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2012, the year this blog almost died
Although it’s been quite some time since my last post (um, several months! my screen saver should be tumbleweeds…), I’m not quite ready to give up blogging. Perhaps I’m in denial, but after spending all that time to transfer to a new domain earlier this year, getting a new masthead, etc, it seems a shame to let it slowly die. Although this fall and holiday season were our busiest yet for Beau Bien Fine Foods (selling at Eastern Market; getting our retail license to sell in stores) and the Detroit Holiday Food Bazaar was the biggest so far, you’d think my fairly flexible schedule would allow for some blogging time… I suppose my priorities just shifted towards activities that could potentially earn me some income, such as freelance writing and selling vintage clothing on my Etsy shop. But since January through April is a pretty slow season in the jam business, I’m hoping to get back into posting more regularly.
In spite of the lack of posts, I’ve been cooking just as much as ever. Lots of trout during the very hot summer and early fall; lacto-fermented pickle experiments with sauerkraut, kimchi and root vegetables (see below); some slow cooker experiments with pork ribs; dough for bread and pizza when it wasn’t too ungodly hot to turn on the oven. Some days, I’d even come home from a 10 or 11-hour day at the kitchen and prepare a meal for Marvin and myself. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely a few takeout meals and rotisserie chickens in the mix, but I tried to get into a groove of having enough groceries and pantry staples on hand to rustle up some simple healthy meals after a long day’s work.
venturing
When my band plays live shows, it’s common for us to play certain songs faster than the tempo we record or rehearse them in. There’s an energy to a live performance that incites you to do everything louder, faster, harder. For some of the songs that are already up-tempo, the live versions are sometimes performed at breakneck speeds that make you feel as if you’re on a runaway train that could careen off the tracks at any moment. It’s nerve-wracking to think it could all fall apart, but exhilarating at the same time when you finish the song, looking around at your bandmates like “Did we really just pull that off?”.
This is the feeling that sums up my September- a frantic, energetic, delirious blur. It bums me out that I’ve gone the entire month so far- over three weeks- without posting here, even though I had the first week of the month off (the pork loin shown above was cooked up north over Labor Day weekend, the last couple leisure days I’ve had). Rest assured, I haven’t been neglecting this space out of laziness or lack of interest. I’ve become involved in a few different new projects that are kicking into high gear and keeping nearly every free moment occupied, so I do feel a bit neurotic. But like that song that just manages not to self-implode, I’ve been holding it all together by the skin of my teeth and feeling, for the most part, immensely satisfied.
A month ago, I convinced my job to let me cut my work week to 32 hours so that I could have some extra time for entrepreneurial pursuits. I was a little nervous about the reduction in pay, but I knew it was something I had to do and was ready to take a bit of a risk. Since then, I have started making products for a small business with a friend (more on this soon!) and have written my first freelance article for Model D (out 9/28). I’ve also been working on getting this blog redesigned and moved over to a new domain, which I hope to have done in October in time for its 2-year anniversary.
Meanwhile, my cooking has fallen a bit to the wayside. I’ve largely been subsisting off salads, bread, cheese, and very simply cooked vegetables from the farmers’ market- nothing to write home about, but nourishing to the soul as well as the body. As summer grinds to a halt, I’m spending massive amounts of free time processing various fruits and vegetables, something I haven’t done on a large scale before. I hope to get my blogging mojo back soon, but for the moment my other projects are demanding just about all of my attention. I hope you’ll bear with me as I transition into these new and exciting ventures!
Grilled Pork Loin with Garlic & Rosemary
I haven’t really made anything requiring a recipe in the last month, but I did make the grilled pork loin pictured above with my favorite sous-chef, my brother Jesse, on Labor Day weekend up north.
Take a pork loin and cut it for a roulade (or have the butcher do this if you don’t know how). Generously season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper. Lay flat. Make a paste out of generous amounts of garlic and rosemary with a little olive oil; smear this liberally on one side of the meat. Roll it up and secure with butcher’s twine. Grill over high heat until it begins to color and brown, then transfer to indirect heat and grill, covered, until internal temperature is 145°. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes tented with foil; slice and serve. We served this with a “sauce” made of fresh Michigan peaches peeled and macerated with a small amount of sugar, and the grilled sweet corn pictured in the new masthead.
