Fall Classics

No this is not about baseball, you will never see baseball here.

Getting paid! And that means I can afford more tasty things than just peanut butter and jelly. I was cruising through the store about to pick up New Belgium's Fat Tire, when I went with their Hoptober. I am not a super fan of hop filled beers but this was nicely balanced and did not punch you in the face like some Sam Adams beers.

Side note, New Belgium is one of my favorite brewing companies, introduced to is while my brother was living in Fort Collins, CO.

 FOOTBALL. Football means the fall, and the fall means already having funky weather in Chicago, and THAT means more comfort food that warms you up. The store did not have any pork butt or shoulder so I went with a family pack of pork chops as my only choice for braised pork.

With my work schedule I like to make a lot of something and freeze stuff for later meals. So I went about braising a bunch of pork for two missions, pork ragu and pulled pork.

Braising any kind if meat is super easy and a good way to impress if your having people over. Sear the outside of the meat, add some chopped carrots, onion, celery, and garlic. Add herbs, I used thyme, parsley, and rosemary and bay leaf here. Then simply add a liquid to cover about 3/4 of the way up on the meat.

 After 3 hours of braising, I pulled the bones out, and shredded all the pork. I then separated a portion out to take a shot at BBQ. Honey glazed pulled pork. Finished it with some red wine vinegar, crushed red pepper, honey, and butter.

Paired with sauteed sweet potato and another New Belgium Hoptober.

 After I separated the pulled pork portion, I cooked down the tomato braising liquid with the extra pork and popped this into my freezer for a pasta meal down the road. 

At the same time as braised pork, football, and getting paid! My September Tale of four Gamers saw some light in getting armor and skins done on the batch. I had forgotten how long base coats take, but my dread of doing 22 model batches is not that bad at this point.

Lots more football, painting, and game prep for Bilbo's Birthday Bash coming up in the start of November.