So I managed to wipe out my entire hard drive last week… to add insult to injury, I have a back-up drive but never got around to hooking it up.  All my photos (that I didn’t upload to snapfish) including some of the “fantastic photos” I had yet to post (sorry) and much much more.  I also had several emails from readers that I hadn’t replied to, so my apologies to you if you wrote to me and I didn’t reply.  Damn you hard drive!  But life goes on.

After roasting my hard drive, we roasted and jarred some red peppers.  Here’s the link from last years post on how we roast our peppers. It’s a simple process that is time consuming but  well worth the effort!

From my inbox:

*Joe C. from New Jersey has a couple fig trees that have produced a whole lot of figs (lucky Joe!) and he’s looking for a fig jam recipe.  I don’t have one but maybe someone can help Joe out.

*Michele D. asks for the family sopressata recipe…. let’s not get crazy Miche.  How many times do I have to tell you… there are no recipes.

*The Debate continues… I’m talking about THE DEBATE – Sauce vs. Gravy.  Todd thinks Gravy is cRaZy and Stacy grew up using Gravy in Boston.

* “How to be a Good Italian Daughter” by Antoinette LaVecchia is playing in New York City.

I’ve made lots of friends through sopressata… I really have.  My father has been offered money, a friend wants to feature it in a future restaurant he is opening and one of my Irish buddies has somehow gotten “in” and now chips in financially and helps make them in order to get a share… in turn, he has friends that work on his motorcycle in exchange for a sopressata!  It’s comedy but it’s also delicious and one of southern Italy’s culinary delights. (Click here for more details on the process)

My father is a sopressata connoisseur of sorts.  In his own way, he studies the art of making it.  He tries different techniques, tinkers with the process, adds new ingredients/levels of ingredients and over the years it seems to have worked out well as we have managed to take home First Place at the “World Sopressata Championship” for the last 5 years running! (I’m kidding.. there’s no such thing.)

My brother and I have our own opinions on how and how much of course, so they have also been getting more and more “piccante” (spicy hot!) over the years.  This year we have a very controversial NEW process that the professore introduced : dry packing them instead of sotto olio (submerged/preserved in oil) Go figure?!  So far so good… they are ready to eat and the verdict is in: FIRST PRIZE once again!!