Not more than 3 minutes before the Newsletter arrived in my inbox, I remarked that the Fatted Calf Newsletter was late. I almost gave them a call, “whar’s muh newsletter foo?”
I read through the introductory paragraph pretty quickly, all I was interested in was to see if there was a special and what the Crepinettes were made of this week. I was not let down.
First came the special brined, cold smoked ham steaks. You don’t eeven want to miss this one. A month ago or so he sold these 9 pound hams, sure they were amazing hunks of ham leg. But you had to buy 9 pounds of ham leg, which left most people out of the loop. This time he was nice enough to make something Snack Size (probably a few pounds each, maybe a tad less) so we can all have a taste. In a few months when the holidays come by we’ll know what to expect for our Holiday Ham selection.
This week he has Pork Crepinettes with Pistachios, Duck Liver and Marsala. Okay, so I’m not too hip to livers. And usually would pass, but so far there isn’t one thing Taylor’s made that I haven’t enjoyed. So, I will be getting a package and I’ll let you know how it goes. Keep in mind he’s got Mortadella this week too, amazing stuff. So yummy.
Author Archives: Biggles
Jones’ BBQ – El Sobrante, CA
Ever have one of those days you find yourself running maybe five to six million errands? Today was one of those, zippy yet you never really get anywhere. One of those errands took me past Jones’ BBQ on San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante. I’m almost glad I took the time to stop.
Impromptu Bread Meal
Last night we all arrived home a little later than normal. We had about an hour or so to put something together, no big deal. Well, it turns out that my wife met someone at the boy scouts summer camp that had a minivan FILLED with artisan day old loaves of bread. SCORE.
As you can probably guess, we don’t abide by the Atkins ‘eat no fuel’ diet and had no problem devouring a entire loaf of bread for dinner. What made it easier to choke down was a layer of read butter, fresh ‘maters, fresh parsely, some pesto, fresh crushed purply garlic, pebrella, fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan, salt & pepper to finish. Make melty & toasty in oven. Serve.
Best Saturday Ever & Rabbit Pat
This last Saturday I left the Farmer’s Market with a noticeable skip in my step. Sure I had my pockets full of meat and my one kidney was doing double time to get rid of the Blue Bottle Coffee’s New Orleans style iced coffee. This time was different. This time I got to SELL SAUSAGE !!!
Fatted Newsletter – Whole Hog
Clearly Fatted Calf’s Newsletter that included MeatHenge was one of the best, up until yesterday. This weeks newsletter goes on about a wedding in which Taylor and his wife Toponia stuff up an entire pig for a pit fire. There were two problems I found with this right off. First, we aren’t invited to this wedding. Okay there are 3 things a bit off. Second, we weren’t going to get any and Third, there were no pictures to SEE.
MEAT ALERT !!! smoked brined chickens
HOOYAH there are some happenings about town today. I know over the past year I’ve mentioned Rick’s Quality Meats of El Cerrito a few times. He, back then, was smoking meats out of the backyard smoker I sold him (he modified it considerably to make it more efficient). This means he was only able to do a dozen half chickens or so at a time. They were usually pre-sold, if not they were gone that day. Times have changed for Rick.
Meat Fairy Presents: Mortadella Bologna
This last Saturday I picked up a handful of Crepinettes from The Fatted Calf. Sure I could have walked away with some Toulouse, Rosso or Chorizo or even some breakfast patty sausage. But I’ve been down those roads more than a few times and it seems as though Taylor changes the ingredients of the Crepinettes from week to week. As much as I detest change, this one is fine by me. We all need a little a meat flavor merry-go-round with either pork or duck or both.
With my pockets filled, I headed up to visit Jan at the Blue Bottle Coffee Company stall. Her helper was there and it wasn’t too busy (like the first time in months she’d had time to do something other than drip coffee), so we sped back to get her some meat. The first thing she went for was the Mortadella. Hey, I like mortadella. I didn’t get any. HEY TAYLOR, ME TOO !!! Both Jan and I got mortadella. I felt like skipping to my truck, I had a new treat.
MeatHenge Labs grows
MeatHenge Labs has grown another room. Not so good for the rainy season, but just fine for the other three. Count yourself lucky if you have some kind of shade in your back/side yard for the summer. Ours is a wide open area with sun for all. Which may be fine for tomatoes & flowers, but for humans it really burns. Now we have wide open shade, delish.
Outdoor Markets – Fatted Newsletter
Am told it is officially summer, spring is gone. The Farmer’s Market over the last month has really grown, when compared to over the winter (der). I enjoy seeing the changes because it gets continually better and better. Now is a great time to go see what is available. Don’t lose your mind though, you have to be wise in your Shopping Fu just as you do at the local grocery chain. For instance, the peaches (many vendors have them now) are charging $3.50 + a pound for the orbes of wonder. Yeah, they’re really good. But $3.50 a pound is too damned much, sorry. Last week I bought some wonderful 5 seed crusty bread, baked that morning. It was absolutely delightful, if you don’t mind paying $4.50 a loaf. I did find someone who reminded me of Ted Nugent at a little card table sharpening knives for $5 bux a piece. Tomorrow I’m going to take my poultry shears and a few cooks knives in for a touch up. He uses a stone only, no wheels. This is a good thing, one doesn’t want to take too much metal off the poor blades. Anyway, if you have the time take an hour or so and check out your local Farmer’s Market, please do. And speaking of which, here is Fatted Calf’s weekly newsletter (MORE CREPINETTES !!!!!!!!! YEEEHAW);
Mem Day Smokey Pork Ribs & a Meat Side
pre-thought side note: Coming soon will be a picture of my new awning for outdoor living. It is almost complete, I just need to purchase and lash down the bamboo roof and what-not. It is 10′ x 20.8′ and will give us a great space to be. Yay for us.
As far as parties go, meat or otherwise. What pops in to your mind when someone says Memorial Day? That’s right, people everywhere, drinks a-flowing and great food as far as the eye can see. I know you expect no less of MeatHenge Labs. Yeah well, we were tired and enjoying the fact we didn’t have to deal with acres of friends and/or family. It was really nice to spend a few days just puttering about doing what we wanted, when we wanted. This, and yelling at the children, breaking up fits and fights.
Early Sunday morning I was driving around in my truck for no good reason and the radio told me to go buy some Luscious & Meat Pork Ribs on Sale, $1.99 a lb. Rarely do I buy Grocery Store meat, rarely. I was weak and sped over to get myself one of two packages left. They looked just fine and didn’t smell all manky. I had something ‘to do’ on Monday.
Mem Rib Pork Rack
Hooyah. Got me a slab, it be rubbed. Happy pink with bones and meat. A great day and a memorial day treat. Or the day before, either way it’s bound for the smoker.
Fatted Memorial Calf Day
Here we find this week’s Fatted Calf News posted at MeatHenge. The two highlights we see featured are the organic brandied cherry crepinettes and Taylor’s wife Toponia will be working right along side. This is going to be a really great Saturday morning. Count me in for at least two packages of the Crepinettes, maybe 3.
You are planning on grilling this weekend, aren?t you? Maybe even entertaining a little bit? We?re always looking for ways to make entertaining more unique and delicious, and we think grilling Fatted Calf sausages is a great way to do that. You can serve a variety of styles and flavors to suit all of your guests, and our sausages always grill perfectly over medium heat (off to the side from the hottest coals), about 7 minutes per side, maybe 8-9 for crepinettes. And, speaking of crepinettes, ours are extra-special this week, made with organic brandied cherries. The smokiness you get from grilling these will leave them nothing short of sublime. Burgers? Who needs burgers? Also, please stop by the Berkeley Market this week and say hi to Toponia, the very hard working, more behind the scenes partner of The Fatted Calf. She is very excited to meet all of you.
Spinach-Rice Casserole with Ham
Brought to you by Mama! Biggles sliced up and heated the ham, that’s meat and it is my department.
What does one do with that great big leftover leg o’ ham? You make a lot of dishes with ham of course. Last night, it was corn chowder with ham which was very good indeed and inmouth. Tonight, it was spinach-rice casserole with ham. A very tasty dish, even if it is spinach.
I pulled the recipe for Spinach-Rice Casserole outta Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook (New Revised Edition); hacked it up, and called it my own.
A Fatted ham
All ya’lls should just ponder this picture for a moment. Cause brother (or sister), it isn’t going go get much better than this (it’s a ham, eh).
A few weeks ago, The Fatted Calf’s email newsletter rolled in. Somewhere buried in the prose was a mention of two hams available for purchase after the following weekend. My knee-jerk response was to email to see if one was still available, it was. I was set. I remember standing there over my computer thinking what the HELL am I going to do with a 9 lb. ham in the middle of May for crissakes !?!? No birthdays, no holidays … nada. Oh well, make the best of the situation, I say.
The week came and went, it was Saturday morning and time to leave for the farmer’s market in Berkeley. My little 4 year old boy was along for this trip, which guaranteed me no time to hang out. It was going to be a quick trip, grab the meat, look in on Jan at The Blue Bottle Coffee stall and off we went. Really quite uneventful.
The Paella Experiment #001 /9A
mama did this one eh!
Okay, I took my first crack at cooking paella last Wednesday. I used a one
of the simplest recipes, “Tricolor Paella with Cheese, Anchovies, and
Almonds,” found in the Vegetable Paellas section of Penelope Casas’s
Paella!: Spectacular Rice Dishes From Spain. (I didn’t realize that
anchovies were vegetables.)
Anyway, I picked that recipe because we had all of the ingredients to
make it go, except the anchovies and the bell peppers, so it wouldn’t
cost us an arm and a leg to prepare it. Since I’m no longer working, I
have to be more conscious about keeping our arms and legs, uh… I mean
maintaining a modest food budget.
Of course, the anchovies turned out to be more expensive than I had
anticipated, because Dr. Biggles (bless him) brought home a whopping
ten-dollar, econo-sized can of anchovy fillets when I only needed six of
the little dudes. I don?t know what the hell I?m gonna do with all the
surplus fishies. Anchovy pancakes, anyone?
Please note: El Cerrito Natural does sells itty, bitty cans of anchovy
for $1.09, but they were fresh out that day.