Mitch runs in his sleep all the time but nothing like this.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The guy at work that is an all-grain brewer invited me and a couple other brewing friends to his place Saturday morning to hang out while he brewed a batch. I stayed just up until the start of the boil because after that point all-grain and extract brewing are the same. The all-grain process is easier than I thought it would be, but for now I think I am more than happy with the results of my extract beers. It was neat to see though, and at some point I will probably step up to all-grain. He was an extract brewer for 10 years before going to all-grain.
He lives in Evanston which is close to a barbeque place I have been wanting to try called Smoque. I haven't tried it up until now because it is about an hour drive one way. This place is all about the meat, and is probably some of the best I have ever had. If your idea of barbeque has lots of sauce on top then this is not your place. Their pork and brisket are dry rubbed and then smoked for 12 and 15 hours respectively. It is an almost perfect balance of the meat flavor, smoke, salt, and seasoning. They only have one sauce and it is served on the side. It is a fairly thin vinegar-based sauce with a nice sweet twang. The first few times I dunked the whole piece of meat on my fork into the sauce before realizing that was not the right balance. It turned out dipping just the bottom fifth of the piece of meat provided the right amount of balance, and I didn't dip every bite. I dipped maybe every third bite. To summarize the meat, it was smoked so perfectly you really do not want to cover it up with sauce. I liked just a little bit of the vinegar sauce to cleanse my palate so the next two bites of plain smoked meat seemed like the first bite all over again.
The platter I got came with coleslaw and two sides. The slaw needed a little more dressing, but was still a nice fresh counterpart to the meat. The barbequed baked beans were on the sweet side, but not objectionably sweet side, and they had a lot of flavor and nice big chunks of perfectly cooked down onions. The mac and cheese was very good but the serving size was a little on the small side. It was baked in its own little tin foil cup.
Overall I will go back and give it a solid B+, and it would not be much of stretch to give it an A-. The place is very small and when I walked in the line was huge. If I lived a lot closer I probably would have said to heck with it and left, but since I was in the area I stuck it out. The line actually moves very fast and I was there about 15 to 20 minutes. Not too bad.
I had my cable service upgraded to digital and switched from traditional POTS service to getting my phone service from the cable company on Thursday, and I am loving it more than I thought I would!
I have already watched three movies using the free on-demand service. Unless there is a really big movie that I want to see as soon as possible on DVD I think the on-demand service will take care of most of my movie needs. So far I have watched 21, Walk Hard, and Grind House.
When the phone rings the caller ID info pops up on the TV screen. That is pretty cool.
I can look at future shows on the program grid, and if I want to make sure I tune to it when it comes on, I just click a button and a little reminder pops up on the TV telling me it is time to turn to that channel! I even went out to Friday night's schedule a week away and set a reminder.
I also LOVE being able to look at the program guide and still be able to see and hear the program I am watching in the upper right corner. With my previous service when I opened the guide the sound and picture disappeared.
One of the older fence posts in the back yard snapped from the high winds we had a couple nights ago. I need to call the fence guy and have him come out to dig out the old "stump" and set a new one. For now I braced it up by nailing a 2x4 at the top of the post and secured it at the ground by pounding a stake in front of it. It's not going anywhere now so I have time to get the guy out here. I will try and wait until it warms up a bit. Hopefully in the next week or two.
I have been thinking about replacing my furnace and air conditioner for the last couple years. I'm glad I waited because I saw in the news today that I will be able to get a $1,500 tax credit under the stimulus package to do that. There will also be money available for renewable energy upgrades. Once I get a new roof installed in the spring I would be interested in looking at adding a little bit of solar capacity to the house. I have thought about installing just a few panels on the roof and the switches and wiring to get it patched into the house, and then down the road add additional panels as prices drop and efficiency increases.
The siding on the house looks dingy and needs to have something done to it. I am going to look into having it painted rather than residing the house.
Everything is still in place to refinance my mortgage. My banker said things are taking longer than normal because of the huge increase of everyone refinancing at the same time because of the low rates.
I have Monday off for President's Day. I just have a few easy chores on the list for today; pick up dog poop in the back yard, this week's laundry, a trip to the grocery store, empty the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen. I also bought wind deflectors for the rear windows on my car a few weeks ago, but have been waiting until the weather warms up to install them.
He lives in Evanston which is close to a barbeque place I have been wanting to try called Smoque. I haven't tried it up until now because it is about an hour drive one way. This place is all about the meat, and is probably some of the best I have ever had. If your idea of barbeque has lots of sauce on top then this is not your place. Their pork and brisket are dry rubbed and then smoked for 12 and 15 hours respectively. It is an almost perfect balance of the meat flavor, smoke, salt, and seasoning. They only have one sauce and it is served on the side. It is a fairly thin vinegar-based sauce with a nice sweet twang. The first few times I dunked the whole piece of meat on my fork into the sauce before realizing that was not the right balance. It turned out dipping just the bottom fifth of the piece of meat provided the right amount of balance, and I didn't dip every bite. I dipped maybe every third bite. To summarize the meat, it was smoked so perfectly you really do not want to cover it up with sauce. I liked just a little bit of the vinegar sauce to cleanse my palate so the next two bites of plain smoked meat seemed like the first bite all over again.
The platter I got came with coleslaw and two sides. The slaw needed a little more dressing, but was still a nice fresh counterpart to the meat. The barbequed baked beans were on the sweet side, but not objectionably sweet side, and they had a lot of flavor and nice big chunks of perfectly cooked down onions. The mac and cheese was very good but the serving size was a little on the small side. It was baked in its own little tin foil cup.
Overall I will go back and give it a solid B+, and it would not be much of stretch to give it an A-. The place is very small and when I walked in the line was huge. If I lived a lot closer I probably would have said to heck with it and left, but since I was in the area I stuck it out. The line actually moves very fast and I was there about 15 to 20 minutes. Not too bad.
I had my cable service upgraded to digital and switched from traditional POTS service to getting my phone service from the cable company on Thursday, and I am loving it more than I thought I would!
I have already watched three movies using the free on-demand service. Unless there is a really big movie that I want to see as soon as possible on DVD I think the on-demand service will take care of most of my movie needs. So far I have watched 21, Walk Hard, and Grind House.
When the phone rings the caller ID info pops up on the TV screen. That is pretty cool.
I can look at future shows on the program grid, and if I want to make sure I tune to it when it comes on, I just click a button and a little reminder pops up on the TV telling me it is time to turn to that channel! I even went out to Friday night's schedule a week away and set a reminder.
I also LOVE being able to look at the program guide and still be able to see and hear the program I am watching in the upper right corner. With my previous service when I opened the guide the sound and picture disappeared.
One of the older fence posts in the back yard snapped from the high winds we had a couple nights ago. I need to call the fence guy and have him come out to dig out the old "stump" and set a new one. For now I braced it up by nailing a 2x4 at the top of the post and secured it at the ground by pounding a stake in front of it. It's not going anywhere now so I have time to get the guy out here. I will try and wait until it warms up a bit. Hopefully in the next week or two.
I have been thinking about replacing my furnace and air conditioner for the last couple years. I'm glad I waited because I saw in the news today that I will be able to get a $1,500 tax credit under the stimulus package to do that. There will also be money available for renewable energy upgrades. Once I get a new roof installed in the spring I would be interested in looking at adding a little bit of solar capacity to the house. I have thought about installing just a few panels on the roof and the switches and wiring to get it patched into the house, and then down the road add additional panels as prices drop and efficiency increases.
The siding on the house looks dingy and needs to have something done to it. I am going to look into having it painted rather than residing the house.
Everything is still in place to refinance my mortgage. My banker said things are taking longer than normal because of the huge increase of everyone refinancing at the same time because of the low rates.
I have Monday off for President's Day. I just have a few easy chores on the list for today; pick up dog poop in the back yard, this week's laundry, a trip to the grocery store, empty the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen. I also bought wind deflectors for the rear windows on my car a few weeks ago, but have been waiting until the weather warms up to install them.