Southern Pig Pickin'

This weekend we celebrated my father-in-law's 70th birthday! As I've mentioned before, Brett grew up in a small town and his dad  is a good-ole country man through and through. And what do you get a good-ole country man for his birthday?? Why a pig of course!

Brett's family cooks a few pigs throughout the year for family gatherings and when we asked Mr. Damon what he wanted for the big 7-0 all he wanted was to cook a pig and have everyone over to enjoy it together. It is a long, exhausting process (for the guys) but it turned out fantastic - as always!

Step One: Order pig from butcher and get it on the grill. Slice it up a little and salt it real good.

(picture not for the vegan or animal lover...sorry)

Step Two: Cook Pig - This requires about 10 hours (typically overnight) which means very little sleep and a lot of beer.

This picture was from when my brother convinced Brett to bring the grill to Greenville and cook one at my parent's house. I think the entire neighborhood smelled of bbq (which was pretty glorious.)

Step Three: De-bone Pig
Step Four: Chop up Pig
*I'm never awake to see steps three and four so let's go ahead and skip ahead shall we...

Step Five: Sauce Pig - Brett has taken over his dad's job of making the sauce. There is no real recipe here; just a lot of pouring and testing. He uses an apple cider vinegar base with brown sugar, ground red pepper, honey, bourbon, salt and apple juice. (I may be looking at a divorce if that is incorrect) This happens about 3-4 times before it's ready for eating.

Step Six: Eat Pig - Throw in some mac and cheese, rice and gravy, green beans and banana pudding and you are all set for a perfect Southern Pig-Pickin'!

So glad we were able to get the family together for such a special occasion and I look forward to many more birthdays and pigs with the Owens family!

Now, who's hungry?? I know Brinkley is!

He never goes too far from the grill.

A few pictures of the party: