Laurabelle’s Blog

If you're wondering how my barbecue brisket turned out, take a look at this: The meat was falling apart; I used an electric knife so it wouldn't disintegrate completely under the blade. The Bone Suckin' Sauce I used is to the left of the meat; you can just see Jeff's cole slaw behind the jar of [...]

For a few weeks Jeff and I have been thinking about making pemmican. Last week I rendered beef fat, which I got from our regular butcher (you want to buy beef fat? we'll give it to you for free!), and yesterday we started drying beef. The recipe I have calls for brisket, so I bought one. [...]

I was called for jury duty today. I don't know if other counties do this, but in Alameda, you "report" online to see whether you have to go in physically (after 5pm the previous day for 8:30am call, after 11am for a 1pm call). Twice in the past I haven't needed to go in; today [...]

If you’re seeing this post, my blog is now on a new server — a virtualized server of my own, in fact. In spite of a server switch and a Wordpress upgrade, I think I’ve been able to bring everything over correctly. Let me know if not…
Due to the way I migrated (servers and Wordpress [...]

On the last weekend in July, Jeff and I went backpacking in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was a good trip (much better than our last few), but the adventure started early this time. I had planned everything carefully in advance; we had our wilderness permit and everything ready to go. But at the last moment, [...]