Ann, I will definitely take pictures. FOAS, No stranger just new friends LOL. DD & I didn't really follow any one recipe but we did write down items as we went along. I will post the BBQ sauce recipe in a separate thread. I also will serve some Bourbon Rhubarb BBQ Sauce that I canned early this year. I've posted that recipe before. dcarch, Thanks for the reminder. I need to dig out my insect screens to cover the food. We don't have much of a problem during the day but when the sun goes down, it gets buggy that's why we have the fire pit. Pray for a cool evening or buy stock in insect repellant. :-)

How clean is it? Pigs feet can be very hard to clean. If it is pretty clean, there are many Asian recipes for cooking it. It has a lot of collagen and connective tissue. The skin also has a lot of fat. This is one recipe from Grace Young's Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: 2 lbs ginger 4 lbs pig's feet, front trotters 1 lb pig's feet, back trotters one 20-oz bottle black vinegar one 21-oz bottle sweetened black vinegar 4 large eggs 3 slabs brown candy, about 6 oz (brown sugar slabs) 1-1/2 cups distilled white vinegar Using a paring knife, scrape the ginger to remove all the peel. Place ginger in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside. Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add all the pig's feet and return to a boil. Drain and rinse the pig's feet under cold water and draing. Using a disposable plastic razor, shave off any visible hairs on the skin. Rinse the feet under cold water and drain well. With a meat cleaver, chop the pig's feet into smaller pieces. Drain the ginger, discarding the water. With the side of a cleaver, smash the ginger and then cut into 1-inch thick chunks. IN a large non-reacive pot, combine the ginger and 6 cups boiling water. Bring to boil over high heat. Add the pig's feet and the regular black vinegar and return to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring the pot occsionally until the pig's feet are just tender enough to be poked easily with a knife, about 1 hour. Add the sweetened black vinegar and return to a boil, over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes. Remove pot from the heat and cool. REfrigerate and the following day, remove the hardened fat on top. The flavor is always better after 24 hours. Hard-boil the eggs and remove the shells. Add the hard-boiled eggs to the pig's feet and marinate 4 hours at room temperature. Cut each slab of brown candy into 3 to 4 pieces. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the brown candy and white vinegar and cook, stirring until the candy is dissolved and mixture is heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve piping hot (no more than 1-1/2 cups per person). A serving includes everything in the pot; be advised the ginger is very spicy). I hope that isn't too scary. I've made it several times, cutting the amount of ginger back to about 1/2 lb per 2 lbs of pigs feet. I also skip the eggs and use about 2-3 cups of black vinegar instead of both black and sweetened black vinegars. You can get this from Asian groceries. Basically the recipe is pigs feet, vinegar, sugar, lots of ginger. It's a traditional dish for women who are breastfeeding, but eaten by everyone! Cook long and slow until the pigs feet are falling apart. I don't know if I would do this for a single pigs foot, but I love the result. Cheryl

yup, they are very much like dogs...just way smarter!! they learn things with just one or two repetitions and they have great memories. they are also VERY attached to their humans and can be extremely affectionate. it took lilly quite a while to warm up to me but once she did, she got very sweet. now she, along with the others, seek me out for attention and tummy rubs when i'm out there. :)

thanks! i love my pigs, too, but sometimes they can be a little embarrassing. i have a bench out there that i sit on and they all line up for cookies. porkahontas has a perpetually dirty nose because she LOVES rooting in the sand, especially after a rain when it's wet. if she thinks i've given a cookie to one of the other pigs out of turn, she will bump my leg with her snout. invariably, she leaves a spot on my leg that's dirty sand. did you know that dirty sand kinda stains? yeah, it does! i brushed my leg off one day, thinking it was "just sand" and went to town for gas. while i was pumping gas, i looked down at my leg and there was a pretty sizable dirty spot...for all the world to see! i dunno...maybe i am part pig! :D