Everyone gathered far and wide to enjoy Aldo's famous wood bbq. We had guests from as far away as Bundanoon and Aldo didn't disappoint. Firstly Aldo built a great fire from his wood off cuts, then he let it die down to coals. This is the best time to start cooking as there is no hot flames to burn the meat.

The smoke from the wood flavoured the meat beautifully giving the meat a lovely smoked flavour.

If you hadn't guessed it already Aldo is my father in law!

at Zibbibo Restaurant

An excellent night was had by all at our Otway Pork Dinner. The food was superlative and the company was sensational!. The cream of West Pymble was brought together to enjoy some of our local chef talent, namely Salvatore and his excellent kitchen staff!.

The Easter weekend was spent with my family doing what I love but in the simplist form, wood fired cooking! Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Sausages and Bacon were all cooked on our camp fire. Hot coals were taken away from the fire and added to a separate cooking area where we had a grill set up. Chicken legs were basted in oil, crushed garlic, mixeded herbs, lemon juice, salt & pepper then cooked very slowly on the wood grill. Comments from the children were " yum Dad" and "more please Dad" unfortunatley there was no more left.

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Craig's Butchery had its first introduction into the Holy Family School Christmas market. We didn't know what to expect but we did know that we had lots of fans of our Ham after the market!. Even the school children kept comiing back to taste and re-taste our famous Leg Ham.

Craig was joined by a sales representative Jason who did a fabulous job giving out samples of his Moist Fruit cakes and Puddings. We even had Craig & Jason doing a (Jamie Oliver) inspired cooking demonstration! The "Artise Meat Rubs"were so popular we sold out within 20 minutes! Even an almightly thunderstorm during the night couldn't keep the punters away. The most humbling part for Craig was when a retired butcher from the UK turned up to try his Smoked Ham. Very sceptical to start with he was full of praise after trying Craig's own Smoked Ham. Craig puts the quality of his ham down to a more hands on approach to Ham production plus the Otway pork supply that he uses exclusively to make the ham.

Good food, good conversation & lots of goodwill was the only way to describe Luke's dinner talk. The event saw over 100 guests gathered together to listen to and be inspired by Luke's amazing adventure through Eastern European

Luke made a grand entrance by riding into the venue fully decked out with all the gear he took on the trip. more...

For "My Kitchen Rules" contestant Bella Jakubiak, "that" incident with the moth last week is one she would rather forget.
"It flew down my top," she says with a shudder.
"I hate moths and I hate cockroaches and things that fly."
Horrible it may have been, but it showed exactly why the sisters are tipped to win the second series of the hit Channel 7 show when it concludes next Tuesday.

A crowd of cycling fans gathered at Craig's Butchery to enjoy some Champagne, Food and banter about The Tour

Catherine Christadoulou was the winner of our cookware set and is seen here receiving her prize from Craig. Catherine is a long standing customer and has enjoyed Craig's good meat for almost 20 years!!
Catherine's family is looking forward to many good meals courtesy of her new cookware set and of course Craig's great meat!!!!

 
Ten customers discovered some interesting and tempting new cuts and enjoyed Craig's hospitality at at our Butchery Workshop recently.

NEW! Gift Cards for Christmas Gifts - $25. To book a workshop:

Online Shop

In Februaray 2013 Craig's Butchery was nominated for the Annual Australian Bicycling Achievement Awards in two categories!

1. Special Initiative or Event to Promote Cycling category, and 
2. Cycling Friendly Business Award category

Copies of correspondence:

Cycling Friendly Business Award Nomination

Cycling Event Award nomination

After a successful ride this year in Victoria riding the Alpine Classic, Craig is setting some fundraising targets for Camp Quality through riding his bike. Craig has set a target of 2,000km for the month of March and is asking for help to reach his goal of $720. Camp Quality supports children aged up to 15 years old dealing with cancer. Camp Quality provides kids, their siblings and parents with exciting experiences, education, specialised care in a supportive environment at camps and retreats.

In January 2013 Craig rode in the "Alpine Classic in Victoria" to help raise money for the Kids Cancer Project. This foundation funds research into children's cancer cures.

This cycle ride will take Craig over four mountain passes and a distance of over 250 kilometres in one day.
Already Craig has completed fund raising rides in N.S.W. for Multiple Scerosis and rides in Victoria for the Smith Family . He was attempting his first Alpine Classic in 2009 when disaster struck, Craig shattered his left clavicle(collarbone) cutting short his preparation and therefore ruining his Alpine Classic attempt.

This year Craig returns to hopefully complete his third Alpine Classic, but he needs your support!. To encourage our brave cyclist over these passes you can support him by contributing to his fund raising website or by funding his tally sheet in the shop!.Every dollar counts as Craig pedals over mountain summits and toils away for over 12 hours!!!!!.

If you have ever seen someone suffering from cancer you wil understand how distressing it is to see a young child suffering from a life threatening illness. It not only puts the child into great stress but it sends a family into total disarray. Craig would like to help support the Kids Cancer Project by doing this difficult ride and hopefully getting some support from people with a generous pledge.
If you can and you would like to support Craig or checkout his latest blog you can click on the link to Craig's fund raising page

www.everydayhero.com.au/craigs_butchery_cancer_busters

To learn more about this ride in Victoria or enter yourself go to www.alpineclassic.com.au/

This weekend in NSW Masters Cycling, Craig ventured out to the former Olympic Sydney Regatta Center at Penrith. Every 12 months Auscycling(the National body for cycling) organise State Championships for Masters cyclists in generally 3 different diciplines. Time Trial(race against the clock), Criterium(circuit race) and Road Race. 

Craig rides for Northern Sydney Cycling Club and races in the Masters 6 age category. Today Auscycling organised the Criterium Championships on a tight rectangular course right beside the lake. 

Just to set the stage, riders converge from all over NSW to take part with former Olympians, National Champions and former professionals rocking up in hope to claim the State title as NSW Criterium Champion! No mean feat you might say but Craig has been closely following a very strict training plan under the watchful eye of a former professional cyclist.

Out of 21 starters in a combined age race Craig finished 1st in his age group and first overall! 

Craig goes by the alias 'Craig the Butcher' on his Stava account and on this occassion he literally carved up his opposition.

The question was asked by Luke at work on Saturday "Do you think you can win? You haven't raced much this year have you?"

This question was still in my head when I turned up to race at Beaumont Road, Mount Kuring-Gai. Our club championships are held annually and are graded according to age. If you didn't know I'm over 40 so into the"Old Farts" bunch I went.

This years race held special significance as we had a minute silence for one of our club members who was cruely taken by cancer. Robert Hodgson was only young but a promising career in cycling was to be expected. Unfortunatly this was not to be as he was recently diagnosed with cancer of the spine and fought bravely.

The scene was set for the race and the goal was to gain as many points as possible from 3 intermediate sprints and big points given for the sprint finish. Yours truly managed a fourth for the first sprint(out of the points). Then I managed to win the next for full points. The last intermediate sprint I scored 2nd for more points. In the mean time another rider had scored more points than myself and we were heading for a show down going into the final sprint finish. Fortune was shining on myself as we hit the last corner. I heard my main rival shout a swear word and I noticed hit rear tyre looking a little deflated. He had a flat on the last lap and was now out of the race. This left myself and Dan to contest as we both had scored well during the race.

Coming into the last sprint I knew I had to score well to get over Dan. I had left myself alot of work to do as I was a long way back coming into the sprint. As we closed in on the line I pushed past a number of riders but Dan was still dangling of the front. Dan just got the better of me and I picked up 2nd best points. I didn't know if I had got the points or not and waited patiently for the results. Phil the cycling official looked at me and said "You won" by 1 point!

And so I was true I had managed to win the Club Championship for the Masters Category!

I guess the answer to Luke's question is Yes!

Craig with the prize winners from Beaumont road race. Great to see plenty of competition this morning willing to give their all to win our prize Winning Hams. Congratulations to Michael Potter A-Grade and our B & C Grade Winners. Special Congrates to Chris Yeomans who picked up 2nd place in C-Grade.