Texas Barbeque

Going for barbeque in Texas is more or less a carnivorous orgy.  On the way home from work yesterday, I had an overwhelming yen for a two-meat plate smothered in tangy/spicy magic flanked by heaps of carbohydrates.  What mama wants, mama gets.

We went do Don's Depot, an odd little barn/hut along 290, run by a quartet of fervent Mexicans more interested in the Espana/Portugal World Cup game than dumping ice cream scoops of cherry cobbler into styrofoam cups. The barbeque, however, is enough to make me want to sing gospel tunes and do the Roger Rabbit at the same time.  My kids did their own damage to the plates - Monster polished off two pieces of Texas Toast (with a fork) in his continued boycott of all things not beige, and Ladybug snitched sloppy fistfuls of anything unattended, including a disastrous handful of sauce.

Here's the problem with going for barbeque:  I eat way too much of it.  I cram my face full of sauce-slathered sausage and brisket without coming up for air.  The remaining spaces between my cheeks as I barely chew the meat is filled with macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and what the restauranteur playfully dubs "green beans."  By the time I'm waddling out of the place, I feel like I've swallowed three bricks coated in shame sauce, and it sticks with me the rest of the day.

To add guilt to the gurgling pile, we got home yesterday to find our new Greenling box had arrived, filled with all sorts of leafy magic.  I noticed with dismay that, after the Writers' League of Texas Agent's Conference over the weekend, a lot of last week's vegetables were still in the fridge, many of them already looking past their prime.

To make up for it, I made a magical little salad, mostly free from guilt.  In the new CSA box were some gorgeous packs of butter beans and blueberries.  I sauteed the butter beans in butter, along with a hefty fistful of lemon basil, a chopped onion and some coarsely chopped elephant garlic.  After everything started to brown, I tossed it on a waiting bed of red butter lettuce, baby spinach, blueberries, shredded carrots and mozzarella cheese, and (because I can never help myself), coated it in flax seeds and panko breadcrumbs.