Another weekend gone by

Well, another weekend just went by. Sure goes fast.

Terri & I spent Saturday at the Wisconsin State Fair. It was our third time there this year. We found a special promotion that got us some reduced tickets so we took advantage of them. It really turned out to be better than in the past.

We used to go there and try to cram everything into one day. Now we could take our time checking out the vendors, the food and the animals.

Tried the, now famous, chocolate covered bacon on a stick. It really wasn't very good. I'm a meat person and the chocolate masked the flavor of the bacon. Too much chocolate for me. We were amazed at all the weird things now available on a stick: crab cakes, reubens, deep fried oreo cookies to name a few. All nicely deeply fried and smelling like grease. We're getting too old to eat these kinds of things. We don't have that much time to allow our arteries to plug up any more than they are.

But seeing all these great foods gave me the inspiration to get back home and head to the grill Saturday night and Sunday. First, some of the best ribs I've made in a long time. We found this little store in Greenfield, Wi., Cherie's Savor the Flavor, specializing in different spice blends for meats and cheese / vegetable dips. We bought their special St. Louis Rub mix and it was excellent. Of course I added some freshly ground pepper and paprika to the blend to add a little more spice.

Sunday I made my first attempt at smoking a beef brisket. I've had a smoker for about 10 years and pull it out every few years with the idea of making something special. And the brisket was. Used the same blend as for the ribs and let it sit in the smoker for about 4 hours. Turned out great.

To finish our culinary weekend, we went to see Julie & Julia, the true story of a woman who successfully followed Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) recipes for a year. Meryl Streep was perfect in the role. A fun movie.

But tell me, why there are so many commercials before the movie starts. The paper said it started at 7:00. At 6:55 they began the first of 12 commercials. Not previews. Commercials. The previews followed. The movie didn't actually start until about 7:20. What a waste of time. And, naturally, we had to pay to sit through them.

Remember when the promise of cable was that it would be commercial free? So much for promises.

Tomorrow it's back to work. Things are quieting down somewhat but still a lot to do. We'll see how the day goes.