oatmeal

I have burnt pot after pot of chocolate pudding. Today I had my assistant stand by the pudding and stir for half and hour. It still scorched. I just don't have the time to make 2 gallons worth of pudding (what I need for service) in a double boiler. It is very depressing. But I have found if I get it out of the pot in time and add a bit of orange extract it still tastes yummy.

Orange oat waffles with spruce-tip syrup and turkey sausages.

It would be great to get an organic pig. I checked out the eGCI course and have to admit I was taken aback. There are 4 of us who will be doing most of the work so if we work as a team I bet we can make it happen. As far as fresh pigs go, I live in Juneau Alaska and there is no way its going to happen. All the food is barged up here and takes a week to arrive from Seattle. I didn't think a year old pig was a good idea, but I have friends who eat the deer and moose they catch in the fall all year long. Thanks for the feedback. Oatmeal

Thanks Dave, I had no idea there was pig roasting course. I can't wait to check it out.

A friend and I are kicking around the idea of pig roast to celebrate the end of winter. We have a line on a pig. However it has been in the freezer for a year. Skin still on it and all that. Is that to long? We can get a newer one, but fresh is not going to happen as we live far from any thing resembling a hog farm. I've been looking online for advice on the cooking and it is overwhelming. As a former vegan I am hoping I can step up to the challange. I have someone willing to carve the thing. I want to cook it on the beach in some kind of a pit. Any advice would be most welcome. I've allready got some overalls and a straw hat.

Blackberries

All this talk of successful non soaked salted beans is making me nervous. For years I have yelled at my co-workers when they tried to cook unsoaked beans. "What, do you want to give everyone in town gas?" I'd cry. Then I'd catch someone out of the corner of my eye putting some salt in a pot of cooking beans. Again the yelling, "What, do you want to serve tough beans?" and "Don't you know that the liquid is going to reduce and we will have a huge pot of overly salted beans?" Have I been a fool? Tomorrow, before anyone shows up at work, I am going to cook some unsoaked white beans with salt. I can hardly wait.

Paul Pitchford has some great advise on cooking beans in his book Healing with Whole Foods. One suggestions that I use pretty regularly is adding some Kombu Seaweed to the beans. It helps to break down the beans a bit and makes them more digestable. He also suggests cumin and fennel for the same purpose. I cook beans almost everyday and have only had terminally hard beans when I added salt in the begining. Somehow the salt in the seaweed doesn't seem to be a factor.

For dinner tonight: buttermilk fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, steamed kale and bacon, cider, and king cake. An attempt at southern fare in cold Alaska.

Yogi Tea makes a great Chai. I like to make my own mix with a bit of orange. After I simmer it for a few hours the house smells great.

I've had an around the world and around the neighborhood party with about 30 of my neighbors. We had a different course and country at each house. It was big fun.