What Happened To July?

Heya gang,

So... I know I missed a month... but what can I say, its been quite the month to miss. July has been full of health issues and family stuff, so I've not had much I could contribute. Things are... well I'm not dead. :P

Ok, so back to cooking. I don't have a lot for you, but I wanted to share some of my more recent forays into the cooking world. Lately I've been working on my Chili, as you know, and I've actually completed a far far better batch... in fact, two batches since the last entry. And in the last week, particularly this past weekend, I got to connect with the competition chili cookoff crew finally, and have been learning a LOT! Thanks to Isaiah Frechette and Jim Stoddard particularly for all their help thus far. I've learned more in the last 48 hours than I've learned in the last 9 months of research and cooking experiments. I'm actually preparing for my next round of recipe revisions, though I don't think we'll see another until September. I'm also hoping to connect with some of these folks in person at one of the upcoming chili cookoffs in the semi-local area. More on that as information becomes available.

We've been eating a LOT of roast pork shoulder. We have a recipe that we based ours on, though I've changed it a bit, particularly due to weight, and have adjusted cooking times appropriately. I've added a few of my own twists as well. One reason for the pork indulgence: The local supermarket has been selling a double pack of whole, bone-in pork shoulder (left and right shoulders, respectively), weighing about 15lb total, and for a very reasonable price. One of these packs lasts us at least a month and a half.

These are extremely useful cuts of meat, very versatile. We've made everything from pulled pork sandwiches to pseudo-carnitas, sliced roast and gravy, cubed pork with a chili sauce... its been wonderful.

Today's lunch, for example, was made from the roast pork we made yesterday, which we shredded, and I reheated in a non-stick skillet today with a chopped up chipotle and its surrounding adobo sauce, as well as some dried ingredients such as cilantro, mexican oregano, roasted granulated garlic, and onion powder. With a little bit of kosher salt to finish it off, I added a little bit of water to the pan and lidded it to let the spices soak in, simmered for about 10 minutes, and then made tacos out of it with some warmed flour tortillas. Great stuff!

I'm afraid that, meager as it is, that is all I have for you this time. I will try to have an entry next time that reflects my usual kitchen geekery. Thank you all again for reading, see you next time!