Monday, January 30, 2012

The Other White Meat

Well, now the freezer is full. For Christmas, Jerry's mom got us a half of a steer (which Jerry's brother raised). That filled the freezer pretty full. Then in December Jerry bought a whole hog and we picked up the meat from that on Saturday. Well, except for the bacon and a couple of the steaks which weren't ready yet. We decided that since we bought the whole thing, we wanted everything but the oink! The only thing we didn't keep were the intestines, feet and head. I didn't want chitlins and pig feet, and we didn't know anyone who ate them. Jerry's friend who keeps us in wonderful produce (and the grower of ALL THOSE SWEET POTATOES!) wanted the heart and liver, so those were for him. Jerry and I are curing the hams ourselves. We are flying by the seat of our pants on this, as we've never done it before. We cut one of the hams in half because they are 20 pounds each, and instead of curing one of the halves, I put a spice rub on it and it is smoking on the grill right now for dinner tonight. I would have put a picture of that on here along with the ones below but, um, my spice rub kind of caught fire and while I'm sure the roast inside will be delicious, it doesn't look too pretty! I told Jerry it just had a protective shell on it while it finished cooking! Maybe I'll be brave and post a picture of the charred protected roast for you when it's done. Maybe.
Here is the half of the ham that we are curing. That's sugar cure on it right now. We'll rinse that off this evening, inject it with liquid cure, and then rub more curing salt on it before wrapping it up and letting it do it's thing.


Same goes for this one, only this is the whole one - the 20-pounder. It doesn't look that large here, but it is!




Here is the fat rendering in my pot for lard. And cracklins. Yum!






Friday, January 06, 2012

Yum!

I made this Gourmet Bean Soup for dinner tonight. Oh. My. Goodness. It's really good. Actually, anything I have ever made from Tammy's site has turned out well. The sweet potato rolls I made at Christmas were Tammy's pumpkin roll recipe; I substituted sweet potato because, well, I have three recycling bins full of sweet potatoes in the garage that Jerry's friend generously gave us (and Jerry helped dig) - and Jerry doesn't even like sweet potatoes! What a guy. And what a run-on sentence! Anyway, give the bean soup a try. I used hot Italian sausage in mine. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

A Post To Share

I regularly read Lisa Pennington's blog, The Pennington Point. I recently read a Faith Points post called Do Not Compare Yourselves One to Another, and it was so good, that I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it and that it encourages you as much as it encouraged me. You should also peruse her other blog sections and posts; she is a talented lady!

Monday, January 02, 2012

Welcome, 2012!

Well.....it's 2012...the world didn't end, so I guess I should update my blog! (although some people are predicting it won't end until December 21, 2012).  THAT would certainly save on Christmas shopping next year, wouldn't it?! 

So it's a new year, and as usual, I have made some goals.  I'll call them goals this year instead of resolutions, and maybe I'll stand a better chance of actually sticking to them.  Some of my goals are the usual suspects, including weight loss, but others are new this year.  We'll see if we can make it past February!

I guess it's time to take the tree down.  That makes me sad.  It seems that Christmas came and went so quickly this year, that I didn't have time to enjoy the tree.  It doesn't help that we put it up a week later than we usually do, either.  Next year we'll put it up earlier.  There just won't be presents under it until after December 21.  Assuming we're all still here. 

Well, just wanted to check in and let my loyal readers (all 3 of you) know that I'm still around.  And yes, one of my goals was to post more.  We'll see how that goes! 

Happy New Year!

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