July 4, 2011

On the 4th, Dave started our day by making strawberry pancakes for breakfast, which were super yummy. He made Eddie a mouse-shaped pancake and was dismayed when the first thing Eddie did was rip into its three component pieces. Oh well...I thumbed through some cookbooks to find a good rib-cooking method. We've tried boiling the racks before, cooling to marinate, and then grilling them. That method is okay but sometimes it is hard to know how long I should boil them so they are tender enough. So we decided to try a "low and slow" BBQ method from How to Cook Everything. So for 5 hours our dry-rubbed racks cooked on the BBQ over low, indirect heat. We placed chunks of water-soaked hickory wood over the flame so they could burn slowly and give off a smoky flavor to the meat. We'd turn the rib racks over every 20 minutes or so. Then we cranked the heat up to like 400F to brown them quickly. They were phenomenal!

Other highlights:

It was just us three Bowers for the holiday this year and we enjoyed the alone time together since we don't get much of it.Eddie took a FOUR HOUR NAP that day, which gave Dave time to go shopping, me to do all the laundry and dishes, and us to watch some episodes of Bones together while we had a leisurely snack on the couch. It was awesome!

We cooked up our 4th feast, which was composed of: stuffed mushrooms, ribs, cucumber/bell pepper/corn salad with salsa ranch dressing, and shrimp cocktail. It was a lot of food and I didn't eat all of my serving so I could save room for dessert during the fire works.I baked brownies on the BBQ after dinner and cooled them quickly in the fridge so we could pack them up (along with strawberries and whipped cream) to take to our fire works spot. We walked over at 9pm and got settled with our treat in plenty of time to watch the show. Eddie loved the show, and made a point of yelling out each color (or what he thought was the right color--he mostly alternated between green and blue).Dave had to work the next morning, but he was too tired to drive all the way back to Gualala that night. I love it when he sleeps here an extra night...but I know getting up before dawn for the drive back sucks for him.

Happy belated 4th, everyone! I can't believe we'll have a THREE year old with us at the fire works next year. Wowza. I still remember our 4th of July celebration from before he was born, thinking how weird it was going to be to have a child of my own. And then last year realizing that he'd be walking by this year's fireworks. Man, time sure does fly by! (And I CANNOT even imagine how much cuter Eddie will be this time next year...if that's even possible.)