This is a busy month for everyone: winding down from All Hallow's Eve, prepping for Thanksgiving, and then the looming holiday and social season staring back at us from just over the edge there after the Big Meal has been consumed.
Yep, I used to see the calendar as one long thread, now I envision it as a creepy monster climbing up a cliff. That could be a problem.
Hey, but I do really enjoy book events, so let's get to those, shall we?
If you're in Atlanta, or Brooklyn, or near my hometown of Rehoboth, or want to visit Salem after all the witching debauchery is over, I'd love to see you at one of these book events:
The Doubletree Hotel in Atlanta was kind enough to hook me up with the folks at Barnes & Noble Cumberland, where I'll be signing books this Friday, November 5, from 6-8pm.
Next week, on Tuesday, November 9, I'll be talking about the book, doling out treats - and wine! - at my hometown library, The Blanding Public Library, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, at 7pm
I will very likely be getting NO. SLEEP. 'TIL (or FROM). BROOKLYN. (because who can resist screaming out Beastie Boys' lyrics when one is discussing a book signing?) as I make my way to the signing on Saturday, November 20 at Word Brooklyn. The festivities start at 7:30pm, I will have my trusty treats with me, and as part of the signing, we're asking that you consider making a donation to Greenpoint Church, which is the soup kitchen up the street from Word.
As of July this year, the pantry was handing out 350 bags of groceries per week, and are able to make a complete bag of groceries for $6.75. Please feel free to make a donation of $6.75 online if you're so inclined, or, Word will be accepting donations at the store on the 20th.
I'll be helping out at the pantry on the 17th in the late afternoon - packing up Thanksgiving pantry bags and/or helping with dinner service, and it would be great to have others along to help out, so if you're interested in volunteering, please leave a comment here, email, or tweet to let me know.
Once that which is wicked leaves Salem, Massachusetts, it's a charming town (This report that the spooky month can be annoying came to me secondhand. My friends who live in the area complain mightily about how congested Salem is through the month of October.). Actually, the whole North Shore of Massachusetts is pretty darned lovely. And you can find me at Pamplemousse on Saturday, November 27 from 3-5pm. As you might expect, I'll be signing books & doling out treats!
Hope to see you at one of these events - Happy November!
I know I haven't done this in a while, so in the event that you're curious, Dinner Tonight will be eggs from our hens - fried - with toasted Standard Baking Co. English muffins and a homegrown potato-leek hash with mild chouriço. Only the muffins and chouriço were purchased, to the tune of $2.32 for the chouriço and something like $1.50 for the muffins. Let's add in 36-cents for olive oil and 35-cents for butter, just to be safe. Maybe even 3-cents in crushed red pepper flakes (though I'll be using homegrown there as well). It's a lazy breakfast-for-dinner night here, all because I'm on a HOLY EARLY flight to Atlanta in the a of m.
Recently, at a class on sustainable meats (very ably taught by Jackie Church of The Leather District Gourmet), the icebreaker question posed to me was, "What's your favorite thing to cook?" Sitting next to me, Laura and Rob of The Two Palaverers gasped (or at least it sounded like gasping to me), while I gasped internally.
Favorite...thing...to...cook. Pause. Question mark.
The words slunk through my brain, as though my internal movie camera had been set to shoot the film of my life at 120 frames per second. Glancing around, and noticing that no one else was operating in super slo-mo, my brain quickly ratcheted back into the normal pace of life.
I responded, "Um, pasta. Homemade pasta. Seasonal sauces. That sort of thing."
Super effing eloquent me, huh?
This incredible lack of mastery of how to communicate my all-time most desirable thing to cook is only made worse by the fact that I am asked this question at nearly every book event I attend, and, probably not surprising to you, but somehow surprising to me, during many a private conversation with friends, acquaintances, and colleagues.
So shouldn't I have a better response than lapsing into what is essentially an accelerated (and slightly panicked) process of elimination that, counter intuitively, feels as though my mind is playing the role of Kim Bassinger as she drifts away underwater in the video for Mary Jane's Last Dance? (Just the underwater drifting part. Not the dead part. You do know this video, do you not? Please go have a look if you know not of what I speak.)
As it turns out, I do not have one favorite thing to cook (hence all the gasping - internal and external when the question is posed). However, I can narrow it down to this: I enjoy the process of cooking. The slowing down. The chopping of vegetables (yes, I am one of those people), the seasoning, the searing, the stirring, the observing - when is it ready, finally ready, to share? And the artistry of crafting something - something edible, aromatic, that inspires gnawing, groaning, and yes, even drooling.
You see yourself there, with your tattered napkin at the ready, don't you? Placing your fork down, catching your breath, napkin to mouth, dab-dab, dab-dab, a sip of your wine, or beer, or water, and then back to the fork and food again.
Sometimes, that thing that I love to make is homemade pasta with a seasonal sauce. Sometimes it is a soup with hard-won home-grown organic (bug-eaten holes and all) vegetables. Sometimes it is a slow-roasted tomato, or roasted cauliflower. More often, it is a slow-cooked piece of meat. One that will fall off the bone. One that is savory, succulent, possibly even agro, and dolce. A dish like this one, this pork that welcomes autumn whether plated next to roasted pumpkin and creamy polenta or served atop a roll to help get you through the game sans hunger pangs.
Pear and Sweet Onion Pulled Pork:
serves 6 to 8
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
(1) 3 to 4 pound pork butt (pork shoulder is also fine, just try to get one with as little bone as possible)
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 medium pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 2-inch cubes (approximately 2-inch cubes - they are a rounded fruit after all)
1 large Vidalia or other sweet onion, peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 tablespoon fresh
2 cups apple cider
Though the active time of this recipe is around 30 minutes, the pork does braise for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, so this is most definitely not a weeknight meal. Unless you're somewhat unemployed like me, then you have time to braise away on a Wednesday. However, if you're gainfully employed, it's a good Sunday afternoon dish from which you may then repurpose leftovers during the week.
Remove the pork from the refrigerator about an hour before you plan to cook it. Pat the surface dry with a paper towel, then season the butt (could. not. resist. This will get worse. You have been warned.) all over with salt and pepper.
In a large, heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid (such as a braiser or Dutch oven), heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Once the oil has a shiny, shimmery appearance, carefully place the pork into the pot to avoid the hot oil splattering back at you. You want to hear the meat sizzle as soon as it hits the pan (as a test to determine whether the oil is ready for browning, you can also drop a breadcrumb or two into the oil to see if it sputters away).
Brown each side of the pork (including the short ends, which I usually do last. They do require a little balancing act with the tongs and a steady, oven-mitted hand holding the pot still), 3 to 5 minutes per side. If the meat doesn't pull off of the pan easily, it's not completely browned. It's nice of the meat and the pot to band together to let us know when we're ready to move on to the next step, isn't it?
sometimes the onion unlayers itself.
After all sides have been browned, reduce the heat to medium. Add the pear cubes and quartered onion (don't worry about breaking the onion layers apart - that'll happen as they cook, or if they fall apart on their own), then drizzle the honey over the roast, and sprinkle the thyme over the pork, pears, and onions.
Pour in the apple cider, bring the liquid to a gentle simmer (keep an eye on this - if the pot gets too hot, and the cider is percolating away rapidly - say, at near-boiling - the cider will cook off and you'll have a stuck-to-the-bottom butt on your hands), cover, and cook, flipping the butt occasionally (also to avoid that stuck butt we just discussed) for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until the pork is pulling apart from itself.
Serve the pork forth with the aforementioned creamy polenta, or mashed sweet potatoes, or even the quinoa, squash, and black bean salad a couple posts down from this one.
Estimated cost for one big pork butt: $21.43. You may be stepping away from your computer, aghast at the tally starting in the twenties, but 4 pounds of meat will easily feed 8 people, so the per-serving cost is $2.68. Plus, if you're trying to save money, it's very likely that you only buy meat when it's on sale (like we do here). For pork butt, that generally brings the cost down by a dollar per pound or so. The pork butt costs $3.99 at regular price at Whole Foods (and, yes, you can find it for less elsewhere, this is true. However, I like to give the option of buying hormone-free meat, and from there, one can make the shopping decision that works for him or her). We've already discussed that we're buying 4 pounds, so let's figure $16.00 for the meat. The oil costs 96-cents, the pears cost $1.79 per pound, and two pears will probably get you to that one-pound mark, so $1.79 it is. The onion should cost around a dollar. The honey costs 50-cents, the thyme costs 18-cents, and the apple cider costs $1.00 ($3.99 for 8 cups).
