Over the course of the past year I've been changing my cooking habits. It all started out easily enough, Josh grabbed Miracle Whip instead of mayo at the store one summer night when I'd grilled up some artichokes. The thought of dunking those prickly leaves in garlic-spiked Miracle Whip made my skin crawl a little so I pulled out the good old MTAOFC and whipped up some mayonnaise.

And let me tell you, if you've never had fresh, real mayonnaise it was life changing. Nothing like the gelatinous white stuff you find on the shelf at the Jewel, this was thick, creamy, pale yellow and full of flavor. And it cost about $0.15.

After that day I started looking at what I bought at the grocery store with a more critical eye. If homemade mayonnaise was so much better than store bought, what else was I missing out on for convenience sake? And really, the convenience factor is kind of a moot point for me, as I love food projects- sort of a combination of cooking and science, my favorite things.

Pasta was old hat for me, but I had some successes with a few new foods, my homemade butter and cheese were waaaaaaaay better than the store bought goods.

Here's where things might start to seem a little out there. A few years ago (turns out it was December 2005) I read an article in my favorite food porn mag, Food and Wine, about the so-called "comeback" of lard. For many years we've heard all about the dangers of lard, how fattening, how bad for you, and we all switched over to vegetable oil. But the thing is, we didn't know then what we know now, that vegetable oil is loaded with hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats. Turns out lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat and less cholesterol than butter and unlike margarines and vegetable shortenings, lard contains no trans fat. That's not to say that it's a health food; it's still loaded with fat and calories; it is fat after all, it's just, sort of good fat.

There is a catch; the lard you can buy in the grocery stores? Hydrogenated so it can sit on the shelves and not spoil.

So what to do? Well, if you're a science/cooking nerd like me I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious.

I called up a great butcher and ordered 10 pounds of pork fatback.

Read here for my lard making venture, and here to read about the pocket pies I made with said lard.