Cooking with Square Footage

Omigod. Since the last time we talked… I’ve been busy. Let’s go to tape:

So… southern california, as it turns out, has some redeeming products.

That’s blood orange juice, from the oranges in the bowl from the tree in the neighbor’s yard. The almonds are from the farmers’ market… they taste like almonds… like almond extract is supposed to taste… like almond nipple rings.

Peanut Butter

I have this thing about a new jar of peanut butter… it always drives me crazy that I never feel like I get the oil homogenized into the solids (no, I’m not talking about skippy, people). Now I put the whole new jar in the mixer, then stick it in the fridge to keep it together. This is proof of one thing: I have a dishwasher.

We went to my friends’ cabin for thanksgiving. I cooked Wed and Fri and put my feet up for the big day. Wednesday night I made squash stuffed with bread

and here are the lovely seeds which I toasted in the fireplace,

shown here with beets cooking in it (in the little foil packages):

Of course Thursday we had turkey and stuffing and blah blahdy blah

Friday, I was up again, and made- surprise- a pork shoulder [*in guazzetto*](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/265). Since we were *en bivouac*, the only deep casserole I had was a bit narrow for [effective browning](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/268), so I used a roasting pan. When you have a true shoulder (the lower part of the foreleg) it makes a very square roast, so when it comes time to brown those short sides, an aluminum can helps keep the roast upright.

Note the beautiful chestnut brown solidified juice on the bottom of the roasting pan.

Then, Saturday morning, I had to head back down the mountain to meet the movers.

After about a week, I had enough unpacked to have some people over for dinner. We had a salad with beets, lamb shanks with blood oranges and gorgonzola with pears. I lost the camera during cooking, but here’s browning the shanks, and also a good trick for dealing with an herb bundle.

PS, the rosemary is from the yard.

Listening: NPR: National. Public. Radio.