I started back in April setting the beer and the Mother up to make my own Malt Vinegar. Today I checked and we have generated a set of two full Mothers and now it was time to drain off some, pasteurize and prepare for the next batch.

First I drained off 3/4 of the vinegar and discarded the mother. This process pretty much chased my kids from my house, "The Mother is Gross Dad!" and "It stinks in here". Ahh the first benefit of putting up vinegar is realized, the noise is gone.

Then we heat the vinegar to exactly 155 degrees Fahrenheit and hold it there for 35 minutes.

Then filter the pasteurized vinegar through multiple brown coffee filters to clarify. I then cleaned the vassal and put the strained remainder of the original 1/4 of the vinegar with the Mother so I can add the fresh beer for our next batch.

I will update with a post after we condition the vinegar and do the final bottling for the aging.

My passes arrived today and I have been planning my days. If you are going be sure to let me know, I will be there all three days and I will buy you a drink!

Here are my recommendations...

• SATURDAY
• DeVotchKa, The Gourds, The Shins, Gogol Bordello!!!, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Avett Brothers, Aqueduct, I Love Led Zeppelin, Wing-It Productions (Improv), Anything at the Comedy Stages

• SUNDAY
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Kings of Leon, Barrington Levy, The Holmes Brothers, Andrew Bird, Devendra Banhart, The Trucks, Taylor Mac, Bloodhag, Greta Matassa Quartet, John Wesley Harding, Nick Drake Words & Music, The Outer Limits

• MONDAY
• Josh Stone, Adrian Xavier, Robbie Laws, Alison Moorer, The Damnwells (Thanks John!), Steve Earle, Schoolyard Heroes, PNB, Joan as Police Woman

Everything is at the Bumbershoot site and they dive into every band. The Weekly has a decent site dedicated to their picks and for the edgier recommendations check out "The Stranger" picks (remember the Stranger is NSFW most of the time, so be cautious).

This Friday I had the fun of attending a leadership workshop at the Inn at the Market and being involved in the celebration of 100th year birthday of the Pike Place Market. They cordoned off all the main streets to the market, close Western and set up a big stage at the park. I arrived down there early around 7am and I always love the Market early in the morning with everything being setup and the food arriving, the stalls being put together, it is a unique thing in an urban setting.

I have mixed feeling about all the obnoxious art pigs decorated throughout the Market area, some are pretty creative, but Pigs belong in front of Salumi and the Seattle City Council Politicos offices, but I intensely dislike them as a representative of Seattle culture and artistic expression. It was funny to see this Pig on top of the Market implying that Pigs can fly or at least sting your ass. But the pigs are stupid. Put some shellacked meat art up by David Lynch!

The market was packed as we headed out in the afternoon and walked the market, checked it all out and stopped to get my autographed JP Patches picture. I was on his show when I was four years old!

You can watch the concert at the Victor Steinbrueck park featuring members of Pearl Jam, The Presidents of the United States, Danger Mouse, etc., at this link (requires Real Player) and a lot of the rocking stuff is at the end with McCready doing Little Wing and the Star Spangled Banner.

How good were they? Well in my concert score they were awesome and tight, a 9 out of 10. I see a lot of music and bands perform thus I get to see many great musicians. This band of superstars with Nels Cline (reviewed here) on guitar and Glen Kotche (reviewed here) on drums with the extraordinary front man, Jeff Tweedy and they blew me away. My only complaint is that the sound system is lame, great presence and clarity, but no power or pressure. Still an amazing night, great weather, wonderful friends and the "snuck in" Rum Cocktails, ahh. It was good. Plenty of recent shows you can download legal as Wilco supports fan recording.

There is a quiet revolution going on with food for those who can afford it. Carnivores are benefiting from increasing diversity of breeds that are being raised for their specific characteristics versus the typical American approach of homogeny based on price. I have been ordering meats exclusively from Heritage Foods USA for the last several months and we are adapting how we eat meat in the Jordan house. The main change is we are more aware of seasonal and availability of specialty products and order accordingly. My recent purchases of steaks were for Piedmontese Rib Steaks and they are excellent.

They are described as...

Piedmontese breed of cattle originated in the foothills of northern Italy. Today, a network of family farmers are raising cattle naturally, on a pure vegetarian feed without the use of antibiotics and without added growth hormones. Production practices are specific to the breed. Piedmontese beef is comparatively healthy, with less fat and cholesterol than traditional beef.

Check these protein to fat statistics...

My experience with cooking these steaks is that you cannot tell that you are eating a Rib-Eye steak and if you are used to a typical store-bought Rib-Eye they often taste great because of the excessive fat (this is the main reason this beef cut is regarded for it's flavor) and now I realize that the excessive fat in typical steak is masking the true quality of the beef flavor. In comparison, the Piedmontese steaks have a smooth and "even" flavor that holds it own with just a little bit of fat in the overall steak. These really are amazing steaks and if you featured these in a BBQ, you would have people raving.