It’s Sunday evening and The Big Cook is over… Where did the last two days go? As I indicated in my last post, some of our family members were getting together to do one of our monumental cooks of pork shoulders to make pulled pork. Well, it started Thursday afternoon when Janet and I went to the store to pick up our meat – we walked out with more than 153# of pork. It was a little more than we had planned on.
People actually stopped us in the parking lot and wondered aloud what we would do with all that meat. We laughingly told them that it was a family affair. No big party or celebration, but just getting together for the love of doing it. We all knew that it would consume our whole weekend, but this was the largest cook we have ever done and I think that while we were ready for almost anything, the work was beyond our expectation.
We started prepping at 5:30 p.m. Friday evening and had 18 pork shoulders on the two smokers by 8:30 or so. Then, the difficult part began. Watching everything, monitoring temperatures, making sure things were running smoothly and then being ready to jump in at a moment’s notice to make mid course corrections or deal with unexpected circumstances.
Matt had to deal with some problems early on; but things went pretty smoothly over here. Janet, as well as our daughter Jill and our nephew, John, were ready to jump in whenever and wherever Matt and I needed help. It was a long night. Things happened faster, for the most part, than expected and neither of us got much sleep. In fact, I don’t think either one of us napped more than an hour or two all night.
There was no reprieve Saturday… Different things demanded our attention all day. We worked late into the night and didn’t finish until after 1:30 a.m. this morning. That’s a long time to be up, especially since I’m not a spring chicken any longer. Friday morning until Sunday morning – at least 40 hours or so.
Everything was cooked and then refrigerated by about 2:30 am this morning when I finally went to bed. But that’s not the end of it. Before noon, a number of us from yesterday, including our son, Andrew, got together to pack everything in vacuum sealed bags and finally put in the freezer. We put up 90 pounds of pulled pork today! It was more than we thought we would get.
Several family members have already wondered when we are going to do the next one. I said that I wasn’t ready to commit so soon. I need time to recover from this weekend. Why, you may ask, would we do this? The work is non-stop, fatigue beyond words and more than a little mess to clean up at the end of everything. We haven’t even thought about when we will tackle the cleaning of the smokers… that’s a big job.
But we keep coming back. Our nephew, John, was a huge help and on reflection, I don’t know that we could have gotten through this undertaking without his help. He was tremendous for a first time participant with us. Janet and I were emotional at his leaving to go back home to suburban Chicago mid afternoon. That’s one of things, in fact a main thing, that keeps calling us back.
While we derive great joy from giving away the fruits of our labor, the fact of the matter that it is the relational element that we most enjoy. Our son in law, Matt, even went so far as to remark that he thought of the spots on some of our towels and resting blankets as memories of the great cooks that we have had together. He’s right! What a wonderful reminder of the times we have shared. I think these times are the ones that help bind families together.
Our verse for tonight is from the author of Hebrews. While many folks think that the apostle Paul is the author of this New Testament book, theologians are divided on who the author really is. In any event, the author tells us, in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
My encouragement this evening is that good deeds benefit everyone. We all feel good when we perform acts of kindness and make the world better for all of us. My prayer is that you and your family either have, or will, form a habit of creating great memories together. It’s the ultimate form of togetherness and fills God’s heart with joy, Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…