May 19, 2011 - The Real World

I'm sitting on my garden bench, looking over the loveliest vegetable and flower garden in the world. EG made the bench for me. Isn't it beautiful? He's in his workshop right now, and I wonder if he's building me a new garden structure, or maybe perfecting his super dooper bug zapper. There's Thomas! He just got a lovely loaf of bread out of the oven, and now he's out in the garden planting something again. He makes my vegetable garden the envy of all, while Ed adds the flowers that make it a potager of perfection. Of course, they get a lot of help from Dan, who is not only great in the kitchen and garden, but also happens to be my personal food and garden photographer. I must make a note to myself to call Villager. Tomorrow it's his turn to do the baking.

Sniff, sniff.....what is that aroma coming from my kitchen? My personal chef, David P. Offutt, the Gastronomic Gardener, must be preparing my dinner.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

snooooooooooooooorrrrrrre.....snork.....snort

NO! NO! I don't want to wake up!!!

Well, darn, the dream was nice while it lasted.



Back in the real world, I'm sitting in my lawn chair, looking over my small but nice enough vegetable garden. I had to go out and squish my own bugs, and plant my own vegetables. Soon there will be a few pretty flowers here and there, but it certainly isn't the perfect potager of my dreams.

Sniff, sniff.....what is that aroma coming from my patio? Oh, it must be the ribs I am preparing for dinner, using David P. Offutt's recipe!

Since it actually got into the 80s today, I opted to cook my spare ribs on the gas grill, rather than in the oven. I turned on the left and right burners, and placed the ribs over indirect heat in the center. I had put the rub on them earlier in the day, and let them mellow out in the fridge for a few hours. I cooked them low and slow, just like David said to do.

After a couple of hours, I sauced them with my own home canned barbecue sauce, and continued to let them cook slowly for almost another hour.

When they were nice and tender, I brushed them with sauce once more, then put them directly on the grill, on low heat, to slowly brown and crisp.

Finger lickin' good! Thanks for the recipe, David. Next time I'll use baby back ribs!

Well, good night everyone. I'm ready to go back to Dreamland, where Mike is waiting to take me huckleberry picking, Happyskunk is rounding up some pet toads for the garden, and John is making me a whole new set of soil block makers. Tomorrow I have to meet The Idiot Gardener at the airport. Who knows what kind of an adventure he'll take me on!

Ha-ha. Dream on, Granny.