The Pig Roast

Pork is a main product here in Viet Nam.  I like BBQ, any day you can get BBQ is a good day.

So, my dad and I had a few friends over for some roasted suckling pig.  I always wanted to have a roasted pig on the table with an apple in its mouth.

We had Adam and his mother over for dinner this night.

Fresh from the roaster and in transit in the back of a taxi.

On the table.

Bit small for the apple but not too small for us.  This was a good BBQ.

More Cooking

OK, having successfully taken on the blueberry muffin with crumble topping, time to get to one of my favorite breakfast foods.

I love beignets.  However, I have never had a fresh one.  In the Ozarks people just open a can of biscuits and fry them and call them donuts or beignets.  They really are very good but I wonder what a real one tastes like.

Well, here we go.  My mother and father tell me that the best beignets come from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.  I think I had one once but honestly I was a little baby and do not remember it.

So, here is my attempt at creating proper New Orleans beignets from scratch.

I'll spare you the boring part of mixing and kneading the dough.  Once we got that done we had to let it rise for at least in an hour, so while it rested in the oven we went to the gym to do our work out.  I am starting to train to run 5K and am starting to lift weights, oh, sorry, that is a different topic.  Anyway, this is the rolled dough.

Then we cut it into squares.

Put it in hot oil (350 degrees).  Flip them and fry them.

Rest on paper towels.

Dust with powdered sugar.

Eat.  I am told that beignets should always be served with coffee.  So, today I get a cafe au lait to go with my fresh beignets.  Let me just say....... "WOW" I love these things.  Just a little touch of cinnamon and nutmeg in the dough and a nice soft centre with a light crunchy exterior.  This is living.

Time for a bit of cooking.

Well,......... time to find new things to do.  One of the things I enjoy is cooking.  Before I was making French baguettes and linguine.  Time to branch out and try new things.

In the US we do most things prepackaged or from a box.  Few people know how to cook anymore with actual ingredients.  As I am in Viet Nam I cannot get many of those boxes so I have to learn how to do it from scratch.

One of my first attempts was blueberry muffins.  We do not have fresh or frozen blueberries in Viet Nam.  Fortunately, we found dried blue berries and were able to soak them in water and re hydrate them.  Heh, and I get to use new words.  Who uses re hydrate?

So, here we go..... my first attempt at home made blueberry muffins with crumble topping.

I had these for breakfast and let me just say, they were as good as they look.  I'll be practicing this more often.