The Ohio State Fair!

I’m back from the 2010 Ohio State Fair! It was a crazy twelve days of selling, promoting, and celebrating pork production in Ohio.  I spent most of the time in the Taste of Ohio in the Pork Stand selling BBQ pulled pork, pig wings, and the best pork loin sandwich your taste buds will ever experience!

My Home Away From Home!

There you go!  That’s a picture of our pork stand!  (I could never catch someone dropping our plastic knives in front of the stand.  I just wanted to show them the trash can 10 feet behind them!!) Can’t you just feel the excitement and enthusiasm from the opportunity to provide the world with delicious pork!

The cashiers and I recorded the most asked questions from the fair this year.

What are pig wings?

One of the cashiers recorded the amount of times she got asked this question and it resulted in about 30 in one day.  This also happened to be the slowest day at the fair.  I’ll be sharing with you the inside scoop of the pig wings later.

Where can we buy that shirt?

We were all wearing some pretty sweet shirts.  Again, something I’ll be sharing later!

How did you cook the pork loin sandwich to make it so delicious?

Another question I’ll be answering but trust me it’s all in the temperature!

Can I have a cheeseburger?

I think the giant word ‘Pork’ on the banner should have been a little hint to the answer to that question…

More to come!

– B

My Twelve Day Vacation?

I can smell the deep fried food already! The Ohio State Fair begins on Wednesday and I’ll be there in the morning, I’ll be there in the afternoon, and I’ll be there in the evening.  This is my opportunity to get out from behind my desk, join the trenches, and stir some BBQ!  Don’t worry, I’m planning on documenting it every step of the way… that is if I can find my camera back…

Some upcoming posts to look forward to:

• Pork Rib-Off: An amazing display of BBQ skill and most importantly free samples!
• Pork Food Stand: My home away from home for these next two weeks.  This is where the hungry become full, the volunteers become family, and the intern becomes covered in BBQ sauce!
• Pig Wings: The real reason why pigs will never fly!
• Whatever else happens at the fair this year.  It’s the fair, honestly you never really know…

What’s your favorite fair food?

National Hot Dog Month

I know, I know… it’s amazing that they don’t have cards, songs, and most important to any holiday, a JCPenney sale, to mark this momentous occasion.

Some hot dog trivia from the National Hog Dog and Sausage Council:

1. Americans eat more hot dogs on the 4^th of July than any other day.  Around 155 million of them!
2. Los Angeles is the #1 hot dog eating city!
3. Sausage is one of the oldest forms of processed foods.  It was mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey in the 9^th century!
4. The name ‘hot dog’ probably came from a dachshund dog that the German’s brought with them along with the idea of serving sausage on a bun.

Here are a few ways to celebrate this month the Porktastic way:

1.  Take a bite out of this monstrosity- a foot long hot dog, loaded with cheese, chili, and bacon.  Nothing like a little pork on pork!

2.  Attend Brat Fest and eat a few for philanthropy’s sake.

3.  Enjoy a listening to these songs:

1. Hot Dog by Elvis Presley
2. Hot Dog by Buck Owens
3. Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baha Men
4. Jack and Diane by John Cougar Mellencamp

Let us know how you are going to celebrate this month!

What is your hot dog of choice?

-B

Eating Your Way to a New World Record

Sometimes you just have to face certain realities in life.  I will never be able to win a world record for the fastest furniture (currently held by a 92 mph sofa… gives the phrase couch potato a whole new meaning), the greatest distance walked with a milk bottle balanced on my head, or the heaviest weight dangled from a swallowed sword (yes that one actually exists).  These have all been painful but necessary realizations.

Still, I think I would be able to help Brat Fest achieve its world record because all I would have to do is eat sausage.  Could anything be simpler!

Brat Fest is on Memorial Day weekend at Madison, Wisconsin.  This year they managed to sell 209,375 brats by 5 p.m. on Monday, May 31^st.  Unfortunately I heard about this festival a little too late or they could have made it 209,380 or possibly 209,390…

This festival consumed about 20 miles of sausages if they were laid end to end, 300 gallons of Heinz ketchup, and 176 gallons of mustard.  The best part about this festival is that the profits go to charities and this festival has donated $855,723 since it began.  I love eating for a cause!

Check out it out here and I’ll see you there next year!

Grilled Brats with Onion Relish

Ingredients:

4 bratwurst, uncooked
2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 12-ounce can beer
1 teaspoon brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup bread and butter pickles
1 teaspoon thyme leaves, chopped

Cooking Directions:

In large deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat and add onion. Sauté, stirring frequently, until very soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add beer and brown sugar and cook over medium high heat until liquid evaporates, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Continue cooking until the onion turns a golden brown, stirring constantly. Stir in bacon, pickles and thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

Prepare a medium hot fire in grill. Grill bratwurst directly over heat, turning, until evenly browned, about 5-7 minutes and to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. Remove from grill and top with onion relish.

Makes 4 servings

Note: The onion relish can be made ahead and reheated. Store it in the refrigerator. Serve it warm or at room temperature

The Most Important Day of the Year

Today is the most important day of the year. It is a day to stay home from work. It is a day of celebrating with family and friends. It is bigger than Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s and the Fourth of July combined. It is a day to honor the reason there can be delicious bacon and pork chops and swine inspired doo-dads and even a nation of Porktastic. My fellow Porktasticans prepare yourselves because today is National Pig Day.

My friends, we will be grilling, baking and slow roasting all of our favorite forms of pork throughout the day, not to mention watching our favorite famous pigs like Babe, Porky, Gordy and Miss Piggy. So come party with us! We’ll be easy to spot since we’ll be the ones decked out head-to-toe in true pig style – nose, ears and of course curly-q tail.

But, if for some crazy reason your boss won’t let you off to celebrate this holiday of holidays, we have a few ideas to help you take the party to work with you:

1. Choose your favorite pig tie or jewelry to commemorate the day.
2. Hang a string of pig lights around your office or cubicle.
3. Grill up some pork loin chops and bring enough to share with your coworkers, remembering they want to be home celebrating just as much as you.
4. Get a pig piñata filled with bacon candy.
5. Wear your favorite pig inspired tee underneath a button-up dress shirt. When everyone complains about missing Pig Day rip your top shirt off like Clark Kent and set up a completely awesome celebration of pigs and pork.

Have a Porktastic day holiday and be sure to tell us how you celebrated National Pig Day by emailing stories or pics of your celebration to Mr.Oinkers@gmail.com.

Holiday of Love

Today is a very important holiday, that’s right it’s the Chinese New Year! Bet you were thinking Valentine’s Day, but no worries, this post is all about love – of pork of course. This time of new beginnings and fresh starts is celebrated by the Chinese and pork lovers all over the world.

Why are pork lovers celebrating? Because China is the place where pigs were first domesticated of course! Around 4000 B.C. the emperor of China made a royal decree ordering the Chinese people to raise and breed hogs. We owe him so much. The ancient Chinese loved pork with a passion that could rival our own. They hated to be separated from fresh pork so much that when they died, they were sometimes accompanied to the grave with their pigs. This Porktastic infatuation hasn’t gone away, and today China is the #1 producer and consumer of fresh pork in the world.

So get the whole family together to commemorate our pork-loving friends with Chinese Pork Dumplings and Chinese-Style Spareribs, two dishes full of Asian flavors and of course pork. Don’t forget the fortune cookies!

Apple ‘N Pork Festival…complete with flying tomahawks

HEADS UP! Another dandy PORK FESTIVAL is about to begin.

Don’t let the flying hand axe scare you away from the porktastic festivities on tap this weekend.  In fact, we say hats off to the folks at the Apple ‘N Pork Festival for introducing an element of (controlled) danger to an otherwise blatant reason to indulge in pork – which we’re always quick to endorse.

Sure, heads may roll this weekend in Clinton, Illinois if people aren’t careful…but we say stick close to the gal serving the pork sandwiches and all will be fine.  This way, the only thing rolling will be you… headed home after a day stuffed full of pork.

And there’s more than just  pork, apples and tomahawks. Get all the details here.

Porktastic alert: pork-eating world record on the line this Saturday

We’ve just received word that in Korea preparations are being made to set a new Guinness World Record for the number of people eating pork at one event.

The goal?

5,000 people together at one event consuming more than 1,500 pounds of pork.

If it happens, the pork-loving folks participating at the Insamgol Festival in Jeungpyeong, North Chungcheong Province, will trump the previous record of 2,000 people eating pork at the Seoul Yeouido Livestock Festival in 2003.

On one hand, we applaud the Koreans for selecting pork as part of their record-breaking event. Their selection of barbeque pulled pork sandwiches is top notch. After all, they could’ve selected okra and this event would’ve been, well…a non-event.

On the other hand, the idea of sitting idly by this Saturday while a pork lover’s fantasy takes place half a world away… when we have gazillions of bacon and pork connoisseurs in our own backyard…when Porktastic fun and flavor oozes from our very pores every football Saturday and Sunday…

Something tells us that if the fine folks of Korea prevail on Saturday (and we’ll let you know if they do), we just might be hopping into the game with both feet to show our pork-chomping brethren across the globe what a record-breaking PorkFest really looks like.

Citizens of Porktastic, get your juices flowing…

A Pork Festival in Eaton, Ohio? Of course…

Some things just go together.

Bacon and eggs. Ham and cheese.  Eaton, Ohio and Pork Festival.

Yep, Eaton is THE home of the Preble County Pork Festival. There may be 88 counties in Ohio, but this weekend only one matters.

Seriously, what could be more appropos  than eatin’ pork at Eaton’s pork festival? (the Eaton Pork Festival has quite a nice ring to it…)

Pack the car. Prep the kids. Grab a map. And bring your appetite. This is going to be Porktastic.

Sept. 19 & 20 (that’s THIS weekend if you haven’t made plans – and if you have, it’s time to change ’em).

Get the skinny on all pork happenings at www.porkfestival.org including the food, parades, food, entertainment, food, itineraries, food,  and oh…the rich history!

Life’s short. So spend a little of it at a pork festival. This weekend.