Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Is that your Charcutepalooza or you just happy to see me.

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This is Challenge 3 of the Charcutepalooza fun. This has taken over my life. I swear. It has me doing all kinds of weird things BESIDES the meat stuff.

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It has me charting the pig for a project I am making. It has me thinking up ideas of what I can do next. I have to say that I was already going to make a tongue when this challenge came along. I had a tongue in my freezer from a local farm. I had gotten this tongue at a farmers market a couple of weeks before this challenge was announced. So, we went with corning the tongue.

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I will spare you the pictures of the corning of the tongue. Besides they were already posted on here. So, what was I going to do with tongue? I wanted to do something a little different.

Since I had the tongue already, I cooked potatoes with the tongue to brown it all up. Then I did what was natural to do. I made Corned Tongue Hash.

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I put an egg on it! It was awesome tongue hash. But WAIT there is MORE! There was no way that I would let any challenge that included Pastrami go by without partaking in it. Pastrami and I go way way back. It has really been a thread that has woven through my life.

After the brine it went into the smoker. I have to give it to Dr. Food that he put that smoker together and took it outside in the snow to do this. He also had bronchitis at the time and is a real Palooza trooper. I love the word trooper... Sounds like something that Lucy or Ethel might say. Ok Fred lets move on.

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Back to Pastrami. Deli's have always been in my life. I come from a Jewish family so of course they do. Some of my earliest memories were having pastrami at a Deli near my house in Culver City, California. It was called "Roll N Rye" MY kids grew up going there.

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Hey Evie... You are in your Roll and Rye shirt holding a chicken. Mommy loves you. **Waving to Evan when he was little**

Pastrami from Katz

There was the trip to Mecca (well Katz Deli, same thing) for a Pastrami sandwich. My sis and I almost cried when we tasted this. I think there were tears in Dr Foods eyes too.


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So we made our pastrami. I decided that I would make a rye bread too.

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Ok, and so we needed some coleslaw to go with it and I whipped up some of that.

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I started saurkraut a couple of weeks before but Dr. Food said he wouldn't eat it because he was leaving for India the next day and if it made him SICK it wouldn't be good. Sick? Ha! He doesn't know my skills.

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And now boys and girls comes the part of the post where I get really personal with all of you. Most my real friends (wait, that didn't sound right) most my not pretend internet friends? Well, most my friends know this story. It is THE PASTRAMI story.

My mom either went away somewhere for a few days or was in the hospital getting her gall bladder out (Mom, didn't mean to get so personal about your missing body parts) anyhow, she told me to watch my dad and make sure that he had stuff to eat because he couldn't cook. I mean it. He made a mean ice coffee, but that was it, he could not cook. So, I told my mom (hi Mom) that I would have him over to eat and watch out for him. So one night I called to see what he was doing for dinner. We made plans to go out to dinner together. He sorta talked me into going to Johnnie's Pastrami another Culver City institution before Culver City got all hoity toitey My dad loved pastrami. He knew my mother didn't want him eating it because it wasn't good for him.

Anyhow, time goes by and sadly (more sadly than I could ever tell you here) my dad passed away. I thought *I* killed him. For a long time I thought that letting him talk me into that pastrami sandwich was what did it. Good thing when I finally confessed to my mother she laughed and laughed at me. So, to this day I love pastrami even more because I remember how much fun I had eating it behind my mothers back with my FATHER and we both thought we were being so sneaky.

Dad


I love you dad. This pastrami is for you!

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Oh yeah, we also had fries. Sorry mom.

19 comments :

  1. Go team pastrami! I love this - I'm sure your dad would be proud! That meat looks amazing, and I'm impressed you were able to slice it so thin.

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  2. Aw thanks for sharing your pastrami story with us! You did your dad proud. Your rye bread is amazing and your pastrami looks out of this world. So much fun following your adventures in this endeavour!

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  3. What a lovely story about your dad. Your pastrami - and your hash look wonderful.

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  4. In awe of your smoking. I wanted to make rye but couldn't find rye flour on short notice.

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  5. beautiful post - love that its dedicated to your dad : j . I love meat and saurkraut and will have to take a trip to Katz sometime soon!

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  6. Adventurous spirit with the tongue! Loved "Pastrami and I go way way back" & "Mecca a.k.a Katz Deli" {howl}. Wow, homemade pastrami sandwich all the way down to the bread with saurkraut and slaw?Hello!!! {drooling} I like your style lady :) As always, I love to read your stories as I kick back, relax and laugh. Your Dad was so handsome Janis - that picture is great - such good energy. Thanks for sharing. (Hi Mom...did Janis tell you that your family adopted me?)

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  7. Janis, What a Fantastic Story!!! I loved it You got me *tearing**up ova heeyah...Thank you so much for letting s "internet make believe friends" in on this one! Great Story! Hey Dr Food ^5 Man! Snow on the ground and smokin' meat! You rock!

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  8. Thanks all for your sweet comments. I love all my imaginary friends. I really do.

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  9. LOVED this post, Janis! Firstly, thank you for sharing the taste buds on the the tongue with us...sorta make my skin crawl but once I saw it in hash with an egg on top, I was game.

    secondly, thank you for sharing about your family. it really was touching. I adore that picture of your dad. he looks like such a great guy and I'm sure he would have loved that sandwich, fries and all. hugs.

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  10. Yum! I currently have duck prosciutto hanging in my basement.

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  11. Oh MY goodness! I love tongue and everything that on this post. The sandwich - I so wish I could sink my teeth into one of those right now.

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  12. Funny you should post on tongue and pastrami, because my personal favorite deli sandwich is pastrami and tongue combination. I forget the name of it, if there is one, but it's fabulous, just as is or with a bit of cole slaw on top... Yumm!

    Growing up in New York, delis were a part of my life, too, even if we weren't Jewish. But I guess all New Yorkers are honorary Jews if they aren't actual ones. ;)

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  13. Aw, Janis, beautiful post about your dad (he really is a handsome happy-looking guy), and the food ain't half bad either ;-) Seriously --the pastrami looks outrageously deLICIous! Is something wrong with me that I want a giant pastrami & mustard sandwich for breakfast? See you tomorrow!!!

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  14. I'm a Daddy's girl too. I teared up that yours is gone. That just ain't fair. I'm glad you posted this in his memory though. What a cool thing you guys did together. My dad would find me going to the bathroom at 2am, wait til I was done and we'd sneak downstairs and have a bowl of ice cream. :)

    I wish I could get as excited about your tongue, but just the thought of it makes me gag. I watched my mom prepare one once and she took off the membrane with the nubbies on it. That was so gross it has been imprinted on my mind for all eternity.

    On the other hand, I have nothing against pastrami. Pass the mustard please?

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  15. I am going to start referring to you as the "meat lady!"

    Jason

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  16. Wow, Janis you do have mad skillz, I am impressed! And you are funny as always, I love how you make the best out of everything. I am sure your dad was good people and I am glad you have some great memories with him Janis.

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  17. The tongue hash sounds really good. I would love to try making that sometime!

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  18. Wow, Janis you do have mad skillz, I am impressed! And you are funny as always, I love how you make the best out of everything. I am sure your dad was good people and I am glad you have some great memories with him Janis.

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  19. Aw thanks for sharing your pastrami story with us! You did your dad proud. Your rye bread is amazing and your pastrami looks out of this world. So much fun following your adventures in this endeavour!

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