It's all about the meat

In my quest to make something new everyday, I have taken to going to the Farmer's Markets (FM) in the area for fresh produce, meat, and seafood. Much to my delight, these FM also have food vendors that sell you full meals! I know this defeats the purpose, but I consider it research. My research a couple of weeks ago led me to the Ranchwood Deli and Catering booth at the Adams Avenue FM. I was there with my friends Michele and Scott (the bastards are sipping sangria in Spain at the moment), who go to this FM weekly, and have a seafood guy they trust and buy from regularly. When we stopped by his booth, he was going on and on about this "parfait of meat" that one of the other vendors was making him. He described it as "a cup filled with one layer of meat, a layer of mashed potatoes, a layer of meat, and another layer of mashed potatoes". But, on this particular day, we were lucky enough to be witness to the ULTIMATE PARFAIT OF MEAT. Instead of the last layer of mashed potatoes, it was a layer of mac n cheese.

Although this sounded disgusting to me, I also felt an absolute need to see what this parfait was all about. Michele, Scott and I sauntered over to the Ranchwood booth and watched the intricate preparation of this parfait. I am pretty sure that the drool stains are still visible on the pavement. Brisket, mashed potatoes, pork, mac n cheese. COME TO MAMA!!!

While we were still wiping the drool from our chins, someone walked by, let out a low whistle and said "that's a heart attack in a cup". Since we were not looking to have a heart attack that day, we settled for buying 1/2lb of mixed meat and a little sample cup of the mac n cheese. My friend Michele is a little nutty about mac n cheese, and I think this stuff was like crack. It's a super secret recipe involving jalapenos. Don't worry Michele, one of these days I will crack  the recipe for you, pun intended.

While dreaming about the parfait of meat later that evening, I settled in the kitchen  and made poached eggs for the first time. I know, it's not exciting, but combined with my meat purchase, their special BBQ sauce, and a beer, it was a delicious meal. Maybe I can incorporate eggs into my own version of the parfait of meat...

*Thank you to Scott for sending me the above picture in an e-mail with subject line "GOTTA LOVE THAT MEAT!" As Michele and Scott enjoy their European tour of France, Spain, and Portugal, I appreciate that they consider me a good enough friend to  "try and sneak a crepe for you in my luggage, roll it up and you can iron it back out flat".