We've been able to do some pretty fun things lately. My dear friend Nicole invited us to join her husband's extended family to make Slovenian sausage. Every year before Christmas, they gather early in the morning, drink Bloody Marys and, by days end, have made several hundred pounds of fresh and smoked sausage.
(I'm a little late in recording the day because Christmas got in the way and then New Year's and then Anne's first penance and then attempting to get a shower every day and...well, you get it.)
All I can say about sausage making day is that it was a blast. There were plenty of jobs for the adults--cutting pork off the bone, grinding meat, washing and stuffing casings, weighing and packaging the finished product. Tons. Of. Fun! The kids helped here and there, working a bit and then running off to play in the woods with their friends. The latter half of the day is a little hazy because I switched from Bloody Marys to some fabulous homemade wine. :) Somehow it all worked out because we came home with thirty pounds of Slovenian sausage, most of which, at the time of this post, has been eaten (with the saurkraut we made last summer). But the best part of the day wasn't the sausage. It was spending time with friends...an incredible family--good, fun, unabashedly Catholic, salt of the earth type of folks that I am very blessed to know.
