Summer Eating

Wow, it took a while, but summer is definitely here.   My garden is slowly catching up after a cool, wet spring, and today I impatiently picked a few not-quite-ripe raspberries and some extra large snow peas that were hiding in the copious foliage of the 6 foot tall vines. 

The shift in weather brings with it a necessary shift in eating, too.  Although we have air conditioning and I close the curtains and blinds as the sun bursts through the kitchen windows around mid-day, the back of the house still gets hot quickly.  Obviously I limit the use of the oven as much as I can, baking only at night and roasting in the toaster oven if I can get away with it. Even just simmering a pot of soup or boiling water for pasta (or canning) on the stove can make the kitchen air thick and sticky.  I've found over the years that I use my crockpot more in the summer than in the cooler months.  It doesn't really heat up the kitchen, and there is minimal effort involved.  I also barbecue.  A lot.  And we eat lighter things like salads, or grilled pizzas.  Actually, I've made a lot of naan bread this summer, and that's just a topping or two away from do it yourself pizza.

I'm always on the look out for summer friendly meals that we'll all eat*.  Today I came across a post on Chow about playing with stuffed potato skins, changing up the fillings to make a variety of tasty treats.  I love potato skins!  The post (here) was put up in March, but I can see these being an easy go-to for a hot day.  A side of fresh salads and a cold drink would definitely round the meal out.  And even Little Mister, my 6 year old who eats a lot of things, but not ground meat and never cheese (except on pizza), said that he'd like to try them... with his own filling - black beans, corn and salsa.  Sure!  Sounds great!

* For more ideas, check out these two fabulous posts (and don't forget to follow their blogs for a wealth of inspiration throughout the year)  -
http://mixingbowlkids.typepad.com/family_bites/2011/07/meal-planning-monday.html
 - great summer meals for the whole week
http://www.simplebites.net/frozen-treats-cherry-limeade-popsicle-recipe/ - part of a week long series of posts about frozen treats (because dessert is part of dinner too!)

Trying to find inspiration

Last week was lovely.  Absolutely lovely.  Warm but not too hot, and gloriously sunny.  After much rain, more rain and a lot of rain, plus downright un-Springlike cool temps the warming glow was so welcome.  Then came this week.  We've had so much rain that the city closed down all of the recreational parks.  The week that many minor sports were getting ready to start.  Both kids had their activities canceled due to the intense squishiness of  the fields.  It's been so gloomy that I felt like I was going to bed pre-drepressed by the lack of sunshine ahead.  Then there was that wind storm a few weeks ago...

As I type, it's foggy out.  It's lifting, but the tops of the trees still appear softened by a hazy film.  It's quite calm too.  No breeze at all.  There is a majestic Chestnut tree in my view that was only bare branches earlier this month.  Lilacs that are promising to bloom at the first sign of warmth.  A vase of tulips from my garden sits on my desk, reminding me that it is indeed Spring and not Autumn, regardless of how it feels out there.

It sure doesn't feel like it's Victoria Day this weekend.  The "unofficial kick-off of summer" seems at odds with the weather we've been having.  In past years we've  had the air conditioning running for weeks already.  Yesterday morning the furnace ran.

But it is the May Two-Four (for my American readers that is the first holiday weekend of the season, and usually falls on the weekend closest to the 24th of the month.  It is also traditionally a large beer consuming weekend, and a case of 24 beers is called a Two-Four).  And I am looking for inspiration.  Lately Pinterest has been my go-to for illumination of all sorts.  Today I am perusing pins with barbecue tags.  Check out this space from Design To Inspire...

Now that's a summer kitchen!  Put in some plumbing for a sink and some lighting and I'm there.  Not that I could do that with this house, but I can dream.

For a little more realistic inspiration, I'm looking at the wonderful barbecued foods.  Like Barbecued Thai Chicken Legs and Korean Barbecue Beef.  There are some wonderful kebab images on Pinterest too, as well as salads, drinks, cute summer party invitations and more.  Even though it doesn't feel like summer yet, I can still live vicariously through fabulous pictures and find inspiration for the grilling and entertaining season ahead.

Barbecue sauce by halves

It's a glorious Spring day today.  After being surprised by snow a couple of weeks ago, 10C with the odd peek of sun is most welcome.  It wasn't that I was surprised that we got snow in mid-March; this is Southern Ontario after all.  It was how long it stuck around that surprised me.  There are still a few small patches of it in the yard!

Now that (I've declared) Spring is here, my thoughts turn naturally to... grilling and barbecue.  Of course.  Not that we don't use the grill in the winter, but now we start using it way more often.  It's right off the kitchen, just outside the back door, for maximum convenience.  And what has fired my flame kissed cooking fever today?  Burgers?  Not this time.  Steak?  Always, but not today.  Today it's ribs.  I found some on sale yesterday.  Big, meaty side ribs.  I bought two racks, had them split in two between the bones, seasoned them with an all purpose rub that I had made a while back for another pork application and popped them into the fridge overnight.

The rub is a simple blend of Kosher salt, brown sugar and various spices.  For pork I almost always use allspice.  Then there's garlic, onion, smoked paprika, a little ancho powder, fresh ground black pepper, dry mustard and cumin.  And maybe chili powder.  I forget.  It's balanced, flavourful, but not too complex or spicy (Little Mister doesn't care for spicy food yet).  I don't know that I ever make it the same way twice, as I tend to not really measure.

What I did measure was the ingredients for the sauce.  I took a look at a book by barbecue guru Steven Raichlen and found a simple ketchup based recipe for a Jack Daniel's sauce.  I don't have any J.D right now, but I do have dark rum.  So I used that, substituted molasses for the dark brown sugar, omitted the Worcestershire sauce (because I'm out of it), and of course, added allspice and a few other things to echo the flavours in the rub.  And the halves of this blog title?  Take a look at the recipe... 

1/2 C dark rum

1/2 C cider vinegar

1/2 C ketchup

1/2 C molasses

1/2 T dried onion flakes

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t granulated garlic

1/2 t liquid smoke (optional)

salt to taste

Combine everything in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by... you guessed it - HALF.  It will keep for a few months in the fridge.

It's not bad.  If I had the time and ingredients I would have maybe tried something a bit more complex, but for a simple sauce I quite like it.  It's not too sweet, not too tangy and not overwhelmingly tomatoey either (is that a word?)  It's not as spicy as I'd like, but again, deferring to the palates of the children it's just fine.  I think I'll be playing with it as the year goes on, changing the alcohol or the sweetener (whiskey maple maybe, or a nice strong beer and local honey) and the spices.  I love how versatile barbecue sauces are.  A little change here, a tweak there and suddenly you've got a whole new creation.

Canada Day

Happy (day before) Canada Day! Long weekend (hubby took Friday off), sunshine, not too hot, barbecue... Wonderful!

Speaking of barbecue, not sure what I'll grill this weekend, but I have a pork loin that I think I'll pull out of the freezer to smoke. Man I want a proper smoker. For now I can make due with the grill, but someday I'll have a smoker. Maybe one that I can cold smoke in. I could make my own bacon! Sweet. Heck, I could smoke fish. Maybe we'd eat it then. LOL

Not a lot going on otherwise. It's not a big deal holiday to us in terms of having a party or anything. Though maybe we'll invite a few friends around for a bonfire. Food always tastes better with a fire. Maybe we'll visit the carousel. I love that we have a long weekend of nothingness. Hubby will work on the garage, we'll play outside, we'll eat... Ahhhhhh.

I didn't grow up with big Canada Day celebrations. Maybe family barbecues when I was little, but I don't remember if they were specifically on Canada Day or not. I've never done a lot with it. Though I think we'll be picking up some fireworks. The kids have requested a mini-show. MUCH less hassle than going to a big show at the beach with a 5 year old and 2 year old who don't nap and are used to going to bed around 7:30. LOL

Have a great weekend everyone. And happy July 4th to the Americans who've dropped in.

Rib fix

Okay, again I'll apologize from the outset that I am not a photo food blogger. There are no pictures of the ribs we enjoyed so much last night. Only fond memories in blog form.

I've been craving ribs since the weather turned nice. Even went to a "pasta and rib place" nearby. They really should not claim to be a rib place at all. They burned them. Though they burned the onion rings too, so really I shouldn't have expected much.

After that disappointment I knew what I had to do. Buy my own ribs. Though that in itself proved to be a little frustrating. First, there were ice crystals on the meat. They explained that they are shipped to them on ice and that their cooler sometimes goes below zero. But that the ribs weren't frozen. Um, yeah, they were. So I didn't buy more to freeze for later.

And maybe I need to learn butcher-speak, but when the woman behind the counter asked if I wanted the long racks cut in half I expected them to be cut down so that they would fit better on a grill. Instead they left the length and cut them to create ridiculously narrow racks of tiny ribs. I've never seen that done. Maybe it would work for appetizers? I don't know. So I had to endure their lecture on "cut in half" versus "cut across" before they would cut two new racks in a way that actually made some sense to me. Note to self, maybe look at going elsewhere for ribs.

Anyway, after all that I set about making a good rub for them. I have a book by Steven Raichlen that is all about rubs, bastes, sauces and such. Since I was also going to be smoking a couple of rump roasts for later use, I chose a rub with no sugar in it, opting to mop the ribs with a mix of a Lambic beer with cherry and some cola for sweetness. I let them sit for a few hours and soaked a mix of maple and apple woods.

I have a gas grill, not a smoker. So I use the indirect heat method with a smoker box that I bought. It's a metal box with holes in the lid that sits right on the bottom of the barbecue. I use two parts wet wood chips to one part dry. Once they got smoking I put the ribs on. I don't think the heat was high enough, though. Even with mopping they dried out a bit. Re-reading Mr. Raichlen's notes it seems that a slightly higher temp (up to 325F) for a bit less time would produce a better result. Duely noted for the next time.

Since we weren't going to have them that night I went ahead and wrapped them in foil and popped them into the fridge. I love that about ribs. They can be smoked ahead of time and reheated later.

I made a barbecue sauce (thanks again to Mr. Raichlen for the inspiration) from cola, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, a little steak sauce, honey, molasses, garlic and onion powders and some allspice. The recipe called for liquid smoke, but I have none. So I used some smoked paprika. Hot smoked paprika. It made for a delicious sauce that was too spicy for the kids. Bummer. I cut it with some store bought stuff that is pretty good in a pinch (President's Choice Smokin' Stampede Chipotle Beer, I believe it's called) and all was fine. The ribs glazed up beautifully and we tucked in to a meal that served to both satisfy my craving and whet my appetite for more. I will definitely work on improving this recipe as the summer goes on!