Then imagine that the entertainment for the night was watching a local celebrity butcher break down a 180 pound pig. Then imagine that the nice piggy bits were grilled on the spot over a wood-fired grill in the alley behind the bar and served in a dozen different preparations a-la-minute.

That was my reality tonight.

I came to this event having absolutely no idea what to expect. I learned about it from a casual comment that Ryan at 4505 Meats made on his twitter feed. I was expecting more of a classroom environment where we learned about pig anatomy and how to fabricate the animal into tasty bits. I had no idea that this was a wildly popular social event with dozens of regulars who never miss it. I met Taylor, the butcher for Fatted Calf Charcuterie. I watched him break down the pig, and then got to talk to him for a bit.

Apparently at that last installment Taylor broke down a steer, ground up the best bits, and then grilled it into burgers right on the spot.  I hope that I can attend some charcuterie classes with him later this year; although, without a car, getting up to Napa will be a bit of a struggle.

What did we eat? Well, off the grill came pork belly both with a lemon-chili oil sauce, and another batch with a cowboy chimichurri. Both were amazing. There were pigs-in-a-blanket. There were amazing Vietnamese ham sandwiches. There were huge sacks of cracklin everywhere. One surprising treat was bacon shortbread. There were Basque sausages with madrone peppers and little wedges of baguette. Lastly there were the ribs and chops that slow-cooked over the grill.

I would have exploded if I’d eaten another bite. I must have had at least three of everything. It is absolutely guaranteed that I shall attend the next Meat Locker gathering. OMFG yum.

– excerpt from William Grigg’s essay ‘The Police State’s “Cardinal Rule”‘

The biggest thing, I guess, is that I have left the world of self-employment and have a real job again.  Been at it for a week now and so far, so good.

I’ve been insanely busy this past month: living in three states, interviewing everywhere, and doing what’s been needed to get by.  I don’t see the insanity letting up any time soon.  Probably for the best since, in this new 5.0 phase of my life, I don’t really feel the need to subject you all to my mind any more.

More later, maybe.

“Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success” by James Marcus Bach

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I think that by the time you’re my age you’ve already gotten on this path, or you never well. I’d highly recommend this book for any teenager though, and not just because it’s full of the same stuff that I tell teens. This book is very accessible, and is full of good tips, cute anecdotes, and endless enthusiasm for the topic of self-education.

The one thing I didn’t like is that I felt Mr. Bach tooted his own horn just a wee bit too much–at least for my liking.

Anyway, I recommend this book in the same spirit as “The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education” by Grace Llewellyn and “Learning All The Time” by John Holt

I’m sure this book will quickly become a classic must-read in the homeschooling world.

“The Annotated Sailing Alone Around the World” by Joshua Slocum, Annotated by Rod Scher

If there is one book that sailors say gave them the itch to take to the seas, it’s this book. This annotated edition gives comments, clarifications, definitions, and quips about Captain Slocum’s amazing solo journey around the world in the late 19th century.

For this one man to have done so much is just amazing. I continue to be inspired by him.

Years ago I read an essay titled “Argentina on two steaks a day” and since then, I’ve held that countries steak recipes in high esteem. So, I did some digging around and discovered that matambre is a flank steak, butterflied, covered in tasty stuff, and then rolled up and roasted. Yes, please!

I haven’t done a recipe post in forevers so here you go. I’ll tell you now that this was super easy, and super tasty. My preparation is, as far as I can tell, pretty traditional except that I didn’t include hot red pepper flakes in my filling because the kidlets were having some.

I started with a nice 24 ounce flank steak and butterflied it. After rubbing both sides down with nice olive oil, then salting and peppering, I put down a layer of fresh spinach. Always cook your spinach! Most of the nutrients aren’t accessible to your body if the spinach is eaten raw. I hate that I have to explain this to people.

In this photo you can see the shadow of my head. My horrible kitchen has its lights situated so that the lights shine down from over the empty space amidst the U-shape counter. This guarantees that your own body casts a shadow on your work no matter where you stand in my kitchen. Some day I will build out a kitchen and it will not suck in this way. Yes, I know, I could spend $15 and put up some better lights for when I’m photographing, but, uhm, yeah, not going to happen.

Next I sliced some carrots into thin sticks and laid them down a couple of inches apart. In the gaps between carrot sticks I put some hard boiled egg, yellow onion, kalamata olives, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and parboiled potatoes.

After layering on the filling I rolled it up, and tied it with butcher’s twine.

Next came browning it on all sides in a hot cast-iron skillet, and then the whole thing, skillet and all, went into a 400°F oven until it reached an internal temperature of 160°F.

After cooking, I let it rest for 10 minutes and then sliced it and served.

The lecture was given by Massad Ayoob: policeman, competitive shooter, firearms historian, defense instructor, highly-sought expert witness, and the preeminent authority on the judicious use of lethal force in the US. In this lecture (which is taught to law enforcement officers, attorneys, and private citizens) he mentioned that after the shooting at Columbine high school in 1999, the standard response to an active shooter changed.

Before Columbine, the standard response was for officers arriving on-scene to wait for a negotiation team to arrive. If that wasn’t possible, then they would at least wait for there to be a large enough body of officers that they could swarm the shooters en masse.

The obvious problem with this tactic is that this waiting period gives the killer(s) more time to kill.

A lot of analysis was done of the massacre at Columbine and a new protocol was developed. This new protocol was specifically designed for situations where there was a killer in an area where the victims had little or no ability to defend themselves (such as in schools where it is illegal to possess self-defense weapons). In this new protocol the goal is to take down the killer immediately. Officers are trained to engage immediately.

Sgt. Munley, the brave woman police officer who responded to the shooting at Ft. Hood last week, was trained in this new protocol. She got the call, went to the scene, and immediately engaged Maj. Hasan and ended the killing spree.

It is sad comfort, but comfort nonetheless, that our law enforcement professionals to learn from these events; and that the knowledge gained does lead to better tactics that do eventually trickle down to the brave men and women we hire to keep us safe. It’s horrible to imagine what Maj. Hasan would have done if Sgt. Munley had just sat around and waited for backup.

“Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” by Lee Iacocca

In this book Lee Iacocca discusses some of the big-ticket items that he considers to be a problem with how families, societies, companies, and the US as a whole are run. He presents his suggestions for solutions to a lot of them too. I’d really love to see a revised edition that takes 2009 into account.

Anyway, Mr. Iacocca is just awesome. He’s warm, funny, personable, and frank. He’s the awesome uncle you wish you had. The man has had an incredible life full of amazing relationships–everyone from Henry Ford, to Fidel Castro, to several Popes. He’s a poster boy for the American Dream. I think I enjoyed his personal anecdotes more than his analysis of the ills of the nation.

This is one of the few times where I will actually recommend getting the unabridged audiobook over the print edition. Mr. Iacocca narrates it himself and he is fantastic at it–the man’s wit and cleverness come out so much better in his own voice.

Since I almost completely agreed with Mr. Iacocca’s analyses of the US, and his prescriptions for fixing it, I didn’t get as much from the book as someone who isn’t to closely aligned. The stories are still worth the effort of reading the book though. I’d suggest borrowing this, or getting it from the library (which is what I did).

“Adlard Coles’ Heavy Weather Sailing” by Peter Bruce

This was my kind of book! I loved the content, it was super dense and technical, and it just went on and on and on.

The practical tips on sail and rigging adjustment for heavy weather was worth the cost of the book (although I got it from the library). Then there was the chapter on the meteorology of heavy weather, and how you detect and track it. Then there was the super awesome chapter on sea anchors and drogues. Add to it the chapter after chapter of case studies, research reports, famous disaster analysis, and recaps from individual sailors and my brain just exploded–in the good way.

I think the biggest thing I got out of the book was that it pays to learn the basics. The boat will take care of itself. You, as the skipper, have a fairly simple checklist of things to do before, during, and after the storm. Yes, freak conditions occur and the unexpected happens. But all the same, I feel much more confident in my own sailing ability now that I’ve read this book, and I’ve been taking the opportunity to practice the techniques.

This is one of those books that you talk to people about and they go, “duh, everyone knows about that book, it’s a classic.” Now I know why.