gas is back on

Pot of beans. Or should I say, 6-quart mirrored stainless steel Cuisinart sautoise of beans. I started these off by browning the diced scraps of the pork spareribs with onion, carrot, and celery. Using bay, chili powder, cumin, paprika, and various herbs (as well as all the excess drippings from the ribs during roasting), I simmered the beans for about three hours.

Pork spareribs and my own rub (containing, among assorted herbs and spices, ground espresso beans). Contrary to popular belief you don't need a big iron barbeque grill to do barbeque--you can do it in a tiny studio apartment, as long as the meat fits in your oven (this almost did not). Roasted these for two hours, mopped some sauce on 'em, and finished them in the broiler. The tenderness of this product was amazing especially considering how easy it was to prepare--I never in my life imagined that this could be accomplished with some spices and aluminum foil.

It's hard to make out, but you can see my little buddy, Renoir, in this picture (he does not like the flash). Here, he's eating a carrot. Currently he is inside my toaster, eating crumbs. He and I are very alike--adventurous, passionate about food, Led Zeppelin fans.


Today is not a great day for bread. The dry, cool weather made this thing proof outward and not up at all--in the end it collapsed a little bit. If I'd made baguettes it would've worked out better. I'll call it a foccacia--it doesn't matter what the hell it looks like, it's going to keep me extremely popular at work.