A lesson in BBQ

Well I have returned...I know you were just so worried, but never fear darlins', I will not abandon you...even for the sweet smell of azalea bushes and buttermilk biscuits.

I mean to tell you, it truly is God's country down there, all green and warm without a single high-rise. Sweetpotato gets all upset that I'll be homesick everytime I visit, but blames me for leaving there in the first place. And I say to him, "well if I'd stayed there, you never would have met me," which of course forces him to recognize the great fortune fate has dealt him and leads to professions of love et cetera...but I digress.

So I want ya'll to know I was successful in Sweetpotato's breakfast biscuit conversion. He now sees the light and woke up Saturday morning practically draggin me to the Bojangles. Bless his heart, he still doesn't seem to grasp the Sweet Tea, but I'm thinking I'll give him at least one more visit before he's totally written off.

Not to disappoint anyone, but I didn't have time for as many fried items as I would have liked. I did, however, have a few helpins of Barbeque, which for all you Yankees, is a noun not a verb. In the North, folks throw burgers on a grill and say they're having a barbeque, which was right confusing for a time cause I couldn't see a pig anywhere! So let me break this down for ya.

Havin a "barbecue" means you will be serving pulled pork covered in a vinegar sauce if you are from Eastern N.C, or a spicy BBQ sauce if you're from the West. Sides are coleslaw, boiled new potatoes and hush puppies...ya'll do know what hush puppies are right? Baked Beans and fried chicken are also common additions, but only after coleslaw, potatoes and hush puppies, these are never optional. All barbeque is eaten on paper plates with plastic forks, cause clean-up = throw away.

Ya'll need to just stop with the rib tips and macaroni salad. Just using a grill means you're having a cook-out, and ya'll can just keep that mess, I can get hot dogs from the guy on the street corner, but North Carolina-style barbeque, now there's a lesson in pulled-pork perfection!

It's worth the price of a plane ticket and coupled with a big ol glass of sweet tea, you'll know just why we call it God's country in the Southern part of heaven;-)