Pig Pickin'

You know how locavores are advocating closer involvement with our sources of food? Well, we were eyeball to eyeball with our food sources this weekend at Chez 500Jerk, and I mean that literally. Advance apologies to all the vegetarians out there, but we roasted a 40-pound pig over a firepit Saturday, and HOT DANG WAS IT GOOD.

The Spouse and a friend got crackin' early and sandwiched the wired-on butterflied pig between two large circular grates. They invited me to have a look at their creation ("It's like Lord of the Flies out here!"), then covered it with tin foil and flipped it every few hours until it roasted to a fine crisp.

All the women and children ran inside screaming when the pig came up from the firepit. Boy Wonder declared he was a vegetarian for the day. But the men were swelled with admiration.

Fire. Meat. Beer. Good.

Although there was a surgeon AND a vet at the pig pickin', yours truly dissected the beast. We had three platters filled with pulled pork and cracklings, Carolina vinegar sauce topping it all off. Plus, an amazing assortment of sides and desserts brought by friends. It was quite a feast.

Skipping the pig part of the meal didn't seem to hurt the twenty or so kids who ran around until dark playing football and flashlight tag . Maybe the gigantic marshmallows helped with that:


Although we sent guests home with bags of pork, we're still pretty covered up on the pork front. I'm predicting pork burritos and tacos this week. Pork and eggs, pork and beans, maybe even pork chili. Really, there are endless ways to recycle pork, and the leftovers may hold us until the next pig pickin'.

So, instead of turkey, guess what we're doing for Thanksgiving?