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.

28 comments:

  1. Seriously clever post! You had me going! But I put the brakes on when I saw the ribs. And sat here and drooled to beat the band !!!

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  2. Granny, you are always good for a laugh! Your ribs look very tasty. I'd say your garden is alot better then nice enough though. Mine on the other hand looks about as bad as your neighbors at the moment. That will all change when I get planting this weekend.

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  3. I love it, both your garden dreaming and the Q!

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  4. I giggled all the way through. I hope you enjoyed your ribs, they look fantastic.

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  5. You make the ribs and I'll bring the buns, deal?

    Those are some seriously good looking ribs you got there!

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  6. Dang those ribs look good. My townhouse mates have a friend who raised some pigs over the winter. We went in for half a pig together, so I got a quarter and they got a quarter. They didn't want the ribs so I got them. Yum. Yum. Do I cook the spareribs first or the baby back ribs? I can't wait for bbq season. I'm thinking I have to bbq the chops too. And I got a couple of big roasts for pulled pork. One is smoked and one isn't. I wonder which will be better?

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  7. LOL! Ahhh... summer time in the garden blog friends dream world garden! Sounds like a slice of heaven. And those barbequed spareribs look absolutely delicious! Now you just need some fresh ears of sweet corn from your fantasy garden land to go with that!

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  8. Aren't daydreams great? At least you know people to dream about doing those things for you. In my dreams I have the energy and sweet disposition to sit for hours and pick out every last maple seed from my gardens. My children are excited to pull weeds for me and actually get the roots and all. I don't find any decaying animal parts buried in my perfect landscaping. Other than that, my life here is pretty dreamy as is. Thanks for that reminder today, Granny.

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  9. Wouldn't be lovely if all our dreams like that one could come true? No then we would miss all the pleasures and satisfaction of doing it ourselves.

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  10. Haha, good one! Hey, i'd gladly build you a bench if you came down here to pick it up....

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  11. Such a great post. Thanks for the afternoon kick!

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  12. You are too funny Granny! Your ribs look great!!

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  13. Day dreaming in the middle of the day! You better get your buns outta that chair and get some slaw ready for those ribs ..I'm on my way with the iced tea.

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  14. The ribs do look darn fine! I'll bring the sweet tea! Thanks for the links!

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  15. Oops better bring the baked beans, since Gingerbread beat me to the tea!

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  16. Ill gladly come down off the mountain for those ribs.

    When do I get to start work on your potager?

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  17. Thanks for helping us all dream a little...

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  18. Thanks to all for dreaming along with me, BUT.......

    I can't believe not one of you mentioned the obvious. Granny only dreams about men!

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  19. We had a local barbecue event today, and the chicken turned out so tasty that now I'm wanting to fire up my own Big Green Egg. I got a couple of serious pointers out of your hilarious post :-)

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  20. Dianefaith, I read about the fundraiser for that beautiful old gym. I always read, I just don't always respond.

    I had another whole rack of those ribs in the fridge, already well rubbed with David's concoction, but I took the coward's way out. I put them in the crockpot and cooked them all day, using a turkey baster to occasionally suck out the juices. When they were done, I cooled them down and put them in the freezer. I'm hoping I can thaw, sauce and give them a quick final grill for our next rib meal.

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  21. Granny, I'll admit I thought about the obvious, but I wasn't quite sure on all the screen names. I guess if you're going to dream, you might as well dream BIG. It would have been a bit bigger if you had a couple of us ladies over to enjoy it with you.

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  22. Langela, Granny doesn't share her men ;-)

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  23. Too funny!

    Love ribs but have never made them myself. Husband doesn't enjoy them like I do.

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  24. Ah yes, wouldn't it be nice if we were all close neighbors.:)

    "Oh look, out the window, there is Annie's Granny (greenest thumb in town) with the most beautiful pepper and tomato plants I have ever seen. Thanks to her we successfully took up container gardening last year and found spots for tomatoes and peppers where none would have otherwise been grown.":)

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  25. HA! My dear Granny, you crack me up.

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  26. Marcia, we love ribs, but they sre are getting expensive! It's almost cheaper to go out to eat them. Not around here, but down in AZ we have a couple of places where you can get the entire dinner for around $12. It cost $25 for two racks at Costco, the baby backs a lot more.

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    Mr. H., it would be the best commune ever! Fun and productive.

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    Langela, we can all use a good laugh now and then ;-)

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  27. Delicious!

    Now that you have my stomach rumbling... I think it's time for some lunch.

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  28. Yum, ribs look yummy! Glad you dinally got some warmer weather...

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