Making Salami

Natascha, Jason, Joy and I went to Armandino Batali's cured meats class on Friday night. It was awesome and one of my favorite things he taught us was this salami that can be made in the afternoon and eaten that evening (it's cooked rather than dry cured). He served it sliced thin as hors d'oeuvres, but you could easily make this for an amazing sandwich meat too.

He makes 15 lbs at a time, which is a little much for the home cook. 5 lbs is more reasonable per my charcuterie book, so I've shrunk the volumes accordingly. It's super easy (pretty much mix meat A with spices B and cook). The only tricky part is griding the meat and finding the sausage casings/curing salt. Here's the recipe:

Armandino Batali's Quick Salami
4.3 lbs Pork Butt
10.7 oz back fat (available from your butcher)
2.3 oz kosher salt
0.34 oz ground white pepper
0.17 oz ground nutmeg
2 oz mace
0.4 oz nonfat dry milk (it serves as a tenderizer)
0.5 oz whole peppercorns
0.17 oz curing salt (aka pink salt which is a premade mix of sodium nitrite and salt. it gives the meat a pink color when cooked and contributes a little to the flavor. he insists on it -- even though this is a quick salami.)

Grind pork butt and pork fat very coarsely (a coarser grind produces better texture that is more tender; a kitchen aid mixer with sausage attachment will do the trick.) Combine all other ingredients and then fold in with the meat. Extrude into a fiber casing (see details below) and cook low and slow in the oven (he said lower the better, I'm guessing around 200-250). He cooks it approximately 30 min or until the internal temperature hits 150.

He lets it cool, removes the inedible fiber casing and slices it thin when ready to eat. Shelf life is around 6 weeks.

*Fiber casings are best for the oven and can be purchased from www.butcher-packer.com or www.sausagemaker.com (Batali prefers the first place).

P.S. he also gave out the recipe for a corned beef recipe he really likes that doesn't take any special equipment (besides the pink salt/saltpeter/sodium nitrite)

Running the Hood to Coast

Ken's team finished in 30 hours. That is 1 hour and 45 minutes faster than they anticipated. Everyone did great; no injuries. Ken ran 19.7 miles and is hobbling around today. He's happy he did it. I'm happy I went. I'm even happier that Alyson watched Kinley for me. It was nice to be moblile without worrying if Kinley is allowed in. Apparently he had a great weekend too -- he's been sleeping ever since.

Congratulations Karl and Wieke!

They just got engaged! Karl and Wieke (pronounced Vee-ka) live in Tucson and are both finishing up their graduate degrees. We knew Karl from when we lived in Tucson and got to watch him glow whenever talking about her.

Hooray!

Naked Friends and Strangers

Between the hours of 3 and 7 pm, 12 friends and strangers will be showering at our house (a comedy if you've ever used our shower, aka Mensa puzzle #42).

Today begins Hood to Coast. A 197 relay race from the top of Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast. It winds through mountains, small towns, Portland and the boonies (otherwise known as Mist. Curse you, Mist!)

Ken's excited. He took today off of work today in preparation for his first leg at 3 pm. He is running a total of 19.7 miles . Last night we made enough baked ziti and garlic bread to feed an army. We also made chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies. I won't be there for the showering stop since I'll be at the cured meats class, but I will get to see Ken at his transition tomorrow morning outside of Astoria -- he projected it to be "around 11:56 am" (much better than his 2 am second leg in the middle of nowhere).

We'll be staying at a runner's family cabin tomorrow night rather than driving back to Portland afterwards. And, I learned my lesson last year such that Kinley will be staying with Alyson and Eric while we're gone (read: his best dogfriend forever, Otis). I am very thankful. Especially because that means I can enjoy the Hood to Coast BEER GARDEN on the beach while waiting for Ken's team to finish rather than being banned from it because of said dog. Hopefully this Hood to Coast will be quite different than last year. We're older and wiser, right?

Moving Days

Our lab has been moving this week. Kind of a pain since it is a temporary move of 6-12 months while they remodel the space around our old lab. Downside: the time needed to pack/unpack and the likely problems of keeping consistency between our experiments. Upside: We didn't need to move everything. A good thing when your PI has been in research for 20+ years and there is equipment aplenty that nobody uses anymore. The other upside, check out my new view (Note: found the pictures on the web; didn't take them myself, but they'll give you a pretty good idea of things).

Here's the view from my desk (!) looking over the tram and Ross Island bridge. It's a hazy day else you could see Mt. Hood, too.


And here's the view from the lunchroom, where you can see downtown, most of portland's bridges and even Mt. St. Helens.


I'm going to bring a plant in for more greenery. I'll be sad to give up this view.

Rafting the Deschutes

We had a great time. Here's a series of our boat going through one of the rapids (Ken's guiding in back, I'm wearing the red visor (back left) and Kinley's hard to see but between us):






So between that and being Algae King, Kinley's exhausted and has been sleeping ever since.

Out of Cured Meats in <7 minutes

I read that Armandino Batali was coming to town. He's the grand poo-bah of cured meats in this part of the world and is very well known -- either for his shop in Seattle or as the father of Mario. Either way, he has become a living legend.

I wrote a friend to see if she wanted to go. We both called. They sold out both classes in less than seven minutes. She got two tickets, this little piggy got none. So we're going! We're going. That is amazing. A cured meat class. My own little dream come true. I am excited. Here's the advertisement:

You know 'em, you love 'em: the delectible salumi from Armandino Batali. Whether you're addicted to the Mole salami or wake up thinking about the Culatello, you know that Armandino and his tiny shop Salumi Artisan Cured Meats in Seattle are making some of the best salumi you'll ever have. Join us on Friday, August 24th for a class with Armandino. He'll be sharing his experience and knowledge and show us how he makes Cotto (plus Gnocco Frito and Bruschetta!) Don't miss this rare opportunity to learn about the world of cured meats from a master, who -- in addition to knowing a ton about his craft -- is funny and warm and a great guy to spend time with.

When: Friday, August 24th at 3pm and 7:15pm
Where: Foster & Dobbs Authentic Foods
Cost: $35 per person. Registration for this class opens at 4:00pm on Wednesday, August 15th. Reservations are required and must be secured with a credit card. Call the shop at 503.284.1157. Class size is limited and will fill very quickly. Participants receive a 10% discount on purchases after the class.

Sara and Drew's Wedding

Ken has lots of pictures and I know Bevin downloaded all the pictures, so I'm sure they'll be available soon. But for now, here's how it went:

The wedding was really beautiful. It was overlooking Netarts Bay at Sara's parents' house. They had the rehearsal dinner there too. The rehearsal dinner for ~40 and was amazing. They had a local fisherman's daughter (who used to run a catering company in seattle) do the cooking. She's our age and is wonderful. She made mini crabcakes, fresh ahi tuna in a lemon/olive oil/rosemary marinade (1/2 c each lemon juice and olive oil + 1/3 c rosemary; soak for a minute or two before searing; amazing). She also did beef kabobs, a coleslawish smoked salmon salad, these amazing fresh-out-of-the-water shrimp and then some other side dishes. The food was amazing.

Sara's folks rented a house on the beach for all the bridesmaids and groomsmen (+ their sig others). We had a bonfire on thursday night where everyone met each other. Then the girls and sara's mom went out for manicures and pedicures on friday afternoon followed by lunch and wine at a local cheese shop. We helped set up for rehearsal dinner and went back to take showers. Rehearsal dinner was at 6 at sara's family house followed by beer pong and silly drinking games at the rented house where we were staying. Then Saturday was the wedding. There was an organized run up the "hill of death" at 9 for those that wanted. Then the bridemaids met at sara's house to set up for the wedding at 3. It looked lovely. Simple glass vases with hydrangeas, wildflower seeds as favors, small tissue paper flowers as napkin rings, pale buttery yellow tablecloths. Gorgeous. The officiant called to say she got stuck in traffic and was going to be late to which sara replied 'there's still plenty of water in the bay". She was very calm and happy all weekend. So the bridesmaids hung out upstairs while the guests mingled below. They had beer and wine available before the ceremony -- I don't think they were planning on it, but when the officiant said she was late, that's when I heard the bottles start opening. Everyone was really happy; it was a sunny day, warm but not hot, breezy but not windy. Completely stunning and sweet.

The next day was drew's birthday so she had a brunch at the house in his honor. French toast casserole, bacon and lots of awesome alcohol-soaking sausage links. It was a lovely wedding. Probably one of my favorites in its casualness yet how special it made everyone feel.

Congratulations Sara and Drew!

Rafting photo

Here are some photos of me with Kinley on the raft the first day we went rafting down the Deschutes River. This series is from Oak Springs, a Class IV rapid. He was a so excited he wanted to jump out of the boat a few times. In fact, he got tossed in this one. Thank goodness for the indispensable handle on the back of the lifevests. Chris (the guy next to me in the raft) wants to graft one onto Roxy's (the black lab in the boat) back. Not a bad idea.

The middle photo starts the series, then the upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right. More photos to come.

Crack the Champagne!

At 4pm (PST), we're meeting with John to hand him the final check and he'll hand us the deed to the property. At last, the back property is ours.

Bachelorette and Rafting

Two fun trips.

Ken took Brian and Drew rafting on the Deschutes River with 20+ of our dodgeball friends. Kinley went, too. They had a blast. Kinley loves rafting and the water, but was exhausted afterwards. Can you blame him? Look at him hitting the bottle!



Ken has some other staged pictures that are hilarious. And some really great ones of them all in the river. We'll try to get them up soon.

Meanwhile, six of us went down to Yachats (about 3.5 hours SW on the coast).
We played lots of games, spent all day Saturday reading and hanging out on the beach and went out on Saturday night to the local bar. There was a group of seven 14 year old boys who were camping in the yard next door. They took off their shirts to impress us (per the mom) and even had a dance routine planned for us. Hilarious. I bet they were sad when we closed the curtains before they could perform their routine. We're kind of sad we missed it, too. I bet it would have been funny. We reminisced how happy we were that we weren't 14 anymore. And in all, we had a great time. We got home around 6:30 last night and we all crashed around 10.

There are 6 people staying at our house right now (Ken and myself not included). Plus two additional dogs. Everyone but brian and marsha head to Netarts tomorrow and then the four of us and kinley will head down on Thursday night for Sara and Drew's wedding. Should be a blast. They're expecting 86 people. And they're doing pies instead of wedding cake which is awesome. Many of Sara's friends and family are making the pies (15-20 pies total). I'm thinking about doing a chocolate cream pie. Marsha's doing a lemon one. And Brian (who doesn't know it yet) is making an apple one with a salt crust that is apparently fantastic.

On my 30th Birthday (from June)

It takes three months to stamp a piece of paper

What am I talking about?

Only the awesomeness that our property will be going through on "Monday or Tuesday". The last thing we have to do is hand them the final check and they hand us the piece of paper. What a long process. Thanks to the blog, I learned it was May 9th when we signed the contract. So Monday or Tuesday will be 2 days shy of 3 months. And 2.5 years since we first inquired about the property.

So in a few short days, we'll have this to which to look forward:


First order of business -- build a fence. I can hardly wait. That will be one sweet glass of champagne the night the property goes through. Ken and I even contemplated sleeping back there to celebrate -- but seeing as it's so close to the main road, lacks a fence and I recently found a waistband from an old pair of underwear, I think we'll pass. And it wasn't the first pair I've found. Who does that? Gross.

Well soon it will be all ours. And I can leave my own underwear bands if I want to. I don't, but I can if I want!