2012 Annual Memorial Day Weekend Pig Roast

We had a smaller gathering than some past years, but definitely had a full house and lot's of fun. On Friday we went to the Peach Stand, a local custom butcher shop (/ice cream parlor/gas station/local food champion) to pick up our all naturally fed heritage hog, which they had butchered and butterflied for us. The guest of honor was named prudence and loaded into her custom-made sarcophagus, and we held a proper wake for her.

Prudence, pictured with Frank McCollum (Sergeant at Arms and Libations) and Gerald Talley (Master Chief Cook)

Prudence patiently awaited the wee hours of the morning, when we prepared her for the cooking. I'm using the royal "we" here, as I conveniently overslept until just moments after she had started cooking.

The above is about 4 hours into it, and The Master Chief Cook is mopping on some of the secret sauce.

Oddly enough, there was high demand, from 1 person anyway, for the pig's feet this year:

There was even a new libation created named Patrick's Famous Dirty Pickle Gin Martini...

Patrick's Famous Dirty Pickle Gin Martini

Here are some of the crew that helped with various aspects of the event. The pig roasted in a custom-made stone cooker lined with fire bricks and with grates set well above the heat source. The cooker is directly behind the gazebo in the picture below, even though you can't see it - the lake is to the left of this picture, so the gazebo is right on the end of the peninsula. We used oak wood and pecan shells for the heat source and flavor. The secret sauce that is basted on is vinegar based, but that's all I can divulge.

Stars & Stripes, Gadsden Flag (first USMC flag, Revolutionary War), The Saltire (Scottish Flag), and The Bonnie Blue (CSA flag).

We're humbled by all the veterans and young man and women who put it all on the line so that we could enjoy these freedoms.

Ribs...

Tuesday:
Breakfast:

• 1 hard boiled egg (17 calories, 3.6 protein, 0.2 carbs)
• 1 scrambled egg (17 calories, 3.6 protein, 0.2 carbs)
• 2 pieces of peppered bacon (90 calories, 5 g protein, 0 carbs)

Lunch:

• Salad from the grocery store with mixed greens, grilled chicken, real bacon bits, tomatoes, and fat-free Italian. VERY DISAPPOINTING LUNCH :(. Should have brought my salad from home.

Dinner:
Pork Ribs Southern Style Cut. I grew up in Barbeque country but I don't have any predisposition as to how it should be prepared. I made up a dry rub primarily based on the Southern Heritage spice I'm trying from Reid's Fine Foods and Sea Salt and plopped the ribs on the grill for a few minutes on each side to sear in flavors, then I plopped them in a roasting pan, covered it with foil, and threw it in the oven for 1.5-2 hours at 275 Convection. I ate the first rib at the 1.5 hour mark, and the second at the 2 hour mark - both equally tasty.

BIG PROBLEM though... I made a rooky mistake and slathered on some Sissy Sauce BBQ sauce, which is a sweeter kind (my wife was smart and went for vinegar based) - it had 13g of Carbs! That messed me up. The other problem is that I picked out fairly lean ribs, as these things go, but the wifey felt like it was too fatty and gave the meal a rather weak thumbs up...


Wednesday:
Couldn't sleep until 3:30am, woke up at 7:15, sucked down 1 hard boiled egg, 4 cups of coffee, likely hitting Chipotle for lunch and leftover ribs for dinner...