I’ve been at the Truchas Peaks Place the last week, at the Rio Hondo workshop with a group of my friends. For our first meal I provided a 16-pound Serrano ham complete with carving stand. The ham had been shipped from Iberia after spending 14 months curing in a Spanish cave.

Here’s what it looked like with the layer of fat removed and showing signs of my inexpert carving. I had bought a special Serrano-carving knife when in Spain a few years ago, but hadn’t had a chance to use it till now, and there was a steep learning curve.

That first meal was a Deusy. The main dish was sliced ham and Spanish chorizo with olives and Manchego and Iberico cheese. Side dishes included asparagus wrapped in ham, shrimp in a chorizo garlic sauce, and for dessert melon with slices of ham and a balsamic reduction. Served with a couple bottles of an unoaked Spanish white.

I’d been looking for an occasion to do this for years, but consuming an entire ham would have required a very large group of diners— and indeed despite the big dinner and slices being carved for meals and snacks over the next week, we managed to consume only about half the edible bits. The rest is now in a box in my living room, and I plan to tackle it tomorrow. Some ham for ourselves, some for friends, some put in storage for another day.

And maybe the bone for soup. Mustn’t waste.

So after seven years with a Subaru WRX, I’ve gone and bought a new WRX. Upgunned with a 2.2-liter boxer engine that wouldn’t be complete without a ginormous turbocharger sitting on it.

My old car was in good shape, and a used WRX is always in demand, so I got a very nice price for it.

One obvious difference is the giant touchscreen of an entertainment/climate system sitting in the middle of the dashboard. I have only the slightest idea of how to work the thing. After some struggle I finally manage to get it to play a podcast off my iPhone.

Yes, I know I should look up the answers in the owner’s manual. But which owner’s manual? This beast comes with no less than FIVE owner’s manuals. And none of the questions I have seem to be addressed in any of the indexes. Maybe I can find some Youtube videos.

I’m going to do my best to avoid temptation for the first 5000 miles or so, and not succumb to the temptation to write it out on New Mexico’s exemplary mountain roads. But all I can say is, that temptation is certainly there.

We’re in a campaign to empty out the chest freezer, which contains a lot of stuff that I don’t remember buying, and the result for tonight was this pork loin roast cooked with potatoes, carrots, and onions. You could think of it as a one-pot meal if it weren’t for the fact that it’s in a pan, not a pot.

If I make this again I’ll cook the vegetables a bit ahead of time, since the vegetables that weren’t in the cooking liquid (mostly apple juice) came out hard, dry, and largely uncooked. So I scooped out the uncooked bits and put them in the microwave, and in the meantime enjoyed those elements of the meal that were properly cooked.

Tasty, addictive, and easy-peasy. I’ll be making this one again.