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Had not the best weekend. I rode both days, but had zero energy. This was especially so on Sunday while riding Blackstone, when my legs ran out of gas all the way up in frelling Woonsocket, a good five miles from where I parked the truck. I managed to plod back, but I didn't enjoy myself much. It wasn't even all that hot, although the humidity cranked up to eleven later in the day.
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I had similar luck with an attempt at smoking ribs on my super-duper grill. I'd actually done this a few weeks ago using a slab of spare ribs that I picked up for $1.99/lb, and they turned out great. I used a Cooks Country recipe which is very specific about times and temperatures. They did recommend St Louis cut ribs, but the regular spare ribs were fine, if a bit hard to get at some of the meat. So this time I splurged on some St Louis ribs for $3.99 a pound. It was about half the weight as last time, so the cost was about the same.
Anyway, the way they recommend involved heating the grill, with the pan of wood chips or chunks as the smoke source off to one side, and then putting the meat on the other side while turning off all the burners except for the one under the wood. All this whilst maintaining a temp of 257° for four hours. Well, I'd figured out last time that I couldn't turn off all the other burners (there are four, all told), but that I could do it with burner #1 (under the wood) on high, and burner #2 on low. I just had to shove the meat as far over the unlit burners as possible. This had worked.
For whatever reason, I didn't do that this time. I turned off all but #1, and then when I went out the turn the ribs an hour later, the temperature in the grill was only 200° or so. So I flipped on all three burners to low. (I was already very hungry from the smell of it all.) An hour later, when I went back out to turn them again, I had a nice smelling slab of charcoal. Bother. I wound up throwing a frozen burger on the grill for dinner.
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The garden is doing okay, I guess. My three spaghetti squash vines have produced two fruits amongst them, and don't seem to have any intent to produce more. I've been picking tomatoes now for a couple of weeks, but they have all been smaller than a clementine. The heirloom variety I planted has sme bigger fruit, but they are staunchly refusing to completely ripen so far.
---
I had similar luck with an attempt at smoking ribs on my super-duper grill. I'd actually done this a few weeks ago using a slab of spare ribs that I picked up for $1.99/lb, and they turned out great. I used a Cooks Country recipe which is very specific about times and temperatures. They did recommend St Louis cut ribs, but the regular spare ribs were fine, if a bit hard to get at some of the meat. So this time I splurged on some St Louis ribs for $3.99 a pound. It was about half the weight as last time, so the cost was about the same.
Anyway, the way they recommend involved heating the grill, with the pan of wood chips or chunks as the smoke source off to one side, and then putting the meat on the other side while turning off all the burners except for the one under the wood. All this whilst maintaining a temp of 257° for four hours. Well, I'd figured out last time that I couldn't turn off all the other burners (there are four, all told), but that I could do it with burner #1 (under the wood) on high, and burner #2 on low. I just had to shove the meat as far over the unlit burners as possible. This had worked.
For whatever reason, I didn't do that this time. I turned off all but #1, and then when I went out the turn the ribs an hour later, the temperature in the grill was only 200° or so. So I flipped on all three burners to low. (I was already very hungry from the smell of it all.) An hour later, when I went back out to turn them again, I had a nice smelling slab of charcoal. Bother. I wound up throwing a frozen burger on the grill for dinner.
---
The garden is doing okay, I guess. My three spaghetti squash vines have produced two fruits amongst them, and don't seem to have any intent to produce more. I've been picking tomatoes now for a couple of weeks, but they have all been smaller than a clementine. The heirloom variety I planted has sme bigger fruit, but they are staunchly refusing to completely ripen so far.
