Have you seen these guys lately?

If so please let me know. I have no idea who they are, but I bet they know a lot about the pig and I yearn to learn.

Today I read an article about a fellow named Riccardo Ullio. He has opened his fourth restaurant as of late and I’m quite interested in going to Cuerno, the one that specializes in Spanish food. What grabbed my attention about this restaurant in particular was the mention of the jamon and how it was served. The writer eating this food was aware of how special this pork was. She described the way it was sliced and served. She also explained that the pig was raised in very comfortable conditions and feed nothing but acorns for the last 6 months of it life. These acorns are from cork trees.

In Spain, Madrid to be precise I have enjoyed this jamon. It is called jamon iberico and it sells for about $60 a pound in the states. Your lucky if you ever see it though because it is imported on a very limited basics and you have to put you name in a lottery to have a chance to buy it. It is a cured leg and it is set in a brace to hold it in place, hoof pointing up, so it can be carved properly.

The rest of the article goes on to heap high praise on this restaurant and the offerings put forth. I can’t wait. Spanish food is some of the best, heartiest food I have eaten. Lots of seafood, great cheeses and they produce some of the finest wines of the old world. I will be at this restaurant very soon and will write a complete report.

Click below and read more on this beautiful black pig!

http://www.tienda.com/reference/ibericoquest.html

serenbe

I was down at Serenbe the other day to deliver a table to a client. Here is a photo of that table. A couple of months ago I made the chairs you see here as well.

While I was there I took a few photos. Most of the country may be in a housing slump, but not at Serenbe. These are a couple of the house’s under construction and they each have a price tag of a million plus. One is a Dwell Home, I guess it is connected to Dwell Magazine somehow. They are both designs of the architect Joel Turkel and both are sold! Don’t forget, you can click on photo for better image.

So you have these two very modern homes and then right across the street you have this, another million dollar home with a sold sign out front..

Around the corner is the Serenbe Organic Farm. This farm is run by a young lady named Paige and she does quit a job. Along with selling produce at the Serenbe Farmers Market each Saturday morning, she also provides CSA boxes and keeps the two restaurants at Serenbe supplied with all the organic produce they need. Here are a couple photos of the farm operation.

Leon Redbone

Leon Redbone makes me happy, very happy. Maybe I should say his music makes me happy cause I never met the man. Well once Stacey and I did approach him in a parking lot behind the old Cotton Club in midtown Atlanta. I think we scared the hell out of him. He just wanted to get in his rental car and go home, and here we come. It was 12, 13 years ago, about midnight and we had just smiled our way through a two hour show. Mr. Redbone was accompanied that night by a horn player and a drummer with a very limited drum kit. No more was needed. Hell he’s excellent on his own, just him and his guitar. We didn’t want his autograph, just wanted to tell him we loved the show and that my dad was a big fan.

So I’m writing this and listening to you-tube videos of some of his shows right now because Saturday night he was on A Prairie Home Companion radio program. I have not listened to his music in years. I own none of his cd’s. But when I heard him on the radio the other night I fell in love with his music all over again.

I can’t really describe his music. I guess it’s straight ahead American music, not pop, not folk, it’s kinda like show tunes, if you will and you should. It doesn’t really matter, it’s his unique voice and style on the guitar that make it so good. Sometimes listening to him you think he has screwed up or forgotten the next note, I think he’s just making us wait. You know, like wait for it, ok here it is.

He writes a lot of songs and covers all kinds of other artist. Click on this link and check this out.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1TqzTOYWkA&feature=related I kinda remember him being on the Carson show quit often. He is also very funny. . Then click on all the other offers on you tube and have a Redbone day.

Also check out that steel guitar he is playing, beautiful.

Does this Bed make me look Phat

So I posted this photo a while back. It’s a king sized bed I made from house parts. The house is in Grant Park, here in Atlanta. The house is a little over 100 years old and it was being renovated. I was given the post and bead board tongue and grove from the front porch. Here is a photo of the finished product. I sold it to a shop that has just opened in the Serenbe community. I sold it for $1500, can’t wait to see what they price it.

Southern Sliders

I wanted to tell you about these small hamburgers we have been grilling lately. I guess they are sliders. We have had the small burger a few times in different restaurant and I guess that’s where we got the idea. We had them a couple times at First on 1st street in NYC. I don’t remember them as being great, just small.

So I went to start writing and thought about slug burgers. I looked them up and that’s another story. Two different things. A slug burger has cereal or some other filler mixed with the meat, I think they were a poor mans hamburger. Sliders are small, all beef burgers. I also found this site when searching slug/slider.

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2007/04/sliders_at_bouchon_bakery.php

It’s a neat site, check it out. I love this short little story this guys has written about finding sliders on the the menu at the Bouchon Bakery. Left over meat from Per Se. Those must have sucked.

Anyway here is our condiment tray.

For me there are two reasons to eat sliders. Size, they don’t fill ya up as much as a full burger on a huge hunk of bread. Variety, you can eat two or three so you can try different condiment mixtures.

Southern Hospitality part II

So you thought this was bad?

Well check this out

I got a new wife. Hooray, can I keep the other one? Can I have two wives at one time? Some people think it’s okay to do so. Will she be as good as the first one? Can I keep her? Please, can I keep her? What? Whats that you say, new car, not new wife? Oh, okay, never mind. Car looks good, doesn’t it?

Yes, it’s true we have a “like new” jeep. The frame of the car and the engine were not hurt when Ms. Hit and Run did her thing. We got lucky. Her? Not so much. I think she was arrested and has a court date May 10th. I plan on going just to see what happens. I ain’t gonna say nothing, I don’t want her to go to jail. Like I said when it happened, it could have been me in her shoes.

Southern Junk

For as long as I can remember I have been a thrift shopper. When I got my drivers licenses it was one of the first things I did on my own. I love to shop flea markets, yard sales, thrift stores, anywhere a deal on something unusual might be found. I practice this hobby to this day, and I don’t ever plan on stopping. As a matter of fact I can’t wait til life slows down and I can get back to it.

I had to back off a little ya see. For years I would buy all kinds of things at markets and thrift stores that I thought I could either use or sell for profit. Some of my best purchases have made me hundreds of dollars quickly. You have to know what something is worth when you see it, but most important you got to know where you can sell it for a profit. Buying it is one thing, find someone to buy it at a profit is the trick. One of the best deals I have found was a ten piece Le Creuset set of pots and pans for $18.00. They probably retailed for around $300.00. That was ten or so years ago and we still use them today.

I basically had a “store” that I could transport to the nearest flea market and set up business for the day or weekend. I quickly learned it was no fun packing and unpacking all the little items. Sure I could buy all kinds of cool stuff for three, four or five dollars and sell them for double or more, but how many transactions of this size did I need to do per day to really make decent money? The answer was a lot. So I started building furniture and slowly got rid of all the small items that were a pain to handle. But I miss getting in the car and spending the day going from junk store to thrift shop looking for that next big deal. Now days I go looking for something in particular like clothes or something I need. I can really save money on things I need and sometimes I find something I just gotta have, like this chair.

Ain’t it great. I was at the Value Village the other day and I had picked up two stainless steel bowls for the dogs, $2 for the pair. I found two pairs of shorts I could work in this summer, $3 each. I found a large rusty metal star that will look great on the headboard of a bed and a few other things. I was checking out when I saw this chair, right off I loved the design. The lines were great, the colors were great, it was in great condition and probably dated to the 1960’s. It also was priced $2.50! I had to have it. That’s why now days I don’t go to these shops nearly as much as I used to, sometimes I just can’t help myself. Hell a good deals a good deal.