Erin and I attended a pop-up dinner at Crook's Corner, in Chapel Hill, earlier this week, organized by Pableaux Johnson, a New Orleans-based photographer. He is on the road this summer with his #redbeansroadshow, in which he cooks up a simple meal of red beans and his grandfather's cornbread, along with tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwiches and deviled eggs. 

My friend and mentor, Paul Jones -- he's mentioned in my Zuiker Chronicles post about our dinner in Paris earlier this month -- snapped a pic of Pableaux explaining the reason for the night: Put your phones away, food is served family style, enjoy and talk with your tablemates.

So we did. The food was delicious. I talked at length with Sheila Neal, project coordinator for NC Choices. Sheila is organizing a conference for Carolina women working in the meat business. Just a couple days before, I'd made osso buco with beef shank I'd bought from Chapel Hill Creamery, a women-owned business that sells really good cheese at the Carrboro Farmers Market. Sheila and her husband, Matt, are owners of the acclaimed Neal's Deli in Carrboro, and they're friends with a couple couples that Erin and I know well.

So, it was an enjoyable evening on the humid patio of Crook's, where I had enjoyed brunch and a conversation with Dave Winer back in 2005. That conversation led to my many BlogTogether activities. The red beans dinner this week reminded me of my previous The Long Table dinners, and rekindled the back-burner idea to do my part to bring people together for good food, good conversation and stronger community.

BBQ

This week, I also made pulled pork barbecue, using a pork butt I bought at the farmers market, and following the Eastern North Carolina BBQ technique of my friend, Michael Ruhlman. I first seared the pork butt on the hot side of the small charcoal grill, then moved it to the cool side, added wet hickory chips, and smoked the pork for 30 minutes, then moved it to the oven for six hours. The next day, when we dug in, it was delicious. Of course, I'm lucky in that I have at least three good BBQ places within a 10-minute drive. But this home BBQ technique is a winner.