Food

Food

Food has always been a big thing for Alan and I. We (I) were pretty lame cooks when we got married. Being a more introverted type of person, living in a new town, and being pregnant, cooking was a frequent pastime. We tried all sorts of unknown foods, some were epic failures, others have become family standbys. (Our affection for Gouda actually developed during this time.)

As life changed and we had more children and acquired more animals food has remained a huge part of our lives.

Even now my children will ask skeptically of a new meal “is this a made up recipe?”. But there’s more favorites than failures and they love spending time in the kitchen or watching Alan’s grill. Several weeks ago he attended a butcher class focusing on lamb. Lamb is my favorite, and I was happy with our processing, but this class took lamb to new level. Lamb prosciutto for example—I didn’t even know it was a thing! Anyway, yesterday we finally finished caring for the last ham that had been sitting on salt in the fridge since February, made 25lbs of summer sausage, and did a trial run of 5lbs beef snack sticks. My initial thought was “I can’t believe my family never made this stuff, it’s so simple”, was shortly replaced with “I can totally understand why we never did this!!” as I fumbled for an hour untangling sheep casings and my patience ran to zero along with my temper! Despite the tangle, the snack sticks were a raging success with only a few minor improvements to make. As I’ve learned so much of curing and preserving fresh dairy products, the curing of meat is equally fascinating. It’s a skill that’s been used for centuries and very little has changed. Thankfully it’s an undertaking Alan is taking the lead in because I really don’t think I have the skill and patience it requires!

Oh, side note: You can sharpen clipper blades on the same steel used for the kitchen/butcher knives.

That’s it, I need to go to bed.