Sunshine and Feasting

Hello readers! It's been a long and busy couple of months, but I found time to post a new update. It's been a pretty exciting time to explore the culinary world for me, one of my coworkers has connections to a local slaughter house and procured a whole pig for us to roast - a dream come true for any foodie. There were about twenty assorted side dishes and various cuts of pig served a dozen different ways. In the end, the only part that remained was the head that has been put on ice for other fun times.
I've also been taking advantage of the summer weather to visit the newly opened farmers market purchasing fresh rhubarb, apples, and parsley. Yesterday I used my produce to make a killer strawberry rhubarb pie, which my coworker promptly demolished. Then I went to my parents' house to make a tasty beer can chicken and pasta salad in a pea-almond pesto. Very tasty! For the beer can chicken I found a very nice canned scotch ale called "Old Chub" that gave the chicken an exquisite flavor, bringing a touch of class to the dish. Truly though, if you've never cooked chicken that way, it's simple and leaves your chicken moist and rich with flavor. Simply purchase a whole chicken, butter and salt and pepper the skin, then insert the beer can in the *ahem* behind of the chicken and place the whole thing on the grill, keeping the temperature at about 350-400 degrees. The chicken takes about an hour to cook, if you check it regularly. After you pull if off the grill, carefully remove the beer can as it will be hot and voila! You have your chicken and plenty of beer left to drink with it.

Left - fresh strawberry rhubarb pie, Right - a special I created at work, braised chicken and brussels sprouts with a creamy Dijon sauce