Category: Summer

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Our Silly Garden

We tried to be very stalwart this year and plant our garden–as usual…but something strange is going on here. I mean, really–it’s mid August and we’ve gotten exactly 4 cherry tomatoes so far. Four–and you’re looking at two of them.

I planted the ever-bearing type of strawberries…but I think the robins frightened the plants enough that they stopped producing. Oh, wait–that only happens with cows and chickens. Sorry.

Or I suppose it could be all those weeds causing the problem…but I doubt it.  :}

The parsley came up nicely–along with the orchard grass…in the weed free grow box. Ha ha.

And what–may I ask–is this lettuce-y thing growing in the onions? We didn’t even plant lettuce!

The peas are nice, but they’ve been in the ground for a month now and the pea pods are still scrawny. Is it the dirt? Is it the heat? Is it the moon?

Or is it…just…

me?

I’m hoping it will all perk up soon–but I’ll take any advice I can get. In the meantime, I guess I’ll try more water…and keeping my fingers crossed.

Perhaps some chanting too.  “Growww-growww-growww.”

That should do it.

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Dolphin Summer

There was this one magical summer when I was about seven that–if I remember correctly–my sister and I turned into fish. Or so it seemed.

Living in L.A. where we did, meant that many of our friends in other neighborhoods had pools. We, however, did not. So, naturally we spent most of the summer begging our mother to ask other people’s mothers if we could come swim in their pools. Every once in a while, it worked but not often enough.

So one day–in my little kid memory–my dad came home with a swimming pool–not a sissy, baby, splashy thing but a pretty close to real, live, up-to-your-neck, no kidding swimming pool. Oh, we got our jobs done before anyone was out of bed, I’ll tell you, so that we could get the ok from mom to jump in and swim our little guts out. Now this may not seem like such a big deal to you, but I could never actually swim before this summer. I was the usually the girl on the shallow side steps–or close by. But somehow this pool, this magical pool gave me super duper swimming powers, because suddenly, I could paddle and kick and do somersaults and dive from the second step and even cannonball–without holding my nose. And to my own amazement, I didn’t drown…not even once. It was like channeling Flipper.

Yes-sir-ee, that was one special summer all right.

Too bad that when–for some reason–the pool was no longer with us, I completely, entirely, irrevocably lost my magical swimming powers. Poof! Just like that. I was reduced to sitting on the steps at the neighbors pool or hopping up and down in the kiddie side. It was like a horrible remake of Flowers For Algernon where the scientists give some simple guy an operation and he becomes a genius and then he mysteriously turns “dumb” again and…drops dead. Very sad.

I’ll tell you how sad–

When I was a senior in high school, I took a beginning swim class–with the freshmen and a couple of kids from the middle school. Our final was to swim around in the deep end for 5 minutes without touching the side.  Yeah, I pretty much drowned and they had to fish me out with a net. Got a D+ if you must know.

But I have this picture–this one picture to prove that the magical dolphin summer was real and I didn’t just dream it…and best of all…

I haven’t dropped dead.

So ha.                                   

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Gracious BBQ Baby Back Ribs

Oh, yeah…I’m getting brave now. To be honest, I always thought that making my own barbecue sauce and cooking baby backs would be something I’d never, ever do–it just sounded way too hard. But one day, I was just–you know–in a mood, and to my surprise, it was pretty dang simple. And get this–after tweaking the recipe enough to make it my own, it turned out so good that I don’t even miss my beloved Tony Roma’s anymore.

Sorry Tony, but you left town and I’ve moved on.

Now then, please keep in mind that just because I said these babies were easy–doesn’t mean that they are to be thrown together in 4 minutes and nuked in the microwave.

Perish the thought! Anything this amazing will need a bit of savoring time–so to speak. Trust me, you won’t be sorry.

Gracious BBQ Baby Back Ribs Sauce

1 cup Fancy Ketchup

1 cup Heinz Distilled White Vinegar

1/2 cup Dark Corn Syrup

5 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

2 tsp Onion Flakes

pinch of Cayenne Pepper

1 Tbsp Molasses

1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients–except vanilla– into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until it becomes as thick as BBQ sauce should be. Allow it to cool for about 10 minutes and stir in the vanilla. Set your lovely sauce aside–in the fridge. You could even make the sauce a few days ahead–to let all the flavors get to know each other, if you like.

Now the ribs:

1 large rack of Baby Back Pork Ribs

Gracious BBQ Baby Back Rib Sauce

To start with, make sure the membrane has been remove from the bone side of the ribs. It’s the thin, rubbery layer that makes that back side smooth. It’s pretty easy to slide a table knife under the membrane and peel it off in one piece. That will make it so that you can trim away any excess fat that was underneath it.

Once the fat is trimmed, cut the slab into 5 or 6 pieces and boil them in a large pot of water for about 30-35 minutes. Remove them from the water and set them on a nice big piece of foil. Now give both sides of each piece a good coating of your illustrious BBQ sauce, seal up the package and set them in the fridge for a few hours. At this point, I got really busy and actually left mine in there for 2 days–which you don’t have to do, of course, but the sauce was really mellow and fabulous after being allowed to grow up a bit.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and put the ribs in. Let them cook for 3 hours, then take them out. Coat the ribs with the remaining sauce. Turn the oven on to broil and let them cook out of the foil–for about 15-20 minutes–so that they have a lovely crispy top.

You are now about to enter BBQ Baby Back Rib Heaven.

Have a nice trip.

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Gracious BBQ Baby Back Ribs
 
Print
Ingredients
  • 1 cup Fancy Ketchup
  • 1 cup Heinz Distilled White Vinegar
  • ½ cup Dark Corn Syrup
  • 5 Tbsp Brown Sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
  • ½ tsp Garlic Powder
  • 2 tsp Onion Flakes
  • pinch of Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 Tbsp Molasses
  • 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients–except vanilla– into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.
  2. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until it becomes as thick as BBQ sauce should be.
  3. Allow it to cool for about 10 minutes and stir in the vanilla.
  4. Set your lovely sauce aside–in the fridge.
Notes
1 large rack of Baby Back Pork Ribs Gracious BBQ Baby Back Rib Sauce To start with, make sure the membrane has been remove from the bone side of the ribs. It’s the thin, rubbery layer that makes that back side smooth. It’s pretty easy to slide a table knife under the membrane and peel it off in one piece. That will make it so that you can trim away any excess fat that was underneath it. Once the fat is trimmed, cut the slab into 5 or 6 pieces and boil them in a large pot of water for about 30-35 minutes. Remove them from the water and set them on a nice big piece of foil. Now give both sides of each piece a good coating of your illustrious BBQ sauce, seal up the package and set them in the fridge for a few hours. At this point, I got really busy and actually left mine in there for 2 days–which you don’t have to do, of course, but the sauce was really mellow and fabulous after being allowed to grow up a bit. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and put the ribs in. Let them cook for 3 hours, then take them out. Coat the ribs with the remaining sauce. Turn the oven on to broil and let them cook out of the foil–for about 15-20 minutes–so that they have a lovely crispy top.

 

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Grandmother Willow

Some of you may not know this, but Grandmother Willow actually lives in our backyard.

No kidding.

I’ll tell you, she is one huge, unruly, ominous tree with disobedient branches scrawling clear across the yard.

Again, I’m not kidding.

Some of the limbs were so long and scary that we had to worry that in a good hard wind storm, we might have few fence casualties. Not OK.

There was nothing to do but to call for Lumberjack Dane.

Oh, he chopped and hacked and twisted and yanked…

and hacked and sawed and piled. That’ll teach the old girl to stay within the borders of Munchkin land and not wander off on forbidden paths.

At last, Grandmother Willow was subdued, but it was no small deal. In fact, it was back breaking work for the Lumberjack dude.

Luckily there was a comfy Bungie Chair with his name on it…

there were pretty little cheerleaders to watch and clap just at the right moment…

and Otter Pops…always, always…there are Otter Pops. What cannot be accomplished with such a combo, I ask you?

Next up…world domination.

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Our Rapunzel

Ah, the lovely maiden calls down from her high tower…

to the peasants below.

Oh, will no one rescue poor Rapunzel?

Fine then. This girl can find her own way out. Take that, Flynn Ryder.

“Best. Day. Ever!”