Vegetarians-Avert Your Eyes

I went to a pig roast. I carved the pig. The end.

No really, let me tell you about it, before Lisa sees me posting all these pictures...
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love pigs. Honestly, I think they are cute, smart, fantastic animals, and I would own one or two if I had a farm. (to go with my goats)
I do, however, also respect their use as a food source. As I have mentioned before, I think bacon should be a deity, with me serving as high priestess. BBQ is an art form. I am a student of charcuterie. Sorry, I love me some pork products...

Lisa invited me to go to her brother's 50th birthday bash in Easton, PA, which just happened to also be a pig roast. I said an enthusiastic yes to that. I got to meet her wonderful family. One of her cousins has a boyfriend who is Filipino, and he and his family do traditional Filipino pig roasts. They arrived at Anthony's house around 6:30 last Saturday morning, and laid out a bbq pit in the yard. They had a pig that weighed about 65 pounds. They picked it up from a farm in Bucks County, cleaned and prepared, stuffed it with garlic and herbs, and sewed it up. A rotisserie set up was built for them at the local tech school so they had everything they needed. If I remember correctly, they said they brought about 150 pounds of charcoal briquettes for the day. The fire was built, and the heat moved into a ring around the perimeter of the pig on the spit. The motor started the piggy turning, the first beers were poured, and the long day of roasting began..

Well, we arrived around 3 in the afternoon. The pig was starting to look golden, but still had a few hours to go. I met the family, got myself a red cup of beer, and struck up a conversation with Pat and his brother Chris who were the pitmasters. I learned that traditional Filipino pig is rubbed with soy, and stuffed with lemongrass and taro, but since this group was pretty much 100 percent Italian, they did it with garlic and herbs. This is what it was looking like:

 

 

 

I know, I know, not the easiest thing to look at..

By about 5:30, it was time to remove our friend from the coals and let it sit for a bit before carving..

To go with the pork, the guys had brought a dish that looked like a pork lo mein (that's how they described it) and some lumpia, which are like a little beef and vegetable spring roll.

Somehow, I got roped into carving the pig. Luckily, Lisa had left for a few minutes to go pick up her father. She's not much for the meat eating, and certainly not much for watching her girlfriend dismember a pig...

Anyway, it was juicy, flavorful, wonderful...all those superlatives. It was great. The skin was crispy, the meat was succulent. It's not something you get to eat very often, so it was a nice treat. As much as I enjoyed my dinner, I much more enjoyed getting to meet Lisa's family. It's really nice to be around a large, close family. I feel honored and excited to be accepted into the Patti/Grossman clan.

 

Well, that's all for today. Time to start preparing for Thanksgivukkah. See y'all soon.

 

Who Knew?

According to HuffPost, today, October 3rd, is National Kale Day. Well, technically, it's the first Wednesday in October. I didn't get the memo. Thank goodness someone saw fit to post this valuable tidbit of information on the Facebook for me, or I would have missed it completely!

Actually, pretty much any day can be Kale Day in my world. And this is my favorite season in which to eat kale. Kale is one of those wonderful, healthy, versatile leafy greens that grows almost all year round. If you plant kale, there are two growing seasons, spring and fall. Or, just go to the store or farmer's market and buy it. Purple kale is considered more ornamental, green kale, more edible. You know, I think I've talked about kale before, but since I like it so much, you get to hear it again. Kale, my friends, has: more vitamin C than an orange, a ton of vitamin A, and contains alpha-linoleic acid, an omega-3 that's good for your brain, your heart, and can help reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes.

It's also easy to prepare in a myriad of ways. (love that word) You can use it as a side dish, simply sautéed with garlic, or mix it into brown rice, quinoa, risotto, pasta...One of my favorite ways to eat it is in soup. I make a wicked sausage, white bean and kale soup. You can do this with any kind of sausage, sweet or hot, pork or turkey. You can cut the sausage into pieces, or take it out of the casing. I start with the sausage, and let it sweat out a little of the fat, then add some diced onion and minced garlic. Then, chicken broth and a can of diced tomatoes, and a can or two of rinsed cannellini or navy beans. You can use fresh or dried herbs. I'm a big fan of thyme, but a little dried oregano is nice, too. And a bay leaf. Then add some chopped kale. It doesn't really have to simmer for too long, maybe 30-40 minutes. I also like to add a shot or two of hot sauce. You can reduce it to whatever consistency you like. Then, when serving, grate or shred some fresh parmesan or locatelli cheese on top and have a piece of crusty bread to dip in.

Really, I would have made this to take a picture of on this October evening, but it's 80 degrees here. You'll be seeing lots of soup in the coming months, as soon as it starts to chill out.

Go buy kale. You can even get it all cleaned and chopped in packages. Enjoy, and we'll be back here again soon, gang.