BOOKMARK THAT BARBECUE

Here’s one you can enter daily between now and September 29: Three nights at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to attend BARBECUE UNIVERSITY in May of next year. This sweeps is sponsored by Crisco, for reasons I have yet to determine. I generally do not associate grilling with Crisco. I do associate Crisco with piemaking.

Speaking of which, I very much enjoyed Amanda Hesser’s piece in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine. She discusses a book called “Humble Pie” by a piemaker named Anne Dimock. The piece includes a recipe for rhubarb pie. Anne Dimock doesn’t use butter in her crust. She only uses shortening, and the only shortening I use is Crisco. I like to add a bit of butter, per a recipe from the November 1983 issue of Gourmet Magazine. Gee, now I feel like baking a pie.

You can enter this sweeps daily, so bookmark that sucker and go for it!

To enter, click HERE.

Barbecue University is the brainchild of Steven Raichlen, an enterprising writer-cook entrepreneur in the best sense of the term. I have his book on Florida cuisine, "Miami Spice," which includes a fabuloso recipe from The Fontainebleau Hotel for cheesecake. Fresh cheesecake is like fresh fruit or vegetables: immeasurably superior.

I’ve never been to THE GREENBRIER. I’m partial to THE HOMESTEAD, another mountain resort in that neck of the woods, the hot-spring-dotted Alleghenies along the Virginia-West Virginia border. I hope acknowledging that predisposition won't disqualify me. I know if I won I'd warm up to The Greenbrier mighty fast.

As for barbecue, I could wax rhapsodic over that peerless marinade until the cows came home. Instead, I have to check the snake, the parakeets and our summer guest, the turtle.