Rosy Cheeks

That's what we had during our weeks winter holiday in Bjorli, around a third of the way up this wonderful country. The sun shone and temperatures during most days came up close to freezing, very comfortable cross country skiing conditions. On our last 2 days the wind blew strongly and that ruled out a trip up to the top of the mountain, which was a shame.

A new comer to skis was The Thoughtful Scotsman. After a couple of practice sessions in Dombas, where we spent a night on route, he seemed ready for his first trip. This was an 8Km round that was described as a little up and down but all the same easy. In fact this was 4Km steep up followed by 4Km steep downhill. To a new beginner both steep up and down are difficult, so this was a long and painful trip for T.S. We chose our routes more carefully there after and by the end of the week T.S. was more or less in control going down hill and wanted more, completing a 16Km circuit in 31/2 hours (including a stop for lunch), counting the number of times he fell with the fingers of one hand.















A great week of fresh air, snow, exercise, good food, good company, good beer, fine wine, a rather delectable Scotch Whisky and most important relaxation.

Pork Update

Our two pigs, bless their souls, are now mostly confined to the freezer and after many good meals with the Christmas Crowds the estimated 200Kgs of meat is depleted to the extent that we have been able to decommission our smaller freezer and cope with only our larger 400Lt unit.

We do, however, have 2 meat products that are preserved by alternative means that freezing.

The first, which we started consuming over Christmas was our attempt at Salami and chorizo. Both of which have turned out to be very successful. It seems that whatever the cultures we used were, they have done their job. Both sausages are very dry and firm and could be described as "Authentically tasty". After couple of months hanging in the fridge they don't seem to be any worse for wear either.

Our other experiment in Dry curing is our enormous 14Kg "prosciuttio" ham. After a couple of months lying in salt under a substantial wieght, it was removed, rinsed, wrapped in a double layer of muslin and hung to dry in the basement in mid January. It will remain there until the outside temperature is rises above freezing when it will be moved outside into a windy spot. I think it should be ready after about another 4 months of hanging. What we are going to do with 14Kg of dry cured ham is another matter. I am quite sure however, that it will be put to use in Jamie Oliver's excellent "Beef fillet wrapped in porchini mushrooms and prosciutto ham" which, I am sure some of you readers will remember being served in various locations around the UK, including a castle in Morpeth......

I think the pictures speak for themselves. Again, the vast majority of our pig endeavors have been under the guidance of Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall through his excellent "River Cottage Cookbook" and "River Cottage Meat Cookbook".