Good Saturday!
This is “I Should Be Cleaning” Day. (Technically, we celebrate that holiday here EVERY day.)
But since I’m here, I’ll let you in on what is to come next week sometime:
Charlie and Hannah went on an outing to pick up our farm-raised meat from the CSA*** this morning.
***Community-sponsored agriculture: Where non-farmers support a farm by buying shares in their harvest. We pay ahead of time for the opportunity to get fresh produce once a month or so. They’re usually fruit-and-veg operations.
But ours provides only meat: beef, pork, and poultry. Oh, and eggs.
Because of course, our home garden is going to be SO amazingly productive that we’ll have no need for garden produce. Right? Riiiiiight.
***
Anyway. They should be home any minute now, and I plan to document their arrival on video.
What could possibly be film-worthy in the unloading of frozen meat?
Have no fear, Charlie always has new ways to gross us out here at the Red Clay Estate.
(I so love saying that. Estate. Hee.)
Remember the mushrooms? And the sweet baby lamb?
Well today, Charlie is taking gross to a new level with ONE EXTRA ITEM he purchased.
Wait for it…
.
.
.
.
The HEAD of a PIG.
Yes. A pig’s HEAD.
Why would anyone want a pig’s head, you ask? Well clearly, you have never heard of a delicacy called Hogshead Cheese.
I hadn’t either, but my marriage to a chef has GREATLY increased my vocabulary. And sometime soon, the whole family will get to witness the preparation of CHEESE made from a pig’s HEAD.
I think I might have to vlog THAT for y’all too.
The Red Clay Diaries: from poo to ewwwwwww, experiencing disgusting stuff so you don’t have to.
23 responses so far ↓
1 Jo@Mylestones // Apr 18, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Ewwww is right. I literally closed my eyes and winced after I read the paragraph where you paired the concepts of pig’s head and cheese. Please, please, please, stick to the poo jokes!
2 katdish // Apr 18, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Tell me again why I always get the rap for posting gross stuff?…
We have a grocery store here called Fiesta that caters to the ethnic community (primarily Hispanic). Walking through their meat department is what nighmares are made of. I think I’ve actually screamed while in there. You just don’t expect to see a cow’s decapitated head staring up at you from the butcher’s case.
3 Nick the Geek // Apr 18, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Let me tell you a fun little story. My dad took up bow hunting while stationed in Guam. He got a boonie pig, which is a type of wild boar that weight in around 100-150 lbs. A friend helped him field strip it, skin it, and carve it up. My dad wanted the tusks and hid friend didn’t have time to cut them out so he brought the head home in a large brown paper bag and put it in the fridge.
A while later my mom came home and she was told not to look in the bag in the fridge. Anyone wanna guess what she did? Anybody? Anyone want to guess what kind of noise she made? Scared? Happy? Mad? Possibly a mix of scared and very very angry?
Good times.
4 Helen // Apr 18, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Headcheese is wonderful! Really it is! Trust me, it will be worth it! Yummo!
Helen’s last blog post..Helen Speaks!
5 Wendy // Apr 18, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel the need to hurl right about now?
Wendy’s last blog post..Fingerprint Friday
6 Charlie // Apr 18, 2009 at 7:53 pm
For the uninitiated, Hogs Head Cheese is not actually cheese, which I’m guessing you already figured out. Think of it more as . . . a terrine. Still not quite sure? It’s an aspic made of chopped up pig parts. So, are you now feeling better about it — or worse?
BTW, I’ve been to Fiesta in Houston. I LOVED it.
7 Charlie // Apr 18, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Oh, yeah. And technically, it was only HALF a pig’s head . . . and four feet. Yum.
8 Helen // Apr 18, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Charlie, I know what headcheese is. And I do think it is yummy. I highly recommend the addition of paprika to it. Really.
Helen’s last blog post..Helen Speaks!
9 Steph at the Red Clay Diaries // Apr 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Jo – Aren’t you the one married to a DOCTOR? You’re not allowed to be grossed out.
Katdish – Because OBVIOUSLY you are the EVIL twin. I’m the good one. As for gross stores, you haven’t seen gross until you accidentally turn down the butcher street in a middle eastern city. Every animal part known to man (minus pig of course) out on tables in the open. Very narrow and SLIPPERY street. Ewwwwwarini!
Nick – If you ask me, your mom should have known better. Someone tells me not to look inside a bag in my fridge, I leave it alone. (Then again, I bet it was stinky and drippy and getting her fridge all icky. A paper bag? C’mon Dad.)
Helen – In all honesty, I will probably try it. And I will probably like it. Ever since Charlie got me to eat sweetbreads (hint: neither sweet nor bread), and I LIKED them, there was no turning back.
Wendy – hurl? Go ahead. It fits my blog’s new theme just fine!
Charlie – You know I love you and appreciate all the foods you’ve introduced me to. Even the nasty-looking ones.
10 katdish // Apr 18, 2009 at 9:23 pm
In the words of Matt @ the church of no people,
NOOOOOO!!!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!
11 Candy // Apr 18, 2009 at 11:53 pm
What katdish said.
When I was a kid I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of milk and opened the frig and saw a jar of pickled pigs feet and screamed bloody murder because I thought it was the family cat. I was scarred for life.
Now I love Charlie and all, but would have to stick to dishes a little more veggie. Unless I didn’t know what I was eating, of course. Something about “cheek meat” that makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
Candy’s last blog post..The Rally
12 Amy Warden // Apr 19, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I’d like to see that vlog. Can’t be any worse than the video I took of the middle school kids drinking a blended Happy Meal this morning at church. Fortunately, no one ralphed.
13 Shark Bait // Apr 19, 2009 at 4:20 pm
In the words of Jerry Seinfeld:
“The words ‘Head’ and ‘cheese’ should never be that close together for any reason.”
I rest my case.
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Shark Bait’s last blog post..Happy National High Five Day
14 @ngie // Apr 19, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Well, what a completely educational post! I’ll have to try that some time.
@ngie’s last blog post..Driver Log Day 6 with a bit of Trail Mix too
15 Court // Apr 19, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Well maybe you could reenact The Lord of the Flies?
Court’s last blog post..Bye, bye mountains; Hello Kaiya!
16 joyce // Apr 19, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I’m game…let’s see some video.
joyce’s last blog post..I Think Bob Said It Best
17 the domestic fringe // Apr 19, 2009 at 9:33 pm
ohhhhh, I’m a cheese lover, but this just doesn’t sound like a good thing.
-FringeGirl
18 Beth // Apr 20, 2009 at 9:36 am
Gee…I just made a comment at Mare’s blog about my aversion to raw meat and then I come to THIS.
Good luck, my friend. It was nice knowing you and your blog…
Beth’s last blog post..Super Update Spectacular!
19 Marni // Apr 20, 2009 at 10:52 am
What Candy said Katdish said…
And Kat, I see your Fiesta market and raise you one Korean market. I felt like I was in a really bad “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake.
Steph, I have a great (read: sadistic) dad who always made me try crazy ethnic foods to broaden my appreciation for other countries and their (totally gross) palates. He made me try headcheese. I actually liked it…ya know…until he told me what it was. But if you can keep the visual out of your head, I think you’ll enjoy it…kind of like the time I snarfed down a whole basket of calf fries and THEN asked my dad what they were. You don’t trauma until you’ve heard “You know the difference between and cow and a bull? You just ate the difference”…yeah…
Marni’s last blog post..Things I Love…Things That Break My Heart, Part 3
20 thefarmerfiles // Apr 21, 2009 at 9:50 am
LOL he might bring home a whole pig and you can have a luau this summer.
thefarmerfiles’s last blog post..Turning Two
21 Screwed Up Texan // Apr 21, 2009 at 10:38 am
“The Red Clay Diaries: from poo to ewwwwwww, experiencing disgusting stuff so you don’t have to.”
I think that should be your new slogan.
Screwed Up Texan’s last blog post..Chick Magnet
22 faemom // Apr 21, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Maybe it’s my inner city-slicker; maybe it’s my inner everyday American; heck, maybe it’s my inner picky child, but head cheese sounds disgusting.
23 But I swear, the pig head has NOT left the freezer! | The Red Clay Diaries // May 3, 2009 at 10:01 pm
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