When Dziadek was here a few years ago and built us a rural smoker, we expected we’d be using it much more often than we do. “Think of all the things we can smoke: turkey, chicken, pork tenderloin — all for great cold cuts that will be tastier and cheaper than anything we can buy.”

It was a glorious plan. An idea that lacked only a couple of a few several steps to the dream of complete food cold cut self-sufficiency. Soon, though, we’d be raising and slaughtering our own swine, harvesting our own salt from the sea to mix with our homegrown onions and herbs.

The business of life, though, got in the way.

Still, the infrequency — Christmas and Easter — heightens the savoriness.