Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe

January 19, 2012 By in Recipes of a Wee Wife Tags: , , Leave a comment

"Sage" and "Hot" Homemade Seasoning Packets (Four String Farm)

What is better than the smell of good breakfast sausage, frying in the morning pan?

Stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods and get a free packet of Homemade Breakfast Sausage Seasoning with each pound of ground pork.  We offer three flavors of seasoning:  sage, hot, and breakfast blend.  For a limited time, when you buy three pounds of ground pork, get 10% off your purchase.

Our breakfast sausage is easy to prepare.  Simply empty the contents of the seasoning packet onto a pound of ground pork, mix together well, form into patties, and fry until golden brown.

Our homemade breakfast sausage is incredibly delicious, but it is not a guilty pleasure.  Our farm fresh pork is lean and healthy, and we never give our animals steroids, hormones, or antibiotics.  There are no MSG’s in our seasoning (most conventional breakfast sausage is full of MSG’s) or other additives.  Our breakfast sausage is local pastured pork with traditional seasoning.  It is wholesome and delicious.

Stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods and get your breakfast sausage today.

Ingredients of sage and hot seasoning packet:

Sage
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon coriander

Hot
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon coriander

To prepare: Simply pour the contents of the packet over a pound of ground pork, and mix well. For the pork into patties and fry until crisply browned.

Nutritional Information (for a 2.4 oz, or 68 g, serving of 90/10 pork)

Calories:  108

Protein: 13.2 g

Fat:  6.0 g

Saturated Fat:  2.4

Sodium: 36 mg without seasoning packet, 380 with seasoning packet

Collard Greens Recipe

January 19, 2012 By in Recipes of a Wee Wife Tags: 1 Comment

Freshly picked collard greens offer a unique and robust flavor in this healthy and delicious recipe.  Prep time is 15 minutes and cooking time is 45 minutes, or up to 2 hours.  The longer they simmer, the better the flavor.

Collard greens are not particularly popular outside the Deep South, where folks know their country greens.   Many of us were subjected to poorly cooked collard greens in grade school cafeterias–or worse, we ate them from a can and that cured us forever.  Most collard recipes call for processed and nitrate-soaked pork products, so health-conscious eaters sometimes avoid collards altogether.

A negative stereotype of collards is very regrettable.  Most home gardeners can easily grow this hearty vegetable in the backyard plot.  Shoppers at farmer’s markets can usually find local collards throughout winter and spring.  Freshly picked collards from a chemical-free garden offer one of the best and healthiest tastes of the farm.

Why is this recipe excellent?  These collards will have your kids asking for their greens.  This dish can be quickly prepped and then set to simmer while the rest of the meal is prepared.  Fresh bacon is used (not cured pork), so this dish is healthy and has a wonderful flvaor.  The leftovers are excellent. 

Ingredients (serves 4 as a side dish.  We typically double the ingredients and use the same cooking time for each step.):

  • quarter pound of fresh bacon, roughly chopped into one inch or smaller pieces
  • half of a  large sweet onion (1015 onion if you can find it), roughly chopped
  • half teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • good pinch of sea salt
  • one large clove garlic, minced
  • one bunch freshly picked collard greens
  • 1 cup low-sodium low-fat chicken stock, with one cup extra on hand
  • a dash or two of hot sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste

Bacon, onions, and garlic in the saute

To prepare:  Rinse the collards well and remove the stems by holding the stem in one hand and stripping the leaf down the stem with the other.  Removing stems should take less than a minute.  Discard stems.  Lay collard leaves flat on a cutting board and roll or fold over, and roughly chop into long strips.

Sautee the bacon, onions, pepper flakes, and salt in a cast iron pot with the lid off (you can also use a metal pot) over medium-high heat.  Sautee until the onions turn translucent and bacon is about half cooked.  Add garlic and stir until the garlic just releases its fragrance, about 30 seconds.  Add as many leaves into the pot as you can fit, pour in one cup chicken stock, add a dash of hot sauce, cover, and simmer at a low boil for at least 45 minutes.

The leaves will cook down, so you can add the remainder of the leaves as the collards cook.  As the collards release their moisture, the liquid level will rise, but as the dish simmers some of the liquid will evaporate.  Add more chicken stock only as needed, to achieve your desired amount of liquid.  Make sure the liquid does not cook all the way out.

After 45 minutes the collards are ready to serve.  Salt and pepper to taste.  You may continue to simmer for up to two hours.

Collard bunch after cutting

Nutritional Information (per serving)

Calories:  72

Protein:  4.7 g

Fat:  4.4 g

Carbohydrates:  4.8 g

Sodium:  165 mg

One serving of collards provides half the recommended daily intake for vitamin A!  Vitamin A is important for eye sight and immunity, and serves as an antioxidant.  Collards are high in fiber and vitamin C.  Additionally, collards have an organosulfur called “sulforaphane” that has been shown to have anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, and anti-microbial properties.

More about this recipe:  Rinse the collards well, perhaps two or three times in new water.  Even collards grown in a pastured program like ours need a rinsing to get the dirt off.  If you have collards grown in a chemical program, you cannot rinse away the chemicals, but you can at least remove some of the residual that rests on the leaves.   

The red pepper flakes and hot sauce do not add much heat to the dish, but more of a spicy flavor.  The heat is cooked out, and what remains of the seasoning is a subtle deep flavor.

After letting the cast iron pot of collards cool on the stove, we put the whole pot in fridge and reheat the next day.  The flavors intensify overnight for a richly textured and beautiful dish.  If you are taking a side dish to a dinner party, consider making this recipe the night before and reheat at the party.  Pay special attention to the people who say they don’t like collards, and watch their reaction after they try your dish.

Ham is for Luck on New Year’s Day

December 29, 2011 By in Heritage Farming Tags: , , Leave a comment

Everyone should have a taste of ham on New Year’s Day.  It is an American tradition.  Ham is for luck.

So, why is pork the lucky delectable?  Why not beef or lamb or chicken?

Pork is lucky because pigs root forward.  We eat pork to move forward into the New Year.  Cows and sheep stand still when they eat; that is not lucky.  Chickens scratch backward, and that is unlucky, so never eat a chicken on New Year’s.

But there is more than simply “rooting forward” to elevate pork to the national dish of New Year’s.

A Medieval Boar Hunt

The tradition for lucky pork was born in Europe hundreds of years ago.  The village elders of medieval hamlets organized a wild boar hunt each New Year’s Eve.  The New Year’s celebration featured the fruit of the hunt.  A ham was cause for great revelry on New Year’s Day.

If the hunting party failed to produce a boar, it meant the meager forest was hunted out, and the villagers would suffer a year of hunger and want.

A delicious ham was about more than luck–it was about nutrition.  Food was scarce; desperately so in the dead of winter.  A good source of protein, even a small amount of pork, was vital to the health of the villagers.  The New Year’s ham helped nutrient-starved peasants withstand sickness and survive the cold winter.

It is no wonder medieval diners believed pork to be lucky.  Ham is for health.  A healthy person is lucky indeed.

Did the Pork Root Forward?

You may ask yourself, “Why do I keep eating ham on New Year’s, but still have bad luck?”  In fact, our nation eats plenty of ham, but is having a crisis of rotten luck.

Remember the tradition:  Pork is lucky because pigs root forward.

If you buy a grocery store ham, you are eating pork that has never rooted forward.  Agri-business porkers are raised on cement.  Porkers can’t root forward on cement.

Agri-business porkers are raised in factories on cement floors under artificial lights.  They are packed shoulder to shoulder against a feed trough, day and night, and can hardly turn around.  Their refuse is hosed into sump drains that flow into tremendous fecal lakes.

They are fed growth hormones and injected with antibiotics to fight the diseases that plague these miserable beasts.  They live short brutal lives in pestilence and filth.  The story of conventional pork is simply heartbreaking.

How can we eat a ham from one of these pitiful creatures and hope to find good luck?

It is not karma that punishes us.  The hormones, antibiotics, disease, and stress–all of the misery and filth–are distilled in the industrial ham.  When you eat this ham, you take these things into your body.

Unfortunately, industrial ham contains little of the nutritional value that your body craves from good pork.  It is a terrible irony that America has such an over-abundance of cheap food, but a lack of good nutrition.

Rooting Forward in Rockport

You have a choice for your New Year’s ham.  Your lucky porker rooted forward in the forest of your own town.

Our heritage breed hogs roam the forest and fields of our farm in moveable pens.  They languish in the sunshine and shade of oak trees.  They root and wallow with joy every day in the rich soil.

A substantial part of their diet is natural forage:  acorns, weeds, grass, shrubs, and roots.  They have continual access to a custom grain ration. Our porkers are never given steroids, antibiotics, or hormones–ever.  Healthy animals don’t need them.

Our lucky porkers are routinely rotated to spent vegetable gardens.  The process of rooting forward cleanses our gardens, conditions the soil, adds magnificent fertilizer, and prepares the soil for the next planting.  Our porkers help us grow incredibly delicious vegetables.  In the process, they become very delicious themselves.

Ham is for luck, yes.  Ham is for health, yes.  But ham is also for taste.

Pastured pork is absolutely delicious.  The fresh air and sunshine, the acorns and vegetables, the joy of rooting forward every day in the blessed soil–are distilled into our delicious ham.

Our pork is so delicious that you will forget it is healthy.  The good luck is merely a bonus.

A Modern-Day Boar Hunt

Unless the village elders of Rockport organize a boar hunt, there is only one place in town to find pork that has ever rooted forward.

You can purchase all of our farm fresh products at Coastal Bend Health Foods.  Or, by request, your Four String farmer will happily deliver your lucky pork to your door.

Change your luck this year.  Move forward with your health.  Good pork is cause for celebration.

Ham is for taste.  Ham is for health.  Ham is for luck.

You can by any of our farm fresh products at Coastal Bend Health Foods.  Or, by request, we will happily deliver to your door in Rockport.   Please e-mail us at justinbutts@clearwire.net, to place your order.

Three Good Recipes for Green Tomatoes

December 2, 2011 By in Recipes of a Wee Wife Tags: , , Leave a comment

The following green tomato recipes are delicious and exceptionally healthy.  Kimmi’s Oven-Fried Green Tomato is the healthiest and lightest fried green tomato recipe you will ever try!   And her Green Tomato Rice is a hearty dish, perfect for a blustery winter day.  Thank you Kimmi for these fabulous recipes!

Green Tomato Chutney is sweet, spicy, tart, and wonderful–use this chutney to spice up any holiday meal.

Oven-Fried Green Tomatoes

(Thanks Kimmi Norvell for this wonderful recipe!)

Ingredients:

• 1 Four String Farm fresh egg*

• ½ cup cornmeal

• ¼ cup flour**

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch, tapioca or potato starch

• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

• ½ teaspoon fresh ground sea salt

• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

• 4 large Four String Farm green tomatoes

*For vegan, sub ½ cup water & 1 ½ teaspoon ground flax seed combined in blender at high speed for 30 seconds. Pour in a wide and shallow bowl, allow to sit for until thickened.

** For gluten free, sub with quinoa, oat or brown rice flour.

To prepare:  Preheat oven to 425 and grease cookie sheet. Beat egg in one bowl and combine dry ingredients in another bowl. Cut tomatoes into ¼ to ½ inch slices. Submerge into egg or flax mixture and allow excess to drip off. Place in cornmeal mixture and press to ensure even coverage on each slice. Flip tomato and press again. Place on baking sheet. Bake all tomatoes for 15 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown. Turn over and bake another 15-20 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

Four String Farm Green Tomato Rice

(also from Kimmi!)

Ingredients: 

• 4 slices of fresh Four String Farm bacon

• 1 bunch of green onions, sliced

• 4 medium green tomatoes, peeled and chopped

• 1 fresh farm jalapeno pepper

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 cup long-grain brown rice

• 2 ½ cups broth of your choice

• 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme

• Fresh ground sea salt and pepper

• Dash of hot sauce, optional

• ¼ cup fresh grated Parmesan, optional

To prepare:  Sauté the bacon in a medium saucepan until crisp. Remove and drain. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon drippings. If you choose not to use bacon, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté green onions for one minute, add green tomatoes and sauté for one minute more. Add garlic and jalapeno and sauté for about a minute. Add broth, rice, thyme and seasonings and bring to a boil. Stir, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. If using, stir in Parmesan and sprinkle with bacon just before serving.

Serves four.

Green Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds firm green tomatoes, about 6 cups diced

• 1 cup golden raisins (or if you can find them, 1/2 cup currants)

• 1 cup chopped onion

• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/4 cups cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices

• 1 teaspoon chili powder

• 1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger

To prepare: Cut tomatoes into 3/4-inch dice (you should have about 6 cups). Combine all ingredients in a cast iron pot; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for about 1 hour, until thickened.

Spoon chutney into jars and refrigerate up to three weeks (it will last much longer, but flavor deteriorates). We pressure can our chutney, and will happily provide canning instructions upon request.

Makes about 3 pints of green tomato chutney.

Red and Green Christmas Tomatoes

December 2, 2011 By in Vegetables Leave a comment

Friends:  Stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods this Saturday, December 3rd, and try our freshly picked red and green tomatoes.  Supplies are limited, get them while they last.

This Saturday is the Rockport “Tropical Christmas Celebration”, including a tree lighting ceremony and other events in the downtown Heritage District.  Coastal Bend Health Foods is a sponsor and offers some holiday discounts for you.  Come celebrate your tropical Christmas with garden fresh tomatoes!

Who Would Believe It, Tomatoes in December?

We are thrilled to have this last harvest of tomatoes so late in the year.   Many of our customers will remember the incredible production of tomatoes Four String Farm enjoyed from April through August, until the night-time soil temperature became too hot for tomatoes to set fruit.

We kept all our tomato plants in the ground and continued to water them through the hottest part of summer, to allow us to coax this autumn harvest from the mature plants. The unusually high temperatures in September and October unfortunately delayed the fall harvest, but here we are, finally, with a beautiful crop of December tomatoes.

Our first mild frost, a couple of days ago, ended tomato production for the year.  It is astounding (and ever challenging to your local farmer) how quickly our weather turned from blistering heat to frost this year.  Still, we have had an excellent autumn harvest.  The green tomatoes still on the vine will not have the time, or the heat, to turn red and ripen. So, in addition to ripe red tomatoes, we also have baskets of beautiful green tomatoes.

Why are These Winter Tomatoes So Sweet?

Our poultry and porkers take most of the credit for the wonderful flavor of our vegetables.  We pasture our animals on harvested gardens and allow them to eat down the foliage, add their magnificent fertilizer, cleanse the soil, and till the garden for the next planting.  There is no way to duplicate the flavor (and health properties) of vegetables grown in a pastured program.  We never use any type of chemical pesticide or fertilizer on our gardens–we don’t need to.

Additionally, we conduct carefully controlled wood fire burnings on our gardens (except during burn bans, of course) and work all of that wood ash into the garden.  Wood ash is a natural soil amendment that adds essential minerals to the garden: calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and other trace elements.

The calcium and potassium in wood ash is particularly important to growing tomatoes.  Calcium helps prevent blossom-end rot, a common problem for Rockport gardeners.  Further, the taste, the sweetness of a vegetable, comes from the activation of potassium in the plant.  The potassium in wood ash helps the sugars activate and release in the fruit.  This activation creates incredibly sweet and flavorful tomatoes.

I love to watch my friends try these tomatoes, and see their faces light up.  Each ripe red tomato is a like a concentrated dose of summer, a sweet red taste of the sun on a cold winter day.  The green tomatoes are a tangy mixture of sweet and tart, a unique and interesting flavor.  Our green tomatoes make delicious chutney, and are just as good fried in December as they are in March.

Limited Quantities

I must confess, we have a limited supply of our December tomatoes.  Our season was cut short, due to the weather.  Further, Mrs. Butts and I have been busily picking and canning tomatoes as fast as they ripened this autumn.  When you live on a farmer’s wage, you don’t have a lot of cash for Christmas presents.  However, we have been blessed with a wonderful gift that is very rare in these parts:  garden fresh Christmas tomatoes.

I hope it doesn’t ruin the surprise for some you who are reading this, but at least you will not know if it is salsa, marinara, green tomato chutney, or one of Kayla’s other delicious creations, in your stocking this Christmas.

But for now, we are out of canning jar lids and are generally canned out.  The rest of our tomato harvest is at Coastal Bend Health Foods, waiting for you.  Stop by tomorrow and get your red and green Christmas tomatoes!

Giving Thanks

November 24, 2011 By in Heritage Farming Tags: , 2 Comments

The great Fall migration is passing over Rockport.  Countless bird populations, ducks and geese and cranes, draw formations in the cold air as they move south in flocks along the cloudless blue roadways.

Other migratory birds, shy, tiny birds, wrens and warblers, are also on a mission south.  You must hunt carefully in the trees for these little birds, in shrubs, in tufts of grass at the edge of the forest.

The Killer, my guard cat, has been hunting these passers-through.  When I see him with one in his mouth and try to catch him, he runs like an Olympic sprinter to escape with his prey.

This morning, I found The Killer poised ten inches from a small bird he had caught and been playing with, ready to pounce when the bird flinched.  I was quicker than the cat for once and scooped up the terrified bird.

The tiny heartbeat vibrated in my palm, the beats so fast there was no rest between notes.  The rhythm gradually slowed in the cupped warmth of my hands.  The beats were rapid, but steady and sustaining.

I held the bird up to the light, worried there was a broken wing, punctured breast, or some other mortal injury.  A few times the bird tried to open his wings, but they closed again.  The bird turned to look at me, as if to comprehend this phenomenon, this unbelievable contact with a human spirit.

I tried to communicate empathy through my hand, kindness.  I told him through my fingers that this is a safe place to rest, to gather yourself.  The bird stood on his feet and I felt the tiniest scratch of claws in my hand as he took hold.

Without moving, the bird was gone. I traced the streak of his flight into the trees.  He was free again among the wind-driven branches, free to slip back in to the great migration.

I wonder which image he will take with him on his journey south:  the fierce claws that held him down, or the gentle hand that lifted him up.

Let me today remember, and give thanks, for the everlasting love in the hand that so many times has lifted me up, to gather myself, and take flight.

Grand Opening Celebration!

November 17, 2011 By in Heritage Farming Leave a comment

Friends:  Please join us this Saturday, November 19, between 10:00am and 2:00pm, for the grand opening celebration of Coastal Bend Health Foods.  Come help us christen Kimmi Norvell’s wonderful new store!

Cooking Demonstration, Free Samples, and Door Prizes

To celebrate our partnership with Kimmi, this Saturday at the grand opening party we will host a cooking demonstration of our delicious Fresh Ham Roast Recipe, with samples, recipe handouts, and tips on making the perfect Thanksgiving ham.

Free samples of many other items will be available, including locally baked fresh bread, Rockport honey, herbal tea, gluten-free snacks, garden-picked vegetables, and much more.  And there will be plenty of door prizes, from pastured pork chops to chair massages!

Live Music by Ty Dietz

Live music will be performed by Texas singer/songwriter Ty Dietz.  Ty Dietz just released his new album, Closer to Town, recorded in Willie Nelson’s studio on the Pedernales.  Come enjoy live Texas country music and celebrate the new store.

Please join us this Saturday at Coastal Bend Health Foods, in Rockport’s Heritage District, next door to Latitude.  Stop by and see what Kimmi has for you!

The Witch is Dead

November 13, 2011 By in A Wee Wife, Heritage Farming 2 Comments

On Hallow’s Eve, I got hold of a Halloween toy, a little plastic bobble-head witch.  The witch had a black hat and green face and red eyes that lit up and flashed.  The red eyes were motion sensors, and any movement caused the witch to emit a long hideous laugh.  When you picked it up, the laughter erupted into a chorus of freaky ghoulish witch laughter.

I showed the witch to Kayla at dinner, and she said, “That’s not annoying, and creepy.”  This was all the information I needed.

For the next two weeks, the bobble-head witch ambushed Kayla all over the house.  When she pulled flour from the shelf to make bread, the witch cackled.  When she opened the freezer for a chicken, the witch flashed her red eyes.  When she went to get towels out of the dryer, the witch screeched.  When she reached to get a new roll of toilet paper, the witch, stuck in the cardboard toilet paper hole, cackled hysterically.  At the end of a long hard day, when my lovely wife put her hand in the basket for the bubble bath soap, she grabbed a screeching screaming witch.

I kept accidentally ambushing myself, because I forgot where I hid the witch.  I reached into the bread box and recoiled when the witch cackled.  I reached into the cabinet for the salt shaker and the psycho red eyes lit up.  But my technique improved considerably.  Every possible nook in the house at some point featured the witch.  First you heard the witch scream, then Kayla.

One day, I went to throw something away, and the witch cackled from the top of the trash can.  How did you get in there?  I made the witch more comfortable in Kayla’s underwear drawer.

The next day, when I took out the trash, I heard the witch, muffled, screaming from the bottom of the trash bag.  After a thorough cleaning, the witch found her way under Kayla’s pillow.

Well, the witch is dead.  A house did not fall on her.  Someone chopped off her head.  I don’t know who would do such a thing to a toy.  I could not easily repair the witch, because the guts were ripped out, and nowhere to be found.

So, it is safe to go back into the house again…or is it?

Finally, Wholesome Food!

November 7, 2011 By in Heritage Farming 1 Comment

We finally have a health food store in our town!  I am very excited to welcome Coastal Bend Health Foods to Rockport.

Coastal Bend Health Foods is an independent store owned and operated by Kimmi Norvell.  Kimmi offers a wide range of health foods, beauty supplies, vitamins, and supplements—many items that you cannot find at the grocery store or anywhere else around Rockport.

She offers individual and bulk quantities of healthy grains, flours, oils, nuts, and many other food items.  You will also find herbal teas, local honey, vegan products, whole wheat pasta, healthy snack foods, and much more.  Kimmi carries a host of local and Texas made products, and she is adding new items all the time.

Farm Fresh Food!

Beginning now, Kimmi will carry all of our Four String Farm products: pastured pork, pastured chicken, fresh eggs, and seasonal vegetables and herbs.  You no longer need to arrange a delivery to enjoy our food—just stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods and purchase what you like at your convenience.

Kimmi will always know what farm fresh products we have available, and when our next chicken, pork, and vegetables will be ready.  What’s more, Kimmi can tell you anything you want to know about how our food is grown.

Location and Hours

Coastal Bend Health Foods is located at 111 N. Austin Street in Rockport’s Heritage District, next door to Latitude, near Rockport Harbor.  Store hours are Tuesdays-Fridays 10am-6pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm.

Please Shop Locally First!

Friends, the next time you go shopping, I urge you to stop by Kimmi’s place on the way to the grocery store.  Find out how many wonderful products you can purchase from a local source, from a neighbor.  Kimmi has a passion to provide wholesome, healthy, fresh products to her customers.  Stop by her store and see what she has for you.

A Wedding 2

November 6, 2011 By in A Wee Wife 3 Comments

We had a surprise wedding at the farm over the weekend.

Our friends and family thought they were coming to a casual reception, until I walked out of the house in a tuxedo and gathered the guests around.  I explained that, yes, Kayla and I were married in Ireland, and we wish we could have taken everyone with us.  But we had decided from the beginning to also have a simple ceremony on the farm, to share our marriage with our loved ones, and to make it official.

We made it a surprise to save our guests from the headaches of a traditional wedding: bride’s maid’s dresses, suit jackets, wedding gifts, and all the rest. We wanted to provide only the up side; great food, great music, a great party.

Our guests sipped cocktails during the short exchange of vows; except, hopefully, during the prayer.  The dress was casual.  It was so casual that my father, who drove himself to the party on a tractor, and who stood at my side, as surprised as everyone else, wore an old t-shirt and burmuda shorts.

Kayla appeared in her beautiful white dress, and everyone knew that I am the luckiest man in the world.  I told our guests that the last time I saw Kayla in that dress, she was walking up a long winding road (the coolest thing I have ever seen) to a grass-covered cliff beside the ocean.  But that is not technically accurate.  My wife and I respected each other, in a very old-fashioned way, until our wedding night.  The last time I saw that dress, it was flying across the room of quaint little guest house.

Dr. Yandell, Kayla’s mom, who has always been there for her, walked Kayla down the aisle (across the lawn). She placed Kayla’s hand in mine and said, “I’m turning her over to you, so take good care of her,” and I will.  Later, Dr. Yandell said there was a silent clause that she could take her back anytime, but I don’t think she can legally do that.

The Menu

Our friend Karey Johnson of GLOW graciously agreed to cater the event.  Karey managed her own catering business in Europe for many years before she relocated to Rockport and opened GLOW Boat House.  GLOW is one of the finest bistro restaurants on the Gulf Coast.

We sent Karey a list of farm fresh items we would like to feature at the party:  our own sausages, chicken, tomatoes, ground pork, peppers, and etc.  We asked her to prepare them, somehow, in a theme of “Ireland” and “Greece”.  Since these two countries have the worst cuisine on the planet, you can imagine what a challenge that was.

Karey responded brilliantly with the following menu.  We called it Four String “Bangers and Mash”:

Platter of Four String Chicken Pate, Glow Bread & Balsamic Red Onion Marmalade

Rosemary & Honey Glazed Four String Sausages with Bourbon Mustard Dip

Greek Four String Meatballs with Tzatziki

Crudités Platter with Four String Vegetables, Chipotle Hummus & Grilled Eggplant

Four String Tomato Galettes with Four String Chili, Mozzarella & Basil

Four String Homemade Wheat Bread and Mesquite Pecan Shortbreads

The food was unique, interesting, and so incredibly delicious.  Fortunately, no one was bothered during the meal by the distant view of chickens and pigs whose relatives helped with the menu.

The Desserts

We asked several of our guests, wonderful bakers, to bring their favorite homemade desserts.  We didn’t want a big fancy cake, but instead wanted our guests to enjoy a variety of unique and delicious sweets prepared by our nearest and dearest.

There were carrot cakes, chocolate cakes, white wedding cakes, cookies, brownies, crème Brule, tiramisu, sweet yogurt with fruit, and more.  Just one example from the desserts:  our friend Gerlinde made an apple pie with every thin slice of apple amazingly carved into the shape of a leaf, with the ribs of a leaf carved delicately into each slice, and every slice lined on its side in a continual circle growing from the center of the pie.  My mom, ever thoughtful, saved a piece for me in the fridge, and later that night, after all the guests had gone home, I visited apple pie heaven.

The Band

Years from now, when our kids ask us why we think we’re so cool, we’re going to say, “Put it like this, children, HOBO played at our wedding.” HOBO plays high energy country music, rocked-out bluegrass, with virtuoso skill.  They have long beards like Civil War generals.  They are brilliant and funny and they write completely original songs about love and fried chicken.

They use racy language, to put it mildly, in some/most of their songs.  They asked if they should reel in the language for the wedding party.  I pointed to my Aunt P at a far table, and said, “Keep an eye on that lady.  If she looks at you over her spectacles with narrowed eyes, reel it in right away.  If she doesn’t notice, let it fly!”

If you can possibly catch a HOBO show, don’t miss it.  It’s hard to appreciate how good these guys are until you see a mosh pit develop in front of the stage to a bluegrass tune.  When the entire bar sounds off with a long wolf howl, you’ll know what I mean.

The Guests

My oldest friend, Sam, came down and helped with the party. Sam and I formed a band in junior high, and played ‘80’s cover songs when they were new, and even after 20 years of stockbrokering, he still rocks.  Kayla’s friends from kindergarten, and since, were there.  All of our family came, and our friends, old friends and new, from Rockport, Corpus, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, California, and as far as Portland, Oregon.

Some of them arrived early to help set up the tables and chairs.  We didn’t ask them to do this; they just did.  Kayla’s cousin picked wildflowers from around the lake for the table arrangements.  I counted seven different kinds of flowers, from frog fruit to sunflowers, and we still have them in every room of the house.

Other guests kept the coolers and cattle watering troughs full of ice, for the beer and cokes.  Everyone took their dishes to the cleaning table and rinsed them.  People took down the tables, folded the chairs and stacked them by the porch, and brought in all the linens, dishes, flowers, and decorations. We didn’t ask anyone to do this work; they just did.

What’s more, we asked our guests prior to the party to please not bring gifts.  But they brought gifts anyhow:  enough cash to pay for the party and enough Lowe’s gift cards to turn this “sharecropper’s shanty” into a real shack.

Thank you, friends and family, thank you so much for sharing that special day with us.  Thank you for your presence, your prayers, your best wishes, the desserts, and all the other gifts.  Thanks for making it possible for us to have not one, but two dream weddings.

Come back and visit soon.  As you know, you are always welcome.