Winner, Winner, Chicken Sausage Dinner!

June 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

We knew we were in for trouble the moment we got the phone call that said “I’ve got 30 pounds of pork…wanna make sausage?”

A friend of ours had gotten a meat grinder for Christmas and had yet to use it. We’d been talking about Charcutepalooza with him and that we were going to be making chicken sausage with the 10 lbs of chicken thighs we’d bought just for the occasion. We’d kind of suggested to our friend that he might want to come watch, or even make a couple pounds of sausage himself. We warned him against taking on too much for his first batch, but never dreamed he’d go that far over the edge…30 lbs?!?!??

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Filed Under: Charcutepalooza, Cooking, Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“My Name is …

May 17, 2011 By 4 Comments

One of my very favorite pictures of Dad

It’s so easy to dehumanize an Alzheimer’s patient — to not see them as the people they used to be. I mean, every day things are different. More things are forgotten, some things may be vaguely remembered and even other things are thought to be memories but never really happened.

I find it happening by me, sometimes. Dad loves to pat my arm or ask me hundreds of times if the oak barrel top he made for me years ago was still good. He doesn’t really remember making it, but he knows he should know it and somehow knows he should be proud of it. It’s in there, all mixed up with the stories and thoughts of the Korean War, his childhood and everything else he’s ever experienced. But, in my rush to go about my business or my own desire to talk and be heard, I sometimes don’t hear him. I blow right by. [Read more...]

Filed Under: ALZ, Family Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Sláinte is Táinte

March 15, 2011 By 4 Comments

This month’s Charcutepalooza challenge was to brine something…you know, like a chicken or a brisket, and completely transform that ordinary meat into something luscious and completely elevated outside itself. Sounds like a pretty tall order, doesn’t it??

I’d actually corned a beef brisket once before and while it was good, I knew it could’ve been better. For one thing, it was completely gray. It tasted fine, but the color wasn’t what you kind of expect from a corned beef, so I was hoping that part would be different. Since I knew my family would love this challenge, I went “whole hog” and got a 15 lb brisket and decided that a third of it would be pastrami.

Mmmm. Pastrami. The mere thought of it makes my mouth water in a way that corned beef can only dream. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Charcutepalooza, Cooking, Family, Food, Retrospective Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

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