The 6 thousand of my hard earned salary on her ring finger (modest, but definitely turns heads) draws attention. I can afford to skimp on the cooking.:hihi:

smoking some ribs, sausage, and hamburgers today. brined the ribs for a hour last night in brown sugar, paprika, onion powder, and salt. rinsed the ribs in cold water and then applied my super-secret rub and wrapped the ribs in saran-wrap.

out of the fridge at 7:30 this morning with more rub and in the smoker at 8:15. smoker regulated at 225 degrees with chunks of hickory in the pan. apple juice & wine in the water pan. will cook meat side up for 3 hrs.

after 3 hrs, put the ribs in a shallow pan w/about a 1/4 inch of apple juice & wine, cover tightly w/aluminum foil and back in the smoker for 2 hrs.

after 2 hrs, remove from pan, back in smoker for 30 min, basting with the super-secret mopping sauce. hamburgers & sausage will go in the smoker w/some fresh hickory.

then finish on the grill, about 10 min each side. then pull hamburgers and sausage out of smoker & finish them on the grill.

add potato salad, baked beans and bread. remember to be humble when accepting applause

Red beans and rice, with sausage, and cornbread, and small salad tonight. Making a pretty big batch so there should be leftovers for a few days.

And talk about cheap? About $10. Two pounds of red beans, two pounds of sausage, 1.5 pounds of onions, garlic, seasoning, cornbread. Beautiful.

And as you can see in the pic, we're going DOUBLE BURNER BABY!

leftover pizza from lunch.

i had a slice of "white" pizza from a local place in astoria, and a broccoli roll thingamajig. white pizza is my second favorite type of pizza to get these days. it doesnt have any tomato souce on it and the cheese is different as well, i really dunno what it is, but i like it.

in the summertime i cant really bear to eat at anyplace that doesnt allow me access to the self-serve drink fountain.

i am also on a pretty serious chinese take-out streak. all i ever want to eat these days is moo shoo pork. at nicer places they have a chinaman come out with the little stand and roll up little snow cone shaped moo shoo pancake devices. the chinaman might occasionally be mexican.

Fresh broiled Copper River Coho salmon

Fresh steamed asparagus

Fresh San Francisco sweet French baguette with butter.

Light and satisfying. :thumb:

I must say that your grilling technique works really well. I picked up some ribs today for a "going-away party" for a friend on her way to grad school along with her fiancee. I used pork spare ribs which were less than ideal, but for 20 people baby backs can get expensive. I grilled them on low heat for about 6- hours and used a home-made BBQ sauce. The first rib bone or two was burned on either side of each rack, but the middle was very tender.

They definitely could have been better, and it wasn't due to the process; but rather the cook. Not bad though for the first time cooking a less than desirable cut with a brand new grill. The party guests raved over them, but they are less critical of my cooking than I am.

i dunno if you mean this literally, but it is a pretty widespread myth. you cant actually sear in the juices. searing tastes good, but not because it seals anything in.