The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of: - $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa - $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil - $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri - $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!) - $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California - $1 million for ornamental fish research Funny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!

Raising a pig for meat is easy to do, even in a small space like a suburban backyard. In just five months, a 30-pound shoat will become a 250-pound hog and provide you with more than 100 pounds of pork, including tenderloin, ham, ribs, bacon, sausage, and more. Homegrown Pork covers everything you need to know to raise your own pig, from selecting a breed to feeding, housing, fencing, health care, and humane processing. Invite all your friends over for a healthy and succulent pork dinner!

A Chinese woman embarks on a dream-like journey through Beijing, Tibet, and mysterious worlds beyond in this novel of “startlingly original imagination” (Guardian, UK). One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband dead in their half-full bathtub. Like something out of a dream, Jia Jia discovers a pencil sketch of a strange watery figure next to the tub. The mysterious drawing launches Jia Jia on an odyssey across contemporary Beijing, from its high-rise apartments to its hidden bars, as her path crosses some of the people who call the city home, including a jaded bartender who may be able to offer her the kind of love she had long thought impossible. Unencumbered by a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia travels into her past in search of unspoken secrets. Her journey takes her to the high plains of Tibet, and even to a shadowy, watery otherworld. An atmospheric evocation of middle-class urban China, An Yu’s Braised Pork explores the intimate strangeness of grief, the indelible mysteries of unseen worlds, and a young woman’s empowering journey of self-discovery.

Inspired by her beloved blog, dinneralovestory.com, Jenny Rosenstrach’s Dinner: A Love Story is many wonderful things: a memoir, a love story, a practical how-to guide for strengthening family bonds by making the most of dinnertime, and a compendium of magnificent, palate-pleasing recipes. Fans of “Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond, Jessica Seinfeld, Amanda Hesser, Real Simple, and former readers of Cookie magazine will revel in these delectable dishes, and in the unforgettable story of Jenny’s transformation from enthusiastic kitchen novice to family dinnertime doyenne.

"Like Bubba Gump and his shrimp, I have a million ways to cook pork because I love it so much. If I had only one animal to eat forevermore, I would eat pigs. You could have a pork chop one day, pulled pork another, and cured bacon the next day, and they’d all taste completely different. You can't do that with chicken. Chicken tastes like chicken no matter what part of the animal you eat. And I love beef and lamb, but they don't have the amazing versatility of pork. Pork can be the star of the show or a background flavor. But no matter where it shows up, pork is always welcome on my table." ---from the introduction, Kiss a Pig On Bravo TV's season six of Top Chef, Kevin Gillespie became known for his love of pork. He literally wears it on his sleeve with his forearm tatoo. His first book, Fire in My Belly, a James Beard Award finalist, included his famous Bacon Jam. Now he shares his passion and love of pork in a book devoted entirely to the subject. Pure Pork Awesomeness celebrates pork's delicious versatility with more than 100 easy-to-follow recipes. Dig into everything from Bacon Popcorn and Bourbon Street Pork Chops to Korean Barbecued Pork Bulgogi, Vietnamese Spareribs with Chile and Lemongrass, and Banoffee Trifle with Candied Bacon. Organized like the pig itself, recipes use every cut of pork from shoulder and tenderloin to pork belly and ham. Find out how to buy the best-tasting pork available, differences among heritage breeds of pigs, and what to do with new cuts like "ribeye of pork". . . all from a witty, talented chef who knows the ins and outs of cooking pork at home.

Discover fresh, Nordic family cooking with this book from Noma co-founder Claus Meyer. With its focus on good, seasonal ingredients and lightness of touch, Nordic cuisine is perfect family food. In this book, Claus Meyer brings the ethos that built Noma into the world's best restaurant into the home with easy-going, accessible dishes that will fit seamlessly into family life. The book is divided into four seasonal chapters so that you can get the most from the food and flavours in season. There are also features on food from the wild, including chanterelles, dandelions and blackberries. With recipes including Creamy Root Vegetable Soup with Crispy Bacon, Braised Pork Cheeks with Beer and Plum Vinegar, Pan-fried Mullet with Cucumber and Peas in Dill Butter and Rhubarb Cake you can bring the delicious flavours of the Nordic countries into your own kitchen.

This rattling good yarn has now been made into a major movie: Hunt For the Wilderpeople, directed and written by Taika Waititi, and starring Sam Neill and Julian Dennison. When Social Welfare threatens to put Ricky into care, the overweight Maori boy and cantankerous Uncle Hec flee into the remote and rugged Ureweras. The impassable bush serves up perilous adventures, forcing the pair of misfits to use all their skills to survive hunger, wild pigs and the vagaries of the weather. Worse still are the authorities, determined to bring Ricky and Uncle Hec to justice. But despite the difficulties of life on the run, a bond of trust and love blossoms between the world-weary man and his withdrawn side-kick.

From the experts at Jarden Home Brands, makers of Ball canning products, comes the first truly comprehensive canning guide created for today's home cooks. This modern handbook boasts more than 350 of the best recipes ranging from jams and jellies to jerkies, pickles, salsas, and more-including extender recipes to create brand new dishes using your freshly preserved farmer's market finds or vegetable garden bounty. Organized by technique, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving covers water bath and pressure canning, pickling, fermenting, freezing, dehydrating, and smoking. Straightforward instructions and step-by-step photos ensure success for beginners, while practiced home canners will find more advanced methods and inspiring ingredient twists. Thoroughly tested for safety and quality by thermal process engineers at the Fresh Preserving Quality Assurance Lab, recipes range from much-loved classics — Tart Lemon Jelly, Tomato-Herb Jam, Ploughman's Pickles — to fresh flavors such as Asian Pear Kimchi, Smoked Maple-Juniper Bacon, and homemade Kombucha. Make the most of your preserves with delicious dishes including Crab Cakes garnished with Eastern Shore Corn Relish and traditional Strawberry-Rhubarb Hand Pies. Special sidebars highlight seasonal fruits and vegetables, while handy charts cover processing times, temperatures, and recipe formulas for fast preparation. Lushly illustrated with color photographs, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving is a classic in the making for a new generation of home cooks.

“Pork. The Other White Meat.” The well known National Pork Board slogan doesn’t begin to describe the many types of meat that fall under the umbrella of “pork.” The most versatile of meats, pork ranges from the rich, delicate succulence of a roast loin to the dry, salty assertiveness of pancetta and bacon. Since the Roman Empire, it has also been the most widely eaten meat—it formed the high point of Roman feasts and was the mainstay of the traditional working class diet in Europe and North America. Pork: A Global History follows the transition of pork from fashionable food to popular fare while also exploring the many edible parts of a pig and ways they are prepared. Katharine Rogers depicts how pork stopped being featured at aristocratic banquets and in high-end cookbooks as it became associated with the lower and middle classes. She explains how European settlers brought pork to the Americas and that barrel pork, kept submerged in a barrel of brine, was a staple of working class people in the United States. While roast suckling pig remains the most luxurious form of pork, Rogers reveals that people also use pig’s blood to make black puddings, its tail to flavor soups and stews, and its fat for frying and as a pastry shortening. Beautifully illustrated and filled with recipes from around the world, Pork will be a necessary addition to the bookshelf of any lover of bacon, sausage, and pork chops.