Awesome Sauce!

From our food editor Verla Burrell-Bordelon:

We grilled some chicken tonight.  In the middle of February.  When temperatures are normally in the 30s, it was over 70-degrees today, so we grilled chicken out on our back deck.  I s’pose with Global Warming, we’ll be grilling out more often.

We used a barbeque sauce from Dickinson’s BBQ Manufacturing Plant  in Washerst, PA, the birthplace of Emmett Lee Dickinson.  The recipe originated from the kitchen of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed –at her request).   A variety of Dickinson’s barbeque sauces are still manufactured at the plant in Washerst. 

Pictured at the left:  Dickinson's BBQ Sauce Manufacturing Plant in historic Washerst, PA.

Pictured below:  Some of the sauces produced at Dickinson's BBQ Sauce Manufacturing Plant:

 
Emmett Lee’s original sauce, "White Heat," was a favorite of Emily’s.  In a letter to Louise and Frances Norcross she wrote, “I resist temptation and run into the kitchen as fast as my feet will carry me.  Vinnie has barbequed  a full rack of ribs using dear Emmett Lee’s recipe as sauce.  As usual, these ribs are my estate!  Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them!”

Pictured at the left:  A letter to Louise and Frances Norcross from Emily Dickinson raving about a full rack of ribs barbequed by Lavinia Dickinson. Click the image to enlarge. 

Of course, all of this talk of barbeque and climate change made me think of Emmett Lee Dickinson's now-classic poem "Remembering a Climate" (below on the left).  His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Conjecturing a Climate" (below on the right).  Enjoy!

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Remembering a Climate
In never-ending Sun –
Adds poignancy to Winter –
When all the Seasons are gone
 
So our factitious Planet
Is left out in the Cold –
Now obviated of Degrees –
Soon erased – and Barbequed –

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Conjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns –
Adds poignancy to Winter –
The Shivering Fancy turns
 
To a fictitious Country
To palliate a Cold –
Not obviated of Degree –
Nor erased – of Latitude –