Victory is near at hand for the pig roasters at Antelope Island
- Have a dream and two birthdays Millie has wanted to roast a pig for at least as long as we've lived next door to her. Millie and Joel both know how to celebrate the achievement of a new decade. Millie, Joel and Marilyn organized Millies' dream into an actual plan (with shopping lists, recon trips and invitations) when they were celebrating something else a couple months ago.
- Invite a lot of friends, none of whom actually own a cooker. Luckily, Millie knows everybody worth knowing in Utah, and now has new friends at the Sewer District. The folks at the district own a cooker. They got it at a government surplus auction -- from the forest service, who used it to cook for fire crews. Millie's new friends put a spit and motor on it for her. Millie's friends are like that.
- Ask for advice, then disregard the parts you don't like, such as a back-up plan for rain. We did a recon trip a month ago to Q4U (top ten bbq joint in the country, no lie). The proprietor, T, told us it would be too cold and wet to bbq a pig in October. Heavy squalls blew across the lake the entire drive from from SLC to the island. It rained until mid-day and then rained some more.
- Acquire a pig from Tooele Valley Meats. Find instructions on the internet. Make a charcoal fire. Skewer pig, stud with garlic. Put it on the cooker. Remember the part of the instructions about wrapping the pig with chicken wire. Take the pig off the cooker. Poke some stout wire through the body, around the skewer and backbone, twist. Crimp the chicken wire. Reinstall on the cooker. Start motor. Open beer. Add more charcoal every 20 minutes. After one hour, pig begins to drip. After two hours, pig begins to smell like dinner. Keep cooking.
- Wait until 3:00 for your friends to arrive Millie said they would start to show up at 3:00 and by 3:30 the pavilion at Antelope Island State Park was full. We met Jackie and Marilyn's daughter Susan from California [pic] and Bruce and Susie [pic]. Tony [pic] came from Alaska. Tom, Judi and Dottie were having a good time [pic]. Del and Carol [pic] are just back from canoeing in the arctic. Millie's family came to celebrate her birthday [pic] and Tom and Stephanie [pic] lit the birthday candles.
- Ceremoniously bring pig to carving station when the temperature reaches 165 deg (about 5 1/2 hours). Find first aid kit to bandage up one of the carvers. Dejoint, and put the head on a platter. Keep piling meat into a warming pan.
- Conduct mixed beverage contest to distract everyone while the carving goes on (and on). There being one entrant, R tasted and declared the winner.
- Serve the dinner Marilyn surveyed the buffet one last time and announced "dinner is served" . The pork tasted better than anyone's wildest expectations. R asked Joel to make this an annual event. Joel nearly stabbed R with his carving fork, but restrained himself out of respect for his guests. I told R he could buy his own cooker. R made sure there were witnesses.
- Make fun of the hosts Marianna [pic] and Jim roasted the hosts for their birthdays. Joel put his "provisional geezer" t-shirt on right away.
- Arrange a spectacular sunset as a grand finale. We mopped up our birthday cake as the clouds broke up in the west to a magnificant sunset. Our party organizers chose the date because of the nearly full moon, which rose right on schedule.
Millie meets her pig, Wilbur
The chicken wire kept the pork meat from falling into the fire at the end. When it was finished, the meat was so tender, it really was falling from the bones.
Joel and Jay deliver the pig to the waiting hordes.
Chauncy and Emily, creators of the winning mixed drink, "Apple Jack Abramoff"
Marilyn thoughtfully brought an apple and all the festive decorations.
Joel is a "provisional geezer" until he starts collecting SSI, according to Jim's recounting of the obscure rules of geezerdom. Marianna was much kinder, perhaps recalling that Millie didn't humiliate her at her wedding in August.
Clouds clearing over the Stansbury Mountains
Joel says that the best resource he found on how to actually roast a pig was at the Belson Outdoors site and that he found it useful to print out their PDF manual
Comments (3)
THe poor pig!!!!!
But am so impressed that it worked and that you endured the rain and the Joel and Tony's stories.
Congrats. If the weather forecast had been better, I would've joined you. It was hard to give up a perfect Iowa fall weekend for rain.
Did miss seeing all of you that I know an d meeting all of you that I have heard about.
Posted by Carol Ward | October 9, 2006 8:23 PM
Posted on October 9, 2006 20:23
AT:
I thought you were joking...that was a real pig! Complete with an apple (or some other citrus looking fruit) in its mouth.
BTW, lovely picture of the cluds clearing over the Stansbury Mountains.
TG
Posted by Trish Goede | October 10, 2006 3:44 PM
Posted on October 10, 2006 15:44
Thanks for the memory and tales and great food and fun...you birthday celebrators have wonderful friends and I hope you count me as one of them. Best Wishes for many more happy adventures!
Posted by judi rausch | October 11, 2006 11:18 AM
Posted on October 11, 2006 11:18