Pesto

Last night's dinner was simple, very quick to prepare and clean up, and quite tasty. This weekend I gathered up some big handfuls of basil from the garden and blended up a quick pesto. Last night I stirred it into a pot of linguine, and that was dinner. But it wasn't much to look at, and besides, it was eaten up so quickly that I didn't get a chance to take a picture before it was all gone.

Ribs!

Last night Tyler made his first foray into barbequing ribs. They cooked away, low and slow, for over 3 hours, and they were worth every second. They were smoky, spicy, salty and just slightly sweet from their rub, and moist, tender and falling-off-bone delicious from the long, indirect grilling.

Recipe:

2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon mustard powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons paprika
1 1/2 cayane pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

enough mustard to barely coat the ribs
1 rack of baby back ribs

1/2 - 1 cup apple juice

Rinse and pat the ribs dry. Wisk together the dry spices. Spread a very thin layer of mustard over the ribs, then rub in your spices. Wrap in foil and allow to marrinate, refrigerated, for about 2 hours.

Once the meat has had adequate time to marrinate, arrange coals on one side of a charcoal grill. While the grill gets ready, remove the ribs from the refrigerator. When the grill is ready, place the ribs on the opposite side of the grill, not directly over the heat, bone side down. Allow to cook slowly, rotating occasionally, until the internal temperature reaches 170. You will need to add fuel to keep the coals going, and keep and eye on the heat (you don't want it getting too hot or going out). Once the ribs are finished cooking cut them into individual rib sections and you can either add sauce or eat them as is, as they will have a lot of flavor from the rub.

To accompany the ribs we had tomatoes stuffed with bread crumbs, aged cheddar and basil (from the garden), and a mixed salad with the leftover marinated artichoke hearts and croutons made from the end of Saturday's baguette.

(Photos by Tyler)

What's for dinner?

Even though absolutely no one ever reads this blog, I've decided to use it to post photos of meals Tyler and I prepare. I'm hoping that this exercize will improve my photography skills, and perhaps encourage us to make more interesting dishes. Let's begin with last Saturday's dinner, shall we? We had chicken liver pate, cornishons, marinated artichoke hearts, baguette and a wine we first had on our trip to Sardinia last year.

the vet, etc.

This afternoon Tyler and I took our new baby kitten, and our sweet Jennie to the vet. After the appointment we were set to meet someone, and since we had quite a while to wait, we decided to have a beer at the pub next door. Since we had two animals with us, and they had outdoor tables, it seemed the perfect spot.

An older man was sitting alone at a large table, with a nice shady umbrella, and he invited us to sit with him. It was a kind and generous offer, and he didn't seem like too much of a crazy, so we thanked him, and sat down.

He was missing several teeth, and sitting in the heat so that he could smoke. He told us about his life, his family, and Philadelphia as he had experienced it; his father having been born a few blocks away on south street 105 years earlier. But the amazing thing was that he knew us so easily. When he asked Tyler what he did, he asked, 'so, are you an engineer?' Where we were from, 'Upstate New York?' what I did 'University of Penn? A secretary?' All of these were initial questions, we had never met him, or even spoken among ourselves in front of him, and all of them spot on (well, I have a fancier title, but, to a 70 year-old, yeah, secretary works). It was a little eerie. Or, maybe we are such a standard boring couple, that the assumption when you meet two people, carrying two cats, having a refreshing afternoon beer, you just have to assume, 'oh, yeah, engineer, UPenn, Central New York.'

Saturday morning haiku

slept in until noon
the cat washes her anus
going back to bed

People I've exposed myself to recently (or they've seen London, they've seen France)

So, I went to Princeton yesterday for my little pseudo-sister's graduation. As we were walking into the auditorium, right in front of the Newark Boy's Choir a big gust of wind came up behind us, lifting my skirt up into the air, almost over my head, exposing my very grown up, white cotton with lime green polka dots panties to a whole line up of adolescent boys.

Later, as we were walking to the car, I asked Tyler if I had at least had the dignity to avoid having a wedgie while my big potato ass was exposed to the assembled group of pre-pubescents. So, assured that he at least thought that my buttocks were mostly covered, (and that they were probably wondering what grade I was in, based on the aforementioned mature undies) I asked "why didn't you at least try to pull it down?" His reply, I swear, was - "I don't know, I was worried that some sort of crazy Animal House shit would happen. Like, I would try to grab a hem and the whole dress would come off, and then you'd be standing there naked."

Seriously. Right. Like he wasn't just enjoying getting a free peek.

ten things you will never find in my kitchen

You will never find these things in my kitchen:

• Canned fruits or vegetables
  
• Cool-whip
• Processed cheez food of any kind (whiz, spray, individually wrapped "singles.")
  
• Instant rice (Uncle Ben's, Minute Rice, etc.)
• Creepy processed meat products (bologna, pimento loaf, spam, Jeffu's canned toes, etc.)
  
• Ho-ho's, Ring-dings, Twinkies, etc.
  
• Crisco, margarine, butter substitutes of any kind
  
• Non-alcoholic beer
  
• Instant pudding
  
• Pre-chopped garlic
  

Things I never thought I would end up having in my house, but have, and they weren't that bad:

• Instant mashed potatoes (the frozen bag of potato pellets from Trader Joe's may sound unappealing, but they are actually really good if you make them with milk)
• Instant biscuit mix (I know, this is just gross, but sometimes if I want Tyler to help cook, I have to cut some corners)
• Instant coffee (not the Sanka shit or anything, but I do have some instant espresso that I've used for making ice cream)
• Chicken Stock (or broth) from a can (or box). Seriously, I do make my own, but somehow I always run out faster than I can make more, and frankly, I use a lot of stock for stuff, okay?
• Peeled garlic cloves - I bought these when I was making roasted chicken with 40 garlic cloves, and frankly, they are damned convenient. They taste pretty much the same as regular garlic, too.