Sunday Morning Food Porn

So, I am swimming in the Greenwood pool, and I engage in conversation with an attractive young blonde lady named Courtney, about food. (She is taller in real life than she looked in the pool). It turns out that she worked at a local Asian restaurant called Sake Grill. So Trish and Alison and I went there last night for dinner.

We liked it a lot.

They Got By With A Little Help From Their Friends

Firing up another man's grill for the first time is like being the first to sleep with his bride on the wedding night. It's just wrong. - Scotty Harris

Trish and I are picky about our friends, and for some reason they are mostly scattered far away - from Hudson, NY to Hudson, Ohio, and beyond. No knock to our other friends, but we seem to spend the most time with the ones in Hudson, Ohio.

We generally see Susan and Brian twice a year - New Year's there and in the summer either here or there. All you need to know is that when we get together we giggle from start to finish!

Their daughter Angela is a few months younger than Alison, and the three girls are fast friends. Just don't let them put on a show. Really. It's "like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick".

So when they called and asked for my help in doing BBQ'd ribs for 50 at a celebration of Angela's First Communion, it took me less than a millisecond to say yes. I was especially happy when he said he had arranged to rent a BBQ rig - 'cause I hate cooking on outdoor gas ovens.

Now Brian doesn't do things halfway. You can catch a glimpse of his landscaping work in the photos below, but they don't do his yard justice! He has created a waterfall that ends in a Koi pond. He has shifted tons of rock some for creating raised vegetable garden for Susan to till. He has cisterns to collect rainwater and uses that to irrigate the gardens. So I wasn't surprised to find about 80 pounds more charcoal than we'd use, and both a chimney starter and an electric starter. And I prepared the same way. A big batch of my dry rub. Four sauces - Standard KC, Vinegary (also used as a mop), mustardy, and a NY Grade B maple syrup and chipotle one.

But, he's going to use that charcoal. Friday morning, the "BBQ rig" was delivered. Long and about 6" deep. The kind you use to grill chickens on for a school or church fundraiser. I am not sure that I actually said "Houston, we've had a problem", but it was that kind of moment. We told the guys to put that thing back on the grill and went shopping. Brian had the brilliant idea of buying a floor model (no assembly) - we did so at Home Depot and rented a truck to get it home. (I love that he had to put $.25 worth of gas in the truck to return it!).

But, here's the thing. Susan had picked up a hunk of Prime rib eye that I carved into steaks. Brian had to go pick up his Brother and SiL for supper. He asked me to fire up his grill for the first time.

I couldn't do it. It was just wrong.

Dinner came out great, as did the BBQ. But that is another story!

Non Food Comic For Today

A Personal Matter

A friend of mine died yesterday after a long illness. His youngest daughter Kerri once impersonated my sister-in-law to get into my hospital room. His eldest, Amy - well Ralph could have ended up my father-in-law.

His memorial will be at the Millspaugh Camerato Funeral Home at 139 Jefferson Heights in Catskill Tuesday from 4-8. Masonic Service at 7:30.

The funeral will be Wed at 11am at Millspaugh, and internment in Cedar Park Cemetery in Hudson.

Memorial donations can be made to the Masonic Medical Research Lab or the Kiskatom fire department. To those friends wanting to send mail, I have addresses, but in the interest of privacy please email me at the contact address on my blog (View My Complete Profile).

Obit here.

Thanx!

The Herb Garden and Other Random Thoughts

HERB gardens don't grow overnight. Oh you can stick a plant in the ground, and have herbs to use through the summer, and the annuals don't really make it - even if you shake the seeds on the earth - but a true herb garden works on its own. It grows, it changes, it fights.

After 5 years its finally taking off. Forget about the culinary uses - it looks great. I will use it, preserve, make lots of vinegar for gifts. Don't worry, anything that isn't used for cooking is saved and used to add to aromatic smoke for BBQ and other smoking tasks.

Still, watching the honeybees in the chive flowers just makes me smile. I wonder where the hive is . . .



Ellie is becoming a real cook. She recreated her lemon/key lime meringue pie this week. But. this time we only had to provide her with pie pan and pie weights. She made, rolled and docked the dough, and made the custard filling and meringue. . We did assist in getting it in and out of the oven - but this was her baby.


Finally, if you like frog legs, maybe you should try raising them at home.

Food Comic For Today

Weekend Food Porn

It was a weekend filled with good food, starting with London Broil on Friday. That meant steak and eggs for breakfast. The girls were at the drive-in, so we enjoyed our favorite simple meal - a collection of cheeses, some cured sausages, a crusty batard, and a chilled Cava. While watching The Dark Knight and an Eddie Izzard concert on DVD.

This morning was the usual bagel breakfast with lox and mimosas.

So why do I bring you this information. Because among these great meals was a lunch on Saturday we will long remember. Ellie had been raving about Suzy-Q's Bar-B-Que Shack for weeks, and she is developing a taster to be trusted. You can see menu here, but it is an abridged one - it dosen't have the details, or the humor, of the actual menu.

All you need to know is stated on the real menu:

We SMOKE fresh every day. We will close earlier if we get hit hard and run out of fresh cooked BBQ. Your best bet is to call ahead, 'cause when it's gone it's gone, and so are we.

You walk in the door and smell the smoke, and are heartily welcomed. Ellie had the piglets. Trish the Lil' Hogger, and I had the Pulled Pork, Memphis style. Alison had grilled cheese. She is a work in progress.

It was wonderful. Great, now I have no excuse for not visiting my mother-in-law!