afraid to use one you can use canned beans and get close to the real deal. The last big batch of black beans Mom and I made were done with the following: 3 cups dry black beans One Green and red pepper cut into chunks Spanish Olives 1 cup of Red Wine Olive Oil 1 Tablespoon of sugar 8 ounce can of tomato puree Cumin, garlic and onion powder Salt to taste We washed the beans and carefully picked out the ones that were bad or broken. We filled the pressure cooker with water covering the beans entirely with an extra few cups of water. Add in the peppers. Place the pressure cooker on the stove and cook on high until you pressure cooker top starts to move back and forth. At that point turn the heat down to medium and let them cook for at least 45 minutes. After 45 minutes remove from the heat and wait...

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. A while back I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah to cross it off my bucket list. Too crowded for my taste. But it’s time to break out the green clothing, paint little shamrocks on your cheeks, practice your Irish accent and jig and partake of tasty Irish libations. Let’s see, off the top of my head, those would include Irish coffee, Jameson whiskey, Guinness beer, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Poitin (their version of Moonshine). One at a time, of course, and not if you’re driving. St. Patrick’s Day is special for me beyond the traditional celebration of the man heralded for converting former Irish pagans to Catholicism. In a roundabout way, my mom named me after St. Patrick. My parents left Cuba in the June 15, 1958, amid the chaos, turmoil and struggles of then-dictator Fulgencio Batista and then the man who eventually overthrew him, Fidel Castro. My parents arrived in America, went to school, learned English, got jobs, be...