A couple weeks ago, I hot tubbed three boneless shortribs. 72 hours at 131. I was intending to sear them off that week or something. But I've been in a bit of a funk with the cooking, and I guess I have to tell what that's all about.
As you may recall, I live in a condo on the Northside of Chicago. I grill out on my patio deck. Every since we've lived there, we've had a minor leak at the top of the door that goes out to my deck. We had a man out who couldn't give me a good estimate, saying it might be $3K to fix it, it might get up to $25K or so. We caulked it inside and out, and it still leaked. We had a professional caulk it inside and out, and it still leaked. But it wasn't much of a leak, and it wasn't every time it rained. Really, maybe three times a year, we'd get a long and steady enough rain to leak in. Oh, I forgot, I talked to the condo board president about getting it fixed, and she said theirs was fixed with caulk, so we could take care of it ourself. This is an outside wall, so it is actually the condo board's fix.
Any rate, this spring, we had some fairly torrential rain, and our leak got a lot worse. We've also turned over the condo board, and I am now the president. So, we're getting it fixed, it's just taking a lot of time due to condo rules. I have mild regrets about staying in the city, and not moving to some suburb where I could have 5 cookers and just get two estimates and get things fixed. Any rate, in the meantime, we had used some Flex Tape to attach plastic sheeting to the back door, to protect the floor. We have sanitary napkins taped to the top of the door at all the leak sites. The Flex Tape is flexible, in that you can put a seal around corners and what not. It is inflexible, in the removing it is not something that is discussed on the company's website.
At any rate, I've been the dog with the violin, watching the other folks in my neighborhood grill.
Sunday, we decided... enough. It had been four weekends with no outdoor cooking, I was going stir crazy. We couldn't grill. We couldn't fill the birdfeeder and entertain the cats. We couldn't lounge out on the deck, sip some adult bevs and watch the world go by. We couldn't grill. We worked together to get the Flex Tape off the door. We were afraid of breaking the glass it was taking so much pressure. I pulled the tape while the wife used a utility knife to cut the strands of adhesive. That left us with a 12 foot long strip of adhesive on the glass, which required a toxic chemical and a metric ton of elbow grease to remove. But it is now gone. The other roll of Flex Tape has been returned. We now have the new sheet attached with T-Rex brand duct tape. It is easily removed without leaving residue that cannot be windexed off.
In celebration of the deck's liberation, I gave a short 30 minute smoke to the SV shortribs. I coated with BBBR, gave them some brandy barrel smoke from the smoking pouch, then seared them off on the flipped GrillGrates. Did wife's chicken breasts at the same time I seared, with some MMD on them, which wife has developed a great affection for as a chicken rub. While I was doing the smoke, a cooked down some sliced baby bella mushrooms in some butter on the side burner. When they were nice and golden, and starting to leave a fond, I added some minced garlic, then the filtered purge from the ribs, then some cab sauv, and reduced that way down, then mounted with some butter. Really incredible umami mushrooms.
A glorious night of eating, a wonderful return to the grill.
Sorry, no pix, as I've just been out of the mood for shooting everything I cook. But damn... I'm back.
As you may recall, I live in a condo on the Northside of Chicago. I grill out on my patio deck. Every since we've lived there, we've had a minor leak at the top of the door that goes out to my deck. We had a man out who couldn't give me a good estimate, saying it might be $3K to fix it, it might get up to $25K or so. We caulked it inside and out, and it still leaked. We had a professional caulk it inside and out, and it still leaked. But it wasn't much of a leak, and it wasn't every time it rained. Really, maybe three times a year, we'd get a long and steady enough rain to leak in. Oh, I forgot, I talked to the condo board president about getting it fixed, and she said theirs was fixed with caulk, so we could take care of it ourself. This is an outside wall, so it is actually the condo board's fix.
Any rate, this spring, we had some fairly torrential rain, and our leak got a lot worse. We've also turned over the condo board, and I am now the president. So, we're getting it fixed, it's just taking a lot of time due to condo rules. I have mild regrets about staying in the city, and not moving to some suburb where I could have 5 cookers and just get two estimates and get things fixed. Any rate, in the meantime, we had used some Flex Tape to attach plastic sheeting to the back door, to protect the floor. We have sanitary napkins taped to the top of the door at all the leak sites. The Flex Tape is flexible, in that you can put a seal around corners and what not. It is inflexible, in the removing it is not something that is discussed on the company's website.
At any rate, I've been the dog with the violin, watching the other folks in my neighborhood grill.
Sunday, we decided... enough. It had been four weekends with no outdoor cooking, I was going stir crazy. We couldn't grill. We couldn't fill the birdfeeder and entertain the cats. We couldn't lounge out on the deck, sip some adult bevs and watch the world go by. We couldn't grill. We worked together to get the Flex Tape off the door. We were afraid of breaking the glass it was taking so much pressure. I pulled the tape while the wife used a utility knife to cut the strands of adhesive. That left us with a 12 foot long strip of adhesive on the glass, which required a toxic chemical and a metric ton of elbow grease to remove. But it is now gone. The other roll of Flex Tape has been returned. We now have the new sheet attached with T-Rex brand duct tape. It is easily removed without leaving residue that cannot be windexed off.
In celebration of the deck's liberation, I gave a short 30 minute smoke to the SV shortribs. I coated with BBBR, gave them some brandy barrel smoke from the smoking pouch, then seared them off on the flipped GrillGrates. Did wife's chicken breasts at the same time I seared, with some MMD on them, which wife has developed a great affection for as a chicken rub. While I was doing the smoke, a cooked down some sliced baby bella mushrooms in some butter on the side burner. When they were nice and golden, and starting to leave a fond, I added some minced garlic, then the filtered purge from the ribs, then some cab sauv, and reduced that way down, then mounted with some butter. Really incredible umami mushrooms.
A glorious night of eating, a wonderful return to the grill.
Sorry, no pix, as I've just been out of the mood for shooting everything I cook. But damn... I'm back.
Attached Files
Glad you got out and cooked.
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