So much goodness!

Saturday September 13th was a great day. I was anticipating a boring weekend, but Mike's invitation to go downtown to find some flank steak at Atwater Market for beef jerky set the weekend off in a direction that was in no way boring. The 211 bus ride downtown was long as ever and left us feeling a little nauseous, and not really excited in anyway. But a cup of coffee changed all that and all of a sudden, what wasn't there to be excited about, surrounded by fresh local produce, cheeses, meats and general bustling goodness. I picked out an exciting looking cheese- a small, round, semi-soft, mold-ripened beauty sold on a chestnut leaf; I got some chicken livers from one of the butchers, and some potatoes from one of the produce stands outside. Mike got some sausage and double-smoked bacon, and we went in together on the flank steak and a basket of pickling cucumbers. The whole process of wandering through the goods and selecting our purchases and finding inspiration was exilirating, and we walked out of there thoroughly stoked about our cooking plans.

First thing upon returning we cut up the steak and built our marinade for the jerky, a simple affair with soy sauce, worchestershire, honey, red pepper and probably some other flair. Then we went on a search for something to dry the meat on, and with Walmart closed we settled for some cheap aluminum trays we found in the grocery store (perforating them with a nail proved to be incredibly tedious!). 

Dinner was in order and someone had the idea for perogies, so we boiled potatoes and made a simple dough and before we knew it we were pinching together our little pockets. While this was happening Mike banged out a little hummus and I threw together some zucchini bread with big zucchini's fresh from the campus garden. Dinner was ready, the kitchen was hot and we all sat down on the living room floor with a heaping plate of perogies to dip into Sriracha and Ranch. 

By the time we were done eating the steak had marinaded long enough, and we set up a make-shift dehydrator in Mike's loft with the fibrous strips of beef laid out carefully on the perforated sheets, set on top of a fan. Things were slowing down and most people were pretty beat- it was getting late- but I was flying high! There was something about processing all this food and having more to do that had me real energized. So as  people went to bed, I got ready for the next phase of operations!

We still had three monster cucumbers from the campus garden, so saving the stuff we bought at the market for a time when everyone could participate, a started cutting up the big ones. They went into a big bowl with some chopped onions and salt to set.  I sterilized a couple Ball jars and rings and lids, prepared a simple brine with vinegar and sugar, and then shifted operations.

While the cucumbers set I had the time to get pate production under way. The half pound of chicken livers went into a pan with almost as much butter and half a large sliced onion. When all was cooked it went into the blender with some crushed garlic, worchestershire, rosemary, thyme and a little nutmeg. When  it was al blended nicely I poured the puree into a bread pan and decided thinly sliced tomatoes on top would be a nice touch. I also poured a little melted butter on top to finish it.

The pate went in the fridge, and the cucumbers were ready to be rinsed and go into jars. I packed the jars, brought the brine to a boil, poured it in, capped them up and stuck them in the big pot to boil for about ten minutes. Somehow by the time all this was finished it was 3 in the morning, but I was hardly tired- it was all so good: in one night there was beef jerky, perogies, zucchini bread, pickles and chicken liver pate! Awesome...