Sorry kids, long time no-post. Lots of things happening… lots of new beginnings and endings. Far too much to explain in a paragraph and I refuse to be the blog you need seven full swipes to get to the recipe. Suffice to say it’s a chaotic time for me, and apparently for the rest of the world as well.
A couple days before our Ace Brewing adventure, our crew met up at a Campbell River joint to plan some of our holiday adventures. Sessions Taproom and Kitchen had been suggested to me numerous times but despite biking by it to and from work for two years I’d never had a chance to sit down and enjoy it’s hospitality.
Shame on me for such an oversight. Not only does Sessions deliver an exceptional lounge/drinking experience, but it has – I’m not messing around here – the best pizza in our town.
During a couple days off this summer Crystal, me and our MTB buddies Jen and Sean spent a scorching afternoon thrashing around Hornby Island’s beautiful Mount Geoffrey trail network. After packing up the bikes the crew needed shade, food and alcohol and seeing as the local Meadery was closed we headed to nearby Courtenay where the breweries are plentiful and the IPAs flow like Mrya Falls.
The newest of these watering holes, Ace Brewing opened up in 2019 just in time to fill the vacuum left by the now- defunct Forbidden Brewing. This cemented Courtenay’s hipster cred as a two brewery town and gave people a place to enjoy craft beer and a bit of socially-distanced social time during the worst of the pandemic.
The pork shoulders are back on sale, so it’s time to clear the counters and get to sausage making! This recipe is for a much subtler, pork-forward sausage than the fresh chorizo recipe I posted previously but comes from the same cookbook: Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn. The only change I have made to the recipe is to sub water for wine. Fitting as this is a traditional Polish sausage eaten at Christmas and Easter.
Getting to sit down with two old friends in the middle of a pandemic was an absolute joy.
Jess (who you may remember from my rhapsodic post about old BBQs) joined Nick (my other brother from a BBQ mother) to talk about comfort food for his Untitled Food Media Project. It was over an hour of nerding out about the things that make us go nuts after a long night on the line.
There are conversations about pho, katsu curry, fast food and (of course) bacon. All of this and more is available on Mixcloud.