Monday, June 21, 2010

Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice. Today the days begin to get shorter again. In the U.S. we consider this the first day of summer but traditionally other cultures considered this the middle of summer. Regardless it is a power day for pagans and Wiccans so everyone who cares to, celebrate Litha with spirit.

I managed to get the grass mowed this morning before it got too hot. Got some beans and squash picked early this morning plus a few plum tomatoes. Very little gardening is going to go on while it is in the mid 90's. At 1pm today it had already reached 92 F here in the Northern burbs of Atlanta. Madam and I started a batch of old fashioned Southern limed pickles from 7 pounds of cukes yesterday so today will be the canning of same. Shame to heat up the kitchen during the hottest part of the day but there is no other time to get it done.

Oh, and a belated Happy Father's Day to all you who qualify. I celebrated by slow cooking a couple of slabs of ribs on the grill yesterday. I've decided that a St. Louis cut is the best all around for cooking Memphis style. More meat, cheaper than 'baby backs' and the fact that they are heftier makes it easier to control the heat while cooking. Five hours at about 230F did the trick yesterday. I used the Weber kettle instead of the smoker since I was only doing two slabs and there is enough room to keep the ribs off the direct heat. The Weber smoker does a fine job and since it has two levels and the water pan to block the heat it is the tool to use when you have a lot of stuff to cook like a couple of Boston butts or a half dozen slabs of ribs but it is a pain to clean and not worth the trouble when just doing a small job.

Anyhow, off to can some pickles.

No comments: