June is Here!

We escaped from DC and made it home.  We left at about 5:30pm on a Friday and hit no rush hour tie ups....imagine that!!! lolz

Got in before 10pm and that was with an hour long stop for dinner at an IHOP in Latham, MD.
I fell into bed and have been nursing my knee and sore feet all weekend.  All that walking in DC about did me in. ;-)

Yesterday was all about shopping and the yard........I went to 3 stores procuring food provisions.
Saturday was the last day to qualify for a $10 in free meat deal at the local market so I had to get a second $10 of meat in before it ended.
I also hit the restaurant supply store for meat, cheese, produce and a stock up on paper plates for the Summer weather and the party later this month.  Got some plastic platters so I can do a veggie crudité and a fruit plate for the party.  $117 later I left that store.... 8-(
Hit up Dollar General(the Sad Store)also for soda for the party.

I made Ginger Garlic Shrimp stir fry for dinner last night and used up 2 partial bags of wild and long grain rice.

Hubs dug up a shrubbery and worked on the bed we are making on the South side of the house.  There is also mulch to be spread.  We'll get that done next weekend.

Today the weather has been beautiful as well.  I got all caught up on my bookwork this morning, June 1st Net Worth calculations and my May Spending report, as well as my Grocery Spending for May.
Then I did some cooking and prep for dinner, and when Hubs finished moving the lawn, he helped me get out "Precious" and I officially kicked-off the 2014 Grilling Season.....

A few hours in Precious and we'll have some smoked chicken thighs ready for the barbecue sauce.

Off to put my feet up for a bit, open a cold one and relax.....

Sluggy
 

How We Celebrated the 4th

Here are some photos from our 4th of July. I spent a good piece of the day looking out from the front porch.....

It was beastly hot but a clear sunny day with a slight breeze.  As long as you were in the shade you could deal with the day.

We didn't have anyone over, nor did anyone invite us to their cook out.  We had a quite(except for the pyromaniacs in the neighborhood) day, just the two of us and the dogs.

And here is why I spent so much time on the front porch....

Just me and my little smoker.
This is the first time I've used it this Summer.
The problem is, in order to make it worth the effort/time, you need to load it up with meats.
And that's great if you have a lot of people around to eat what you smoke.

But this Summer, it is basically just Hubs and I here.  The sons are off working at summer camp and while the daughter is home, she is either working when I serve meals or off with her friends on her day off.  And she doesn't seem interested in eating leftovers, even awesome leftovers.lol

And here is what I cooked in the smoker......

About 8 lbs. of pork ribs.  What do you think of that bark?  This is apres sauce.

On the rack underneath is a whole large roasting chicken.  I figured I would cook it all up and we could eat on this goodness for most of the rest of the week.  No running the oven this week, just reheating in the microwave or on the grill outside.  Cook once and eat 5 times?  I'll take it!

And here is another thing I made from scratch in the crockpot.....

Boston Baked Beans made with Yellow Eye Beans from my last trip to Maine.
I made these on Tuesday and we just reheated them on Wednesday.

While the ribs and chicken smoked I made a big batch of macaroni salad.
I put the sauce on the ribs and then it all came together.....

A truly home cooked and awesome meal for the 4th.

After licking my plate clean(ok, maybe not "clean"), it was a long swim in the pool and then a nap next to the a/c window unit.

After cleaning the smoker out that evening, my day ended as it began, sitting on the front porch, watching the town's fireworks over the tree tops from my hillside home.
No pics of the pyrotechnics though, due to my camera's delay feature and my lack of timing.lol  I do have about 8 totally black/dark photos I could share.....

The good thing about smoking a lot of meat at once and only 2 people eating?
We are still working on that chicken and those ribs from Wednesday and there is plenty left to go!

Sluggy

Food Spending from Saturday.....and Eating on Sunday

I went to use my $10 Catalina Q at Weis Markets last Saturday.
They had an unadvertised special on Hillshire Farms Smoke Sausage for $1.99 lb, so I picked up 2 as this is my "buy price" for kielbasa/smoke sausage.

I also found a $3.53 priced piece of steak with a $2 instant discount sticker on it, so $1.53 for just under a lb. of steak.  This will go into the freezer to use in chili, beef stroganoff or something else at a later date.

The main item was the hunk of ribs I picked up.  They were $1.79 a lb. and I got a 5.04lb. hunk that cost $9.02 total.  $1.79 was the best per lb. price around here.

My bill total was $14.53 but after the $10 CatQ I paid $4.53 OOP.  Not a bad price for almost 12 lbs. of meat. ;-)
That's an 81.18% savings rate.

Since the ribs were 'previously frozen' I used them on Sunday.
We fired up the smoker.  Here is my baby......I call her "Precious"......yes, she is the "one ring that will feed us all".....

After 4 hours "low and slow" with an applewood chips smoking, here is what  the ribs looked like....

And after another 3 hours in the smoker, I sauced them up and glazed them up for 20 minutes in the oven and ended up with this....

Not quite fall off the bone but with a pink smoke ring clear to the bone.  Just enough char on the outside but tender and moist inside.
Look good enough to eat, don't they? 8-)

There is one serving left and Hubs has put 'dibs' on them for tonight's Leftovers Night.

I am liking my Precious this summer.  It's one way to cut down on electricity use and generating heat in the kitchen in this hot weather.  And it turns out scrumptious meats! ;-)
Now I have to find me a beef brisket that isn't corned to fill my smoker.....

So do you like real barbecue?  Are you a dry smoked meat lover or do you like em sauced?
What's your favorite barbecued meat?

Sluggy