I Want My Mom To Be My Personal Chef

Though I guess she actually was for 18 years and then some, when I was home on college breaks!

Bottom line, that lady can cook.  When she says she's cooking, we all show up.  Honestly, our little foursome shows up when she's ordering pizza because we are always down for a free meal, but when she cooks I get a little crazy with excitement.

She had been telling me about this meal idea she saw on a blog (my mom is the one who introduced me to blogs in the first place, and got me into this!), and my mouth was watering just thinking about it.  Saturday she put it on the table and son (as they say here in the South), was it a-ma-zing.  Let me tell you a little about it.  I promise I am not trying to make you covet.

First she put two boston butts in the crockpot with a huge bottle of Mojo Marinade and let it cook for 8 hours.  Mojo Marinade has a citrus juice base, and when the meat was done it was sweet and juicy and falling apart.  

Then she basted bread with butter and olive oil and toasted it in the oven so it was crusty and crunchy.

Then she cut up mangos and sauteed some onions...

And also made a side of yellow rice and black beans which were so tasty.  She used some colorful gourmet peppers in the black beans. 

I piled the meat on that crusty bread, topped it with onions and mangos, and then dipped it all in extra juice.  It was so good that just thinking about it I feel like we need to have a moment of silence in appreciation of its good taste!  I could not stop eating and dipping and eating and dipping.

To top it off she also served this salad, modeled after the one served at The Columbia Restaurant, a famous Spanish restaurant here in Florida.  It has lettuce, tomato, sliced ham, sliced cheese, and my favorite, green olives.

The kids helped her squeeze fresh lemon on the salad...

Then she added freshly grated Romano cheese and served it with the The Columbia's famous 1905 salad dressing, a garlic and lemon infused vinaigrette. 

Everything was so fresh and filled with flavor, I was sopping up all that sweet juice from the meat with that crusty bread, and letting the taste of mango and onion and olive and tomato fill my senses.  The best part?  

It's not over yet.  Tonight my mom is serving the leftover beef on tortillas, and using the rest of the colorful gourmet peppers and mango to make some salsa to go with it.  

And I'm coming over!