Swine & Wine: Happiness is a roasted pig

Pig Roast in the Red Hills

As I get closer to celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary with my husband, I think about how lucky we are that we found each other. While all the usual reasons come into play — yes, we make each other laugh, blah, blah, blah — the main reason is our obsession with food. By obsession, I mean that our conversations so often revolve around menu ideas, ingredients, cooking techniques and food in general, that any normal person would probably want to shoot themselves.

Beyond mere “foodies,” our love for all things culinary is a bit more intense because (as a chef and a meat sales rep, respectively) we are both firmly planted in the industry.

So, when he was personally asked to cater a pig roast for 120 people for Archery Summit Winery, I was thrilled to be involved. Their wines are fantastic and their tasting room has the best view I’ve ever seen in Oregon. And roasting up a couple of pigs in the summer sunshine and cooking with two of my favorite people (my friend DB also helped out) sounded like a great way to spend a Sunday.

The event actually took place in the Archery Summit vineyards at Red Hills. This is what we were surrounded by:

Soon all those seats will be filled with hungry people!

The view from the vines

Vines and grapes — this one’s for you DB!

And here’s some of the wonderful food we put out:

White bean salad with cucumbers, grilled onions and hot pickled peppers

Sugar snap peas with horseradish

Grilled potatoes, fennel and favas

Then there were the pigs…

They had been brined for four days and then slow roasted over mesquite charcoal for hours. They came off the coals perfectly brown and falling apart tender.

Pig ready for carving

Even though we spent, oh about 14 hours cooking, it was still one of the best summer days I’ve had this year. Cheers to good food, good wine and the best company a girl could ask for!

Perfection!