Precious Fierce Elegant Georgia:
It occurs to me these eight days past that grief either ratifies, or debunks, alliances.

Sometime in the late '60s I was introduced to kefir. She didn’t know it, but I fell in love with her. On a cement crew the summer of 1971, a quart of her traveled with me to work. Unflavored, she and fresh peaches were my entire lunch. There was a hole-in-the-wall ‘health food’ store nearby where a stooped, hairless proprietor made the match. I kept her in a cooler with ice, so when the noon bell rang and it was 98 degrees, on the way to 107 or more, my gal kefir was right there chilling and waiting, for me! Oh, the faithfulness! Of course, lots of water washed across these pearly whites, passed through the oral cavity, bathed Mr. Epiglottis and headed down the Jimmysophagus too, having sweated off so many pounds each morning. While I came to savor natural kefir, I did sometimes glug it with bites of those masticated peaches, or sweet Calimyrna Figs from the orchard encompassing our home. But now I must try your rhubarb kefir, Georgia. Perhaps I’ll make friends with our kitchen, surprise my bride of 30-some years, and work up a batch per your methods. Since boyhood, rhubarb-based treats have been on the order of a magic substance, placed before me with a twinkle by my precious, Thurberian mother.

Sometime in the late '60s I was introduced to kefir. She didn’t know it, but I fell in love with her. On a cement crew the summer of 1971, a quart of her traveled with me to work. Unflavored, she and fresh peaches were my entire lunch. There was a hole-in-the-wall ‘health food’ store nearby where a stooped, hairless proprietor made the match. I kept her in a cooler with ice, so when the noon bell rang and it was 98 degrees, on the way to 107 or more, my gal kefir was right there chilling and waiting, for me! Oh, the faithfulness! Of course, lots of water washed across these pearly whites, passed through the oral cavity, bathed Mr. Epiglottis and headed down the Jimmysophagus too, having sweated off so many pounds each morning. While I came to savor natural kefir, I did sometimes glug it with bites of those masticated peaches, or sweet Calimyrna Figs from the orchard encompassing our home. But now I must try your rhubarb kefir, Georgia. Perhaps I’ll make friends with our kitchen, surprise my bride of 30-some years, and work up a batch per your methods. Since boyhood, rhubarb-based treats have been on the order of a magic substance, placed before me with a twinkle by my precious, Thurberian mother.

Lovely, brilliant comment, Rachel. It saturates my mind.

Ray’s year mirrors mine in many ways. One goal is to be more adventurous about foods and recipes. I’ve eaten venison many times — last night fact — with my son and family (to include our brand new grandson!) in NM. My fine son, his wife, and his in-laws serve up snake, squirrel, rabbit, buffalo, venison, bear among other treats. Most all harvested (legally) by the family in Kansas, NM, Colorado, Wyoming, MT and AZ. What I really need to pursue is seafood; my experience is limited. I’ve been ordering many copies of FOOD HEROES from Amazon and having them sent directly to friends. Always a big hit! On the matter of life’s blows and blessings, I think of Helen Telushkin (not sure about the spelling) late of the Bronx (or was it Queens?) who once said something like this: “The only people I know who don’t have big problems are people I don’t know well.” Few knew this great lady, now deceased. Not famous. Which leads me to another thought: “Most celebrities are not great, and most great people are not celebrities.” Go Georgia, and thanks!

What a glorious blog entry, this! The values key to cohesive families are oozing through. Gorgeous photos, as usual, are a delight. I’m reminded of Thanksgiving and Christmas when my maternal grandparents were living. Challenged was I to moderate consumption of sweet temptations in advance of main courses. Presently, it lands on my brother and me to take what was best from those years and replicate it, each in our own fashion, for the 21st century. New friends and loved ones join those of us now long in the tooth as we toast, and render our most careful prayer to those who are no longer there — those who gave us all. Those to whom we send our thanks.

“...what’s essential in this recipe is how it is killed, where it is shot, how it is dressed and cleaned. All of that needs to be done in an impeccable way.” I’m closer to the nimrod end on a bodark stick than I am a man with any significant knowledge of cooking, food preparation and presentation. Not so the fellas G knows in Arkansas. They know well what to do with a properly killed creature. While I align myself entirely with them as to the initial set of considerations when the thought of killing and eating a hog has me salivating, to be frank I don’t know a fraction of what they do about preparation. What Georgia knows and teaches the rest of us so clearly and beautifully is quite marvelous, really, building on decades of experience of other fine cooks, like those guys. And isn’t it impressive that she doesn’t send someone else out to take a hog, field dress it and all the rest. No, she does that herself, learning from those who truly know that end of things, so she can then contribute her knowledge to preparing the beast. G’s friends in Arkansas and I are in utter concordance with one another. Where we differ (and it amounts to a compliment to them) is in my limited knowledge of top-flight food preparation; those fellas have it, and Georgia has it. I don’t. Her skills are hard-earned, credentialed and practiced. This Pellegrini gal is formidable in the breadth of her knowledge and creative instincts. Her pluck and willing attitude. Her willingness to learn, and her exquisitely thought through teaching of the reader by narrative and photographs.. Heck, she has skills and know-how that can transform the experience of the average schmuck like me who dispatches and consumes an honest pig or hog somewhere — the dang ‘thangs' are all over the planet, in a dazzling variety and huge numbers — thereby leveraging my experience on a
fulcrum unknown to me heretofore.