A Lil Bacon and Some Beans

What you see here is this:




* Summer squash

* Pig stomach with green & yellow beans



Okay, okay, its not technically "pig stomach," I just like to say that it is. It's the skin and fat from the side of the pig--the stuff that they use to make bacon.

When I got my pig, I decided not to have any of the meat cured or smoked (due to additives). So I ended up with a lot of plain meat. Some of it has turned out to be a pleasant surprise, such as this "fresh side" pictured above. I add a little salt and sugar, allow it to brown in the pan, and it tastes just great--long strands of fat and salty meat.

It's not bacon--it's something altogether different. I tried curing it with salt and sugar over long periods of time, but in all actuality it didn't seem to bring any flavor that I couldn't just bring in by adding those items at the time of cooking.

The summer squash is cooked up in olive oil with onions, lots of garlic and some salt and pepper.

Bacon and beans. I think that's an ideal food. Maybe it's a male thing.

I'm a little bummed because these farm-fresh vegetables were picked almost a week ago. Due to busyness/laziness, I didn't get around to preparing them and freezing them until today. The good news is that I decided to use the new vacuum sealer that Erin bought me for Christmas last year (or was it the year before?) I'm particularly bad about taking a long time to use new items, even the most generous gifts. But once I get in the swing of things, I'm okay. It's very easy to use--you fill the bags, attach the vacuum device, then let 'er rip.

Vacuum-sealed foods retain quite a bit more freshness, they say. The only downside that I can think of is that the plastic bags are wrapped snug around the food in a tight seal. It is believed that plastics leech out toxins in high and low temperatures (such as a freezer). A tightly-sealed bag seems to have more parts of the food in contact with more parts of the plastic bag. However, if you are going to use plastic bags in the freezer anyway, I am not sure that vacuum sealing really adds much more than you would get if you didn't seal it. I have no idea, though.