Varmint

Same time zone. And they even have electricity down there to power the clocks. All right all right. I told you I dont' know this stuff. I'm bringing butter tart squares if they let me bring them over the border Or I could just make them in your kitchen Varmint Mi kitchen, su kitchen, Senora Marlene! Although mi kitchen does sucketh a bit. By the way, do they have moose or polar bear pickin's up there in the great white north???

But, are you going to be with me for barbecue in October? You can ride up with Kathi Purvis!

The Date is Saturday, October 11. Columbus Day weekend.

As much as I'd like to drag everyone out to a local hog farmer to take in the smells of their lovely lagoons, I'll just order a pig from a local butcher. I'll see if I can get a Nieman Ranch pig, but that may be unlikely.

Watch it. S'Kat's on the road heading for Raleigh. She may stop by and open a big can o' whoopass on you if she gets wind of this. Bring it on, girlfriend. T'ain't really a pig pickin' without a drag out fight. And if Mrs. Varmint gets involved, mmmmeeoowwww! By the way, I can assure you that Mrs. Varmint will NOT be wearing pink. I don't think she has anything that is pink. Y'all need to remember that I bought Mrs. Varmint a chain saw for her birthday earlier this month. She's more comfortable in sweat pants and Chuck Taylor high tops than anything else. She's never worn make up or perfume a day in her life. And she can kick my ass (or so she thinks!).

Hotels? We don't need no stinkin' hotels! Raleigh is a fairly cosmopolitan town, so we might be able to find a double wide for you to rent for a night or two. Seriously, though, there are plenty of hotels that are less than 5 minutes away. There's nothing truly within walking distance, but we can work something out. Anyone may PM me if they want specifics on the location of my house and availability of hotels. We do have a bit of time to work out the logistics, fortunately.

Mark, if you're going to come down, I'll make it a multiple day event! That's because I'd be happy to tap into your expertise of all that is smoked. I doubt we'll be doing a pig that large, although by the time it rolls around, Mrs. Varmint might very well want me on the coals. We'll try to work with the local Chamber of Commerce to take care of everyone's concerns.

It was exactly that jacket that made me think that he should fear no one.

I agree, but it is exactly that history and the geography and the sociology of the South that makes our food so damned interesting. I love the sociology of food and dining. I love the fact that the barbecue restaurant in the 50s and 60s represented segregation at its worst, yet today it (with a few exceptions) represents integration (both racially and economically) at its best. I love the influence that African slaves had on southern cuisine. And the Lumbee Indians. And the French and Irish and others. Ultimately, all these influences evolved into the southern cuisine that we think of today, having its own identity. As far as your signature is concerned, I'll PM you with those instructions!

When I was in France a few years back, I ate like a pig for two straight weeks. Every morning involved gobs of pastries. Lunch was laden with cheese and bread and wine and meats. Dinners were over the top. We ate and drank constantly. However, we were walking several miles each day, too. I lost 4 pounds on that trip. That's the problem with sitting on your keister all day long.

By the way, y'all, we will have a prize for the attendee who travelled the greatest distance to attend. I just need to think what that is. Ditsydine, I don't think you'll be winning that prize, buy you're equally welcome!

Welcome, Timothy. That's a great post and we hope there will be many to follow. As I've said many times, lore and relevance of southern cuisine are extensive. Yes, we can stereotype it, and there's a pretty sound argument that the stereotype appropriately represents a major portion of the cuisine. But it is far broader than that stereotype, as Kathi put so well. Whether it's good or bad from a cuisine standpoint, the South is an amalgamation of many different societies and ethnicities. As long as we remember our gastronomic heritage and how it developed, and we can find a place to sample its food, I'm fine with the way the cuisines are evolving. It would, however, be tragic to lose something so precious as the food that was developed from the "ground up", as Timothy stated.

Glad to hear you got this month's check, Malawry! Yes, the entire Varmint family will be in attendance. I'll throw some chickens in the cooker, so the non-red meat eaters will have something to chew on. As for the vegetarians, we'll have plenty of side dishes, I'm sure. I don't need to throw fatback into everything we make! Bring that boy along!!!

Nah, we're not talking about pasties and a g-string here. Pasties are simply a small meat and root vegetable pie. Mrs. Varmint makes several dozen from time to time and freezes them. The kids love them, and we had a ton of them. I ate 2 small ones. Don't tell Mrs. V, but they were a bit dry.

I've done a piss poor job of keeping up with my "diary" this week. For the 3 of you who have been following it, I apologize. It's been a pretty busy week, and my eating habits haven't been the greatest this week. Monday: Breakfast was a couple slices of toast. Lunch was a good salad with chicken and a funky mustard-based dressing. Dinner was very late to to my daughter's ballet recital -- I had 2 very small pasties. I wasn't really hungry. Tuesday. Breakfast, toast. Toast, toast, toast. Boring!!!! Not all that healthy!!!! But easy!!!! I didn't get to eat much lunch because my 4 year old son managed to get his cornea scratched from an inadvertent poke in his eye with a friend's finger. Thus, I was with him for a few hours in the middle of the day. I managed to eat some fresh pineapple and a package of cheese crackers. We then had an elementary school musical to attend. My 7 year old played a grinning, hissing snake. Very cute and convincing. However, we ate late again. By then, I was starving, so I had some hot & sour soup and hunan chicken. I ate very little rice. Wednesday: Multigrain Cheerios for breakfast. I then broke down and had a chicken burrito for lunch. I was with a crowd, and it was calling me, luring me to the cliffs of obesity. I enjoyed it very much with no remorse, thank you very much! I had some stawberries as a late afternoon snack. I then made Mrs. Varmint and me a vegetable plate: tomato and avocado salad with lime, EVOO, sea salt, and fresh mint; green beans; boiled new potatoes with a dab of homemade dilled mayo; chanterelles sauteed in EVOO with a touch of salt. We split a bottle of some white Languedocian wine. Pretty good stuff. I had a mango, tangerine and blueberry smoothie for breakfast today. I have a lunch meeting, so I'll probably get stuck with a bad sandwich. I'm guessing that I may not have dropped much weight this week, particularly with all that I drank at the retreat this past weekend. I'm still not exercising, as the throat hasn't improved, and my cough has worsened. I'm going to the doctor today or tomorrow to figure out what the hell is going on. WEIGH-IN TOMORROW!!!

s'kat- I checked out your website, and if that's you and your hubby in the June Wedding photos, anyone who wears a fluorescent, ultrasheen jacket should be suspicious of no one!!!

Yes, y'all do have a little time to bring up the idea to your husbands. We can provide them with our resumes, a full collection of family photos, and a letter from our bosses (and our wives) demonstrating that we're fairly decent chaps. Regardless, this pig pickin' will happen. A 100 pound pig will serve 100 people. If only 50 show, we'll have lots of great barbecue in the freezer!!

Well, I ran the idea by Mrs. Varmint, and she had no objections. She asked me who would I invite, and I merely responded "A bunch of people. We'll try to get a good mix of folks." Looks like that's a go to me! See y'all in October. I will not be wearing hot pants. But then, I usually don't wear pants at all!

Pasta con le Sarde is 100% a Sicilian classic. Other interesting and classical possibilities I enjoy include: Insalatata di arance (cross-sectional "wagon wheel" slices of peeled orange with red onion, parsley, evoo and salt), Spaghetti al nero di seppia, Maccu e finocchietto (broth with spaghettini, dried fava beans, wild fennel or fennel fronds, tomato and onion), Minestra di tenerumi (broth with zucchini leaves, taglierini, onion and basil), Pitaggio (veal sausages with fresh fava beans, fresh peas and artichokes), Farsu magru (a thin beef steak wrapped around a filling of prosciutto, sausage, pancetta, pecorino, hard cooked eggs and other good things), Pollo alla messiness (boiled chicken with a mayonnaise sauce of tuna, capers, anchovies, etc.), and Sanceli (Sicilian blood sausage). Thanks a ton. This is great. I may very well be able to put together a menu within a week. One thing to remember: I want to do as much of the actual cooking as possible on the day of the event. People will arrive at 6, and we'll sit down to eat at 7:30 to 8:00. We don't have the time for slow-cooked dishes. The one common thread with the previous menus is that they were fairly simple to prepare and plate. I need to stick with that plan, as I don't have the luxury of doing a 6 hour meal.

Thanks, Bill. And thanks for rubbing it in that you'll be in Italia at that time. As far as the lasagna, I learned to make that dish in Bologna, and it is quite good. I have some great recipes. It's a bit much to get that assembled with all the folks participating somewhat. Where the heck do you find zucchini blossoms? That would be fun. I've made the milk braised pork before, and it is fantastic. And of course, I would never forget Tatina at Capri Flavors. They always take care of me. Thanks for the guidance. This type of dialogue will get me to where I need to go!

Definitely try Jaleo. My kids loved it. Have the bartender make them lemonades, as they were particularly good.

I'm liking this pig pickin' idea more and more each day. Heck, maybe Mrs. Varmint just might be out of town that day! Perhaps not.

Of course, Ben and Bills in Bar Harbor, ME have been making lobster ice cream for ages. I can't say it's awesome, because it ain't. http://www.benandbills.com/

I'm less than a month away from this event, and I'm starting to think about a menu. I like the focus on Sicily, and want to incorporate eggplant and mint in some of the dishes. The one thing about caponata is that it's been my experience that this dish is best made the day before. I don't want to really do that, as it doesn't give folks much of a learning opportunity. Arancini may be a good start for hors d'ouevres before the meal. Suggestions for what to stuff them with would be appreciated. I've never made arancini. What type of rice would you use? What's a good recipe resource? I may do a seafood salad type of appetizer or a tomato and bread salad. The latter may be new to most folks in attendance. However, an eggplant and seafood appetizer would be good. Any ideas? I will do a pasta dish. I'm thinking of something fairly hearty and meat-based. I'm not finding wild boar readily available down here. Bill, do you know of any source? I'll probably go back to seafood for the entree. I'm thinking about serving it with a green bean, red bell pepper, and mint sautee (with great EVOO and sea salt). Dolci are always a wildcard. I typically make that myself, but please offer examples of simple, but fairly elegant, concepts. Some sort of citrus cake would work well. I'm pretty wide open on this. Once we have the menu set, I'll consult you for the wine!

Although, Kathi, you have to admit that NC truffles really can't be called truffles, in any pure sense. They're a different product than the European truffle.