Beth and Doug were headed to Vietnam for a year. To wish them fair winds and happy travels, we put on a little dinner party. It also happened that I had just come back from Yakima with a fresh side of pork, along with some pork "accessories" (bones, head, some inside bits, etc.) which was a great excuse for some fun cooking. What follows was my attempt to say Goodbye with a pig. But first, cocktails: the Bees Knees, a prohibition era cocktail with gin, a honey simple syrup

Last spring I began keeping honey bees. I built a stout set of hive boxes, ordered a colony of italian honey bees, and waited anxiously for their arrival. Clad in a beekeeper's veil and gloves, I installed them into the waiting hive boxes, and watched excitedly throughout the spring and summer as the colony thrived and expanded. I added another hive box, then topped the stack off with two "supers" -- shallow boxes which the bees filled with honeycomb -- honeycomb filled wi