The fennel it turns out is great in red sauce.
Sausage Shadow
January 29th, 2010It Begins
December 22nd, 2009
Linear Miles of Sausage
December 22nd, 2009Alright, we didn’t make miles of sausage, but it sure felt that way.
One other lesson learned: backfat must be ground up way finer than we did it this year. Toooo chunky.
Sausage Epiphany
December 5th, 2009Just finished a homemade sausage. Chorizo. A bit more spicy this year, but really the best year ever – just shy of ecstasy. Also tipping the dregs of a 12 year Glenmorangie, that Jon brought (THANK YOU), that is HEAVY with spice – lots of cinnamon – into my gullet, straight out of the bottle.
We made 70 pounds of sausage this year. I know, it is nothing compared to the 400lbs that some of your families make, but without industrial processing, this is still an accomplishment. Next year, we agreed that an industrial grinder/stuffer is in order = more drinking, less labor, more meat.
We have been at this for three years now. Started out as family. Has expended to well, expanded family (if you haven’t been invited, consider this the promo piece to pique your interest (really people, we have a VERY tiny house, cut me some slack)). Quantities of meat have for sure increased but other lessons have been learned:
- be better organized (was much less drunk, bedraggled, and scatterbrained than ever before but my recipe quantities need to be bulletproof before the day)
- buy 30% more poundage of meat to allow for loss from bone, gristle, and sinew
- line up participants two weeks in advance
- prep all spice/herb/marinates the night before grinding and stuffing, and get help for this
- invite women but never let them touch the meat prior to it becoming sausage, as this would make it impure, especially if they are cycling (what? I can make up crazy rules too, Bible!!!!)
Please allow me to take a moment to talk about the Italian Fennel sausage we made. Because the fennel and meat were fresh, the result was an actual fragrance (gentle, no less) of an almost floral quality that permeates every bite. Hap’s insistence of red and green peppers provided just the right touch of sweetness to complement the spice. This is not a bun sausage. This is for pasta, not red sauce, with something delicate – like zucchini.
Game. I love me some protein not from an industrial farm. In this case, that means harvested by someone I know (Richard), or maybe myself one day. I understand what that entails – full flavor, what some people call gaminess. While this doesn’t bother me, as I would much rather eat an animal that has had a life in the wild than in a pen. In this case, all agreed that the duck/goose/chicken combo and venison (oh my god juniper berries are SO MUCH MORE complex than I thought they would be) were beyond all expectation. FAR beyond.
We also made some Iowa Breakfast that I am going to stuff the F out of with some F-toast, errrr, actually, stuff the F out of some F-toast with. Did I mention Chorizo? Look, Mexican/Latin is my cuisine of choice. I could eat tacos/burritos EVERY day of my life and look forward to dinner every night. But Chorizo? Did I mention Chorizo? Did I mentions hand made Chorizo so that your non-knife hand actually throbs because of all the hot peppers you have handled? Succulent, with tequila substituted for half the red wine vinegar? Christ (he’s my namesake, so I have right to use it, okay?), I would become a missionary of Chorizo if I could figure out a way.
So, really, the reason I am taking pen to paper (*sigh* – so long ancient technology) is art.
It started out with me asking Pete about his perception of the Beatles. This was prompted by my incidental and accidental re-exposure to them through Rock Band, which I would not have purchased on my own.
He was 6 years old and had no recollection, other than the aftershocks.
The aftershocks became the next topic… flowed into how artists and performance can so strongly affect experience.
Hell. I remember getting choked up in my dad’s red Maverick listening to “Here Comes The Sun” – at least 15 years after its release. As a four year old I was moved by the uplifting nature of that song. Eight years later, I remember being wrecked by “Long and Winding Road”. WRECKED!!! Had never had a relationship nor known heartbreak at that point, although Anne Marie Alexia did have my admiration in kindergarten and I did compete with her affections with by best friend Tommy Bordanero (he was better looking and smarter but I lived a street over). The power of music became the next topic.
I brought up a performance by U2 on SNL. Peter brought up one from Bjork.
U2 are rock gods. Even if you hate Bono’s cocky strides and musky odors, they ARE….
ROCK
GODS
Nothing any of us can do to take that away.
Despite that status, one which I am sure that they are well aware of, when SNL had a couple of spare ones at the end of a show in 2004, they played for a third time. For the hell of it? For the audience? To mock Ashlee Simpson? For the fun of it? Who knows, but they gave and obviously enjoyed it. The audience and cast were obviously thrilled. The engineers at NBC even seemed loathe to cut away. Based on Bono’s “…one more..” as the credits finished rolling, they probably played at least one more track for the live audience. What a gift!!! How real? I have a really low quality mpg of this. If you want to see it let me know. Very difficult to find online. Mention of it here though:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/inventory-ten-memorable-saturday-night-live-musica,1525/
Bjork. Ahhhh, that delightful freak girl/woman. Does she ever perform “Unraveled” and not mean it from the depths of her soul? Does she have perfect pitch? I would put money on it.
Christ (there he is again, our lord and savior – just shows up whenever he likes now, doesn’t he?), I don’t even know what to say to the following other than breath taking (minus the stupid black/white shifts in the first):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHGOFwH09k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qe5K7UV_0
Bjork, married to Mathew Barney, speaking of incredibly evocative, powerful and strange, flowing to Joanna Newsome and Smog…..
Blah, blah, and …..
Epiphany.
Aside from any commercial aims in order to make a living or a mockery of the art/music business, the thing that makes an artist an Artist is:
Generosity. Integrity. Honesty. Craftsmanship. Commitment to message (or a possession by message in some cases).
Makes me want to stop listening to music as background, see more music live, and see more art.
All this at $25 for 7 pounds of sausage each, plus NO SAWDUST in the sausage despite the fact that there was plenty at hand.
Also, since so much sausage fun has been had because of this man, I feel compelled to plug his book and site:
http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Aidellss-Complete-Sausage-Book/dp/1580081592
http://www.aidells.com/
Needless to say, sausage making leads to endless double entendre that never ceases to be funny.
Where Are All The Critter Corpses
December 1st, 2009Road kill aside, shouldn’t we come across more creature corpses more often?
There are SO many birds and rodents alone. We should come across their dead on at least a weekly basis.
Have you ever seen a dead squirrel that wasn’t smashed into the asphalt? What about a pigeon that gave up the ghost without a windshield? How about a deer taking it’s dirtnap in the middle of a trail?
I surmise the following:
Wildlife doesn’t die unless by violence or disease. Which make critters undead or like the Eldar. Orrrrr they eat their dead.
Switched Leaves To Autorake
November 25th, 2009Pile placement less than ideal but not bad. Not bad at all.
Wannabe Cougar and Her “12yr Old” Daughter
November 24th, 2009When motorists threaten bicyclists via horn, proximity, or surprise they often think there will be no repercussions. What they don’t realize, is that in certain situations, cyclists can catch up to them and distribute the tongue lashing they deserve.
To the woman who “thought” that we were turning left by signaling “Stop” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_hand_signals ) and then proceed to lay on the horn, gun it, and race into oncoming traffic, thereby threatening my and my buddy’s lives, I give you this:
ORC 4511.55B “Persons riding bicycles or motorcycles upon a roadway shall ride not more than two abreast in a single lane, except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles or motorcycles.” - http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/4511.55
That’s right. Two abreast.
As I tried to explain the hand-signals for her future reference, her daughter shouted at us for expecting her to know secret bicycle signal. For her, I reiterate the Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_hand_signals
They also became fascinated with what I do for a living in this conversation. Was so out of left field I bobbled this one. What does this have to do with the mother’s road rage? I now understand why. They are people of privilege. Who are two slackers out on their bikes in the middle of the day to approach them and explain traffic law? I mean her daaaddddy is a doccccctor/lllllllaaaawyer. Her indignation and willingness to shout at two male adults whom her mother nearly killed was nauseating.
The girl also asked how old we thought she was. Weird, but okay. Glancing past the mother I took a peak, “I don’t know, 12?”. This made her especially mad. Cannot figure out what is wrong with 12 but it has apparently become passe.
The whole time the woman kept citing what her family and other cyclists do and what she thought we should be doing rather than addressing the fact that she was aggressive with 4000lbs of SUV in her hands. She parted with a threat and a warning that we on our bikes are no match for her and her SUV.
Great.
The one argument that I keep in my back jersey pocket that is supposed to get knuckleheads like her to THINK about what they do on the road and she is using it as justification for her behavior.
No foul language was used in the exchange, but there was some serious birding going on when she passed and laid on the horn. She asked if that was something I would be proud of? Huh? I would hope that if my daughter saw what you did to me that she would give you every offensive hand signal known to man. You get the bird because I don’t have a horn, you idiots! If these people don’t understand directional hand signals, I guess I shouldn’t expect anything better.
The exchange was a failure. Mother and daughter both are going to hate cyclists even more now and I fear for when that 12 year old gets her license. Next time, I am going to try the completely calm approach and only quietly state over and over again, “Please don’t threaten me with your car.” If that doesn’t work, the next tactic will be to just shout down the next transgressor (because there is usually one on each ride).
Organic Screw
November 23rd, 2009Keeping Monsanto and Dow out of our food is just not affordable at this point. Trying to provide this for at least our daughter. Pretty hard to justify doing so when there are such discrepancies in comparable product volumes. Have a look at this:
I know what the right choice is for Hazel, but I still feel like a sucker when making that choice.
We are all used to product volumes shrinking instead of the supplier raising the price or raising prices and decreasing volumes. We just shake our heads and dig deeper into the lint. We are used to getting ripped off by normal companies but I dislike it even more when it is coming from a company that supposedly has an interest in the betterment of humanity/earth/food supply. I call BS.
If organic growers and suppliers ever want to take over the marketplace they are going to have to provide a more viable reasons to do so:
- prices more competitive to non-organic
- matching volumes of comparable, non-organic products
Until then, prepare to continue to be marginalized and fringe, “Granola” Suits and Marketing Drones. Hasn’t it been proven that organic doesn’t cost more for the farmer and that is one of the reasons it makes more sense for farmers to switch? Why is it costing more at the market?
Straw Man Material Fallacy – Tired Of It Yet?
September 17th, 2009In response to an arguement that “I would argue that anyone in favor of “big government” hates capitalism”:
Using said argumentative device (a material fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacies), one could state: “Republicans love torture”, “Anti war factions hate freedom”, “People who sign up for the military must like killing” ” If you are a fan of Pee Wee Herman, you are a pervert”, “If you are Muslim, you must be a terrorist” and so on.
Taking someone’s stand on a particular issue and extrapolating a belief system for them on their behalf is a divisive and bullying tactic that allows pundits and propagandists to prop up their opinions with a fabricated “other”. These straw men serve no citizen, voter, faction, population, or nation well except to provide the egos behind them with the temporary sensation of having followers rally to their flanks, resulting in… RATINGS.
Over the last ninety years we have been vacillating between and experimenting with Capitalism that leans either Hayuk or Keynsian. Sometimes one is a better answer to a situation than the other – there are valid points to each. The larger point I am trying to make is that:
Economic systems and philosophies are not religion and no 1st world country that I am aware of operates on anything but a mix of political, economic, and social philosophies.
A dogmatic approach to applying any of them would lead to ruin in and ignore the lessons learned from experiments like Communism and Socialism (both of which were conceived as utopian, albeit naive, solutions that addressed vast disparity in the distribution of wealth and had the best interest of humanity at their core – NOT baby mutilating, Satan worshiping, philistine godlessness – well, maybe godlessness, but not the philistine variety).
If you were really an enemy of Socialism you would refuse to pay taxes – especially Federal (which you can technically do). You would also believe that all roads, schools, medical, and scientific research should be developed, built, and maintained by private industry. You would believe that the airlines should regulate themselves. You would want food safety to be left up to mega corporations who’s right and legal obligation is to create wealth for its board members above all else. You would think that we would be better suited having our states protected by privately funded militias rather than a centralized power.
The fact is, we all believe in Socialism applied intelligently and for causes we are behind (Newt Gingrich recently supported and lobbied for government funding of Alzheimer’s). Our pooled resources, tax dollars, are far more effective at accomplishing certain things that are in the best interest of our country than if private industry attempted to do so. Although I have mixed feelings about both, the FDA and EPA have protected countless lives and increased the prosperity of our citizens in immeasurable ways, by placing limitations on industry. The laws of human nature demand that we take more and more regardless of how rich or powerful we become. It is just what we do.
If the people negatively affected, usually the poor or disenfranchised, and have no means of protecting themselves then we are losing a vital part of our American identity – champion of the weak. In other words, equal rights and equal opportunity. No person, be they corporation or human, should have the right to benefit at the expense of another without expressed consent.
There needs to be a way to redress issues of conflict in this regard. Without it things like seatbelts, child safety laws, child labor laws, teacher’s unions wouldn’t be around and children would still be running through clouds of DDT from the spray trucks that roll down the streets on warm summer evenings. Through the use of your tax dollars, Socialist principles within our government, and Socialist tactics of organization, your life has been made safer and more comfortable.
This country was founded as a free market Democracy – governed by the many. The “many” being voters, not corporations (which are inherently neither good nor evil but didn’t exist in in their modern form in 1776). The problem is that our media, politics, and powers have evolved in such a way that an alarming amount of control is being taken by the few through corporate political influence and mass media. That only happens because we allow it through complacency and laziness, not demanding more from our news sources, and not living our lives with questioning minds.
Those who dissent (THE MOST American of traits) and would see the power scale shifted back to being in the hands of the people would be foolish and ignorant to arm themselves as opponents of capitalism. Time and time again, it is proven, that a free market is absolutely critical to any successful economy, regardless of whether it is leaning more Socialist or Libertarian.
Taxation is Socialist in Nature
September 17th, 2009Submitting your first tax dollar to a government, is the moment you endorse socialism.
In a democracy, how you vote and how loudly you make your concerns heard helps determine how those resources get used for the “betterment” of one faction/cause over the other.
In a capitalist economy where corporations are granted personhood, your consuming habits have the greatest impact on which powers will be competing with you over how you and your countrymen will be “benefitted by what are supposed to be communal resources.
No modern nation can thrive today without mixing various social, economic, and political philosophies. Stop getting hung up on the xenophobia associated with terminology from the cold war. Your parents and grandparents fell for it then. How about we evolve already and finally stop painting reality in absolutist black and white?
Think we can do that before Cthlulu rightfully decends upon us and slowly, one by one sucks our puny brains from our skulls like we deserve?
