(y)our food choices

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We cook a lot in our tiny kitchen and love it! Baked bread, simmering soups and homemade pizzas are just a few of the staples in our apartment. We are constantly experimenting with recipes and love a challenge. We’re not Iron Chefs but we do respect the men and women who are and their dedication to the craft. We’re just two men who are trying to get back into the simple ways of life. We’re all about farmer’s markets and grass fed beef. We believe that the food we eat is sacred, even if we are not of the religious state of mind, and that with every bite we take or every drink we consume we can all make a difference, for good or not so good. We hope you enjoy reading about what we are eating, peruse the pictures we take of our food, and tell us about what your eating and drinking. In the future we will be linking this blog to a new blog called Your Food Choices where we hope to get some lively discussions about food and how it affects us all. Cheers! Steve & Jason

Here piggy, piggy...

Confession time. Yes, we have been keeping a secret from many of you and it’s finally time to come clean. Jason was once a vegetarian and Steve, in his effort to impress Jason, was a vegan. That’s right, the two guys that cook and eat venison with passion were once PETA supporting, Birkenstock wearing, tree hugging, dirty hippies! We’re still a bit crunchy, and called dirty hippies by Steve’s co-workers, but now we have our vegetables with a side of meat. We know many of you may be shocked and dismayed and you have every right to be, but come on everything in moderation, right? Including pig.

Jason's birthday pig. It's time to BBQ!

Alas, we’ve long since abandoned the vegetarian lifestyle as we’ve embraced our inner carnivore with a bit of gusto. Now, make no mistake, we believe more than ever that a diet based on fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, beans and grains is the only means to a healthy, long life. But meat is so satisfying and so important to our nutritional well being that we can’t imagine ever forsaking it again. And nothing says carnivorous bliss quite like meaty, succulent pork.

4505 Meats at the Ferry Building's Farmers' Market. Yummy pork sausage sandwich.

We took our interest in all things porcine to a new level in April when we joined 7 other hog loving epicures at a 4505 Meats pig butchery class in San Francisco. The 9 of us, all scrubbed and in aprons, broke an entire hog down into various chops, roasts and steaks using the tools of the trade – boning knives, hacksaws, mallets, hatchets and cleavers. Indeed, this was as hands-on a butchery class as one could ever expect and it was amazing! Under the patient tutelage of 4505 Meats’ Ryan Farr, we learned to skin the pig, break it down into primal cuts, “French” chops, and de-bone hams. When we were finished with the work, we had many, many pounds of fresh pork to divide among us and virtually nothing went to waste.

Our first chop before the pan.

With our freezer full of pork we’re working our way through the different cuts. Our first meal from the pig consisted of just one huge chop. The chops are so large that both of us are able to split one and still feel full. We grilled the chop on the stovetop and finished it in the oven seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper. The flavor was nice and fresh, but not nearly as good as the other pig parts that we later brined before grilling. The blueprint for the brine recipe comes from 4505 Meats, with the addition of a few other ingredients and a reduction in sugar.

Pork chop with polenta.

We know we’ve been saying this often, probably too often, but it’s time for us to have a party. We’re thinking of a bbq in the park. But since summers are so darned cold in San Francisco, we might need to wait until the fall when the weather is more inviting in our foggy neighborhood. Of course, if any of our friends are up for hosting responsibilities, we’re willing to bring the party, pig and all! Leave a note and let us know.

Spicy Pork Brine (2 – 4 pork chops or 1-2 pork loins)

Adapted from 4505 meats Spicy Brine recipe card

½ cup brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
8 juniper berries
6 cloves
small handful of whole black peppercorns
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
¼ cup red pepper flakes
4 cups water
4 cups ice

Mix all the ingredients except the ice in a sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Add the ice and refrigerate until very cold, around 40 degrees. Transfer the brine to a large bowl with a lid or a large zip lock bag.

For brining a pork loin leave in the solution at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.

For pork chops leave in the brine for 4 – 8 hours.

Rinse the pork after brining and pat dry with paper towels before cooking. Grilling the meat and then finishing in the oven is the best way to eat the meat once it’s been brine, in our opinion. Be careful that the meat does not burn. The added sugar from the brine can cause a quick char to occur.

Here are 18+ Reasons to have your cake and eat it too!

When we awoke Saturday morning Jason still had chocolate frosting to make, and a cake to frost before we headed out the door to this year’s Food Blogger Bake Sale. The Cook’s Illustrated chocolate frosting recipe that accompanies their old-fashioned chocolate cake recipe is amazing and will undoubtedly become part of our culinary repertoire. With no powdered sugar and lots of butter and chocolate, this frosting is similar to a ganache but with a nice caramel touch. We couldn’t stop licking the spoons and bowls this morning, which added a much-needed boost to get us out the door. Our breakfast consisted of frosting and coffee, a perfect start to a bake sale morning.

The sale was hosted by 18 Reasons in the Mission near Bi-Rite and Tartine Bakery. The tables inside this tiny space were already overflowing with wonderful looking cookies, cupcakes, pies, breads, and more when we arrived with our 2 cakes, 6 jars of granola, and 4 loaves of bread. The space was small and cozy and we kept bumping into each other trying to find room for all the goodies.

It's just like riding a bike. The first cake Jason has frosted in years.

The bake sale pulled in $2,400 in support of Share Our Strength’s mission to end childhood hunger in the USA. Yes, it’s a bit ironic to hold a Bake Sale to end hunger. But if we’re going to eat our cake anyway, why not do so in support of those who have nothing. As San Franciscans we know how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful city with all it’s culinary privileges. But the city hasn’t always been so lucky and a hundred years ago, San Francisco was just starting to rebuild after the devastating earthquake of 1906. What a great capstone on a beautiful, if a bit wet, weekend to run Bay to Breakers in celebration of San Francisco’s enduring resilience, as well as to eat a piece of cake or two.

And what better way to burn off all the calories from Saturday’s Bake Sale than to run across the city at 7:00 am? Well, we can think of a lot of better ways, but when the whole city is going to a party so early on a Sunday morning, in this case the 100^th running of B2B, we had to join in on the fun with the other 60,000+ revelers. We’re not the costume wearing sort or the nude runner kinds of guys. We wore our typical, boring running shorts, t-shirts, and shoes. But, run we must and run we did.

Of course, it would have been a much better run had we not drunk two bottles of wine the night before and ate dinner so late in the evening that we felt we were on Buenos Aires time. But even with the wine and late night dining our times were respectable. Jason ran the course in 1:00 and 15 seconds (not the under 1 hour he was hoping for) and Steve ran it in 1:06 and 57 seconds. Had we taken the run seriously we could have both finished in under an hour. Something to think about before we run the San Francisco Half Marathon later this summer at – gasp – 5:45 a.m. We must remember: no booze the night before, no midnight dining, and early to bed. Of course, a slice of cake or a croissant will be mandatory before and after the run. The wheels are already turning for the menu planning.