The Cajun Queen:
Slow cooking a pig or chicken

My good friend Boudroeaux (pronounced bood row) built a metal lined plywood box with racks inside to lay a pig, chicken brisket or what ever y’all cooking. The top is metal and double walled, containing a propane burner over a metal plate. Wood chips are laid on the metal plate to create the smoke and the burner can be regulated to adjust the temperature.

Cooking the Pig or Chicken:
• start the fire in the back of the shed. Let the fire burn until you have good coals to keep the logs burning.
• Hang the pig or chicken and start the rotisserie.
• Keep enough wood on the fire so it is hot enough that you can stand or hold you hand (or mother-in-laws) hand by the pig for only 5 or 10 seconds. I have no idea what temperature that would be (I’ll measure it next time), but I’m guessing about 180 to 200 degrees. I’m not a bad idea to start out with a pretty hot fire to get the outside of your mean up to temperature quickly, then let the fire die down a bit or the rest of the cooking period.
• Flip the dinner and hang it from the other side every couple of hours so the meal will cook evenly.
• Now comes the easy part. Sit back, drink a cold beverage, usually diet coke and a little rum (just for the taste you see), throw some wood on the fire every now and then, tell some bad jokes about mother-in-law, and enjoy the company of your friends.
• Cook the meal until the skin is golden brown, starts cracking, and the meat starts drawing away from the bones. This can vary in time 3-6 hours, depending on how hot you keep the fire and size of the meal.
If you like, you can insert a thermometer into the hind quarter to check the internal temperature. Some cooks say a temperature of 170 degrees is desire for meat, but when I check my temperature never went above 155 degrees, yet the meal was cooked through-out and the meat was falling off the bones.

Now you can use this as if it was just salt. Now you can use the 1/2 cup of bourbon any way you want....even in a glass with ice (just for the taste, you see)
Well hope you enjoy you meal and until next issue, bona petite.

Out on the Town:
Dinner and espresso, a refresher course on some of the local eateries, old and new

By Rachel Drinkard
Turnagain Times Correspondent

It’s surprisingly easy to fall into a social slump in Girdwood. You find your places you like to hang out, and they’re awesome and all your friends are there and everyone knows your name and it gets harder and harder to branch out.
Jack Sprat has been on my “break out of the mold” list since I moved here, but I didn’t actually get around to doing that until this past week.
It was definitely worth it.
I chose a weekend night when their special Wild Game was served: Tender elk loin served with a perfectly balanced and somehow unexpectedly complimentary blackberry sauce on a bed of rice and wilted spinach. It was accompanied by a great bottle of wine and topped off with a piece of double cream pumpkin pie for dessert.
Delicious!
Everyone tells me the weekend brunches are stellar, but I wouldn’t know since I always have to work. Try the champagne and pomegranate cocktail for me and be sure to say “Hi” to new sous chef Manda Lightfoot. She came all the way from Arizona to make your blintz!
Brunch is served every Saturday and Sunday from 9:00am to 3:00pm.

Teppanyaki Sakura
Check out the newly remodeled Teppanyaki and sushi restaurant, Sakura, at the Hotel Alyeska if you’re in the mood for something swank on a Monday when the Musky is closed.
The sushi side of the restaurant is all opened up now and is totally worth-while. The Hamachi Yellow Tail nigiri pieces were huge!
New hours are Thursday through Monday, 5:30pm to 10:00pm. Current menu available at www.alyeskaresort.com.

Maxine’s
So the thing is that Guinness on tap needs nitrogen which most beers on tap don’t require. It’s expensive and it’s sort of a pain to get and it kind of seems unnecessary when you have about a million other great beers on tap that don’t require it, so the guys over at Maxine’s decided to try out this crazy new Guinness magic machine called a “Surger” which, according to www.guiness.com, presents you, the schooled beer connoisseur, with the perfect draft Guinness every time. And the kicker is that Maxine’s doesn’t even have to mess with the nitrogen.
It works something like this: the special “Surger Unit” Guinness cans have some sort of dormant nitrogen and carbon dioxide in them so when you pour the beer into your glass, it’s completely flat, but then you wet the plate on the Surger and set the flat beer on it and an ultrasonic pulse activates the gases in the beer and gets it swirling and frothing like it just came out of the tap. Theoretically.
The jury’s still out on whether or not it actually tastes as good, but it’s definitely an interesting gimmick to witness, so go get one and let them know what you think.

Silvertip Grill
Did you know the Silvertip serves breakfast for more hours a day than any other joint in town? I just discovered this fact the other night, and you know what? Sometimes there is just seriously nothing better in the entire world than eggs and bacon at 11:00 p.m. at night. Top it off with a cold PBR and you’re basically in heaven.
The Silvertip Grill serves breakfast all day long, from 9:00 a.m. until Midnight, seven days a week.

MoeJoe’s Espresso
Now open in the parking lot of Girdwood Ski & Cyclery, MoeJoe’s is quickly becoming the newest place to stop for a cup of coffee or tea for the commute into town. Whether you need a wake up call in the morning or a warm-up after a day on the mountain, you can’t get much more convenient than this little drive through right on the main drag.
Open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays and 6:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Double Musky Inn and Restaurant
Yes, it’s world famous. Yes, they serve the biggest and best steaks anywhere. And yes, they offer the largest wine selection, perhaps in the state. And oh, yes, desserts to die for. Enough said.