Status Update – 1.11.2015

Sticking to my New Year goal of blogging once a week. In the process of working on a longer more thoughtful post but here’s a quick one for now. Stay tuned for a more detailed post later this week. Below is what I’m up to currently.

Year in Review, XXVI On the Horizon

The start of fall is here and so is my personal end of year (EOY). A lot has changed since I turned 25 but overall it’s been a good. I learned a lot, made new friends, and invested heavily in a number of “personal infrastructure” projects. I’m using this post to pause and reflect on my 25^th year. Check back next week for an EOY post focused on ambitions and goals for my 26^th year. Stay tuned, cheers!

Year-In Review

• Started blogging again regularly
• Dipped my toe into the world of freelancing; pitched and secured 5 clients
• Visited America’s neighbor to the south for a winter getaway in Cabo
• Traveled back to Asia for a fall trip to Seoul
• Recalibrated my personal business philosophy and priorities
• Organized and planned PRSA Jumpstart
• Learned the fundamentals of HTML and launched my own personal website
• Adapted new organizational techniques
• Met a few of my favorite local “superstars”
• Started keeping secrets from my computer via an analog journal
• Island hopped in Washington’s San Juan Islands
• Lived out my “what if I lived in Capitol Hill fantasy”
• Helped manage social media strategy for Citizen University
• Learned to make Boudin from my Granny
• Experimented with startup life via Startup Weekend Seattle and Tripcierge
• Reconnected with my two mentors
• Ended one of the worst business relationships I’ve ever been a part of
• Picked up my camera and started shooting photos again
• Celebrated my first year as a West Seattleite
• Returned to the kitchen and added a few recipes to my repertoire (#JoshFood) 

[Photo courtesy of davejansen1964]

Boudin Blanc History and Recipe

As a Northwestern with roots extending to the American South and Midwest, I've come to understand my family better through food. Last weekend I tackled making one of the Holland/Guillory Families’ more complex dishes, Boudin – a rice-pork sausage. The dish comes in a few varieties. The two most well-known are Boudin Noir (includes pig blood) and Boudin Blanc – the version popular with my family.

Boudin gained popularity in rural Louisiana as a method to preserve meat products. Traditionally the dish was made at a celebration called “Quedema –“a creole word roughly translating to fall harvest celebration. At the event 2 – 7 families would gather from around the area to help with the meat preservation. Starting as early as 4 AM, families would begin the process of butchering, cleaning, and cooking the livestock. Prior to the invention of refrigeration techniques all meat had to be salted following the butchering process to ensure it didn’t spoil.

After sitting down with my Granny to make the dish, I quickly learned how much labor Boudin requires. Minus the actual butchering of the animals and creating the base for the dish, it took my friend and me 3.5 hours to produce a handful of links. During the creation of the dish I was particularly astonished by the fact my Granny hadn't made Boudin her entire life. She only actively started making the dish when she migrated to Seattle in the 80s, encouraging words for amateur Boudin makers like myself.

If you’re interested in trying to make Boudin Blanc, I've provided a recipe below with instructions. Good luck; let me know how it turns out! 

[Recipe, backstory, and lessons provided courtesy of Mary Guillory, aka Granny – Matriarch of the Holland Family, Seattle Branch]

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Boudin Blanc Recipe

Ingredients
Pork roast (7 lbs)
Pork fat (4 lbs)
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
Rice (1 - 2 pots)
Cayenne pepper (add according taste)
Salt (add according taste)
Pepper (add according taste)
Sausage casings
Thread
***Optional***
Pork liver
Additional ingredients can be added to the mixture to enhance flavor (add according to taste)

Cooking Instructions
Approximate Time Required: Six Hours; preparation recommended in phases
1. Boil roast and fat until cooked (add liver if applicable)
2. Grind together

Roast
Pork fat
Bell peppers
Garlic
Onion
(Add additional ingredients if applicable)

3. Cook rice
4. If frozen, defrost sausage casings
5. Put all ingredients - expect rice, into one pot
6. Add enough water into the pot to cook
7. Simmer on stove for 2 ½ hours
8. Add salt and cayenne pepper to pot (add according taste)
9. Combine rice with grinded ingredients in one bowl. Mix until blended
10. Add mixture to the sausage stuffer machine (electric option optimal)
11. Attach casing to the spout of the machine
12. Fill sausage casing until full
13. Tie both ends of the sausage with thread and set aside on separate plate
14. Repeat steps 10 – 13 until you exhaust available ingredients
15. Boil a full pot of water
16. Submerse sausages into water for approximately 2 minutes
17. Serve sausages

Storage Notes
Eat within a week of making
Store in fridge
Freeze leftovers