OK, so it may not look like much but we have munched a few as they became ripe and these are brand new plants just planted this past spring in our new house so this IS a very big deal for me; the first handful of perfect Hood variety strawberries.
Sweet and warm from the sun just picked. I just wanted to share this perfect moment with my reader friends and now while I consume these with slow abandon, a moment of silence…
I know I’ve been away but I’ve been under the weather for a couple weeks and I’m waiting for some surgery in a couple days. One of the things that seems to set off the pain is believe it or not, typing so this will be short. I hope that’s the case as it’s grilling season so it’s the right time of year to get jiggy with the fire and the keyboard.
I got a hankering for fried corn this afternoon so this is what I ended up with -
So here it is June 16th in the lovely Pacific Northwest, we’re nearly a week into the World Cup of 2010 and it’s supposed to be summer. I’m here to tell you that today at 4:30pm the furnace that I had thus far neglected to turn from auto came on because the house was not up to the 62F that I have set for the afternoon threshold during the winter; not up to 62F on June 16th! Well in defense of the PNW weather, we have had a brilliant spring thus far and that is why I hadn’t turned the furnace off, I just hadn’t needed to as it hadn’t come on for some time.
I’ve been grilling most evenings as I get home and do my best to catch up on some of the yardwork required by that very brilliant spring of which I early wrote and then by the time I get finished with some yard chores, get cleaned up and am able to pull some protein and veg from the fridge, the easiest and fastest thing seems to be to fire up the grill. Tonight since it was a bit cooler and I was giving myself an evening off from the chores it seemed to be the perfect set up to open a lovely 05 Witness Tree Chainsaw Pinot Noir and whip up a bit of spring veggie risotto.
Many of these type of concoctions are referred to as “primavera” but that is an overused term and really means nothing but spring in Italian so it’s a decent descriptor but still beaten into the ground. I decided it was an evening for the Spain v Switzerland match on the DVR and a relatively light meal and I must say, it tasted so good tonight I nearly didn’t leave enough for my lunch tomorrow at work. Yummy if I do say so myself!
Spring Risotto with Mama Lil’s
I absolutely hope you enjoy this as much as I did if you find yourself trying this recipe!
It seems pork butt is on sale again this week so I better get off my own and get this posted so I can write about it again in case there are any changes. Frankly the first attempt was so successful, I doubt I’ll change a thing this time. My friend actually offered to pay me to recreate this for him, PSHAW sez me!
Anyway, my Mum recently gave me an electric smoker. She had used it a few years back but not in some time so it was just gathering dust at her house and she thought I might could put it to use. Never having worked with such a thing (electricity isn’t supposed to smoke, I thought electrical fires were a bad thing?) I worked my way through the original instructions which were few, looked up a few recipes / guidelines / methods / etc. on the ol’ interweb and decided to give it a go.
It seems that pork butt is highly recommended for the beginning smoker and anyone that has been along with this site for a while knows that any food porcine in life will eventually find a place in Casa Hunger; piggy products are a big part of our culinary repertoire. This was also good as I have a spice rub I make that is good on everything from fish to beef but as friend Drew once said “it makes pork tenderloin taste heavenly” so needless to say it seemed like a good place to start. Another thing to take into consideration is the wood which will reward the patient smoker with the crusty deliciousness and I decided to choose a decidedly un-Northwest wood for this first go and start with hickory only because I have a flavor profile with which I’m familiar and something known is always a good place to begin. So here goes, photos along the way along with some narration and the finished product. I’m certain this will become a staple for some time to come…
The Butt – 11 Pounds of deliciousness spiced to perfection. I use my house seasoning as I wrote earlier but combined it with an equal amount of brown sugar to help caramelize and crust the roast
The Sous Chef – 11 Years of pork consumption will get you a fine helper like this. Notice the look of unbridled anticipation (or is that “could you please hurry up Dad, I hate it when I have to get my picture taken”) on this young culinarian…
Into the Belly of the Beast – I don’t know if there is anything to say about placement in the smoker but this was about a foot above the water bath but up where the smoke should circulate, if I can remember my basic physics…
Is it Done Yet? – this was after about 12 hours in the smoke on minimal heat… not quite there yet
12 Hours + 2 More…FINIS! – 180F and looking good!
We had some friends over for lunch after a bit of wandering the local farmers market and downtown Edmonds. I didn’t have any coleslaw and we made do with some store bought BBQ sauce (but it was Stubb’s Spicy so not tough duty) and we ended up with this…
Then this…
And finally…
We used Orowheat Potato Rolls and have some delicious Tim’s Cascade Sea Salt & Vinegar chips on the side but next time around we’ll be putting these on my homemade no-knead wheat rolls and some yummy slaw topping. I’ll be putting this new device into service for salmon, chicken and any other assorted things that might benefit from a smoke bath. Look for more produce from “The Beast” as the next few months progress…
Hasta…..
May 2010 is in the history books and here are the grocery and booze totals for spending -
Some qualifiers though -
There was a bit of work travel and obviously there was no need to feed myself when on an expense account
I did also have some out of town family travel which again did not require the feeding of “my family” except for on the road
Road food consists typically (and unfortunately) usually (but not always) of fast food and and we all know what kind of fast food is right off the freeways 
I did not pay that much attention and did spend far too much dining out; not sure how much I spent but too much comes to mind
In my dining experiences I did have a number of very fine food experiences that I can share with you all; tan tan men in Vancouver, terrific clam chowder and micro-brewed root beer in Portland, great grilled tri-tip roast in McMinnville, etc.
We still have some of the purchased items left to move through the future weeks such as the pork belly I purchased but just haven’t had the time to work with, but I will oh yes I will
Anyway, it has brought the whole thing back to mindful grocery shopping and eating as I’ve also overspent a bit this past couple months and now that summer is on us and the costs for a number of summer camps as well as some summer travel are coming up and it’s time to buckle down and just not spend any $s so we can afford to do the fun stuff and although we can be frugal we’re still going to eat fresh veg and fruit, delicious grilled meats and delicious berry desserts (the second best thing about the delicious blackberry cobblers of summer is the fact they are nearly free, nothing like living well for nearly nothing 
). We’re now back to conscious planning and shopping and mindful eating so watch for more monthly updates but here is our expenditure list for May…
Musings On The Path To Frugality | Techozoic
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