Pork!

We were fortunate to find a great house, but even more lucky to move to a block with awesome neighbors who love food. Our latest adventure is with a professional size smoker that our neighbor received to review (he's a food writer who specializes in mixology). The smoker is big enough to comfortably fit about 60lbs of pork shoulder and the challenge was taken seriously -- three neighbors, three rubs, and three 20lb packages of pork shoulder. 

Each of us were in charge of making our own rub. We chose a chili chocolate concoction which was basically sugar, salt, onion and garlic powder, Chili 9000 from Penzey's, black pepper, chipotle powder, and some dark dutch processed coco. J set the alarm clock for 5:30am and the smoking began across the street promptly at 6am. We finished up about 6pm and all sampled the fare. It is fantastic. And now, a peek at deliciousness:

J applying the rub.

Ready for the refrigerator.

Removing the pork from the smoker after about 12 hours.

And this is what 60lbs of deliciousness looks like.

Strawberry Jam

As part of our CSA in June, we got nine pints of incredibly ripe and delicious strawberries. Since there was no way that four of us could consume that many in a day or two, J and I decided to do our first canning project in the new house. We brought back a few Weck (pronounced veck) jars from our Santa Cruz trip and I picked up another case at a great little store in Sellwood, called Portland Homestead Supply Co. The jars are great for several reasons: they're good looking, all of the parts (including the gasket) are reusable, and there's not one trace of BPA or other plastics that are present on the disposable metal canning lids. The Germans have been using them since the turn of the 20th century, so that's a pretty good track record in my book. 

We initially we planned to do the canning process in just an evening, but then read the directions and found that it was a bit more involved than we thought. So, while watching a few episodes of one of our favorite shows, Archer, we stemmed and chopped strawberries and combined them with lemons and about equal parts sugar to sit overnight and macerate. Because strawberries do not have much pectin, they need some help to jell into jam, so the lemon rinds and seeds were reserved to cook with the mixture. 

The next night, we set out to make the jam and can it. You bring the berries up to a light boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until they reach 221º (the jell point) all while ladling off the copious amounts of foam that rises from the lemons, berries, and sugar rolling around. Apparently getting rid of the foam makes for a nice clear jam in the end. As the temperature got up to the 200ºs, I had J run out to the garage and get a work glove to protect my fingers from the steam. Yes, next time I will invest in a candy thermometer that just clips to the edge. 

After the jam made it to temperature, we took it off the stove and ladled the delicious mixture into our sterilized and prepped Weck jars. J's mom has a great canner that we used to process them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes, until they'd reached safe temperature. And here is the finished product, about 12 cute little jars of perfectly delicious strawberry jam.

Back Yard Progress

It seems like we just planted the beds in our back yard, but after looking back at our weekend extravaganza in June, I realized that we've made a lot of progress in just a month. It's a completely new space that is so much more inviting than what what originally there:

East facing - Left: June 4th, 2012   Right: July 9, 2012

West facing - Left: June 4th, 2012    Right: July 9, 2012

Tomato plant progress - Left: June 4th, 2012     Right: July 9, 2012