meat off 2: porkin'

Last week was spent mostly in preparation for Christmas: buying and wrapping gifts, sending out cards, the works. I did manage to get out both of the packages I needed to, and possibly even on time. We still have, oh, about half of our gifts to buy. We're getting there, I guess.

Yesterday Alfred and Kevin had their second round of meat competition: pulled pork! Look at how lovingly Gara and I are gazing at the pork shoulder.

This time Gara and I made mashed and sweet potatoes, Caesar salad, and cooked apples to go along with the pulled pork. Once again, the sides were spectacular.

After the meal (it was much closer this time but Alfred pulled out the win in the end) it was time for some more serious drinking, including various games. Beer pong was rather popular for awhile. Brian was so good they had to handicap him a little, although really I think Dylan was probably giving him moral support.

Later it became flip cup, then a few keg stands happened, along with approximately 70 jello shots throughout the night. Alfred definitely took part in flip cup, he was pretty good at it actually. And Lucy's a freaking machine! Kevin and Gara's lawn got kind of torn up in a neat little circle around the table, as you can see rather nicely in this picture.

This girl had to go easy on the booze, because I had to work today. Hurray! Only 1 more day of work until a week off though, so it's not too bad. Plus we made a whole $1.74 today, so totally worth it!

rib off!

(No pictures today, unfortunately we had no camera this Sunday because I had accidentally left it at Ilya and Mercedes' house. My bad.) This past Sunday we had a big event: the first ever Meat Off competition between Alfred and Kevin. They both have smokers, and when we were at Universal a few weeks back they got to talking and came up with the great idea to have competitions to see who's best at preparing various meat products. The first competition was ribs. Alfred makes some awesome ribs, but he was doubting himself a bit. He even tried a totally new recipe a week or so before the Rib Off, but it kind of sucked so he ended up going with his old standby for the competition. Anyway, I/we spent Sunday morning cooking: he started his ribs and helped with the cole slaw, and I finished the cole slaw and made cornbread and macaroni and cheese.

The rib off was at Kevin and Gara's house, and they had invited a whole crew to help us eat and judge. In the end I think there were about 12 people there. We watched the Jaguars game technically, but they played so badly that by the end only 1 person was paying any attention. I was a little worried we wouldn't have enough food, but in the end we had a ton of ribs, pulled pork, our sides, baked beans, cupcakes, and Oreo cheesecake (which was flipping amazing). And lots of beer. And tequila. And I think some rum and vodka. I managed to get away with only 1 tequila shot, plus several beers, while Alfred enjoyed at least 5 shots of tequila and God knows how many beers. Yeah, he was still drunk the next morning. I imagine Lucy had to prepare some formula for Ellie that night. They were playing that stupid game where you hit the top of someone's beer bottle with the bottom of yours and make their beer foam up, and glass ended up everywhere. I say "they" because I hate that game and steered clear. There was a dance party in the living room at one point; someone hit their head on the light fixture on the ceiling. It was really a lot of fun, hanging out with friends and eating a ton of good food. The cheesecake and mac and cheese were fan favorites, and as far as the ribs were concerned, general consensus was that Alfred's ribs edged out Kevin's. Which is good, because I kind of told him I wouldn't love him anymore if I didn't like his ribs better. But I did, so our marriage is safe. For now.... I hear Kevin makes a mean pork shoulder.