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stoney321Yesterday was in the upper 70s. Today it's 26. Welcome to Texas. Don't like the weather? Take a nap. When you wake up, it'll be completely different.
Today is a great day, for it's the day we go to Kuby's. Kuby's is a delicatessen run by an old family friend. He escaped Germany ahead of the Berlin wall and brought his family to the states. His family had lived in the same small town in Eastern Germany for 500 years, as sausage makers. He has sausage recipes going back to medieval times. A few years back, he added a processing plant to the works, and my husband, who hunts (more on that later) takes his game to them and gets back our yearly meats.
Note for people who are anti-hunting: we use all the meat. And what we don't eat, we donate. The only meats I ever need to buy are chickens and fish, if you consider fish to be meat, which I don't. I consider it fish. :) My husband is also a sharpshooter (no, he has papers and everything!) and takes down whatever he's hunting in one shot. There's no suffering like at, say, every single slaughterhouse in the US. (Which is why I try to never eat meat that's been processed at slaughterhouses.)
Bratwurst, summer sausages, steaks, tenderloins, hams, chops, bacon, breakfast sausages, stew meat, tamales (they hired this fabulous Mexican woman that makes venison tamales. Oh, so good.) Today is load the freezer day up, and I love that day. It makes me feel like I'm Laura Ingalls in the Big Woods when her Pa would load up the smokehouse, and Ma would sit and braid onions until her hands were worn, and Laura and Mary had to sort through the apples to find the bad ones, and everything would go up in the rafters in their little cabin and then they could sit around a roaring fire while the storms blew and listen to Pa's fiddle and know they'd eat that winter.
Here it's the LotR trilogy on the tv instead of a fiddle, and there's no snow nor wolves to mess with the livestock, but we do have some ferocious jack rabbits that pick fights with Darthanne... Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, huh?
In three weeks I get to start carrots and garlic and onions and potatoes in the garden, then a few weeks after that will be cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. I'm just in my Half-Pint mood today, that's all, dreaming of an epic food storage.
Today is a great day, for it's the day we go to Kuby's. Kuby's is a delicatessen run by an old family friend. He escaped Germany ahead of the Berlin wall and brought his family to the states. His family had lived in the same small town in Eastern Germany for 500 years, as sausage makers. He has sausage recipes going back to medieval times. A few years back, he added a processing plant to the works, and my husband, who hunts (more on that later) takes his game to them and gets back our yearly meats.
Note for people who are anti-hunting: we use all the meat. And what we don't eat, we donate. The only meats I ever need to buy are chickens and fish, if you consider fish to be meat, which I don't. I consider it fish. :) My husband is also a sharpshooter (no, he has papers and everything!) and takes down whatever he's hunting in one shot. There's no suffering like at, say, every single slaughterhouse in the US. (Which is why I try to never eat meat that's been processed at slaughterhouses.)
Bratwurst, summer sausages, steaks, tenderloins, hams, chops, bacon, breakfast sausages, stew meat, tamales (they hired this fabulous Mexican woman that makes venison tamales. Oh, so good.) Today is load the freezer day up, and I love that day. It makes me feel like I'm Laura Ingalls in the Big Woods when her Pa would load up the smokehouse, and Ma would sit and braid onions until her hands were worn, and Laura and Mary had to sort through the apples to find the bad ones, and everything would go up in the rafters in their little cabin and then they could sit around a roaring fire while the storms blew and listen to Pa's fiddle and know they'd eat that winter.
Here it's the LotR trilogy on the tv instead of a fiddle, and there's no snow nor wolves to mess with the livestock, but we do have some ferocious jack rabbits that pick fights with Darthanne... Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, huh?
In three weeks I get to start carrots and garlic and onions and potatoes in the garden, then a few weeks after that will be cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. I'm just in my Half-Pint mood today, that's all, dreaming of an epic food storage.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 04:40 pm (UTC)The German deli sounds fantastic and I love that you have such tight control over your meat (no, really). On a completely skewed Laura Ingalls note, I'm planning to take advantage of the cold snap and make kim chee this afternoon. I need to have it fermenting in the garage for the first week, and it's been much too warm. It's not braiding onions, but it is putting vegetables up, right?
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:51 pm (UTC)Oh, the German Deli is sooooo fabulous. The Mister is getting ideas of his own, as he got a smoker for Giftmas. He's wanting to smoke his own hams and make his own corned beef. Hmmm.
Kim Chee!! Yes, that totally counts! I love carrot kim chee - sweet and sour, yum.
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Date: 2009-01-10 05:09 pm (UTC)Oh, man, I need to have breakfast.
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:42 pm (UTC)Maybe your husband would like to take down Bambi for me. The amount of deer here is staggering.
So you trade for almost all your meat? That's rather cool.
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:53 pm (UTC)We pretty much only eat meat that my husband has killed. He takes the carcasses to the shop and they cure it/process it. Sometimes he does it here at the house, too. Bleh.
My husband would totally take you up on the deer control offer. I bet there are lots of food banks up there that could use meat, too.
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Date: 2009-01-10 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 04:46 pm (UTC)I HAVE TOTALLY BEEN ON A LITTLE HOUSE BOOK KICK SINCE CHRISTMAS. STOP SHARING MY BRAIN OMG!!!!
ALTERNATIVELY, THINK OF MORE PORN WHILE YOU'RE IN THERE
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:53 pm (UTC)Oooh, porn! Can do!
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:56 pm (UTC)BTW, tell me you watched Summer Heights High when it aired. If not, WATCH IT.
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:59 pm (UTC)I did not, but clearly I need to take a trip to Mininova, eh?
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Date: 2009-01-10 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 04:49 pm (UTC)::braids your onions::
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Date: 2009-01-10 04:54 pm (UTC)<3
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Date: 2009-01-10 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-11 01:43 pm (UTC)Except he also has this thing for explosives. But hey - pipe bombs and tripwires will keep the compund zombie free when we fall asleep, amirite?
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Date: 2009-01-11 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 05:03 pm (UTC)I'm rather fascinated by hunting, pampered city girl that I am. How often does your husband go hunting, and how much does he need to kill to keep your family in meat for a year? And what does he hunt?
I'm a meat-eater, but the way animals are slaughtered in this country troubles me. I'm not sure I could ever kill it myself, but I'm still curious.
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Date: 2009-01-10 05:09 pm (UTC)Three deer, four hogs, scores of dove (then I don't have to buy chicken!) and so far, no duck or geese this year, which is fine by me. They're very fatty. If we have extra meat that we can't use, we give it to my sister or to a local food bank. Meat isn't often donated, so they're always desperate for it.
I was vegetarian for years because of the slaughterhouse conditions here. I don't have issues with meat-eating (obv.) because animals eat other animals, and it's just our eco-system. But I can respect others not liking that idea. IAs long as they respect mine. *g*)
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Date: 2009-01-10 05:03 pm (UTC)*flashback to childhood*
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Date: 2009-01-10 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 06:44 pm (UTC)75 here, no winds, no ice, no snow, no winter
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Date: 2009-01-10 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 07:17 pm (UTC)Laura with the attic full of pumpkins and squash, the smokehouse packed tight with meat, the pantry full. I loved that in the books, and i totally know the feeling know, when it's cold outside and i have stuff inside and don't have to go anywhere.
:)
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Date: 2009-01-10 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 07:33 pm (UTC)I clicked your epic food storage link. The old man formerly known as my grandfather (and his second family) had the whole LDS food storage thing too. But their's always struck me as gross, because none of the stuff they had stored looked edible.
Also, if you really want to be ready when the zombie invasion comes, you'll need to move your cheese-its to Ground Zero (http://www.colma.ca.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=54).
I only live about an hour from there myself. We could totally visit and share braaaiiiiinsss recipes.
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Date: 2009-01-10 11:15 pm (UTC)Oh, I've seen some pantries too that have looked.... horrible. Fortunately my g-ma and aunt made it look appetizing. :D
Holy crap to that link you posted!! DUDE. That is totally ground zero!
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Date: 2009-01-11 12:22 am (UTC)I know, right? I have this fantasy of moving there and opening a B&B.
When I was in my twenties, I took a wrong exit off the freeway one night and got lost there. I didn't know anything about Colma at that point and was really freaked out after I'd counted several mortuaries and crematoriums in the span of about five minutes. It was a very Twilight Zone kind of adventure.
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Date: 2009-01-10 07:36 pm (UTC)Or a slow blink, if you're feeling impatient.
I've never attempted venison tamales, I may look into since I have both venison and masa. And some venison sausage. Hmmm...
As the late Kurt Cobain sang, 'It's okay to eat fish, 'cause they don't have any feelings.'
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Date: 2009-01-10 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 08:59 pm (UTC)I am in the midst of my annual re-read of the LHOTP books and totally relate to your analogy....
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Date: 2009-01-10 11:18 pm (UTC)Most of my dad's family were farmers - they grew their own food and slaughtered animals for their meat. It's tough living, but it made them all very appreciative and respectful of the natural balance of things. When you just go to the store and pick up packages, you lose touch with what you're doing, imo.
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Date: 2009-01-10 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 11:19 pm (UTC)I bet that's a lot of work! Fish isn't easy to work with, unless you don't mind wasting lots and lots.
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Date: 2009-01-11 12:22 am (UTC)Word. Phoenix is exactly the same. My car's windows were frozen in the morning and I was ready for shorts and tee by the mid afternoon. Fuck nuttery.
I enjoyed this post. Pa fiddlin' at the fire. Hehe.
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Date: 2009-01-11 06:20 am (UTC)That's all I've got. Sleepy. :)
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Date: 2009-01-11 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-11 03:48 pm (UTC)I do however love the fact that I can shop for some much needed spices that tend to be hard to find anywhere else. And the metzgerei...heaven.