What are the “dog days of summer” anyway? I am not too sure, but I feel like we’re in them. HOT!! Just melting hot. Step outside and you want to go right back in. Unless you’re Quinn, then you lay on the concrete and soak it in. Odd puppy. Yeah, so that is my lead in excuse for “we didn’t do anything last weekend.” We had no plans, and nothing came up, so we just stared at the TV. Sunday was mildly productive. We got outside pretty early and assembled the little storage shed that has been sitting in pieces on the back patio for… A long time. Not entirely our fault. They shorted us one of the wall sections so there wasn’t much point in putting together the rest of it. The manufacturer shipped us a replacement piece, but by the time it got here the extreme heat had kicked in. But, it ain’t going to be any cooler for a while, so we finally got after it. We spent four hours putting that silly thing together. The instructions were like a book. A slow reading, poorly written book at that. At the end of the day, it looks sort of shed-ish though. Just a little spot to store the lawn mower and maybe a few other things. After that project we felt we’d earned a splurge, so we headed Into Town and got a big ol’ porterhouse steak at the butcher shop. Man, it was good. Don’t really remember the last time I had a porterhouse. As usual, the decision was driven by the sales, and it was pretty well discounted. Nice big 2.5 lb’er, it fed both of us and a decent sized lunch left over. I cooked it on the rather neglected Weber kettle, which was a good call. The wife deemed it “too smokey,” which I can’t really argue, but it was darn awesome all the same. Looking forward to firing the trusty kettle up again soon.

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That was a nice, relaxing weekend. Well, sort of. Donette headed up to Lake Tahoe with a big group to see the annual Celebrity Golf Tournament, while I stayed behind this year. Somebody had to watch the dogs, and I drew the short straw. Actually I was a willing volunteer, I just don’t enjoy the tournament that much. It’s hot, expensive, I don’t know many of the “celebrities,” and golf is probably the most boring spectator sport ever created. I always enjoy the activities outside of the tournament, like concerts and nice restaurants, but it didn’t break my heart one bit to stay behind. That said… Whew, those dogs are a handful. Mostly (exclusively) Quinn and his friend Renfield. They are just nonstop. If you don’t see them for about 15 minutes, you would do well to go find out what they are doing. They find trouble in ways I never even thought of. On the upside, Quinny usually sleeps for about 2 days straight after Renfield leaves, so I’ve got that to look forward to.

My big excitement for the weekend was firing up the smoker and putting on some ribs. With all my recent forays up to Ring of Fire I’ve gotten a little interested in que’ing at home again. I had fun cooking the brisket last weekend, but it’s a little time consuming, not to mention expensive. Besides chicken, I figured ribs were about the easiest and most moderately priced thing to cook. My big plan went just a bit askew when I got to the butcher shop and spare ribs were $8 per pound. Eight dollars!?!?! That’s just crazy. Granted, they looked fantastic, but so did the baby backs next to them for $5.50. I like spare ribs better, but I guess not that much better because I quickly decided on the cheaper option. My excitement for the day was to cook two slabs. Identical dry rub, but wrap one slab in butcher paper about 1/2-way through the cook. Yep, doesn’t take much to excite me. Well, it was fun, so whatever. I really didn’t notice any difference between the two slabs though. I expected the wrapped ones to be more tender, but they weren’t that I could tell. The unwrapped ones were quite a bit darker, but it’s not like I was turning them in at a competition so who cares. They were both pretty darn good. I’m ready to start tweaking the recipe a bit and try again, but first I have an entire fridge full of leftover ribs to eat.

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Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. I sure enjoyed it more than last weekend, when I worked the majority of time. Payin’ them bills, I guess. As for the holiday, we actually hosted a party. Yep! With guests and everything. I fired up the rarely-used smoker and threw on a brisket, and a bunch of sides and dessert showed up too. Fine little cookout. For entertainment, we played many, many games of KanJam. It may appear to be a silly, pointless game, but it is fact silly and pointless. It was also oddly entertaining, we played it all afternoon. Hey, any excuse to keep a score on something, I guess. I was happy with the brisket, and it actually got served on time, so I deemed it a success. I never won a game of KanJam though… Maybe next time.

I really fell down on the pictures… Not sure what happened there. I had to dig up a pic from last week, and the brisket picture is leftovers I had today. Slacking.

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Provisions and entertainment are at an all time low. Please send corn chips and dvd’s. Nothing that is available on Netflix though please, I been through their entire catalogue three times. I’m a big fan of the Ip Man series, but even I can only tolerate so many viewings.

Eh, I guess the situation isn’t all that dire, but I am a bit bored. I got so bored last week I even went camping in the back yard, like a little kid. Had a pretty fun time of it too, except for Quinn’s incessant barking. Hard to nap in my comfy hammock with that little yapper carrying on. As to other entertainment, it was precious slim. Speaking of the Quinn, he just doesn’t care to be left alone if at all possible. Six years old and still tears stuff up when we leave, tsk. The only time I can think that I really left the house was my weekend trip up to the BBQ restaurant, and I took them with me. I had the ribs finally, and they were predictably fantastic. Stuck with mac n’ cheese for my side dish. I need to try their beans, but something tells me that will be the weak spot on the menu, so no hurry. And… That’s just about it for the weekend. Shot about 1,457 games of pool, killed some paper targets with the pellet gun, mowed and ran the weedeater some. Not terribly exciting. Oh, I grilled some passable chicken for Fathers Day. It came out pretty darn crispy and tasty, I was moderately pleased. I had plans for a pot of beans too, but lost my energy at the last minute. Chicken with a side of chicken. I’d share the technique but now I can’t find it again. Basically dry brined it overnight, then grilled skin up on the cooler side of the Weber Kettle. It was good enough to kick up my interest in the quest for crispy grilled chicken anyway; Maybe I’ll try the mayo thing next.

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That was the first of two weekends I’m flying solo, while the wife is in KC visiting family. It’s been just a little crazy here. When the cat is away, the mice will play, as they say. The mice might also sit on the couch and watch Netflix all weekend… Probably closer to accurate. Maybe somewhere in the middle. I certainly didn’t get too carried away. Friday night I went down to Placerville and met a friend at a new brewery that opened recently. The owners were the only ones running the place, and did a good job of keeping up. Great day for a pint on their nice patio. And, while it was a nice new place to try, I was at least, if not more, interested in the small grocery next door, which is also new. Oh my, what a fascinating place. They also serve food to order, so we grabbed a burrito and a few tacos and took them back over to the brewery. I am going to have to go back and explore that fascinating meat counter shown on the website. Being ninety degrees out and me without a cooler, it didn’t sound like a safe option this time. I shall be back.

Saturday was similarly low-key. I met a friend up in Camino at my new favorite restaurant, the same bbq spot I went to last weekend. Same as last weekend, I ordered poorly. Also the same as last weekend, mine was delicious, hers just looked MORE delicious. I had the tater tots, smothered in queso and pulled pork, while she ordered the brisket plate with mac ‘n cheese. My tots were fantastic, but man did that brisket look tasty. One of these visits I’ll get it right. I may well go back every weekend until then.

Sunday I stayed home, and some friends came over for dinner. (** Qualifier, the “friend” mentioned in all three paragraphs is actually the same person. I just don’t know that many people out west, and it makes me sound like a social butterfly if I keep it generic. Her hubby was up in Tahoe on a guys trip, so we kept each other company. **) Anyway, I cooked up some country style ribs on the Traeger, and they came out passable. I’d seen a video this guy I follow did last week, and it sounded like a fun day, so I went with it. I made about four times more than necessary, which I seem to have a problem with, but I guess now I have leftovers. (Oddly, that video is eight years old… Not sure why it showed up last week. Who cares.) Random complaint of the week: I popped over to my friendly neighborhood grocery to pick up said ribs, and they were $5.99 per pound!! (Random complaint 2: on the way there I put gas in my car and it was $6.69. This shocked me less than the meat price though.) I decided that kind of took the fun out of the idea, heck I can buy real ribs for that price. I ended up driving to the store about 12 miles away, and the same meat was $1.79 per pound. Yeah, I burned up some of that overpriced gas getting there, but holy smokes I think I made up the difference. I’m gonna put the nearby grocery on my “LIST” if they keep this up. (They made Donette’s list over a year ago, she won’t go there. I keep trying.)

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