Man this rain is relentless! I think it is affecting my quality of life. It just won’t let up. “Oh we can always use the rain.” If I hear that one more time… We made the most of the weekend despite the crummy weather though, well at least some of it. OK, on second thought, we only did something Saturday. Huh. And here I thought we had a big weekend for a second there.
So anyway, we did absolutely nothing all weekend except Saturday. That day was a good one though. For some background, on our semi-recent trip to Italy, we ordered Wild Boar Ragu on a few of our meals out. Odd sounding, but it was pretty good and even the picky eaters in the group (not to name names, but Michael & Alaina,) enjoyed it. We’ve talking about making it since we got back, a plan that has been slightly deferred due to various other menus, and my local grocery store not happening to stock wild boar. The second issue was remedied when I found it at a small butcher shop in Folsom. I could really tell some “interest” from the guy that sold it to me. Or was that skepticism? Joy at finally selling it? Something along those lines. Anyway, I ended up with a nice 4 lb wild boar shoulder. We scheduled dinner for Saturday, and the search for a recipe began. I settled on sort of a mix between a Food Network and a New York Times recipe. It came out pretty good, if I do say so my darn self. We made homemade pasta to go with it, and everyone at least pretended to enjoy it. I’ll have to type up the recipe, since I haven’t updated that part of my site in a few years.
In other big news, as news goes in my life, I got a new smoker. My old one has definitely served me well, I’ve had it over 20 years. I just felt like upgrading. I actually started talking with the guy back in November, and he just now got it done. I was hoping to cook Christmas dinner on it; Guess he didn’t quite make that date. It all worked out though, I’m very happy with the end result. I really wanted to fire it up last weekend and take it for a test run, but with the sketchy weather the pasta seemed like a better option. It will happen in the near future though.
We went and saw Panic at the Disco last week. This was a solo he did on the piano, suspended over the crowd. Gave me vertigo. 
The new cooker! This was taken at the shop, before he shipped it. I haven’t had it outside yet. 
A place called “The Bank” we went to before the concert. It is, as the name implies, an old bank building. Cool ceiling. 
Uncrating the new cooker in the garage. Anybody need a bunch of particle board? 
The wild boar ragu dinner 
The crowd at the concert. It was packed. 
We drove up above the snow line last week and visited a new brewery. 
Light show at the concert.