Ask The Old Guy: We will mock you

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One thing I can do better than ask questions is give BBQ advice. I have spent 30 years as a food broker, with one of our specialties being pork. I have also cooked across the Carolinas and Georgia in BBQ events, as well as judging. I have a love of Eastern Carolina Sauce and also like the South Carolina style. I have developed a sauce I call hybrid as it is a blend of NC and SC at the same time.

1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Combine in a saucepan and lightly simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before use. It may or may not be to your liking, but give it a try!

Football, I am still refraining my comments at the moment and allowing time to pass. — Stephen, Columbia, SC

Sometimes letting your sauce cool is a good bit of advice when it comes to football takes as well as barbecue. Otherwise you end up giving Ahmad Gardner to the Panthers in your mock draft (See what I did there?).

Stephen clearly caught last week’s barbecue discussion, sparked by a trip to Dreamland. And his recipe has been printed and added to the file. Thanks for adding a new layer to our community. This Mailbag can be all things to all people. And as such, he becomes this week’s Friend Of The Mailbag, and will receive the appropriate honorarium as soon as the second shipment comes in.

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Well, cool Super Bowl. Now what? — Travis, Gastonia, NC

Now, we offseason. I have two particular traditions to commemorate the end of a football campaign that began in July and seemed about four or five years ago.

First, I take down my Christmas tree. They usually still smell great, but they’re starting to get a little crunchy by then. Unfortunately, the NFL, in its eternal quest for revenue, pushed the regular season back a week this year. That stretches the bonds of locally-sourced agricultural products past the point some people are comfortable with keeping in the home. So the wife and I negotiated, and compromised at the Senior Bowl instead (which means when I got home from Mobile, the tree was on the porch [At least it wasn’t the rest of my stuff]).

Secondly, I lay around on the couch for an entire day watching The Big Lebowski. It’s not the greatest movie ever made (that would be Blazing Saddles), but it does put you in a certain frame of mind that’s good for decompressing. Especially with a couple of white Russians.

Speaking of, when I was in Los Angeles last week, I tried to get our videographer/my driver The Tooter to take me to a Ralph’s grocery store, so I could write a check for 69 cents for a carton of half and half. But I forgot to pack my checkbook, or my robe. Next time.

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And, that’s probably as good a place to leave this one as any. Obviously, some of you aren’t golfers. But keep dropping your questions here, and we’ll keep getting to them on our non-linear offseason schedule (i.e. whenever the spirit moves us).