July 2006 Archives

Every epoch or so I'm compelled to come down from the hills and move about the city streets in an effort to enrich my life. Sometimes it's for fancy restaurant food, sometimes for movies or books. This time I was wrastled out for a musical. I believe a musical is like a play, but it's got a lot of music thrown in there.
Chilebrown said he had a ticket for me if I'd like to go this musical. It sounded like fun and besides, we wanted to visit Big Nates Barbecue.

A warm summer's evening, the sun goes down on yet another beautiful July. The boy's hair has been growing at an alarming rate. I'm one of those fathers that curse the electric company and spew as I run the house turning off each bulb, each computer monitor and check the fridge door. If I could milk my own cows to save forty cents, I'd be there.
Mama has asked me over and over again to take the boys to get their hairs cut. I agreed at the time, but knew I could save a few bucks by doing it myself. At eleven years old Z has met my hair cutting 'skill' more than a few times, which is why Mama wants me to have it correctly done.

I had my way tonight and before anyone knew it, they were shorn.

They will surely get hassled by mates, but I saved over 20 dollars.

Do you remmeber?

I have no idea what or where a Lomo is. Good thing they put something in italics below that reads, "Heritage Berkshire Double Rib Pork Loin Roasts." That right there told me what I wanted to know. And I have had these before. Do you know where they belong? In our smokers, that's where. Why? Because it's too damned hot for roasting in doors.
Listen up, if you don't have a grill or smoker, go get one. You can find them at any Mega-Lo mart, club type store and our local Raley's has them. Even the lowest of the lowly will out cook, out flavor any propane rig. At the same time git yourself a grill brush, heavy leather gloves, bag of some charcoaled wood (mesquite or hardwood lump) and a starting device that doesn't include liquid fuel. Okay, so get 2 bags of charcoal. Go home and practice making a few fires. Read the instructions that came with the grill and/or bag of wood. Run a few fires through it, get to know the fire. See what's hot and what's not. Make sure you set your coals so you have a cool side and a hot side. Then for crissakes throw some meat on there! Through some onions,mushrooms and marinated eggplant. GO !!!
Next up we have some wonderful Pork Crepinettes with Summer Chanterelles. There's no match like pork and mushrooms, no sir. The richy goodness of the fancy pork and the heady love of mushrooms do a number on your buds. You will be happy. When grilling the crepinettes, be careful. That fatty webbing can really turn your fire in to a smoky gush of flame. Put your meat to the cool side and put the lid on your grill, vents open. If it's really bad, close the upper vents for 10 seconds or so, then reopen. Leave the lid on for 10 minutes or so until the fire cools down. The crepinettes may or may not be done by then. If not, toss back to direct. See? It's easy. Oh yeah, don't forget to wear your gloves, foo.
Ya know what's really good on the grill? As a nice patty? Is the breakfast sausage. I've done this many times and it comes out smoky wonderful. Not quite as breakfasty as you'd think. Aromatic Porky Patty, that's APP in the grill world.
Ah, this is a good week for getting outdoors and enjoying the garden. And what's better then standing in your garden while it's being flooded with real wood charcoal smoke interleaved with meat fumes? That's right, nothing.

I hope to see you at the market on Saturday. Take care,

Biggles

See, once a week the boys get to spend the entire afternoon over at my Uncle's. Why is this so great? Uncle Ralph's is a place where there are no limits to canned soup, packaged noodles, candy, juice, soda, shopping, ice cream store visits and whatever else comes along. Uncle Ralph also happens to be living in our family stronghold, they moved in to this area in 1946. I grew up in that yard picking plums, oranges, pears, apples, cherries and whatever else we could find. Then we'd march off to the kitchen and Gramma would bake a few pies, preserve some fruit and make pickles rolled up in ham slices.

Time has come and gone, the garden has changed over the years and Gramm is doing such things in a loftier place these days. Even after all this time, with a lot of hard work from Ralph, the yard is producing some amazing goodies this year. One of which would be these fancy blackberries. I showed up to pick up the kidlets and he handed me 8 cups worth. Each one as sweet as the next. Time to make jam.

I've never made jam. And since Mama can't have sugar, this task was even tougher. I don't know the chemistry of such things, so I had to resort to reading a book, Joy of Cooking.
I washed the berries and put them in a non-reactive pot. Added 2 finely diced apples, cored and peeled. Apparently these berries don't have much pectin, the stuff that will hold the jam together. Get warm and mooshy. All we had left was about a 1/2 cup of Splenda and off I went. Sorry about the Splenda, sugar isn't an option. Diabetes ain't nothing to screw with, not even once.
Here's the killer, sugar will thicken the jam. Splenda will not. So, I had to just cook it until I thought it was 'together', whatever that meant. It probably took me most of an hour and I called it done.

I did not preserve the jam, it's fresh and we'll consume it quickly. Since the berries were perfectly sweet, the missed refined sugar really isn't. I don't know if the apples did anything, but who cares. The results are absolutely wonderful and I'm very happy with myself. Yipppeeee!

Biggles

This recipe was given to me by Gramma D'Alessio a handful of years ago. I was seeking something off the beaten path for my typical American ways of tomato based sauces. She hit the nail right on the head with this one. She's been cooking for so long, you know damned well she doesn't necessarily work from recipes. Spoonfuls of this, handfuls of that and if an ingredient doesn't pass muster? Use something else or leave it out altogether. When is it done? When it's done. This is why I didn't probe for exact amounts. All I wanted was her story. What did she usually use? 1 or 2 pinches? What does she see, smell, taste and feel?

This is a simple love of ingredients that when fawned over will produce a warm, rich and inviting sauce. This will easily go right over ravioli, use as a poaching base for seafood or for a dressing around meats & veggies.

Wanna come see?

As I sit to write, the knot in my stomach tightens. The aroma still lingers on my hands, in my beard, I fear not wash. Dear Sugo, do not leave.

You and I met summers ago, at a market, at a stand. This container of careful meat stewing. Your master, ever smiling knew it would entice, steer me back for more. You Sugo, are my crack. Week after week, year after year your flavors never wandered. Warmed on toast? With fresh 'maters added? You even replaced my meat sauce, never looked back. The delight in the eyes of the children each week, guaranteed dinner splendor. Tiny E never tried, but he knew the lineage and was calmed by your presence.

Everyone loves you, everyone cares. Dear Sugo, do not leave.

I leave you today in tears. Farewell to thee dear Sugo.

Biggles

This, right here is hands down the best Fatted Calf Newsletter ever. This one. Today. Right now. I have nothing to add or blabber about. Toponia, you are the queen.

Please read on to poetic meaty love.

I have several friends that have the name Paul. One drives to Oregon for bacon and one I've known since 2nd grade. Let's call him Uncle Paul, mmm kay?

Uncle Paul has recently purchased a home near Dittmer's Wurst Haus. 2 weeks ago the boys and I drove down and helped him move the large items, umph. We had a great time checking out the new digs and later in the day we did some cold beers with grilled tasty pork. No time for poor Dittmer.

"What to do !?! What to do !?" cried the engineer.

Here is the opening slices of the smoked & stuffed lamb leg from the 4th. Yes, it was that good.

I feel funny. Like I had 2 Monday's this week. Work Monday, eat Tuesday, back to work on Wednesday. Yup, 2 Mondays, this can't possibly be a good thing. So, when the Fatted Calf Newsletter rolled in, I felt a little better and it grounded me as to where I am in the day.

This week's menu steers towards ease of prep and no fuss. I had the lamb brochettes (meat on sticks) a few weeks ago and now they gots pork brochettes. Damned they were good, and easy. Not that grilling a crepinette is all that tough in itself. But you don't even have to put the meat on the sticks, just my style. Open package and insert to fire, turn, eat. They good, you get.

The pork crepinettes this week is stuffed with chard, lemon and pine nuts. Heeeee, it makes my toes curl when I even remotely consider seeing them lay on my grill. Cook carefully my peoples, they tender. Do not over cook, dry pork sucks.

The newsletter mentions Ciccioli. I googled it and it seems kinda like a creamy pate deal. I've clearly never had it, but I'd like to stick my face in and wooly it about a little to see what the scoop is. Maybe this weekend?

I see something else looming out of the meat pile, Salami Cotto. While I know we've all had some of this at one time or another, I'd like to see what Fatted Calf does with it. The stuff we find at our local grocery store is usually just a bland & fatty piece of nothin'. I can't imagine Taylor doing anything remotely like that. I'm going to try some, fer sure.

As my eyes wander around, I notice clear down there at the bottom I see something about Beef Jerky. Eh? That's new too. What's that about? Beef Jerky?

Ooo Ooo Ooo, hey! I nearly missed it but they've got the Sicilian al' Arancia this week. This is still my favorite meat stick. It's a little bright and happy Sicillian salami with orange zest in it. Not sure why, but it really makes my day to bite in to a little slice. MmmMmMm, citrus zest.

I can hardly wait for Satuday, I've got all kinds of great things planned for the day. I hope to see you at the market!

Biggles

ps - If you want to have any near remote chance of picked up the brochettes this week, I would strongly suggest you pre-order your needs today.

Ah, what's in the smoker right now? A 7 pound lamb leg. Bone removed and butterflyed open. Stuffed with extra virgin, s&p, fresh cilantro, toasted corriander & cumin seeds, special spices (curry like), fresh crushed garlic and lemon zest. Reinstall bone, tie up roast and put way down in the smoker for hours.
This is what it looks like right now. As it happens. You're seeing it. No lie.

xo

Ah yes, the July 4th grilling holiday. Oh sure we have Memorial Day as well, but you have to admit, there's something about July 4th that just screams mesquited meat nuptials. As with Thanksgiving Day meals, this day brings out the home chef that may be better off attending someone else's party. Oh no, not you. You figure you can handle it. How tough could it be? All you have to do is prepare/season/marinade the meat, build & maintain a fire, cook to perfection and serve. What could possibly go wrong?

Ith pretty.