I'm no Abe Froman

While most of you were sleeping Tuesday night, a friend and I were up practicing our charcuterie skills. I was not aware at the start of our project that it takes 3 hours to make 5 pounds of sausage. It was time well spent 5 lbs of pork shoulder was diced up into 1 inch cubes then placed in the freezer for 45 minutes. It was then ground through a small dye and placed back in the freezer. 30 minutes later the ground pork was mixed with garlic,salt, pepper, and 1 cup of red wine. Then, back in the freezer.

The toughest part was stuffing the meat into the casings. Definitely a 2 man job. I have a picture in my "DO NOT POST" album that shows what 15 feet of pig intestine looks like. You do not want to see it. Trust me.

If you ask me, that looks like some pretty good sausage. My sausage partner and I were very impressed. (He is going to hate that I called him my sausage partner.)

The sausage was twisted in alternate directions every 6 inches. This prevents the casing from unwinding when the sausages are separated. These must be cooked slowly and gently. If they cook to fast the casing will rupture and many tears will be shed.

There is no photo of the cooked product due to the fact that I blacked out while eating one. My knees buckled and I went down. They were that good. We may one day give Abe Froman a run for his money.

Meat me in the backyard

The smoke you see in this photo is caused by fat from the meat dripping down and vaporizing on the stainless steel infrared heating plate. The smoke rises around the meat, enveloping it in a bear hug of flavor. In three weeks when it is sunny again, you should come on over for one. I'll be ready. I'm always ready. Flip just one time to keep the juices inside the burger as opposed to in the grill.

Donations please

I know you are busy. I am too. Perhaps we should eat more watermelon.... Or strawberries.

The above posting was nothing more then a shameless plug for my new camera. A Canon S90. It's got more bells and whistles on it then, well, something else with a lot of bells and whistles. Sure we won't make our mortgage this month, but look at those friggin berries.

Toast

This photo looks incredibly sexy to me. Glistening strawberry and cherry preserves delicately draped over a thick slice of brioche bread that has been topped with melted Teleme cheese. This is surely the work of a well trained chef. It tasted even better then it looks. But look closely. Closer. Good. This is simply cheesy bread and jelly. Have you seen the "french toast" bread at the grocery store? Got some sharp cheddar or sliced Swiss in the fridge? Great. Put em together and splatter some of that freezer jam that you've been mindlessly smearing on dry toast on top of it. If you get good at it you can charge 7 bucks per order. Worth every penny by the way.

Simplicity

Did you know that you can grill an avocado? Well you can. The next time you halve one, throw it on the grill for about 5 minutes, until there are light char marks on it. Top it with whatever you have on hand. In this case it was some tomato, cucumber, and corn(which also benefited from a short stint on the grill.) Make sure to squeeze plently of lime juice on top along with that pinch of salt.