Guest Lunch Report: John Hardy's BBQ, Rochester, MN

My sister Susan, her husband Paul (the couple on the left) and friends Ron and Kris (You may recall Ron is the guy who sent us the crazy food pictures from China) took a drive today.They all live up in Minnesota, a retirement place for SNL writers. Anywhoo, during their drive, the decided to stop into a BBQ place - yes, all the way up in Minnesota, called John Hardy's Bar-B-Q.Susan tells me, "Thought you'd like some of the food pics for your TX friends who make their way up to the northland."
And apparently, she was pretty excited about the menu - they offer okra. Not like what we have here for kids, all fried-up, but actual cooked okra without any breading to cover the taste of the, well, the okra. Look at that turkey! Far healthier than anything I've had since last Thanksgiving.

She also says, "Okra and black eyed peas, if you can imagine. By the way, we planted okra in our Blue Cross garden again this year, and I learned from Mom to pick it early before it gets tough. Send recipes if you have them - we deliver recipes to the food shelf with any of our non-MN-traditional crops."She was hoping that the smoked turkey they enjoyed wasn't one of the ones that frequent Steve's (my nephew) bird/pheasant/squirrel/rabbit/vole/turkey feeder in the back yard. Look at those chips. Do you suppose they are regular Lay's or some specialty cooked right there in John Hardy's? I think they are called "Jo jos". Susan says they are also used in Minnesota hot dish recipes. The pork there looks pretty good too.

Really, other than the okra, it all looks might tasty!