Blimey! It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Sneaks up on me every year!
www.talklikeapirate.com/

Homemade Bacon

So my friend Ross convinced me to take a class at Foster & Dobbs a couple of weeks ago on making your own bacon. Yep, from scratch. Using real pork bellies. I thought, "why the heck would I want to go to that much work for something that I can easily buy at Costco for pretty cheap and it's really darn good?"

Well, I found out.

Yep.

Turns our that homemade bacon (and pancetta, which we also learned how to make) tastes totally different, and it's really amazing. The flavor, the texture! And it's really, really easy! If you think about it - industrial bacon is made from pigs that are, well, industrial, right? And the pigs that we have access to here in our neck of the woods are raised in Carlton. Oregon. Just an hour away. And they're treated well, and fed right and just better!

So, I ordered 17 pounds of pork bellies from hottie butcher Benjamin Dyer at Viande Meats (who taught the class), rounded up a few friends and we spent a night last week rubbin' those bellies with all sorts of amazing spice concoctions. Oh, right - the other thing about it is once you've got the basic ingredients (kosher salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrite) down, you get to add whatever spices your little heart desires. So it's personalized. Hmmmm. Can't find that at Costco!

Into the fridge went 8 slabs o' bellies, all rubbed and wrapped up. After curing for about five days, I rinsed the spices off the bacon and here's what they look like now. This weekend or sometime next week we'll smoke these for about five hours at 130 degrees, and then we'll have HOMEMADE BACON! The three slabs o' pancetta will sit in the fridge for another week or so to finish their cold cure and then they'll be ready, too.

We may never go back to packaged bacon again. Oh but then of course there are those times (often enough it seems) when we need to make bacon for 100. Maybe not all the time, then. :-)

Bye Bye Blackie

We interrupt this irregularly posted blog to honor one of the best cats ever. Blackie died suddenly yesterday, shocking us both and bumming us out entirely. He was a party cat and always wanted to be in the middle of the action. He'd hang out in the shop, the kitchen, the basement. He'd always snuggle on the sofa and welcome us home. He could jump to the top of the shop in a single bound and guarded our yard all day and night. Thank you, Blackie - on to your next life!

Ode to Puff Pastry

You are always in my freezer
and in my heart

Ready for savory or sweet
and as easy as a prom date

You make me always look good
And never complain when I handle you roughly

And, you - that little package of pre-cut squares
I love you most of all!

Gumbo with Guest Chef Jai

My friend and pro chef Jai recently returned from a trip to New Orleans, where she took some classes at the New Orleans Cooking School on St. Charles. So, girls night last week she hauled over--ON HER BIKE no less--boudin, andoullie, alligator, crawfish and all sorts of other goodies! We had fried alligator with a fantastic dipping sauce, I made crawfish ravigote (learned that in New Orleans, too), and Jai made a fantastic sausage and chicken gumbo.

Love the guest chefs! Bring 'em on!

Crawfish extravaganza

We were in New Orleans last week and took a cooking class at the New Orleans Cooking Experience. And what an experience it was! Chef Poppy Tooker, a renowned expert on Louisiana cuisine led a class of 10 at a 1780s-era plantation house. That day, she had been surprised by a "Throwdown" by Bobby Flay for the Food TV Network on gumbo and kicked his behind! Many funny stories throughout the night about that one. Can't wait to see the episode!

Our menu was:
Crawfish Ravigote, a very traditional appetizer, also made with crab or shrimp
Crawfish Bisque - done in the very traditional style with stuffed heads (that's those in the pic!)
Crawfish Etouffee - made in a very old style without a roux
Bananas Foster Bread Pudding

It was a beautiful, relaxing and intimate experience in the kitchen of that beautiful old house. An abundance of real Southern hospitality. Check it out if you ever get down there - www.neworleanscookingexperience.com

Can't wait to make these dishes here at home, but need to find a local source for real Louisiana crawfish, because as Poppy says "Friends don't let friends buy imported seafood."

Guest Chef Bunny

Our dear Chef Bunny made a guest appearance in our kitchen a week or so ago to prep some fabulous dishes for her website. The lovely thing about sharing your kitchen is that you get to eat it! So, I'm going to screw this up (help, Bunny!) but our first course is pictured here - beets and goat cheese. Main course was spiraled salmon with a mushroom duxelle over scallops and greens. And dessert was a rhubarb thingy with light and lovely almond-flavored wafers. All very yummy and new!

Ahh, It's good to know a private chef! :-) Look for her dinners coming soon to a Vortex near you!

Feeding 20 for a fun token

For a fun token each (that's 20 bucks), we fed the whole Groove Bomb crew for the entire ski weekend. Of course not including booze - that's just crazy talk :-)

Here was our menu:
Sat. (National Pig Day!) Night: black bean soup, chorizo white bean kale soup, salad, cookies
Sun. night: spaghetti, meatballs, salad, more cookies
GB lunches: turkey and salami sandwiches, bacon on a stick, yes more cookies, munchies, cider, hot chocolate
Breakfasts: bread, bagels, cream cheese, eggs, ham, smoked salmon, fruit, coffee, juice, milk, cream
Late night snackies: quesadillas

Bacon Brittle

Yes, you heard it right - bacon brittle! You know the ol' peanut brittle recipes where you caramelize sugar and corn syrup - this is basically that with bacon bits and pecans. Addictive.

And then - and THEN! - I broke this up and put it into peanut butter cookies. Yep. Bacon brittle peanut butter cookies. These yummy bites are now also on the menu for ski trip!

BTW, I must give credit to the cookbook "Everything is Better with Bacon," which I feel now I need to work my way through from beginning to end. Or maybe from end to beginning since that's where I started!

Bacon experiments

You all know about crack bacon, yes? Well, the other night I tried a new version. This one had:
- 2 T honey
- 1 T soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice blend

Broiled it for about 10 minutes, turning once, cut up into pieces and made a simple salad. Delic - but the honey does make more of a mess than the ol' brown sugar version.

I'm going to start experimenting with various glazes and spices and stuff!