how do you make pickle bread...........?

Ha! That joke never gets old!  We used this pasta dough 

with a fish dish.

This is why you do what I f'n tell you to.  The abstract shapes 

worked out alright.  Pineapple-blueberry upside down 

cake, spiced with curry and cayenne, mmmm.

 The nicest quality photo I had.  This giardeniera killed it!

It was good enough to eat on it's own.

random crappy photo day...yay

Cleaning out the old phone camera.  So no I haven't got my camera fixed yet(sorry money isn't exactly falling out of the sky).  For now hear are some old pics to mull over.

 Yes nasty tuna.  I had to take this pic to send back to the

 fish company.  I was nastier than the fish.  

Hooray for free fish!

Yep, my dog's ass about ass appetizing as the last one.

Sorry, just had to throw that in there.

This is proof of how much I love pig.  I eat so

much I woke up one day and I had sprouted a tail.
Also a shameless Hanes promotion.

Lol! I found this cookbook in an old stack of books 

at work.  The funniest shit ever!  Even funnier I 

found a recipe I used!

Turducken!  Hooray for meat glue!  I love 

Thanksgiving!

Cow tongue.  I take my profession seriously.  Doesn't

mean I can't have some fun. 

damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Do you ever have days that you felt you just rocked it all day long?  Every move you made was timed just right to follow up the last move and so on and so forth?  Time itself stood still for you?  You were able to do things you've wanted to do but haven't had time or ambition for?  Everyone smiled and nodded as they walked by, thinking to themselves "This guy knows what's up!"  Well......no me neither.  Okay it was an alright day.

I did have some extra time to play around a bit.  So with some inspiration from the book Ideas in Food, I smoked whatever I could today.  I cold smoked some duck breasts(nothing new for me).  Also some mozzarella and tomatoes for a little smokey antipasto.  I also smoked some flour.  We made some pasta out of it.  Smoked pappardelle with spicy beef balls.  I saved some smoked tomatoes for a vinaigrette to go with some cold smoked mussels for Monday(top it off with fried leeks).

The winner this week was the coconut curry chicken sandwich with grapes and almonds,  a handful of fresh cilantro, and a spicy corn chutney on a fresh ciabatta bun.  I probably sold a hundred of those suckers.   I always seem to have an excess of chicken to use up so this worked out fabulously.

For Monday, I will also start on some elk and bison meatloaf.  Local game of course.  I'll even wrap in our farmer's deliciously smoke bacon and serve it up with some yukons and some of those black trumpets.  And only because I love them so much I toss some lingonberries with some demi.

not so gangsta


On an entirely different note, who the hell is Curtis Stone?  And why is he all over my TV and computer?  I can't help but feel nothing but contempt for this d-bag.  What has he done besides be on every show on TV?  Besides he looks like a gay woman.

See what I mean? (sorry Ellen)  Either that or a gay porn star, not that I know what that might be(Vin Diesel).  Seriously though I promise you I am not a homophobe or a hater(thats exactly what one would say ha).  I'd like to quit the gratuitous slamming of Stone with one positive thing I was able to find that I find admirable of him.  He worked with the legend Marco Pierre White and even ran one of his kitchens.  To be honest thats definitely saying something(even though Marco of all people sold out as well, sooner or later money becomes the sole issue)(I can't say I wouldn't).  Other than that I can't find a reason why this guy got so famous.  Maybe he's doing good things, maybe he is in gay porn.  Either way I just want him off my TV.

especially not so gangsta


To keep it short I'll just say Shola from Studiokitchen, if he hasn't already, should make a new rule # whatever:  Celebrities should not make cookbooks.  This means you Quyneth Paltrow.  Thank you and have a lovely weekend.

doubles

Ahhh so you think you've reached the point of your career where double shifts for two different establishments is over.  Not so fast.  It's one thing to consult and aid in another establishment's success.  It's another thing to go to a mindless job without the chance to imprint your creativity.  So why put myself through it?  Friends!  Friends help friends out.  Also just getting to see some of my friends can be difficult when we all work a thousand hours at different jobs. It's nice to get to hang.  I just wish it was a little more fulfilling as far as my imagination is concerned.  Sooner or later it will have to give way.  Because if something isn't challenging my skills, my talents, feeding my brain, then it's just a waste of time.  Sorry fellows.  I love you, but work is work and my culinary hunger is larger than your spoon.  If you know what I'm saying.

On an unrelated note, a large load of black truffles, hen of the woods, black trumpets, and fiddleheaded ferns came in today.  Yea! Much fun to be had!

people let me tell you 'bout my best friend....

I love pig.  I love duck.  Why not, right?  Maybe you remember the duck muffaletta sandwich with tasty capicola ham and duck confit, and of course the duck fat aioli.  Fantastic!  It sold pretty well.  This week the combo can live on with pork confit.  After brining some pork shoulder for a few days, I tossed it in some duck fat and confit'd that mutha.  Duck fat is just so versatile.  It works so well with so many things.  I then added some sheets of gelatin to some duck stock I made prior, using leftover carcasses(ya got to use it all folks).  I seasoned up my now pulled pork confit, added some pine nuts and dried currants, and drizzled in the stock.  I pressed the meat into a molding pan and weighted it down.  Today I uncovered it to see a perfectly solid terrine-like brick of pork.  I cut it into serving sized cubes and gave one a test drive.  I dredged in seasoned flour and flash fried it to give it good color and a nice crisp outside.  After finishing in the oven, I pulled it out gave it a try.  Delicious!  So moist and a perfectly crispy cube-like appearance.  I can't wait to serve this up with some brown butter applesauce, brussels sprouts, yukons, pickled mustard seeds and some crispy chicken skin.  I would have liked to attempted some duck chicharrones, but I had used my duck skin up on previous applications.

As it turns out pigs, ducks, and even chickens can all get along together.  If only I could live on the farm.  Well, my mother does often ask me if I were born in a barn, but then again she would know better than I. Right?

vegans are creepy..............creeeeepy

http://www.easyvegan.info/2009/04/15/sexy-meat-no-1/

Absolutely appalling!  Vegans are a desperately disgusting breed with need for some reason to spread their disturbing propaganda.  Don't ask how I found this site.  I just stumbled upon it.  This is an older post, but this is a fully operational anti meat eaters site.  I made the link available for all who wish to check it out(along with a few more unnecessary laughable photos).

Although the photos were made most likely as an ad for meat eaters.  The author of the site would like to lend their idiotic notions that portraying these animals as "sexy meat"  is degrading to women.  They would like to have you believe that just as women shouldn't be looked as meat neither should these "non-human animals."  They went further to say the ads represent an algorithm, sex=meat=death.  The real joke here is simple idea that animals weren't put on earth to feed humans.  If humans didn't kill and utilize animals for the many many necessities we need them for today, think of the overpopulation of so many creatures.  The world we be a disaster(well a bigger one).  Think of a lion in the wild killing a zebra for food.  Is that against nature or is it the exact premise it.  You tell me.

And just one more thing.  I am not telling anyone they shouldn't be vegan or they have to eat meat.  Everyone has their say over their decisions and preferences.  All I'm saying is quit throwing it down everyone's throat.  Quit treating the human race like the enemy just for consuming animal products(there's much better arguments to be had).  But every loser with a computer has an opinion.  Including yours truly.

what kind of milk makes head cheese?

Not the head cheese I made, but a fairly close resemblance will suffice for the sake of visual stimulation.  It's just like the dating sites.  You're 10 times more likely to get a hit with a photo.  Not that I take part in the online dating community.  Okay I have, but not currently.

As my first time making head cheese, I'd have to say it turned out pretty damn good.  I used Fergus Henderson's book The Whole Beast:  Nose To Tail Eating as a reference guide.  Why not?  He seems To know what he's talking about(lol...duh!).  My plan was to make the head cheese with a crispy ear salad, but my pig head came with his ears clipped off.  Pretty disappointing, yes. Yet my farmer assured me she would get me another pig head with ears and all free of charge(really nice lady).  Instead of the pig's ear for the salad I tried to find something to take it's place that might be a similar look, taste, idea.  I took some of the whole slab bacon and roasted it and dried it and slice it thin and deep fried it.  My mock crispy pig's ear worked out ok for this application.  I served them on top of some thinly shaved romaine hearts with some raw turnips, fried capers, and a drizzle of apple and whole grain mustard dressing with the head cheese and cornichons on the side.  Not the biggest hit this week for lunch.  I only sold a few, but I assure you the few let me know they were pleasantly surprised to see it on the menu and enjoyed it thoroughly.

It bums me out when I make something that I put so much of myself into and it doesn't get it's just deserves.  What do I expect?  People aren't always up for the daring or the disgusting as some would put it.  I just call it delicious.  I won't let it discourage me though.  I'll make it again and again.  I only wish my grandmother was still around to teach me how she made it.  She would have loved that, and so would have I.  Now that I'm finally ready to give head cheese it's dues.  She would have loved this dish.  This I know.  So this head cheese, my very first head cheese I dedicate to you grandma.  I know you're proud of me.  I love you.