BACPEL BBQ

I had a great time at Julie and John’s annual barbecue last Saturday.

Julie Bacon and John Pelton=BACPEL Inc.! and what a duo they are!

These two really know how to put on a barbecue! They have this gorgeous piece of land on the Chiwaukum River (Chiwaukum is a Native American word meaning “place where many streams come together”), just before getting to Leavenworth off Highway 2. For 10 years now, I have heard about this special place they head out to every weekend in the summer, where they build a fire and sit and listen to the river rushing by, where the passage of time time slows down. Well, now I have experienced it! What a special place. They built a sweet log cabin on the property (along with a roofless outhouse perched on a hill). And they are completely off the grid.

I went over with Peter and Mary. We arrived and already John had chickens on a spit over hot coals as well as pork ribs, cornbread, baked beans, and collard greens cooking over various wood fueled stoves and barbecue “ovens”. I brought a vegetable salad and a fruit salad. I think I alone did most of the feasting on these last two items. John makes a mean barbecue sauce ranging from “mild” to “medium” to “hot”. I tasted the “medium” and I can’t imagine how hot “hot” could possibly be? John’s son Chase (fleeting by in the photo above) explained that the list of ingredients is so complex that it would take a long while to explain how the concoctions are made. Let’s just say that I tasted a hint of espresso in the barbecue sauce and Chase confirmed that I was right…that espresso coffee is one of the secret key ingredients. One day John accidentally spilled his espresso coffee into the batch of sauce he was making and it seemed to work out just fine and since then espresso has become one of the ingredients!

Julie and Mary below in front of the log cabin Julie and John built:

Pietro (Peter) with the Chiwaukum River flowing fast behind him:

The sun was shining for a while, but then dark clouds started in and before we knew it, just in time for the feast, thunder and rain hit! We all went under the blue tarps and happily ate while listening to the rain storm. Well, this is Northwest Washington after all and everyone knows that summer doesn’t feel like summer here until after the 4th of July.

Julie proudly showed us around. She has cleared paths throughout the property and has discovered a sweet brook and spring which is all mossy and pristine. She has simply enhanced the natural beauty of the land and her brook and spring now look like a Japanese garden. What an artist!

And Julie made her famous wild blueberry pies. She picks wild blueberries every year on her hikes, freezes the berries and these are the berries she used for these delicious pies! Thank you, Julie, for all your berry picking a pie making!

Julie and Cindy: