Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone again. I had a very good time visiting with family. I took a lot of pictures. Some of my family members were a little shy about having their pictures on my blog, so instead I'll post pictures of the delicious food we had.





Some food cooking away on the stove...
























The shrimp dish...










The mac & cheese dish...








... and of course, the turkey.

Meet The Meat Charts

Whenever I go shopping for good cuts of meat, I always get confused by all the different types of meat there are. Confused, until I look at a chart or 2 to refresh my memory. Different cuts of meat come from different parts of the animal, and have different taste and tenderness characteristics. I found some charts on http://www.cookshack.com/ and I went to the Cooking link on the menu bar, then Meat Cut Charts. I always try to give a free, shameless plug to anyone who gives me valuable information for free on the internet.

http://www.cookshack.com/meat-cut-charts

Hope this is helpful to you, although these charts don't tell the whole story. You just have to try cooking/barbecue-ing the different cuts to know for sure what you are doing, and to find out what you like.

John Entwistle video

John Entwistle video: a video about one of my favorite bass players. Plus it has some of my other favorite bass players talking about how great he was. Priceless, if you're a bass player.

PEEETSAAAHHH

Yesterday I made some homemade pizza. It was absolutely great. I used some fresh WHOLE WHEAT pizza dough (trying to make this healthy & wholesome), some pizza sauce (which had to be enriched with basil and oregeno before it smelled like pizza sauce), some shredded mozzarella cheeze, and some pepperoni.

It was so good I was ready to call Chef Ramsey on the phone and say "<<<>>> Top this you <<>>> in chef wanna-be!!!


But I knew he was probably too busy to talk to me so I didn't bother.


Also, if you look at the pictures closely, you can see I shop at Wegman's.


I'm glad I made this. I made this as I watched Monday night football, and watched the Buffalo Bills lose an absolutely critical Must-Win game. At least the pizza was great.

JIMMY WINS THE CUP ! ! ! ! !

JIMMY WINS THE CUP ! ! ! ! !


Yesterday Jimmy Johnson finished 15th in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Race of 2008 - which means he had enough points to WIN THE SPRINT CUP !!! !!! !!! YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

That deserves a huge woo-hoo.

That means he's won 3 championships in a row. This ties the record of most consecutive championships, tied with Cale Yarborough.

Jimmy Johnson is one of the Great Ones. Yes, like Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Tiger Woods.

If he wins it again next year, he will become God.

Plus, next year Mark Martin will join the Hendrick team. Too cool.

Two good BBQ rubs from last summer

Here are a couple good rubs I made for barbecue this past summer. The one with lemon zest was great on chicken and the other rub was used on ribs. I'm sure they would be great on other meats as well and when I try this out, I'll let you know how it went.

























Rib Rub:

2 tsp celery salt
6 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper, fresh ground
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt


I used this rub on ribs and I cooked them indirect method on a weber grill using hickory wood chips for smoke flavoring. They were great.


Chicken rub:

4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp rosemary, crushed
2 tsp sea salt, iodized
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest, fresh
1 tsp black pepper, fresh ground

I used this on chicken breasts and I cooked them indirect method on a weber grill, also with hickory wood chips for smoke flavoring. They were also great.


In both cases, I applied the rubs just before the grill was getting up to temperature. The cooking process took an hour at least. Low & slow is the way to go I always say. Low as in low temperature, and slow as in take your time and don't rush.

The Beast

Here's a picture of my little beast cat, Lexus. She's practicing her favorite hobby.

She's supposed to be a vicious, bloodthirsty predator, but...

I dunno...

Sweet dreams.

Lexus

Just ONE MORE RACE JIMMY!!!!!

Just ONE MORE RACE JIMMY!!!!! Yes, just one more race to go. If Jimmy Johnson finishes 36th or better, 37th and leading one lap or 39th and leading the most laps - CHAMPION FOR 3RD YEAR IN A ROW ! ! ! !

NASCAR - just one race left...

Some Favorite Movies/Wikipedia

Today I was browsing Wikipedia for some of my favorite movies:

Tombstone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombstone_(film)

For some reason I can't get the final ")" character to appear on the hyperlink - you will have to add it after Wikipedia says it can't find the page.


Star Trek II - The Wrath Of Kahn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan

Saving Private Ryan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Private_Ryan


Makes the movies more interesting when you read lots of details behind them.

Hello World

Hello World, how's it goin'??? This is the first post on my first blog. Yes, I know it took long enough.

I'll be posting stuff about my interests in numerous hobbies & pastimes. Some examples: barbeque stuff, food, drinks, sports, music, movies, computers/games and all the joys of owning my own home and vehicle.

I'll also mention other everyday things going on, such as this morning when I went to vote in the presidential election, had to herd a bunch of ducks out of my driveway before I could leave (damn, I didn't have my camera) and comments on current events in the news.

I'll also throw in the occasion trivia quiz, or I'll post a picture and you have to guess what it is. Here's one to start:

Try to guess what this is and in a future post I'll give the answer.