Memorial Day Greetings

Hello from Barbecueville. We've been doing a lot of this lately:

Making yummy things like this:

And a little bit of this:

Greetings on Memorial Day. Today, may you remember your loved ones passed on with joy of their lives instead of sorrow from their passing.

A May Day Bouquet and a Challenge

It seemed strange today to be enjoying a perfect sunny spring day in Seattle, while storms rage in the South. My Alabama cousins are seeing devastation that is hard to describe. So these flowers are for them.

We used to fill construction paper baskets filled with flowers from our yard and hang them on doors of the little old ladies in the neighborhood. We'd ring the doorbell and run. With giggles behind bushes we watched them smile as they took the flowers inside.

I love the surprise and secrecy of the May Day basket. Some people need much more than flowers right now. I challenge you to send someone a little May Day help this month without their knowing who sent it.

Just ring the doorbell and run.

May Day BBQ 7:15pm Pork Butt in the stall....

May Day BBQ 5:30pm: Beef Short Rib Dinner

The final glaze gave these ribs a nice sweet ending. I mixed equal parts strawberry jam with apricot nectar juice, plus 3-4 tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce. The kids loved it. 3 1/2 hours on indirect heat, after some direct grill time was perfect to get them tender. These were pretty small. The short ribs we get in the shop that Eric cuts with the bandsaw are much much bigger and need more time.

May Day BBQ 2pm: Beef Ribs on the grill

I love beef short ribs. I like them sliced thin on the cross cut (marinated long, then grilled hot and fast) and I like the thick cross cut sections like these. They need a fair amount of time to get tender, but I love the flavor from direct grilling.

I marinated them in the morning, though these really are best marinated the night before. The marinade is a basic soy-ginger sauce: Fresh ginger, soy sauce, a little bit of rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, plenty of brown sugar, and a little bit of fruit juice to stretch it.

I started them over direct heat of my Charbroil infrared grill, then moved them to the indirect side and to the top rack. The Hopefully they will be ready for dinner to go with some grilled zucchini.

May Day Virtual BBQ: 9:30am, 11am, 12:20am....Moppin' Time

The mop, a total throw-together recipe from the fridge: Apple cider vinegar, bit of ketchup, puri puri spice (hot!), and the end of the orange-mango jam.

8:12am Pork butt in (I'm already and hour behind....)

It's in. In between all this, I am cleaning an apartment to show today. I come from a long line of people who like to double and triple book themselves. I'm also supposed to be working the lunch and dinner rush at the restaurant today. And I want to get the kids to the park.

Luckily I have a husband that doesn't plan beyond his morning coffee, so I can move some of my plans over to his column. He's cutting me some cherry wood off our clippings to add to the smoker as we speak....

So come y'all, whatcha got goin' on?

7:35 am: Charcoal lit

6: 40am The coffee shop is closed

I know this coffee shop used to be open at 6am on Sunday. Cafe Vita is where I wrote most of She-Smoke, and on Sunday mornings I often beat the employees here.

No problem, I walked up the street to Marketime, where everybody knows my name....and the gals got a good laugh at my froggy voice, bed head, and the clothespin stuck to my jacket.

The Making of a May Day BBQ

6:21am Julie there is no coffee in the house.

6:25am She pulls out the pork butt, and seasons it with a mix of spices from her cupboard, then puts it back in the fridge.

6:35am Julie realizes speaking of herself in third person all day could get really annoying.

I head out for coffee. I am thankful to live in a city, in a neighborhood, where I can walk to a coffee shop. The morning is beautiful! Birds are singing, the sun is shining.

It's a good day for a barbecue!