What a great weekend. Anyone have any culinary adventures or experiments to share?

I can’t believe summer is almost over. It seems like just the other day I was writing about my favorite things that summer brings, and now here we are staring fall in the face. Which is not to say I’m not eager for the cooler temperatures, the beautiful changing foliage of the trees, and the crisp air. By all means, bring it on. But still, how did it manage to get here so fast?

With Labor Day weekend officially landing, I’m going to take a wild guess and say there’s a good number of you all with BBQ plans in your immediate future. We’re looking at some fantastic weather ahead of us in my area, despite Hurricane Earl being just off the east coast now.

So on that note I bring you an assortment of some awesome things to take to your BBQ, care of myself and some of my favorite other bloggers. Some are prep at home, some you can just do straight on the grill. All are guaranteed hits.

Drinks

1. Blackberry Tom Collins from the White on Rice Couple.
2. Mint Juleps from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
3. Peach Coolers, also from the White on Rice Couple.
4. Fresh Blueberry Margaritas from me, MSCK.
5. White Peach Sangria also from MSCK.

Sides

6. Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts from Savory Sweet Life.
7. Caprese Salad from Kim at Rustic Garden Bistro (or also right here at MSCK).
8. Cheese Fritters with Balsamic Sun-Dried Tomato Dipping Sauce from Krysta at evil chef mom.
9. Three Ways to Do Watermelon, also from evil chef mom.
10. Classic Cornbread from Ali at Three Baking Sheets to the Wind.
11. Vegetable Tian from Saint Tigerlily.
12. Roasted Rosemary Nut Mix also from Saint Tigerlily.
13. Crispy Roasted Chickpeas from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
14. Homemade Hummus from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
15. Chorizo Cheese Dip from the White on Rice Couple.
16. Mushroom Pockets from me at MSCK.

Mains

17. Sweet Chili Ribs from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
18. Soy Citrus Planked Chicken also from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
19. Perfect Burgers, or at least my take on them at MSCK.
20. Thomas Keller’s Ribs from me at MSCK.
21. Filipino Chicken Barbecue from Erika at the Ivory Hut.

Desserts

22. Candied Grapefruit Peels – or – Orangettes from Smitten Kitchen .
23. Grilled Peaches with Ricotta Cheese from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
24. Lemon Bars from Ali at Three Baking Sheets to the Wind.

Did I miss anything? Do you have a BBQ favorite I forgot? Please share with the class!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

10 – The math behind the outbreak.
It took only two farms, both operated by the same owner, to affect the supply of 17 brands, which in turn accounts for over a half billion (550 million at last count) eggs. That’s nearly two eggs for every person in America. These farms are both located in just one state – Iowa – and yet supply our entire country with eggs.

9 – The FDA has no legal power to force a recall.
You may have noticed all the articles speaking of a “voluntary recall.” That’s because that’s precisely what it was. While the FDA may have the power to levy fines, and restrictions, it cannot force a recall on such products. It is up to the owner of the individual farms – in this case Wright County and Hillandale – to choose whether or not to recall their product. Even now, a year after the large scale peanut butter recall prompted an outcry for increased FDA power in authorizing recalls, its ability to do so remains limited.

8 – The powers the FDA does have are ineffective.
This case strongly illustrates the fact that the fines and regulations that are within the FDA’s power to enforce are simply ineffective. The owners of these two farms have long been listed as “habitual violators” – meaning their fines are even heftier than those of most farms and they are unable to open new farms until the title has been lifted – for their various transgressions (including worker conditions, manure runoff/pollution, sexual harassment including rape and abuse, employment of illegal immigrants, and – of course – animal cruelty). Yet these people remain in business, their farms in operation; FDA fines notwithstanding.

7 – The amount of things eggs are used in and places you can buy them.
Eggs are prolific in cooking, they are used in so many places for so many different purposes. Are you sure you can remember all of them every time you go out to a restaurant? Or to the grocery store? Sure, we can remember not to order them over easy at the sketchy diner down the road, but what about that bottle of mayonnaise you just bought? Do you know where the eggs came from that were used in it? How long does mayonnaise stay on the shelves, anyway? Or how about that cake mix? We can count on the egg recall itself to blow over in a fairly limited time, but will we ever really know how many other products may have been made with those tainted eggs? No, we just won’t. There’s no way.

6 – On that note, think about how many eggs you eat on a regular basis.
According to the egg board, the average American eats 20 eggs a month – whether they come in a carton, from a restaurant, or from some other kind of food product. The egg board further breaks down this figure to say that 60% of eggs purchased in a month are used by consumers, 9% by restaurants, and the remaining 31% are used in food products. That means over 170 million of these eggs have been, or would have been, used in other food products. Can we really have any confidence at all that the recall was issued quickly enough, and enacted thoroughly enough, to think that these tainted eggs wouldn’t have made it into other aspects of our food supply? If I were a betting man…

5 – Over 1,300 salmonella cases have been reported to the CDC.
It’s not so much this number itself that’s scary, it’s the number of cases that are not going reported. The CDC admits that for every case reported, there could be as many as 30 more that go unreported. Assuming that’s not a conservative number (which is a big assumption), that’s almost 40,000 cases of salmonella – so far. Now, salmonella symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, fever, chills, and so on. And that’s for a healthy person, much less a child or someone with a weakened immune system. We’ve all known someone who has gotten the generic “food poisoning,” or we’ve been unlucky to get it ourselves. Same results. So how many of us actually reported that to the CDC, or even to our own doctor? And how many of us instead just waited it out, knowing what it was and that it would go away soon enough? Is 40,000 even close to accurate?

4 – The whole entire approach to egg safety in this country is probably, most likely, completely wrong.
Okay, here’s the thing. Egg shells are porous. It’s the only way chicks could ever develop and grow – they do need to breathe in there. But it also means that bacteria like salmonella can get inside. And it means that when you wash eggs, particularly in a massive factory operation on a conveyor belt, some of that wash is going to get inside too. Inside an egg factory, there are giant tubs of egg wash that the conveyors will move huge amounts of eggs through at a high speed. Naturally, sometimes the eggs break. And then more eggs break. But the ones that don’t break – they keep getting run through the same wash. And the risk of bacterial contamination grows exponentially. The best protection an egg can get is from residual birthing fluids from it’s mother chicken, precisely what we’re spending all this time washing off. But in the US, it’s illegal to sell unwashed eggs, even though washing them only drastically increases their risk of bacterial infection – it’s like scrubbing off their natural armor. Yet EU law, on the other hand, mandates that Grade A eggs (those for direct sale to public) must NOT be washed or cleansed. We can’t both be right.

3 – The FDA has clearly shown it cannot handle food regulation on such a large scale, yet the approval process for genetically engineered salmon – the first GE animal meant for human consumption – is about to begin.
Talk about Pandora’s Box. AquaBounty salmon is engineered to grow faster and bigger in smaller spaces than regular salmon. So salmon farms can pack more salmon in to smaller places and get the same return, yield wise. But the thing about salmon farms is, the fish escape from time to time. According to the AquaBounty patent, the engineering is only for sterile females. But the thing about fish is, they change genders from time to time. It’s just one of those things they do. If we can’t even monitor what’s going on in our food system when it comes to something as basic as chickens and eggs – on land, at a farm, being raised by a farmer we’ve had clear cause to keep our eyes on, how can we possibly dream of any sort of monitoring of GE fish in the ocean?

2 – The egg recall was announced less than two weeks ago, but it’s not the only recall going on since then.
Everybody knows about the egg recall because of it’s sheer size and the media attention. But recalls are happening all the time – just look at the FDA page that lists them. Cheese, nuts, candy bars, etc. Salmonella, listeria, and so on. It’s all there. In fact, Tyson announced a recall of 380,000 pounds of deli meats just yesterday. And while none of the other recalls currently listed is of as much significance as the egg recall, it’s an indication of a trend. A trend that is going to get much worse before it starts getting any better.

1 – The egg recall, though still growing, is only the tip of the iceberg.
Same could be said about the peanut butter recall, or the spinach recall. We haven’t yet begun to see what real devastation could be caused by the concentration of supply in our food system – but these recalls give us a pretty accurate glimpse. Over the past twenty years, the number of egg companies who own 95 percent of the eggs sold in this country has dropped from over 2,500 to less than 200. And 200 is actually a good number, when you look at how few beef, pork, and chicken suppliers are out there (less than 5 companies control the majority of production for most industrial meats in our country). Elanor at the Ethicurean recently wrote a good article summing up this issue… it is one of the best and most important reasons for eating local.

In 2006, the bagged spinach e. coli recall affected 26 states.

In 2008, 143 million pounds of ground beef was recalled.

In 2009, 4,000 peanut butter products were recalled.

And in 2010, we have our egg recall which trumps them all.

So who wants to take guesses at what 2011 and 2012 will have in store for us?

For further reading, check out this page with the latest on the recall put together by Food & Water Watch.

Just for kicks…

Takes you back, huh?

That movie is 30 years old. THIRTY years.

Anyway, today my guest post on steakhouse toasties goes up on Wisconsin Cheese Talk. It’s my first guest post ever, so it’d make me feel all kinds of special if you’d go over and check it out. I’m disabling comments here for this post so if you’d like to leave a comment please head on over to the post on WCT itself to do so.

This past weekend the wife and I went to the 8th annual Slow Food Farm Dinner at Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm, in Ashburn, VA.

Willow Creek Farms is a property owned by the Clyde’s restaurant group, and it is an absolutely beautiful venue. The main building is a large restaurant with many different rooms, all very beautifully decorated with an antique style. The structures themselves are not historic, however, they were built using antique timber and historic pieces that Clyde’s had purchased from various sources in the area back in the 1980’s.

Tickets for this event went on sale way back in April, and apparently sold out within 72 hours. Naturally, we had been looking forward to the dinner for some time at this point. I have to say a word of thanks and congratulations to Slow Food DC for making this both such a wonderful and affordable event.

There was a beautiful outdoor patio which had been reserved for the Slow Food event, and with the fantastic weather that we had last Saturday walking out onto the area made a great impression on us. I had Amanda pose for a quick shot.

First order of business: locate the bar and secure some seats. They were pouring a pinot grigio and a sauvignon blanc, both from Barboursville Vineyards in Charlottesville, VA. We had a glass of the sauvignon blanc and ambled about a bit.

One of the cool things about this spot is that a lot of the food that is served here is actually grown right on the premises, so you’re getting produce from mere yards away. Doesn’t get much more local than that. The farm was open for tour during our event, so with glasses in hand we took a short stroll down the path and through the woods.

There was a beekeeper set up with a beekeeping station explaining his process for producing honey, and the head gardener was there to show people around his vegetable garden and explain what he had going on.

It was actually still kind of hot and sunny at this point (we had arrived to the event at 5pm), so we walked around the garden a bit but quickly moved back to our table on the main patio. When we got there, a few others had joined our table and it had been set with a very cute centerpiece. And a tasty and refreshing peach sangria was being poured. Perfect.

It’s amazing how a mason jar can make just about anything adorable.

We shared our table with four others and really enjoyed their company. As it turned out, the beekeeper was amongst them, so that made for some interesting conversation.

In addition, there was a mic and PA set up and as each course was served the purveyor/farmer/grower/provider who was responsible for it stood up and spoke to the group about their product and what they had done to bring it to our plates. It was, in a word, pretty fascinating.

Really, it was just all about the food. So let’s get into it.

When we returned from the garden, a buffet table had been set up with some classic garde manger options: rabbit terrine from Tower Oaks Lodge, pork terrine with pistachio from Willow Creek Farm, and pickled vegetables (chard, tomatoes, beets, cucumbers) – also from Willow Creek.

Shortly thereafter, the first course was served. Now, I’m not really big on taking pictures at a meal – particularly at a table with other people – BUT, in this case, the topic had already come up in conversation and been joked about thoroughly, and other people at the table had cameras too, so we all decided as a group that none of us would consider it rude and gave ourselves carte blanche with the photos for the evening. Regardless, lighting conditions in such a situation are never ideal, and wine pairings were served with every course, so of course these are not the best pictures I’ve ever taken. I’m sure you understand.

First course was chilled corn soup with Chesapeake Bay blue crab and mini herb salad from Arnold Farms (Chestertown, MD) and Willow Creek. I have to say, this first course was very possibly the best thing served the whole night. The soup had a deliciously silky texture, the crab nearly melted in your mouth, and the flavors all performed in total perfect unison. This one was really amazing.

This course was paired with a vintage rosé from Barboursville Vineyards, 2009.

Next course was cherry wood smoked Pennsylvania duck breast with cherries and escarole. The cherries made this dish for me – they were delicious and a flavor I’d never experienced paired with a savory duck breast. The cherries were from Toigo Orchards, Shippensburg, PA, and the escarole grown at Willow Creek.

The duck was paired with a Barbera Reserve from Barboursville, 2007. I love a good barbera.

Following up after that was an amazing dish of local Chesapeake Rockfish. The rockfish was whole roasted on giant bbq slabs that they paraded around the tables (sadly I couldn’t snap a good pic), and was wonderfully tender. The fish was served with garden herbs, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and new rose-gold potatoes. This dish was provided by Lois’s Produce (Leedstown, VA), Potomac Vegetable Farms, VA, Tuscarora Organic Growers (South Central, PA) and Willow Creek Farm.

The rockfish was paired with a wonderful Viognier Reserve, again from Barboursville (2008). Seeing a pattern yet?

After the rockfish we had a cheese course provided by Cowgirl Creamery. Cowgirl Creamery is actually located in California, but they have recently opened an outpost in DC. They don’t yet actually produce any of their cheeses here on the east coast, but are planning to soon in the future. The cheeses offered were Mt. Tam, a firm buttery cheese with a mellow mushroom flavor, St. Pat, a mellow soft cheese wrapped in nettle leaves to impart a smoky flavor (the nettle has been frozen to remove any sting), Old Kentucky Tomme, a deliciously tangy goat cheese from Capriole Dairy, Sally Jackson Sheep, a smooth and silky sheep’s cheese, and Bohemian Blue from Hidden Springs Dairy. It was all quite tasty, though try as I might, I can never really go for the taste of blue cheese.

The cheese course was served with a Cabernet Franc Reserve, from Barboursville, 2007.

After the cheese course, we were served a Pennsylvania Peach Foster with brown butter pound cake, homemade vanilla ice cream and a small glass of philéo (a dessert wine). By this point it was really too dark to get any good photographs, so I leave this one up to the imagination. Whatever you’re imagining – yes, it was that good.

We finished the night off with a final glass of the Barboursville Cab Franc, and a stroll around the grounds under the moonlight. It was one of those magical nights.

The Slow Food Annual Farm Dinner was amazing. This is absolutely something I see ourselves coming back to year after year. Clyde’s Willow Creek Farm restaurant is such a beautiful setting, and I’m sure it’s quite wonderful on any given summer night – not just for a Slow Food event.

Curious about getting tickets for the 9th annual dinner? Well, the best way to be sure you’ll hear about it would be to join Slow Food DC. But, I’ll make a promise here that I will be sure to relay the information through my facebook page and through twitter when the tickets are going on sale (sometime around next April or so).

After I’ve bought mine, of course.

Apologies in advance for the rambling nature of this post, but I’m going to do my best to tie it all together. I have a lot of random things to talk about today.

So you remember how I recently tried to give a book away – Bittman’s Food Matters?

Well, the winner never claimed their prize nor left an email address for contact. SO. I’m going to give it away AGAIN, hopefully more successfully this time.

But here’s the (arguably) cool part. Instead of just randomly picking someone who comments on this post, I am going to give the book away to the first person who a) comments on the post, b) likes my page on facebook, and c) follows me on twitter. Be the first to do all three of those things, and the book is yours.

I can hear you saying now – “Wait, you have a page on facebook? How could I have possibly ever missed such an awesome thing?”

Well, that’s because I didn’t until just now. I fancied up a little corner for myself (and ourselves) in that massive 800 pound gorilla of a website so you can all come hang out when you want to. It’s my hope that through the facebook page we will be able to facilitate more interaction and discussion than we might be able to do here. So to that end I invite everyone to feel free to come and post all your homeless food thoughts there (as in, your food thoughts that don’t have a home – not your thoughts about homeless food… actually no, those are just as welcome, too) – from what you just ate to restaurant reviews to articles about food to whatever you want.

I also prettied up my twitter homepage a little bit over the weekend, and updated my username to @MSCK_Liam. I won’t get into why twitter is awesome, but it is.

So there’s my marketing efforts for the week(/month?/year??). I did have some amazing food over the weekend, including the Slow Food DC Annual Dinner at Willow Creek Farm, but you will have to be patient to hear about it – I promise details are coming.

Last but absolutely not least, this week is National Farmer’s Market Week! Go support your local farmers. You shouldn’t really need a week of recognition to go out and buy the best possible food available to you, but hey whatever it takes.

Be sure to visit your local market before the week is up.

If you want to win a free copy of Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters – like my page on facebook, follow me on twitter, and comment on this post. If you already follow me on twitter, great, you’ve got a head start.

It’s a curse.

Ever since the year 1995, I have not been able to eat – or even look at – fresh peaches without getting that damn song in my head. Even though, up until just now, I had probably not even listened to it for a good ten years. According to wiki (the knower of all things), the song was written about a crush who had a peach tree in her front yard. When finally the courage was summoned to talk to the crush, he stood under the peach tree and crushed peaches in his fist until finally deciding not to talk to her.

Learning that is kind of a downer.

Anyway, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably already started to gorge yourself on the amazing fresh local peaches that have started to appear. And if not, what are you waiting for?

I strongly recommend going to your farmer’s market tomorrow, loading up on peaches (find the best stand by following your nose), and making up a big batch of fresh salsa – or maybe some boozy peaches set on fire then doused in cream – or, just leave them around the house waiting for indulgence. Best option: all of the above.

Ingredients…

- 4 fresh, ripe peaches
- 2 limes
- 1 small sweet onion
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 small red pepper
- 1 jalapeño pepper (or habanero if you roll like that)
- 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 tbsp honey

How to tell if your peaches are ripe? Peaches have a kind of two tones to them, the part that ripened facing the sun will have a darker blush on it. If you check the lighter part of the peach, that was not facing the sun, and it is entirely yellow – no green present – then it’s ripe. You should also be able to tell by the scent – a fresh ripe peach has an almost intoxicating smell to it.

Blanch and peel the skin from the peaches using the method we learned when we were stuffing tomatoes. It will work the same with peaches and the skin should peel right off.

Zest one of the limes, and reserve for serving.

Dice the peaches, onion, red pepper, jalapeño pepper, tomatoes, and cilantro, and put in a bowl.

Mince the garlic, and add it to the bowl.

Add honey to the bowl.

Roll the limes on the counter to get the most juice out of them, then slice, and add the juice into the bowl.

And your salsa is ready to go. When you serve it, sprinkle some of that zest over top, but not too much. This salsa is great with chicken, pork, fish, even red meat. Also makes a great snack with chips or toast.

We had ours with a beautifully juicy and delicious ham steak from a local purveyor in Manassas.

Recipe easily doubles and you can store the extra in the fridge for about a week or so. It’ll actually get better after a day or two in the fridge, as the flavors get soaked up.

I recently encountered the phrase “mental mise en place” while reading Michael Ruhlman’s book The Making of a Chef. Great book, by the way, it takes you step by step through the entire curriculum at the CIA as Ruhlman goes through the school himself – getting granular to the point of explaining the very techniques learned but also staying far enough removed to allow a healthy amount of observation and reflection. Anyway, Ruhlman discusses this idea of “mental mise en place” and how a chef working a restaurant needs to, in short, be sure all his mental ducks are in a row.

Stepping back a bit, mise en place means simply that all of your ingredients and preparations are set and you are ready to begin cooking. Literally translated, it means “putting in place.” In restaurant terms, a chef’s mise is his diced vegetables, his spices, his tools, cuts of meat or fish, everything he will need to use to work his station throughout the service.

Mise en place is not often something the home cook really needs to concern themselves with, as in most instances where a home cook is going to work they will only be preparing a very limited number of a certain dish (two for a couple, or perhaps a few more for a family) – and even then it usually only needs to be done once to serve many, family-style. It can be useful if you find yourself with extra prep time (cause we all know that happens often), or if you’re expecting lots of guests and have an elaborate meal planned. Other than that though, it’s usually not all that necessary.

But this idea of mental mise en place kind of struck me, and it’s been turning over in my head for a couple weeks now. Though I’ve never worked as a cook in a professional kitchen, I have worked in the front of house and I’ve had my experience working with kitchen staff – I can understand the significance of needing to know that you, and everything about you, is in the right place to do the right job before the job starts. It’s a matter of getting your head straight.

For a professional chef’s mental mise en place to be in order, he needs to know that, first of all, his physical mise is there, but also that he can rely on himself for the focus, the foundational skills, and the clarity of thought to take him through a hectic service – regardless of what might be thrown his way. It’s knowing that the staff he has to rely on will show up for him, and for his restaurant, and that the choices that he’s made leading up to the moment before a service have been the correct ones – thinking everything through from the start and being ready to take it through to it’s conclusion.

I found myself being able to relate to this idea in a lot of different ways, despite the fact that I’ve never actually been a restaurant cook. As a project manager in my “real life,” it’s all about planning and prep work. Collecting requirements, setting objectives, creating work task structures. But what interested me was thinking about the idea of mental mise en place in terms of what it means for the cook in a home kitchen. The differences between a home cook and a restaurant cook are endless, but I saw some certain similarities here when approached from this perspective.

Mental mise en place for the home cook is of utmost importance. It seems to me, that being a home cook is always very much about balance – the balance of life, of passion for food and cooking, of time management, of family, and everything else that comes into play. Without a doubt, it takes some significant effort to cook at home on a regular basis. And a lot of times, even the smallest little thing can throw you off your groove and it can be hard to recover sometimes.

I would imagine that this is a bit different for every home cook but revolves around a few consistent things. I have different feelings towards my kitchen on different days, as I’m sure most of us do.

In order for me to be really on my game, I need energy. Weeknights tend to suffer, of course – I think without a doubt I make my best meals on the weekends. Apart from just the energy itself, it can be hard to come home from work and get a clear head and focus on the tasks in front of me without being distracted. Although there are some days, admittedly, where the kitchen is the perfect escape. Music definitely helps.

I need to know that I’m going to have the time and the resources I need available to me. This one is rare – even in just a two person household, it seems like someone is always starving, and there’s *always* something else that needs doing. As far as resources go, there’s nothing my cookbook collection and my netbook can’t handle.

I need to have a plan, or, barring that, I need to have a well stocked kitchen. For me, again, the weekends work best for this. I rarely tend to plan more than one meal in advance, and in fact, I often find myself coming to the kitchen – even on weeknights – without much of a plan at all. But if I know my kitchen has food – protein, starch, vegetable – then I know I can make a dinner out of it. Sometimes this spawns creativity, sometimes it spawns failure (in the form of creativity, of course).

We get food from our CSA every other Thursday and I hit the market pretty much every Saturday morning now. It has become routine. Then that’s supplemented by the Whole Foods which is, thankfully, only a couple blocks away.. because I find myself there pretty often to fill in the gaps. Grocery shopping, the finances behind it, and the scheduling of it, are absolutely aspects of the greater mise en place picture.

And then there’s the emotional element, intricately linked to our diet and our food. This is maybe one of the biggest things – when you’re upset, or depressed, or just not “right,” it’s really hard to motivate yourself to cook a good meal. This is when the frozen pizza comes out, or the Chinese food gets ordered. What’s tough about this is that it’s a self-perpetuating thing – the more crap food you eat, the worse you’re going to feel emotionally, and the less you’re going to feel like cooking your own food. It easily turns into a cycle that you then need to break back out of.

I know that when my family is larger than just the two of us, there will be all kinds of additional things I have to deal with before my mental mise en place can be where it needs to be. I look forward to the challenges that that will bring to me as a home cook, but of course there is a healthy dose of trepidation in play, too. I know without a moment’s doubt that there will be times I reminisce about the past.

So what does mental mise en place mean for you? What is your ideal cooking situation, in a perfect world? What do you need in order for you to really do your best?

So yes – Colorado! And to a lesser extent, Utah. I have to admit, I never thought I’d actually be spending vacation time in… Utah. But yes, I did. It was dry. Hot. Lots of rocks.

Let’s go back a bit first, get a little backstory to fill in the why of this trip. About 29 years – give or take. Early 1980’s. My mother’s father, Alfred, owns and operates a farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. He’s getting up in age at this point and doesn’t have a particularly extensive catalog of farmed products. A few various things here and there, some hay, chickens, a turkey. Occasionally grazing the neighbors cows on his fields. That sort of thing.

This farm in Grand Junction was the central hub of the universe that is my maternal family for many, many years. Spread out across the Western United States, this was where we all gathered every Summer to be together.

I’d love to say that I got a real farmer’s education from this place, but my memories (being the age I was) extend only to feeding chickens, running away from the turkey (his name was George but we called him Monster), collecting eggs, picking cherries and fresh peaches, and floating boats and rubber balls in a race through the irrigation ditches. Very little time was spent in a kitchen, I was too busy playing in the treehouse.

I hadn’t been to this place since I was 13. 16 years ago now – my grandfather passed away in 1994. At that point in my life, I had been coming to the farm every Summer – so it was admittedly a bit difficult to see it all go away like that. There had been plans to sell the farm and move him closer to my parents, but whether a change like that happens abruptly or with anticipation – it’s always a bit difficult.

So last year, my oldest brother Sean, proposes a reunion here. My nieces and a nephew, the next generation, should see the places that meant something to us out there. It had been close to two decades since we visited each other in Grand Junction.

The following is a story of ten days in hot, dry, crazy places, in altogether too close quarters with my family. Don’t worry, it’s primarily a picture tour. I’ll leave out the gory bits. And yes, Thomas Keller’s Rib recipe is coming. It’s ridiculously awesome, I promise it’s worth the wait.

The first three days there were spent at a B&B that our family took over. I mean, we booked every single room in a giant house. There was family there from Virginia, Maryland, Idaho, Washington (state), Montana, Colorado, Louisiana, and Hawai’i. The number fluctuated from 13 to 22, depending on the day.

The bulk of the trip revolved around this hub at Grand Junction (really a nearby town called Fruita, but there’s no real need for the distinction here).

While there, we visited the Colorado National Monument, and a particular trail called the Devil’s Kitchen – a very well known place from my childhood.

We also visited my grandfather’s old property, which had been sold to new owners. They tore down the farm house and built a new home – a shame but the new home was pretty beautiful – and have converted the place into a sod farm.

Not terribly exciting, I have to admit. But sod is a far sight more profitable than anything my grandfather ever did with the property, so there you go. There used to be a beautiful little cherry tree grove about halfway down the field there.

Back at the house, I made Thomas Keller’s pork spare ribs one night, along with some creamed corn. Every time I made food on this trip it felt a little like something out of Kitchen Impossible – I had no idea what ingredients I’d have access to, I’d be working in a strange kitchen that may or may not have the equipment I need, and I’d be cooking for 15-20 people or so. This time it was 20 – I made 4 racks of ribs so I tripled the amount of dry rub I made.

Ingredients…

- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp sweet pimenton/Spanish paprika (regular paprika will work in a pinch)
- 2 tsp cayenne
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp red papper flakes

Mix all the above in a bowl for the dry rub. Thaw rib racks, and cut into 2-3 rib pieces. Cover ribs thoroughly with dry rub, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2-6 hours for the flavors to set.

While the ribs are sitting in the fridge the rub will draw juices out of the meat, so you should make sure to put them on a plate or expect a bit of a mess.

Next, take the ribs out of the fridge and sear them on a grill over high heat – about 2 minutes each side. Alternate them at 7 o’clock and 11 o’clock for a nice cross-hatch pattern.

Remove ribs from grill, and bake in an oven for 2 hours at 250 degrees F. Remove from oven, let rest 5-10 minutes, and serve.

A word of caution – if you double or triple this recipe like I did, you may want to be conservative with the cayenne and red pepper flakes. My tripled recipe turned out seriously HOT. Not that that’s always a bad thing, but it should be kept in mind.

Next up, we drove from Grand Junction down to Moab in Utah, and stayed in some cabins for two nights. Moab is basically the middle of the desert. There’s really not much there at all, except for some serious mountains, a *lot* of bats, and of course Arches National Park.

Arches was very surreal. Like other-planet surreal. The magnitude of this scenery doesn’t translate well through photograph; it was all pretty intense.

We did a few hikes in the park here, and played some music in the cabins. Then we moved on.

Another 3 hour drive later and we were back in Colorado, in a little town called Mancos. Another house taken over by the family. This location was chosen for it’s proximity to Mesa Verde, another national park with all kinds of ancestral Puebloan structure.

Stayed two nights in Mancos. Finally, we drove back up north to Grand Junction again, through the San Juan mountains. We passed through Silverton, near Telluride, an old mining town known for it’s brothels.

While in Silverton, we overheard some cheering down the street and went to go check it out. Turns out it was the finish line for the Hardrock Hundred – a 100 mile foot race through the mountains. The elevation at Silverton is about 10,000 feet, and we got winded just sitting in a car. These people ran 100 miles over an equivalent elevation change to running up Mt. Everest – and back. And the first place runner did the thing in 27 hours, straight through. So about 15 minutes per mile.

So crazy. And inspiring. I can’t even imagine.

So anyway, there it is. 10 days out west. Really more of a tour than a vacation as there wasn’t too much time to spare for relaxing, but we saw some great things. And it was good to spend the time with family.