Bucket List Item #45: Roasting a Pig.

You know those projects that sound so awesome, and so simple, but then mid way through it – make you stop and think to yourself – what the hell have we gotten ourselves into?

Welcome to ours…the do it yourself 100lb pig roast.

Heuer was coming up on the big 40 and when asked what he wanted to do for his party, he said immediately he wanted to do a pig roast in our backyard. Seems my Miami boy had a hankering to get close to his childhood roots and after a quick read on the internet…it sounded like it would be an easy thing to do.

* 48 Cinder blocks. Check.
* 7 sticks of 6′ rebar. Check.
* 100 lb Pig on order. Check.
* 12ft of aluminum chainlink material. Ruh roh.

I went to Home Depot. I went to Lowe’s. I went to Discount Lumber here in San Francisco. I looked online. I looked online some more. For two weeks I spent every waking hour trying to find this mysterious aluminum chainlink material to finish the grill. I was starting to freak out. Every store has gone to galvanized steel fencing, and no one knew where I could get the aluminum. We had less than one week to go before the party and I was missing the most important piece to roast this damn pig.

A quick search on Amazon found a possible option in the Caja China/ Roasting Box/ Pig Roaster/ Cajun Microwave, but by the time I found it, it would not have gotten to us in time. Do we postpone the party? Do we cancel the order of the pig? Gah. What to do, what to do?

We have faith. That is what we do.

A random call to a random metal worker in Stockton I found online. Random metal worker says he has what I need and can ship it to me for $200 (plus the cost of the metal grate, which would be another $200), but wondered why I didn’t just call Flynn & Enslow in San Francisco. Huh? Who is Flynn & Enslow I ask. I spent a week searching local businesses. They never showed up in my search. I called around 10 different places. No one mentioned them before. Me thinks Flynn & Enslow might want to invest in some marketing to help folks like me find them…or maybe they don’t need the business. No matter. I call them. They have exactly what I need for the price I feel good about spending. They can have it ready in 24 hours. OMG. ::kristie does the happy dance::

Everything else falls into place.

We pick up the pig. Heuer brines her for 24 hours. Andy and Barce come over early on party day to help set up the grill. The sun is shining. Friends come over and lend a hand. The pig comes out. She is cooked perfectly . Our buddy Joe does a masterful job in breaking her apart so we have nice pieces to gnaw on. The funny part was we don’t even get the meat upstairs, everyone starts chewing on pieces as soon as it comes off the grill. It is awesome. It is different than anything we have ever done before. It was totally worth it.

I want to thank everyone who pitched in to make this happen, especially Andy and Barce, who came over early and really made sure this went off without a hitch. Fellas – you two are the bees knees! Seriously. You rock.

And of course, I need to thank my Heuer. His idea. His plan. His birthday the reason we even went down this pig roasting path. Thank to his great idea, I can now check off ‘roasting a pig’ on my bucket list. Thanks honey. I love you.

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