Pork Diaries: Ham, Bacon, and Pork Chops

This week marks to occasions for a "pork diaries" post about this year's hog - the bacon and ham came back from the smokehouse, and Mary and I enjoyed our first meal of pork chops.

Last year David sent our hams and bacon away to a smokehouse and custom meat cutter over on the other side of Massanutten Mountain.  We were all really happy with the results, so we repeated this year.  The process usually takes a month or so, and we had a snow delay in there, but everything got back last weekend.

I have two hams, a hock, and then 10 packs of bacon on hand for the year.  We'll be enjoying that for a while.

Meanwhile, given the snow day Monday, I decided to put together a meal of pork chops and vegetables from the grill.  This year, I cut the chops, bone in, thicker than in the past.  They cook slower, but they also retain their juices better.

It was hard to cook in that cold the other night, but everything came out fine:  chops grilled and glazed with that chipotle-peach sauce I made recently, yellow squash sauteed with onions, and mixed blue and yellow potatoes with rosemary.  I can't wait to grill again.

Although I may wait until it warms up.