Yep. Bacon. Again. It seems I’ve written about it so much it must be redundant to do so again. But it is not. The more I work with pork, the more I love it. So versatile. It seems to embrace transformation and elevation while maintaining an undeniable humility. This batch was 10 lbs of skin-on [...]

In response to my serving anything I’ve smoked: “Oh, you have a smoker? What kind do you have?”. I then answer, knowing the answer will create an assumption of half-assedness. “I use my BBQ”. End of conversation, typically. Despite my desire to reassure them it is not half-assed and actually does a fine job, I [...]

I’m very behind with posting. Fortunately my computer overlooks my smoking setup, so that I can type away while keeping watch on the now-smoking-bacon from this fall’s pig butchering event. Trying to avoid last time’s mistake. I’ve been meaning to post about my apple wine, as it’s been a remarkable success. Phenomenal break through. It [...]

This is not what bacon should look like, just coming off the smoke. This is what bacon looks like when you figure all is going smoothly, and head out with the family shopping for groceries. And instead of coming home to the anticipated wisp of smoke that needs tending, coming home to a huge grease [...]

After much consideration of what to eat and drink on my birthday, I settled on: small bits of things to eat, and small bits of things to drink. The warm weather demanded al fresco – which meant cooking on a fire. Skewers of veg, beef steak, tomatoes straight from the plant, Oka cheese, and more [...]

Stangely, film created a significant pinot noir fad and a merlot sag in the wine market a few years back. In hindsight, it doesn’t seem to make much sense – although I suppose neither holywood nor fads do. My take on pinot noir is that most people aren’t big fans when it boils right down [...]

It was bacon smoking day. What to eat while smoking bacon? Bacon, of course. What to pair with bacon? Well I had some ridiculously nice eggs, and last time I checked, bacon and eggs were buds. Dandelion salad w/ bacon-cider vinaigrette, minced bacon, poached egg, toast, and steamed asparagus. I’ll be honest: dandelion have not [...]

This is a family favorite [new tag!] in our home, and we call it Carbonara, but it isn’t. No egg, hence not actually a carbonara, but we don’t care. Call it what you want, it’s tasty, easy, and oh yeah, tasty. This particular version was actually worth jotting down, as it really impressed with how [...]

Asparagus is in season. Somewhere in the world, at least – certainly not in my garden that’s under 2-3 feet of snow still. But it’s half the normal price and it’s fresh, starting in Feb around here. I happen to hold asparagus at the top of my favorite-veg-list, and although I’ve been tempted to hold [...]

Jerky day. I actually can’t remember the last time I made jerky, but sadly, I think it’s been over a year. Why? Sometimes, I’m just not that smart, what can I say. But I got inspired by my moose-bacon, and was driven to do another cured and smoked game product right away. So I’ve got [...]