Here's Rebecca's barbecue, made in Catherine's crock pot. Barbecue is a funny, regional thing. I grew up eating this barbecue when I was at home and this when we visited my grandmother in Illinois. When we got back south, I was introduced it to a whole new way of enjoying barbecue.

With my dad in town, barbecue seemed a good thing to have around, so I asked Nurse Rebecca to share her recipe. Her family takes this stuff seriously, and I knew I could count on some good help. Am I allowed to reveal, Rebecca? Hope so, 'cause here is the recipe.

We got a pork butt, recommended over the shoulder for better flavor. She said to eye the size to fit in my crock pot, and of course I'm lousy at this because when I put the butt in my crock pot, the lid sat about two inches above the lip of the pot. Fortunately we still had Catherine's crock pot from cooking camp. Here's how that conversation went.

        My dad: (laughing uncontrollably).
        Me: (musing) Do we still have Catherine's crock pot?
        Neel: (relieved) It's in the car.
        Me: Go, go, go...

So we continue. Score the butt (Isn't that a sentence I never dreamed I'd write?) and salt and pepper it. Pop it in your borrowed crock pot and fill with cider vinegar. Let it cook on low overnight (for 8-10 hours). Next day, pull the pork apart (This was really hard because the pork was so tender.), and mince, if desired. We did desire and based on Rebecca's recommendation, we used kitchen shears for that part. The minced pork went into my, smaller, crock pot, and to that we added a bottle of barbecue sauce (Rebecca recommended Peter's Beach Barbecue sauce but we couldn't find any...despite trying three grocery stores, and some of them twice!), more salt and pepper, more cider vinegar to get the consistency right and some Texas Pete's to taste. Heat and serve.

So the important things about NC barbecue are the cider and the slaw. My dad refused to do it, but as soon as we moved here Neel and I conformed, and your slaw goes ON the sandwich, not beside it. Trust me. It's good. And now we have leftovers.