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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Yep, yep, missed another week. I still haven’t quite resolved the issue of how to update this silly thing without a laptop. Yeah I can use my iPad, but it is tedious to say the least. Too old for that much thumb typing. Not giving up just yet though.

Notable events since the last update included our annual trip to the BottleRock music festival in Napa. I guess it’s kind of our “thing” we like to do, to officially kick off our summer. We’ve also conned our friends Michael & Alaina into going with us, so we all pile in the motor home and roll down there every year. (OK, assuming no covid shutdowns and that whole mess.) Sometimes the music lineup is better than others, but we always have a great time regardless. It checks all our requirements for a weekend of entertainment: Close to home? Check. Great weather? Check. Great bands? Check. Exorbitantly expensive? Double-check. Yeah that last one ain’t really on our list, but it’s most definitely on theirs. What can ya’ do, it’s a festival. Another year in the books, and it was a good one. Maybe we’ve seen better, but a fantastic weekend all the same.

In another earth-shattering event from this past weekend, we discovered a BBQ spot! Not just a BBQ spot, as those are not super difficult to find, but a spectacular one. Yeah, I said it, SPECTACULAR. This place was straight up legit. I knew we were on to something when we walked up and they had a Deep South pit out front. Real deal there. We went in and the dining room was moderately busy, so we ended up just sitting at the bar. This worked out perfectly, as the owner & pit-master was serving there, and we had just a great ol’ time talking. (He seemed to think it a bit odd that I hugged him when we left, but I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t help myself.) Sounds like he did pretty fair on the competition circuit out here. I don’t recognize the name but, remarkably, he’d never heard of Triple Fat Back either. Regional thing I’m sure. Aside from enjoying talking with him in general, the lunch was fantastic. Top notch. Can’t wait to go back, and I will soon.

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