Smoker in da house!

pork chop and kale

We introduced a new appliance into our family this week, the Bradley electric smoker. This smoker allows you to smoke meats and other edibles using any wood flavors you want.

Ultimately we hope to be master smokers, making our own hickory smoked bacon, mesquite smoked ribs and even whole smoked turkeys. But for our first run at it we went with a simple applewood smoked pork chop.

It was breathtaking.

For the meat I picked up some heritage pre-brined Berkshire pork chops at my very favorite San Francisco grocer, Bi-Rite market. Because it was pre-seasoned, we did nothing else to it except smoke it until cooked (~3 hrs). The results were phenomenal, as you can see. We served it up with some kale.

Mission accomplished, we are certainly going to be having some fun with this one.

Pink pearl apple

Pink pearl apple

I just cut into my first pink pearl apple of the season. Isn't it beautiful?

The heirloom pink pearl apple is not overly sweet like supermarket varieties. It has a rich, complex flavor and subtle tartness. Perfect food.

Worm farm update: It's alive!

composting worm bin

I took off the lid to feed the worms some kale scraps today and was shocked to see a mini forest of sprouts growing from it. It took me about 20 minutes to realize they are probably from the sweet pepper scraps I've been putting in there, the only thing I've added that contains seeds (I think). I guess it makes sense that seeds would grow well in a compost bin, but I'm not sure how to deal with this situation.

PhD dissertation submission

I submitted my dissertation to the UCSF Graduate Division today. Woohoo!

Lazy lunch: beans, tomatoes and cilantro

Rancho Gordo Yellow Indian Woman beans, cherry tomatoes, fresh cilantro, olive oil, sea salt, pepper.

Mushroom farm FAIL.

dying maitake

The worm farm is doing great. The mushroom farm? Not so much.