Putting Pork on Your Fork

Not too much to report on the farm. The weather in Maine has been wacky... warm, then below zero, snow then rain??

So glad we are down to 2 pigs. A fifty pound bag of grain is lasting well over a week compared to 3 days. The pork chops and sausage are so delicious! My neighbor picked up our ham, bacon, and smoked shoulder today. MM is cooking our first of the bacon as I type.....yum....he just gave me a sample.
Years ago John & I raised a few pigs. I can vividly remember one of our novice pig experiences. We had just moved into our first home and we were wanna be farmers. We went to the auction and bought a 75lb pig. The closest we had to a farm vehicle was John's Toyota 4 runner so we loaded her in the back and off we went.

When we arrived home we put her in a pen that John had built out of pallets. The next morning at 5 a.m. John discovered she had escaped. It was early Spring and John was able to follow her tracks in the soft ground. He discovered her a 1/2 mile back at our NEW neighbors house rooting up their lawn. The chase began! The pig headed straight for their deck and it fell and slid into their sliding glass door. They were awoken by their dog barking and the noise of the pig and MM in hot pursuit. John was young and in his prime I tell you. But, that pig ran faster scared than John could mad. I too attempted to capture but remember dropping to the ground surrendering. The whole family attempted to catch this frisky critter and you know it, after quite some time MM outsmarted her. He hid behind a tree and when it attempted to run the field John was able to get a hold of her. The drama continued, because of the mud season we could not drive up their driveway (as they did not either) so we had to walk her home. Ever try to walk a 75lb pig? We weren't laughing at the time but we often reminisce about that day.

This was our first meeting of our new neighbors and after a bit of landscaping and a 12 pack of beer we became friends for life.

This story was not my planned post for this evening but...there you have it. That damn ADD kicking in again!

A few weeks back I finished reading Omnivores Dilemma. A little deep at times but very informative. It is headed to City Girl's bedside stand next. Now I am reading In Defense of Food along with an awesome magazine MM bought me for Christmas. It is called Countryside & small stock journal. For those of you that are interested in gardening, livestock, homesteading this is a must have . It has few ads and pictures in comparison to other magazines and it is jammed pack with great info.

I have been doing lots of cooking and I will end this with a couple recipes that we have enjoyed.

For all of you that have a freezer full of blueberries. This is the first time I made and ate blueberry pie. MM and my in-laws enjoyed as well.

Blueberry Pie

~3 to 4 cups of Blueberries - fresh or frozen

~7 Tablespoons corn starch
~3 Tablespoons water
~2 Tablespoons lemon juice
~ 1 teaspoon cinnamon

~1/4 teaspoon all spice

One 9 inch pie crust

For the topping:

~1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Splenda)
~1/2 cup flour
~1/4 cup butter or margarine

Add blueberries to crust, drizzle with remaining incredients and then apply crumb topping.

Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

This was the bread I made today. It too was a hit, even with the kiddos. Now remember I cheat making bread most days by using my bread machine. I add liquids/butter etc to the bread pan first then I add dry mix after ingredients combined. Make a hole in the middle and add yeast last. I select dough cycle which takes my machine about 1.5 hours to mix and rise. I then shape it into a loaf and put in a glass bread pan and cover with a moist towel to rise (preferably in a warm area) for 1 hour. Then it cooks at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

*EGG BREAD*

2/3 cup milk (warmed to 75-85 degrees)

1 large egg

1 tablespoon of butter

2 1/4 cups of bread flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of bread machine fast rise yeast (or 1 1/2 teaspoon of active dry yeast)

And lastly for the Rabid Outdoorsman and Queenie here is my pickled egg recipe you were asking for. It is at the bottom of that post.
Enjoy!