Harry's "Nature School" ended last week, but that doesn't mean there's no nature to be explored. We headed over to Sellwood Park to commune with nature.
And the big-ass slugs.
And a cute little frog. (That didn't croak much after Harry was done with him.. not that he "croaked", I think he just wised up and was quiet until the little terror was out of sight/earshot. Do frogs have ears? I don't know, I'll go ask Harry...
We spent a lovely weekend at the tippy top of the Olympic peninsula with Colin's Mom and sister (and her kids). Harry got some serious cousin time which included fort building, a treasure cave, and running, running, running. Truly, it was exhausting watching those boys...
And Jemma got some serious grandkid time. Her plan was even to host the three of them in the Homestead House, while Colin and I got our own cabin. Sweet deal!
It was a less than auspicious start, however. After driving for close to four hours to get to the "Chevy Chase Resort", Harry had energy to burn. So within five minutes of there, Harry is running full tilt towards the cabin (it was on a slight decline), trips and smashes his head on the deck.
I have not seen that much blood pour out on another human being's nose. Anyways, I won't gross you out with any details, he screamed and then stopped. Didn't even bruise. He had a nice relaxing bath while Colin poured buckets and buckets of water on the lawn to wash away the evidence. Then he wanted to run around some more.
I needed a drink, to put it mildly.
It was Mother's Day and I did get a little pampering as it were, a beautiful sunny day to paddle around Discovery Bay by myself. So motherly to be sure, but this girl needs her alone time...
Happy (belated) Mother's Day all you beautiful Mommies out there. I hope you got exactly what you wanted and needed.
It's been hot, then cold, then rainy, then green-sky thunder-and-lightening shows!
But my patio is covered and I have a great bartender-hubby.
3 parts Prosecco
2 parts Aperol
1 splash of soda or seltz
Ice, half a slice of orange or lemon, or sprig of mint (as oranges are fruita non grata at our house, unless you are Harry. I certainly could never get Colin to peel an orange for me!)
Cheers!
Charcuterie.
Oh god. You do know that under the definition of "food dweeb" is me, right?
Anyways, I started small and easy. If you count 28lb of pork small. And hog casing easy. At least I'm enlisting friends. For this project anyways.
Okay, I digress. My foray into charcuterie started with pate. And I think that was a smash hit. (and it means more parties, yay! Because seriously? I do not need to eat two terrines of pate...
Which leads us to the 28 lbs of pork. Shane, Emily and I ground, chilled, seasoned and stuffed the pork shoulder into the casings. No small feat as it took the better part of a day to complete. But look! Now my freezer has 14 delicious pounds of homemade sausage!
My choices were:
Roasted poblano: a nice, spicy sausage with cumin, garlic and loads of fresh cilantro...
Lagunega: a traditional Roman sausage with lemon and orange zest. And cheese. Lots and lots of cheese.
Shemily chose: spicy breakfast and a hunter sausage. Both have been outstanding, but I don't know exactly what is in them...
But both of those are baby steps, now on to the main attraction....
Because everything is better with bacon.
Step one: find some "pink salt". And yeah, it's REALLY pink! Luckily, I live in Portland and when I asked my local butcher if he knew where I could get some, instead of looking at me sideways (YOU are going to cure your own sausage?!?!) he said, "Right here, and what are you making?" (with a twinkle in his eye). Then he proceeded to tell me that the greatest book, no bible, that I must must have if I'm going to make charcuterie is "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman. Yes, I know! I answered, all atwitter (the closest thing I get to "Tweeting"). I love that book. And he and I then had a great conversation about curing meats. I. Love. Portland.
Once I had my tiny 2 oz container I took it home and transformed in into the "Basic Dry Cure"...
Step two: Carlton Farms pork belly for my belly. I originally was planning on getting it from my usual supplier, SP Wholesale, but it was an impulse buy. (I know, who "impulse buys" pork belly?) At the Asian Market. And I know, weird, right? But I saw it at the meat counter and well, what can you do? Unfortunately, the slabs were precut to 2-3lb sizes, so I asked if I could have a 5lb slab. What was I thinking? I'm at an Asian market and frankly, my Chinese is not up to par. At least they could speak English...
This is how the back-and-forth went down...
Me: "Do you have and pork belly in 5 pound slabs?"
Them: "You take two, that 5 pound."
Me: "No, I need 5 pounds in one piece."
Them speaking to the meat counter lady in Chinese, my rough translation is "Crazy white lady needs 5 pound of pork belly." "Why, tell her to take two small pieces, that's 5 pounds." "I did, but she's crazy."
Then the meat counter lady goes to the back and brings back a whole belly, 10 lbs.
Meat counter: "You take this."
Me: "Uh, no, I only need 5 pounds, can you cut that please?"
Meat counter: "You take these two (picking up two from the display), that 5 pound."
Me: "No, it needs to be a 5 pound slab. It's okay if it's too much trouble, I don't need to get it."
The conversation, yelled in Chinese, between the Check Out lady and the Meat Counter lady, my translation: "Just give the crazy white lady half and she'll go away" "But why! She should just take two small packages!" "I don't know why, she's crazy!"
La la la la la... I can't understand you... And thank goodness for that.
Finally, I walked away with my 5 lb slab of pork belly, just slapped in a plastic bag and tied at the top. I love the Asian Market experience. I hoped for no holes in the flimsy film bag and headed home.
Step three: the cure for what ails. Garlic, bay, lots of pepper and the basic dry cure rubbed into the nice belly.
Step four: Smoke it if you've got it. Traeger time! Just under two hours later, the raw, cured meat became... Homemade smoked bacon.
And you know what, it's a piece of brilliance! I tried to entice others over for the inaugural taste, but in the end, it was just Harry and I. That's okay, though. That kid loves bacon.
Luckily, it is not a gnome.
But Harry Bean is a great help in the garden. He's my slug and grub collector, radish thinner (and eater) and waterer extraordinaire!
(I didn't include the fallout of the slug and grub collecting as: one; it often ends in a big squish-fest on the patio and; two, nobody would truly appreciate that. Except me.)
Tomato condoms.
Because I was told I was being premature....
Planting, of course.
Local rhubarb is here.
The jars are sterilized and the water bath is out.
And luckily, the pantry is about empty so look out!
I'm going to (try) and keep a complete list of everything I can this year, should be interesting, and perhaps a little sick...
Another spring day spent out enjoying all that Portland has to offer.
We wound up at the zoo on Packy the elephant's 50th birthday. Granted, had I realized that it was that day, I probably would have steered the family to another adventure... I'm not one for crowds, especially when they involve a bunch of kids hopped up on cotton candy, pop and cake...
But it all turned out well, most of the people were hanging out in the amphitheatre so we didn't have to wait in line for the zoo train.
According to OregonLive:
That's right, 12 thousand people. yeesh. That's almost one for evey pound of Packy. Crazy.
And the cake was even decent! On the drive home, Harry mentioned "it was so nice of Packy to share his birthday cake. Do you think there will be more the next time?"
I am itching to get gardening! We have these beautiful teaser days; the sun is shining and you are outside in a t-shirt and no socks. Delightful. Then... the next it's back to galoshes and scarves. Come on Spring! Give a girl a break.
So Colin has built me some beautiful raised beds and all my boys helped to fill them!
Now the beds are filled with a few seed sprinkled in and even a few little cotyledons are peeking through the (very damp) soil. Spring has sprung!
And I will enjoy watching my garden grow from my patio, sipping a glass of something refreshing, by the new fire table....
The best weather of the year was when my parents were visiting over Easter. We all got to enjoy Harry's confusion as to why the Easter Bunny likes to hide the eggs. And does he (the bunny) really want us to find his eggs or should we leave them there?
Well, the chocolate and little gifties won out because all the eggs were found and emptied out. And the stickers were stuck and the dinos were lined up. And even some of the choloate was eaten.
And did you know that the egg dye doesn't seem to ever really dry. Damn that bunny. We all had very colorful hands, luckily the furniture survived another Harry holiday...
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