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Trying something completely new for me: smoking meat. I’ve never done it, but for some reason became sightly curious about it recently. Maybe something to do with living in Kansas City. Browsing around I saw a smoker on sale for $199 – and it has Bluetooth! The GrillMaster 320G. Stainless Steel with a glass window in the door. Some smokers have windows, most don’t. The reviews on windows were mixed, with some people liking them, and others saying they get smoked up and you can’t see through them. I like to watch, so I went for it. After finishing the assembly, the first step is seasoning with a test run while empty, just a 1/2 cup of hickory chips. I could see the smoke very easily inside the chamber, and didn’t think the window would become uncleanable or opaque with time.

Saturday Jude and I rode our bikes down to Whole Foods and picked up two racks of pork baby back ribs, 2.7 lbs at 9.99/lb. It was a gorgeous day, and it was fun to ride with him along the path under the trees, and teach him to ride on the right hand side, how to stop at the street crossing and check both ways. He’s six.

I should have spiced the ribs overnight with a rub, but it was a busy day, so I decided to get to it first thing in the morning.

I took the ribs out of the fridge and let them sit while mixing the rub together.

Rub

1 Tbl Onion powder
1 Tbl Garlic powder
1 Tbl Salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
5 Tbl Cane Sugar (Brown Sugar)
1/2 Tbl Chili Powder
3 Tbl Smoked Paprika

Remove the fine membrane on the underside of the ribs. It was a little hard to grab at first, but once you get it, you can use a bit of paper towel to keep a grip.

Remove any excess liquid from the meat with a paper towel and sprinkle on the rub. Rub on whatever will stick to the meat. I used about half of what I made. I wrapped the ribs back up and put them in the fridge for an hour (normally they’d sit with the rub for 2-4 hours or overnight).

I warmed up the smoker to 230. Placed 3 cups of apple juice in the liquid tray, apple wood in the smoke chamber, and put the ribs each on a separate rack. I was using a method called the 3-2-1 method. The idea is to cook them for 3 hours uncovered, then wrap them in foil with orange juice and barbecue sauce (1/4 cup of each) for 2 hours, then the last hour open, with just a brushing of sauce.

They came out tender, just about falling off the bone, and yummy.

I finally seem to have found a quick recipe for good meatballs that makes just enough for us, with not too many ingredients, can be made in just a few minutes, and are pretty tasty.

Simple Meatballs

1/2 lb ground round
1/2 lb ground veal
a few squirts of Worcestershire
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1 tsp salt
1 egg
basil
oregano
pepper

 
bake 10 minutes at 425 F

You can serve them with spaghetti and red sauce or bolognese, and then use the leftovers for meatball sandwiches.

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Tonight menu: Blackened Tilapia with rice, roasted cauliflower & chopped salad w/avocado.
Frozen tilapia fillets from Costco. Thaw in a bowl of cold water.
Blackened Tilapia

1 Tbls Smoked paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne (i have little kids)
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper
coat fillets with spice mix. Place in pan with hot oil 
and cook ~3 minutes on each side, until fish is done.

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower. Wash, cut into large florets, then slice florets when possible into 1/4 inch thick slices. throw it all into a bowl and coat with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of turmeric. Mix it all around by hand, spread it around onto a cookie sheet and bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Flip with spatula after 15 minutes.
Rice: chop green onions, saute in oil. Add orzo, pasta bits, rice. Stir around. add chicken broth, salt, simmer until done.

I think I finally found an iced tea recipe/protocol that I like. I use a mix of hot and cold brew. It can be ready in a reasonable time, and you can decide how long you want it to brew for. I make it a liter at a time. I store it in a glass bottle in the fridge, and I found a liter canning jar that is useful for brewing.

15 grams tea (0.5 ounce)
25 grams honey
25 grams sugar
35 ounces water

chill 20 oz of water in the canning jar
Boil 8 oz of water
throw in the tea and turn off the heat after a few seconds
brew for 1 minute.
pour the cold water into the pan
and then transfer back to the glass jar
finish brewing the tea
at room temp or in the fridge for an hour or two
strain the tea mix into the bottle
make a simple syrup with honey and sugar using the final 8 oz of water
add it to the bottle
chill and serve
For the last step, I heat the water in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, place it on a scale and squeeze in 20-25 grams of honey. Once that is dissolved, I add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
For Yerba Mate, I might also add a few teaspoons of lemon juice.
I started making these iced teas after stopping at the Spice of Life tea shop in St. Cloud Minnesota where they have a huge selection of fresh teas. For instance, the Paradise Fruit & Berry Blend, has apple, papaya, elderberry, red currant, raspberry, strawberry and hibiscus. I didn’t want to drink it hot. But I remember making a hibiscus based tea when I worked at Seychelles restaurant in Snata Cruz in the 80’s so I figured I’d make an iced version and it turned out great. A nice bit of unique pleasing flavor, different than the usual array of commercial drinks to offer people with dinner.

I hate it when something simple takes years to achieve. These days, I’ll take any simple pleasures I can get, and this was an easy one.
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to make my own enchilada sauce. It’s always been a mystery to me that comes only from a can. And yet, there’s something luscious and familiar and screaming “I’m homemade” when I eat enchiladas from Rudys. The sauce is dark and very specific to Rudy’s – I’ve never tasted a sauce like it at any other Mexican restaurants.
I know from making chili sauce for Tamales that I can use dried peppers and a blender to make a nice thick flavorful sauce if I can just figure out what else to put in it. Here’s what I tried:

1 Ancho chile
3 gaujillo chiles
2 New Mexico chiles
6 California chiles
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Break up the dried chiles and remove the stems and seeds. Tear or chop them into pieces and place them in a pan. Roast for 1-2 minutes with heat, but don’t let them smoke or burn. Add 2 cups chicken broth and and bring liquid near boiling but just get it hot and then turn off heat and let them sit for 20 minutes until then get soft and swell in the liquid.
Add the soft mix to a blender. Add cumin, salt, and sugar, and blend to a fine puree (add water or broth if too thick).
Heat 2 Tbl oil in a pan and add 1 Tbl flour. As the flour is sizzling, stir in the sauce. until it starts to bubble. Add more liquid to get the desired consistency.
Even with three cups of added liquid, I found I could have added another half cup of water, as the sauce was still thick, but it did a wonderful job of coating the tortillas while making enchiladas, and when I topped the enchiladas, it was thick enough that it didn’t run down the sides. So even though it was thick, it worked well and had good working consistency.
I made 8 cheese enchiladas (cheddar cheese, black olives, white onions, baked at 425 F, 25 minutes) and had about a cup of sauce left over.
The sauce tasted pretty good, but was a little bitter. Not sure what it was missing.

“Momma’s iPad smells like the inside of an airplane!” exclaims Jude from the couch with giant headphone on his head as he watches youtube on the little red-leather covered device, holding it to his nose every few minutes.
Yesterday I made baked bean, or barbecue beans, not really sure what the difference is. They’re baked and barbecue tasting, and contains some leftover barbecue meat. Here’s what I did:
Soaked 1/2 lb of red beans, and 1/2 lb Great White Northern beans in water over night, with a sprinkle of salt.
The next day, sliced 5 or 6 strips of bacon, and cooked in the cruset. Removed bacon and added a diced onion (yellow or white, or in my case, leftover pieces form both) to the bacon grease. As the onions turned translucent I added 2-3 cloves of diced garlic. Just before the onions were starting to brown, I rinsed the beans and added them to the pot. Along with almost a quart of chicken stock. I brought it to a boil, and added 2 teaspoons of salt (on the edge of just right – maybe a little too much). Added back the bacon and let it simmer for an hour.
On the 4th I spent the day installing a bike rack on the Volvo before visiting a friend of mine with the boys for some barbecue. She was busy packing for our trip so he had given me a plate of barbecue for Kim. Not a big meat eater, his generosity meant plan B. I stuck it in the freezer and thought “baked beans!” After thawing the meat: three ribs and a bratwurst sausage, I added it to the pot.
Then added 1/2 cup dark brown sugar.
Then made the sauce:
1 cup ketchup
1 Tbl tomato paste
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbl dijon mustard
1 Tbl Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp liquid smoke
1-2 tsp barbecue rub we had in the cupboard.
added it to the pot, stirred placed into oven at 300 F for 3 hours. Sprinkled a little tobasco, and voila! Baked beans! They were yummy.

Corned Beef for dinner with cabbage and potatoes. Kim ate earlier. The boys didn’t really like it. Alec didn’t like the consistency, but he liked the cabbage. Earlier, Jude had asked what corned beef tastes like. I told him it tastes kind of like hot dogs. When I gave him a little taste before dinner he said, “You’re right Papa, it does taste like hot dogs.” But then at dinner he didn’t really like it.
It was a 2.8 lb brisket. I got it on sale at Price Chopper just over a month ago for 6 bucks. Took it out of the bag, gave just a quick rinse, as the liquid was really goopy. Placed it into a baking dish, fat side up. Coated the top with the seasoning packet, and then ground pepper over that. Covered with heavy duty foil and placed into a 325 F oven, for 2 & 1/2 hrs. For the last 1/2 hour I took the foil off. Poking it with a fork, it gave no resistance, so I knew it was done. I had been worried, because I didn’t start it until 3:30, and with 3 hrs of cooking at a minimum, there was no room for error. It turned out good however. I took it out of the oven, and let it rest while I boiled the potatoes and prepared the cabbage. I ended up cutting a half cabbage into 4 wedges that I seared in the large iron skillet with olive oil. After flipping them searing on the opposite side and sprinkling with kosher salt and a little ground pepper, I added a 1/2 cup water and let them steam for a few minutes before rubbing butter around the outside.
Jude and I spend most of the day together, as Alec had a birthday party to attend at Sky Zone. We went to the park. It was 60 degrees out. I was wearing shorts, but a sweater and my black levi jacket. Jude played while I fumbled with some new bluetooth headphones that I plan to use with my Apple watch. We stopped by work to confirm that my wedding ring wasn’t there. Which means that Jude likely took it off the window sill and lost it somewhere. Jude wanted Goodcents for lunch, so we rode out bikes as the Art Fair was still in full swing, and traffic was a mess. We ate out at a table in the cool air.

Unlike yesterday, this morning it actually was 26 F. Super Hero Tights (Baleaf Men’s Thermal Cycling), shorts, Cotton T-shirt, Merino Dri-release thermal top baselayer, heavy black sweatshirt, gloves, hat. I wasn’t too cold, and wasn’t too hot. I ran 1.7 miles, and took my hat off 1 block from the house.
For dinner, I made a stir fry but decided to try something new. I vowed not to buy a stir fry sauce. The fridge is always full of bottles of old sauce that I’m not sure if I can use or not, as they’ve been sitting there for ages. Any chef worth their salt could probably whip up a little sauce fresh that would rival anything that can be bought in a mystery bottle. Of course, I don’t really know what goes into a stir fry sauce, and as I was walking the isles of the market, my resolve almost crumbled as I was running a little behind. For just a few dollars I could solve my problem, but leave a relic in the fridge that would pester me. I don’t usually cook with chicken but I bought I chicken tenders and some fresh Chinese noodles. At home I cleaned up the left overs of the produce box. The 3 chicken tenders weighed in at about 1/2 pound. I sliced and fried them in oil with a little salt, and just towards the end I sprinkled on some Chinese five spice and removed the from the pan.
1/2 pound chicken
1/2 onion
3 little carrots
4 medium stalks of celery
4 mushrooms
red bell pepper
5 large flourettes of broccoli cut into smaller quarters (just over 1 cup)
some fresh ginger
1 spoon of black bean/garlic sauce
soy sauce
2 tsp corn starch/2 tsp water
For desert I made strawberry crepes with whipped cream.
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbl white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
whisk by hand for 2-3 minutes until it gets thick and stiffens up.
1/4 strawberries, mix with some sugar
place them on a crepe, add some whipped cream and role up.
top with a nice dollop of whipped cream
garnished each with 3 slices of an Anjoue pear

I slept through my 6:30 run time this morning. The weather report said it would by 26 degrees, and I was slightly depressed anyway, so I needed the sleep. But when I awoke, the temperature was 33, and I regretted believing the weatherman. The morning was free, so after a few hours of work, I slipped out for a haircut, and then home to run. It as about 34 degrees. I wore my super hero tights, but forgot to put on my shorts. Upper body: cotton T-shirt, thermal long sleeve pullover, grey cotton long sleeve pullover, gloves, and cap. I wasn’t too hot, nor too cold. Once or twice the sun came out and I could feel the heat on my legs. That doesn’t happen when I run before sunrise. Pace 8:11, distance: only 1.4 miles. It was only my second run of the year, I’m hoping to get the habit going regardless of temperature.