The Carrboro Music Festival

Have I ever talked about how much I love my town? The town of Carrboro was established in 1911 and today the population is about 16,700 people. People talk to each other. There are lots of public spaces that are always full of people living together. We have two bike shops and three coffee shops (possibly more). Sidewalks are full of people walking. It is actually kind of hard for me to describe the way people in this town have managed to create a beautiful, walkable community full of babies, dogs, bikes, the young, and the old. You will just have to visit.


Once a year the town closes down and all of downtown turns into a stage.

180 bands play on every street corner. Some on real stages.
Some in parking lots.
Or in front of stores.

Or in the farmers market town square. That is where I buy my vegetables!

And at restaurants.

The music ranges from country, blue grass, rock, pop, soul, Latin, and everything in between. Every band had an audience and there were almost always people dancing. The best part it that the whole thing is free. It starts at 1 pm and goes until almost midnight.

We went downtown and got some milk shakes. Then walked around to listen to the bands, it was beautiful outside. It was wonderful to wander from stage to stage and watch the town party together.

I think we heard five languages being spoken. This is quite a town. The police officers were directing traffic with a smile. We were even encouraged to jay walk. By a cop. In Denver, she would have given us a ticket. In Carrboro, she laughed and told us to hurry up and have a good day.

The road became a canvas.

There were toys for the children. What does this look like to you?

Never mind. Don't answer that.

The town was full of children. Dancing children, climbing children, it was a family affair.

Events like this make me reflect on how lucky I am to live in such a community. It makes me think that despite our differences, our similarities are really more remarkable. With just an ounce of acceptance and a little bit of music, life is pretty good.

Sorry this post is so cheesy. This is really how I feel, sometimes walking around town causes me to burst into a spontaneous monologue about how wonderful it all is. True story, I am just a cheese ball at heart.

Perfecting the BLT

Remember Platonic forms from college?

Plato talked about how the things we see in the world are really only mimicking the true Form (yeah, apparently we do capitalize that word in this context). These Forms are the blueprint of perfection. Perfection exists in theory and we recreate it imperfectly in the physical world.

I know, I sound like a crazy person. I am probably totally misusing Platonic philosophy... I think about true forms of food a lot. For example, in Platonic philosophy there is a true Form of the tomato. When I eat a really good looking, delicious tomato in August I think to myself, "This is pretty close to that Platonic ideal."

Really, I do think this. I know the honors program in undergraduate was a bad thing for me...

I think Max the cat is very close to the perfect feline Form.

I think a lot of food people think like this though, striving for the perfect dish or ingredient. I know that perfection is relative, but whatever! Allow me my musings.

Derek and I have a group of friends who have been pursuing some ideal food Forms together. By this I mean we have met a couple of times trying to perfect classic dishes. By classic, I mean those things you can get in any American diner.

Earlier this summer we collectively made hamburgers. We ground our own meat, made our own ketchup, buns, etc. They would have made Plato smile from whatever cave he sits in (hahaha, philosophy humor).

Those are some good looking hamburger buns, what they have bacon in them? Those are some GREAT looking buns...

This week we tackled the BLT. The acronym indicates bacon, lettuce, and tomato are the primary ingredient of this sandwich. We actually varied from this a little bit, so I am not sure it is a true close to perfect BLT, but we did make a close to perfect sandwich.

I cannot really post a single recipe up for our BLT spectacular. Each ingredient has its own little story. I think I will just put up pictures of the festivities. Sorry if the pictures are a little yellow. It was kind of dark in there.

The Crew

David

Aaron

Derek (also known as my true love)

Jono

and me of course.

The Beer and the Lettuce

This is red leaf lettuce and that beer is from Fullsteam, a one year old Durham brewery that Derek and I are obsessed with. To be fair Jono provided lots of other beer and Aaron brought wine.

The Bread

Actually, Derek and I made Pizza Bianca. Sliced in half this is a delicious sandwich bread.

Maybe we also lightly pan fried the inside in bacon fat.

The Bacon

David made this! I feel like such a bacon proselytizer.

Fried on low heat until just starting to crisp, not too crispy though.

The Tomatoes

I actually have no idea what kind of tthese are. They came in our CSA, so the red kind...

Condiments and Sides

Aaron and David made Aioli

Aaron's ratatouille

David's Green Bean Salad

Yes, those are roasted Hatch Green Chiles in the foreground.

Perfection

Do not judge me for my glass of wine and glass of beer. That is totally normal. Do you ever notice how many of my food photos have some sort of alcoholic beverage slightly in the frame? Oh dear...

Thanks guys!

Happy New Year to Me!

I was trying to decide what to write about in this post and then I realized I had a birthday last week. To celebrate this birthday we hosted a fiesta!

I take theme parties very seriously. Just ask the attendees of last years "party like you used to do in undergrad"... The theme for my birthday was FIESTA! Naturally, we had a make your own burrito bar, margaritas, Mexican beer, chips and salsa, and a rousing game of pin the tail on the burro.

Did I mention I take themes very seriously?

The star of the evening festivities (other than the burro Juan, of course) was the giant pot of homemade carnitas.

Now, story time.

We just bought ourselves Andrea Reusing's new cookbook, Cooking in the Moment, because she is a Chapel Hill chef, a bunch of the farmers we enjoy patronizing are featured prominently in the book, and it was getting tons of buzz. I wanted to see what the big deal was. Reusing's restaurant Lantern, is just up the street from our house and she just won a regional James Beard award. Now this is all awesome and stuff, but we went to her restaurant last year and we were less than impressed. I mean, the food was good, I guess. Derek's dinner seemed a little salty and it was so dark in the restaurant I do not even remember what my dinner looked like. If I am going to pay some inordinate amount of money for a nice dinner out I want to see it! This restaurant is supposed to be amazing. Why go to all that trouble then turn off the lights? Don't we eat with our eyes? Plus, the table right next to us (I mean, I felt like we were rude for not introducing ourselves) was getting comped all sorts of delicious appetizers and I felt gypped. We could not really see the food, but they sounded like they liked it. How come they get free food? Anyway, I hear she is great from lots of people and I was willing to give her cookbook a chance. See, I have a forgiving soul...

End story time.

In the new cookbook, there are lots of pretty pictures and almost too simple recipes... it is local and seasonal and very inspiring. I was instantly drawn to one of her Mexican chef's carnitas recipes. Not exactly a Reusing original or something she would serve at her restaurant, but perfect for a fiesta. See the recipe at the end of this post.

We also made a tequila peach galette. You know, instead of birthday cake. Because it has tequila in it, it is Mexican. Don't try and tell me galette is a French word.

Margaritas were drunk. The amount of margarita drinking is probably why I have very few party pictures. I am not allowed to play with the pretty camera when I am drinking margaritas. Mistakes were made.

I made a burro (that is donkey in Spanish, hehe) with construction paper and poster board and we were going to play pin the tail on the donkey. Then I started to get really grumpy at the United States congress. If you do not live under a rock, you know what I mean. I was so angry at them, particularly John Boehner. I do not want to make to overt a political statement on this blog, but really... what a jerk. So the game became pin the Boehner on the burro. I am sure you all get the references here. If you don't, bless you.

In all of the pictures Boehner was crying.

Derek's little brother and my cousin were there, which was incredibly fun. Yay for family! That is really why I like this picture. Look at the smiles on Derek's and his little brothers face, then look at my cousin (white shirt in the background) smiling too. I love it.

Ok, enough rambling. I had a great birthday. It was nice to have many people I care about all in one place. To those of you who could not make it because you were in a different state, a different country, or a different mental plane, I missed you. I have always been a summer birthday kid, so normally as a working archaeologist, I miss my birthday too!

Miguel Torres's Carnitas

modified very slightly from Andrea Reusing's Cooking in the Moment

Note: We definitely halved the original recipe and comfortably served 10 people with leftovers. The carnitas are very rich and you do not need a lot of meat per person. I am going to record the ratios we used.

4-5 pounds boneless pork shoulder

scant 1 cup lard (I know, I know ewww)

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 dried bay leaves

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup cola

1/2 orange, split in half again

burrito or taco condiments (salsa, tortillas, rice, cheese, cabbage salad, we made a jalepeno and red onion escabeche)

1. Cut pork shoulder into 3 inch cubes, trimming off any gristle and leaving all of the fat. Because you probably will not be able to find a boneless cut, use this opportunity to cut it off the bone.

2. Heat a large heavy pot over high heat and add meat and lard. As soon as lard has melted, add enough cold water to barely cover the pork. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium. Add salt, pepper, and bay leaves.

3. This is where the magic happens. Stir this regularly and simmer briskly for about an hour and a half or until the water has evaporated (it has taken up to 2.5 hours for us). While you are stirring and monitoring the pork, do not worry that the pork seems tough and do not try to spilt apart hunks of pork. It will get tender as the water evaporates and you do not want it shredded.

4. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the milk. Simmer for 5 minute or until the milk is almost completely reduced. Add the cola. Squeeze the two orange quarters over the meat and add the oranges to the pot too. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes and stir this pretty often. The meat should get kind of crispy and turn a deep carmel brown. Now take out the oranges and adjust the seasonings.

5. Use as meat filling for Mexican dish of your choice.