A quick shout out to those that helped make for another fine Pig Fest. The 4th once again found us high up in the Oakland hills on butcher/charcutier Chad Arnold's eucalyptus shaded half acre. Jon Smulewitz and many of his Dopo crew, some of whom camped over night on the ground's of River Dog Farm to get an early start at pig selection, showed their pork love in the form of the chicken-wire corseted beauty in the photo. Tables were heavy with the "sides" that kept arriving with each guest, ranging from roasted beet salad with arugula and goat cheese, rice salad tossed with freshly mortared pesto, and zucchini paired with toasted pine nuts and currants, along with remarkable takes on the usual suspects: baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, and deviled eggs. Angelo gets a Gold Star for waking much too early after a night spent stove side, getting some 300 soft and flaky rolls to oven so that the juicy meat would have a spot to land. Katie and Donna Collins knocked out a slew of pickles done liberally with garlic, herb, and chili. Crunchy roll stuffer's to keep the shreds of little piggy company.
There were too many baked good's to do justice reciting here, and the wheel barrow of ice kept mystically reloading with whites, rosés, and "sparklers". Chad and his dear Francis deserve special love, as their day began long before sunrise, firing up the oak bed that brought the pig to table, continuing the hospitality well past midnight. Kids and dogs alike scurried about the property, the wood smoke a constant reminder of what was to come. Endearing were the images of the many talented Bay Area cooks assembled, glasses in hand, able to sit this one out, merely enjoying the sun, the stories, the food. Perhaps the most remarkable thing of all was that the fog abated, a true rarity for Summer here, and left the skies clear for the whistling arc of missiles, the resulting bangs, and the umbrellaed descent of color and fire. (Recipes on request.)
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