Jack is Cooking Tarts and BBQ for july 4th

Well Hello Internet!

what a july 4th!  we had our annual BBQ up on the farm.  This year i went with an old classic: Pulled Pork.  I (and Also Roland!) slow smoked 2 9 pound pork butts to pulling perfection!  and it was delicious.

we dry rubbed the pork and then coated it in our secret Raspberry - Chipotle BBQ sauce, and YES! its a SECRET! so i can't tell you how to make it!  ;-)

but the pork heres the trick:  you need a smoker.  you need it to be at around 225°.  after that its roughly 1.5 hours per pound.

Pork is generally cooked when it reaches 165° at its internal temperature.  however to pull it you want it to be at around 190° at its internal temperature.  this took us roughly 15 hours or so to smoke. 

after it reaches 190° it needs to rest for an hour or so.  and then in the final touch we put it back on the grill to warm it up just a little bit before the pulling.  and then a couple of forks and the whole thing should just fall apart into a delicious heap of stringy melty meat. mmmmmmmmmm

to go along with this, Julie made her Delicious Kale Salad recipe, which i hope she will post up here one day.  also she made a delicious Thai Peanut Noodle Salad.  Cooper made his Excellent Potato Salad, and his Awesome Cole Slaw to put inside of the pulled pork sandwiches.

Heres the plate! (photo courtesy of Rockin Moe...)

but wait.... thats not all!  i also made a super abundance of tartes!  freshly learned from my recent stint at pastry school!  All in the style of a Mandala!  This one has a lime curd base, and has raspberries surrounding blueberries and oranges spiraling towards the kiwi center crossed by strawberries

these smaller ones also have lime curd in them and have stawberries, blueberries, kiwi and orange

This tarte i poached some peaches, and put them over an almond cream filling with blackberries in the center

This next one, i made in the style of a Tarte Bourdalou, but didn't have any sliced almonds so i used blackberries instead!  a nice fresh summer touch.  it has poached pears over almond cream

and a linzer torte.  this one has a raspberry filling inside of a hazelnut crust

more fresh fruit!  this one has pastry cream in the filling, and has strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, golden raspberries, orange, and a kiwi

This tarte has the same fruits as the before mentioned, and the same filling, but was designed by OTO

a close-up

and then i made two tarte aux pommes- however with a twist of my own.  i love the almond cream so much that i put the almond cream inside under the apple compote and then topped them with apples in a nice design

and then!  we loaded them all into the car along with some other tartes, and come cakes, and FIREWORKS! for an awesome finale of tartes and fireworks! 

i can't believe that i didn't take a picture of the beautiful Old Glory Fruit Tarte that julie made!  but you can see it in there in the car on the bottom right!

mmmm mmmm delicious!