It's so good to hear from you all. It's been a busy one this month. People call the Gord phone with questions such as "How is the bacon shipped?", "Is this the real thing imported from Ontario?", and "How do you cook a peameal roast?". Others have asked us to be their bacon gurus, by helping them find not only peameal bacon but other kinds of bacon. We take those calls from one and all and do our best to answer them. If we don't have the answer when you call, then we'll research it and get back to you. Some of the answers to the questions are listed in the "Frequently Asked Questions" at the top of the page. Check that out first, and if you don't find the answer, just give us a call.

One of our customers ordered peameal for her "Canadian Breakfast", hosted for her family and friends. As an American married to a Canadian, I wondered what went into a "Canadian breakfast". Elizabeth Baird, who authored Classic Canadian Cooking, whet my appetite with this menu for a Leisurely Spring Breakfast:

Rhubarb Compote

or

Fresh Pineapple

Apple Cider Baked Bacon

Scrambled Eggs

Hot Cross Buns Toast

Assortment of:

Strawberry Jam

Pineapple-Rhubarb Conserve

Clover honey

Buckwheat honey

Seville Orange marmalade

Coffee Tea

Sounds pretty tasty to me. I know Gord's peameal will make it fit for royalty!

The last two months found us spending some time in the Big Easy, New Orleans, and Toronto, peameal capital of the world! Both great pork towns. Gord and I like to see what different communities do with pork as we travel around.

In November, it was pretty balmy for a Northerner in New Orleans. We walked around the French Quarter with Jackson Square and the French Market and enjoyed watching the ferry and boats on the Mississippi. It's quite a contrast between old and new (who knew that you need 10 vendors selling sunglasses in the flea market...). It is quite the city for a "foodie". Whether in a chain restaurant or a little local bistro, you'll find yourself enjoying great food. One of our favorites is Cochon, http://www.cochonrestaurant.com/, Chef Donald Link's restaurant. Only a short trip from Canal Street and the French Quarter, in the Warehouse district, you'll find yourself in "comfort food with a contemporary twist" heaven. With appetizers like pork cheeks and entre's such as a "to die for" bacon and oyster sandwich, as well as tender, tender beef brisket and rabbit, you can't go wrong.

December found us in Toronto, with the cold wind blowing in off the Lake. It was great weather for the skaters in Nathan Philips Square. We walked and walked, and were happy to make our way to the St. Lawrence Market, http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/, for the warmth and the food. You'll find cheese (oka cheese, Canadian Black Diamond cheddar), wonderful bakery goods, meats, spices, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a whole lot more. For the true experience, you have to get their early on Saturday morning and enjoy breakfast amid all the hustle and bustle. For Torontonians, it's just Saturday morning shopping as usual as they fill their bags. Gord and I brought home some Wild Boar and Apricot pate' from Quebec on this visit. A visit isn't a visit without a ledgendary peameal sandwich.

That's it for now. Happy Holidays to you and your family! Comments are always welcome at Gord's.

Best Wishes,

Gordette

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll not be posting this month as we travel, cook and take a little blog rest.

To all of you,a bountiful Thanksgiving!

Gordette

Bacon Blogs

Here at Gord's we're serious about peameal and a little crazy. There are some other people out there who are SERIOUSLY crazy about bacon,too. For example, who doesn’t love chips…how about bacon chips. And remember the turducken…how about a turbaconducken (it’s a turducken wrapped in bacon)…and bacon flavored sunflower seeds. There are a LOT of people out there who blog about the virtues of bacon. Here’s the Top Ten list from Blogs.com. Check these out when you’re hankerin’ for some bacon, but aren’t near the stove…



http://bacontoday.com/ bacon blog and bacon videos on YouTube


http://www.baconunwrapped.com/ Note her book on the side panel


http://baconbaconbacon.tumblr.com/ WONDERFUL photos of bacon food


http://lordsofbacon.com/ check out the iphone bacon case!


http://www.mrbaconpants.com/ These guys are SERIOUS bacon foodies!


http://www.royalbaconsociety.com/blog Check out the bacon downloads


http://skullsandbacon.blogspot.com/ Wait until you see the caffeinated candy energy bacon video from Joleen the trailer park queen…


http://baconshow.blogspot.com/ WONDERFUL recipes, one a day, using bacon


http://www.baconsaltblog.com/ This is the site for the entrepreneurs who created bacon salt and baconnaise


http://theoriesofbacon.blogspot.com/ It’s all about bacon in the Windy City.



UMMM, UMMM, UMMM! Happy October. See you next month. Comments are always welcome at Gord's!

Gordette

CA + USA = CA Fun

...That's the Canadian and the American, Gord and Gordette, in California! We took a great trip out to the San Francisco area and saw great scenery, great relatives and....ate GREAAAATTTT pork. Actually, we ate a whole lot of great food, but pork in particular.

But first....I have to rage a bit on this stuff in the United States called Canadian Bacon. It bears no resemblance to peameal bacon, and as far as I'm concerned it is not real tasty stuff. None the less, you'll find it everywhere on pizzas, benedicts. To set the world straight, peameal is boneless cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal, not what is commonly known in the United States as "Canadian Bacon" which is basically a smoked ham. My elementary school friend called Canadian bacon "minced ham"....it looks like its formed and rolled and is just tooooo shiny and vinyl-looking for me. Save yourself and use peameal for your benedict and pizzas...much better eating.

Back to San Francisco. Everyone knows about all the neighborhoods...Nob Hills, the Mision District, the North End, the Castro... and sights...Fisherman's Wharf, the Coit tower, boat rides in the bay, the Golden Gate bridge and park.

We did a lot of that...

And we also had a wonderful GASTRONOMIC time at the Ferry Building Market, pictured here. We rode the California Street cable car down and wandered over to the market. It was Saturday and the Farmer's market was on, too. Local produce, cheeses, meat, bread. We walked through and then headed inside the Ferry Building to see what was in there...


Fish, of course. Great oysters at Hog Island Oysters
http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/hog_island_oyster_company.php ...we ate there twice...one can never have too many oysters and a microbrew.

And artisan cheese at Cowgirl Creamery...try the Red Hawk, you won't be disappointed(http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/cowgirl_creamery.php)

And PORK...at Boccalone (http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/boccalone_shop_page.php.) Here's what this little place says about itself:
"Boccalone Salumeria is the first retail location of the artisanal salumi venture from Chris Cosentino and Mark Pastore of Incanto Restaurant. The Salumeria features more than 20 varieties of Boccalone’s handmade cured meats. Boccalone’s salumi are handcrafted in small batches across the Bay in Oakland, using sustainably raised, heritage-breed pork and the highest quality spices and salts."

It is wonderful quality, and one of the best parts....you can get salami in a paper cone! Little bites if you're not hungry enough for a sandwich. I had the regular and would go for the premium cone next time to see what it's like.


As we toured around the city, we encountered great pizza (clam and garlic!), petrolli sole prepared in a variety of ways and tasty sushi prepared in little restaurants with fresh ingredients, prepared by people who really care about their food. Needless to say, we could have eaten at any number of national chain restaurants, but for us, LOCAL is the best.

Happy September! See you next month. Comments are always welcome at Gord's.

Gordette

Whole Lot a Transitionin' Goin' On

Boy, this has been a spring and summer of transitions, with pork across the continent:

May:

A dear aunt passes away in Nebraska... and away we go...Husker chops on the grill! Pork heaven!

June:

The weddings start...up to Minneapolis... and away we go. Cold cooked (indirect heat) pork and oven cooked pork...yum,yum!

The first part of July:

Out to the empire state with daughter youngest to apartment hunt for law school...and away we go...Mexican pork, spicy and yummy

The middle of July:

The only son gets married...grand time...and another trip...and we get to

see....

Gordarena! Peameal Montana Style (But i don't think you'll see it in Montana)...a great peameal benedict!

We've covered a lot of ground, ate a lot of good pork. And we're glad to be back home to the bacon business!

See you next month! Comments are always welcome at gord@gordsbacon.com

Gordette

July:

Another bride, another July...and away we go

Swine Dining

My hat is off to the noble pig! We have those less than positive phrases like "making a pig of yourself" or "little piggy eyes", but those are more a reflection of our culture and who we are, than a true reflection of an animal that has given us so much through the ages.

The pig's value has been known for centuries. Pig husbandry dates back to 5000 BC. When William the Conqueror ascended the throne in England in 1066 he decreed that anyone shooting a wild boar would be punished with the loss of their eyes. Hogs have been condemned and idolized throughout history and the Bible. They have also been one of Agriculture's best income sources, but best of all a very good source of protein.

The term itself is derived from the French porc and Latin porcus "pig". It's one of almost 500 French words pertaining to cooking, food or eating that entered English useage after the Norman Conquest. It makes me wonder if the little pigs in the story who go "wee,wee,wee" all the way home, were REALLY saying "oui, oui, oui" all the way home!

Needless to say, we have much to thank the pig for -in addition to their meat, their hide for shields and shoes, their bones for tools and weapons, and their bristles for brushes. Their feeding behaviors in search of roots churned up the ground and made it easier to plough and their sensitive noses led them to truffles, a highly valued underground fungus.

So the next time you pass a hog farm or eat your peameal bacon, give a salute to the pig that gave it to you.


What's cookin' in the kitchen...

Grilling season is here...and there is just nothing better than a plain ol' peameal bacon sandwich.

Here's a recipe for home made sandwich buns that just finish that sandwich to a T!

1pkg active dry yeast

1/2 c. warm water

2T brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4c. oil

1/2c. scalded milk

1 egg

2 3/4- 3c. flour (can use 1/2 whole wheat and half regular flour)

Dissolve yeast in warm water (120 degrees). In mixing bowl, combine sugar, salt, oil and milk. Cool to lukewarm. Stir in egg and yeast. Gradually add flour to form a stiff dough, beating well after each addition. Cover. Let stand 15 minutes. Toss dough on well floured surface until no longer sticky. Divide into 12 portions. Shape into round buns. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let rise in warm place until doubled, 45- 60 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees- 12- 15 minutes until golden brown.

Happy June! Comments are always welcome at Gord's! See you next month.

Gordette

Tastes of Home

Do you have a favorite memory of food? Well, you're not alone. Comfort foods are linked to happy memories. When I think of coffee toast, a concoction of a piece of toast in a bowl covered by a cup of coffee with milk and sugar, I think of my mom. Burnt toast and coffee, that's my dad. For Gord, it's cotton candy and the fair...and that creamed fish that made him turn the other way and run.



We receive calls from customers who taste our peameal and it reminds them of memories of Ontario. For some, it's a BBQ at the lake, for others it's a holiday (with a maple syrup glaze) or just greaattt breakfasts at the cottage. It must be the salty and savory flavor. It has more substance than regular bacon and is something to really sink your teeth in. For those of you who are new to peameal, we hope it becomes a new comfort food for you.



To read more about food memories, see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/09/000904122756.htm



What's cookin in the kitchen...

We've been traveling lately, so the kitchen's bare this month...

Happy May! Comments are always welcome at Gord's!See you next month...

Gordette

Taking Care of Business

We have the entrepreneur gene in our family. My brother, my nephews and niece, my grandmother and my uncle, and Gord and I. We've all taken the path less traveled to forge our way in the business world.

Take my uncle for instance. That's him in the photo. He ran a candy and ice cream store. My memory of him is of the quiet man who slept in the tiny bedroom off my widowed grandmother's dining room. Smoking a cigarette, just like in the picture. He was no-nonsense. But also generous to my brothers and I.

I'm sure when people went into his store, they expected to find the products he advertised, tidiness and someone to wait on them in a timely manner. They wouldn't have returned if it was otherwise. We expect the same today, and comment on poorly stocked shelves, dirty floors and poor customer service.

And what do you expect from an on-line business? It should be just the same. You should be able to find your way around a website just like a store. Convenient display of products. Something new to bring you back. Friendly and timely customer service, and links that work, taking you to where ever it is they say you'll go. Yet, often in the world of online businesses, especially small businesses, the website is built and the story ends. The links are broken, the pictures of products are blurred images, and replies to messages are slow to come.

Here at Gord's Bacon, we make a commitment to you that your visit to the website will be enjoyable, that you'll find new material or new products when you make a visit, that the links will take you where you want to go, and that you'll get a speedy reply to your order or e-mail. That's how we take care of business here at Gord's.

National Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Month

That's right...it's National BLT month. Can't think of a better bacon for that sandwich than peameal! And while you're placing your next order for that sandwich, check out this website and vote on meat madness

http://www.sogoodblog.com/2009/03/16/meat-madness-which-meat-deserves-the-title/

What's cookin' in the kitchen

Although Gord is known in the neighborhood as " that crazy Canadian who grills all year", April is really the start of grilling season for us. Check out the recipe section of http://www.gordsbacon.com/ for grilling ideas. Gord likes to grill it with a brewski (both in Gord and on the peameal) while others use maple syrup or marmalade.

We were in Las Vegas, where we had some wonderful food this last month. How about beef bourguignon or a salmon benedict with real, buttery hollondaise sauce for breakfast. It was sOOOOO yummy! Here's a recipe for beef bourguignon from the food channel so you can fix it and eat it with your poached eggs! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beef-bourguignon-recipe/index.html

After eating at a great restaurant at the Paris casino, we were still in the mood for French food when we came back. Gord made this great cassoulet, with ham, sausage and bratwurst. OOO, la, la, more porky goodness. Meet up with Jacques Pepin at this website to make it http://www.kqed.org/w/jpfastfood/recipes4.html

Happy April! Comments are always welcome at Gord's!

See you next month...

Gordette

Healthy Pigs Make Healthy Peameal

Food safety has always been an important item in our family. From a young age I understood how important it was, and how our family could always be assured that the meat we ate was safe, because... Dad Gordette was a federal meat inspector employed by the United States Department of Agriculture. There he is, inspecting hog carcasses, about 1959.

I was very proud of the fact that my dad held such an important job, ensuring the health and safety of all my friends and their families. My brothers and I probably knew more about food safety and the importance of meat inspection than anyone else on the block. My dad could go on and on about rules and regs- how much of what could go into hams, lunch meat and hot dogs, as well as what he was on the lookout for when he inspected.

Although he was not any more familiar with Canada than what one would find in a textbook, it would come as no surprise to him that the Canada Food Inspection Agency ensured that the pork that went into peameal was safe, as well as ensuring that the processing plant where it was finished and packaged met high safety standards. He'd also expect that the United States Department of Agriculture would also have a say in any food that came into the United States, from the pork that went into it to the locker facility it was kept in. He would have been astounded by the amount of information people could find on websites inorder to get the most up-to-date information about food safety issues. He would have looked at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website (http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/fssae.shtml) or Food Safety and Inspection on the USDA website (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/)

He always said that his job only went so far, and safe food handling and proper preparation took it from there. Both of those websites have good tips for safe food handling. Remember to use the meat thermometer (see last month's blog), roasting your peameal to approximately 150 degrees fahrenheit. And wash, wash, wash your hands. We can all take pride in our part toward food safety.

What's cookin' in the kitchen:

The usual- a Saturday morning ritual of toast, spinach, 2 slices of peameal and an egg...ah, heaven.

We had an interesting little appetizer this month, modeled after an appetizer suggested by Rachel Ray. It's appropriate for March, as well as Canada, as it stars little cabbages (brussel sprouts...in an appetizer, you say!), maple syrup, cheddar cheese (and Canada makes a mean cheddar...but you can use your favorite) and bacon (but, of course, peameal).

• Steam small brussel sprouts. Dime size are best. Larger ones can be halved. Cool the brussel sprouts and drizzle with maple syrup, salt and pepper.
• Cube cheddar cheese and peameal
• Assemble using party pics- peameal, brussel sprout and cheese

ENJOY!

Happy March! Comments are always welcome at Gord’s. See you next month!

Gordette

Shooing the Blahs Away!

"Shooing the Blahs Away"... I think that was a popular song from a bygone day. It's sentiment is still the same, though. Sometimes in January, after the excitement of all the Fall and Winter holidays, there's a little bit of a let down. We all start thinking about our New Years Resolutions (and I'm sure one of them is to put more low fat, low sodium peameal from Gord's in you diet! :-)), the weather continues to be cold ( and cloudy here in Michigan) and that food fest football game is still a month away!

Gord and I know our answer to the BLAHS...we go to southern Florida for a break...lots of sun, warm weather...and that sparked an interesting conversation about
temperatures...from the sun and from the oven.


Living here on a US/Canada border, we get used to radio and TV stations that post temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Say, it's a REALLY cold day...it might be 0 degrees C or 32 degrees F. That makes sense to us here in the US. But when we started talking about hot weather, the correlation is not quite so easy. I'm guessing many of you are not much better than I am about converting temperatures, so I've posted a conversion site for you in case you're talking to a Canadian about their weather: http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html

And, of course, temperature is VERRRRRYYY, VERRRYYY important for peameal. No doubt there are some of you who cook meats like I do: following the time listed in the recipe. Well, you can join me in the Overcooked Meat Cooker's Anonymous Club. There's a reason they say things like "Cook this until 125 degrees." It's because we're supposed to use a meat thermometer (like you see in the upper left hand corner) and stick it into the center of the cut of meat to ensure it's superbly done and not over done! Yes, you guessed it...if you use a Canadian meat thermometer, it'll read Celsius degrees and if you use one from the US, it'll read in Fahrenheit.


When you're shopping for a meat thermometer, you'll notice they look like old fashioned tire gauges. Don't confuse them or you'll punch a hole in your tire or figure out the psi of your peameal! So go out and buy yourself a meat thermometer and use it. Great tasting peameal will be your reward.

What's been cookin' in the kitchen:

We adapted a recipe from the Iowa State Fair into a really tasty peameal dish. The combination of black beans and pork is GREAT! Everyone has leftovers from a peameal roast and here's a nice way to use them

• In a saucepan, combine: 1c. milk, 1c. cheddar cheese, 1/4 c. shredded jack cheese and stir until melted. To the saucepan, add 1/4c. plain yogurt, a 15oz. can of black beans, 1/4 c. salsa, 1/2 to 1 lb. of cooked peameal, 1/4c. chopped peppers and 1/4c. chopped spinach. Meanwhile, cook 1 16oz pkg of egg noodles. Add sauce to past and stir. Layer the pasta, 1/2 c. shredded cheddar and 1/2c. crushed tortilla chips. Bake in a 350 degree oven (no meat thermometer needed!) for 25 minutes.

Hope you caught our Impossible Pie recipe in the newsletter using peameal. What a tasty combination!

Happy February! Comments are always welcome at Gord’s. See you next month!


Gordette

Happy New Year

We finished off 2008 with bacon flying out the door as many people took advantage of our seasonal sale. This is the time of year that people buy roasts to send to friends or for their own holiday gatherings. It is great for us, but it is not without its challenges because of the stress the season puts on shipping.

Take this story, for example. Relatives were expecting live lobster shipped overnight and were relishing the thought of a great lobster dinner. However, the shipping service (which will remain nameless) delivered the lobsters later than expected…and the poor little fellas were deader than a doornail. We never heard exactly why that happened, but we can think of many reasons of our own. Try as we might, there are some unforeseen problems such as the weather (and airports and highways open or not) that do interfere with delivery. We do everything we can, though, to get our peameal to you in a timely manner ready for you to use or stick in the freezer for later use.

We use US Postal Service Priority Mail, which offers two to three day service within the United States. An e-mail goes out to you when the order is shipped, so you’ll know when to expect the package. The labeled box is pretty self-explanatory…

…but we know that the postal service has more to do than babysit our peameal. If you are not home when they ring the doorbell, they will be happy to leave you a note and stick your peameal in the truck, taking it back to the post office. Not so bad if it sits in the truck on a cold wintery day…but not so good if it sits in the warehouse, or in the sun or…you get the picture. So, to be on the safe side, stay home in joyous expectation of that wonderful peameal and answer the door when the postman rings once.

What’s cookin’ in the kitchen:

Holidays are sure a great time for food. One of the wonderful gifts I received this year was the cook book , A Taste of Canada, by Rose Murray. It is Canadian cooking at its best from one coast to the other. We have had two recipes out of it (the risotto with wild mushrooms and back bacon was earthy, creamy and savory...heaven on a plate) and can’t wait to try the wine pickled salmon (will all the pickled herring lovers please stand up!)…yummy, yummy, yummy!

Two other bacon favorites:

• Gord Florentine: All right, all right, we have no Italian ancestry, but you will not find a better breakfast sandwich than a slice of toast, covered with spinach, followed by two slices of peameal and a poached egg.
• Devils on Horseback: We first ran into these watching Bob Blumer on the Surreal Gourmet, a Canadian cooking show. I have seen many versions since. Who can go wrong with bacon (regular, not peameal…we are any bacon lovers!), dates and cheese (asiago, parmesan, blue…) or garlic. I have even seen these made with prunes (Is one enough? Is two too many ??) . Check out a recipe at:busycooks.about.com/od/appetizerrecipe1/r/devilshorseback.htm

Happy New Year . Comments are always welcome at Gord’s. See you next month!
Gordette