Great thoughts of Fleeting substance

I've been cooking. No, really, I have proof!

This is from last weekend. Several years ago I saw a 'Good Eats Meatloaf' that looked just totally delicious and I asked for it for my birthday dinner. Well, it didn't quite come out as uber-delicious as we would have liked, it ended up pretty overcooked. Well I decided, as one of my first little cooking experiments, to try re-making that same meatloaf to see if I couldn't get it *right*. I bought the chuck whole, but the sirloin I could only get ground. My new food processor made quick work of the chuck, though, as well as all the veggies and pretty much everything else.

This time, it came out quite good, very flavorfull and nice. It turned into a whole long line of incredibly manly meatloaf sandwiches. You'll also note the use of both the probe themometer, a christmas present, and the food processor for the above recipie. Merry christmas to me!

Next Good Eats experiment (I'm obsessed with that show!) was 'The Chewey', a variation on your classic cookie designed to be chewey and delicious and soft, which, as both J(5) and I agree, is the best possible cookie outcome. We followed the recipie, made it up, and created a line of cookies so chewey they were barely solid. They met with rave reviews from both myself, J(5), and pretty much everyone we work with, which is what we ended up doing with most of the other cookies. Sorry, no pictures, they just went too fast. They looked pretty much like the cookies on the front of the bag of Toll House cookies, though. And they tasted great.

And then there were ribs.

Another Good Eats recipie. This time for Baby Back Ribs. You create a rub, mostly brown sugar, salt, and chili powder, rub it on your ribs and then wrap them in aluminum foil. Then you make a braising sauce while the ribs are getting ready, and pour it into the pouches with the ribs. Cook them long and slow and then...



...Reduce the whole thing into a sauce! Then you brush that back on the ribs, stick it under the broiler so it can 'gel' a bit, and then EAT IT! EAT IT ALL! THEY WERE SO GOOD!

And I didn't nearly eat all of them. I had been looking for pork ribs for a while, and I finally found them at Cosco, which meant I got *three* whole rib racks. Cooked them all! I'll have leftovers for days.

Also, bought 'The Movies', a game that has been peeking my interest for a while. Yay for that. Played that and some Black and White 2, the latter keeping me up until nearly 6 in the morning on friday. I don't do that often, but it's really fun in moderation.

Nothing much of note coming up, cept that I need to get, my car and my teeth and the rest of my body serviced. Foolish of me to have all this medical coverage and not use it.

-N