May 1, 2020

Happy May Day!! We probably won’t be dancing around the May Pole or delivering a May Day Basket to our neighbor today, but we can hope that this will be the month that we are able to start taking some baby steps to opening up the country a tad bit. People are getting grouchy and bored and starting to let their guard down, as evidenced by our grocery trip on Wednesday (I’m the grouchy one). And then we have the lockdown protests orchestrated by right-wing groups, such as the one in Michigan where armed idiots entered the capital and stood outside the governor’s door with their assault-style rifles.

I love this dude’s response to them.

Let’s move on to something on the brighter side of life. Here’s a post from my former blog back on March 7, 2011, in which I posed a little challenge to myself.

$5.34 Chicken

You’re thinking, “what the hell is a $5.34 chicken?”  Well, I’m about to tell you about my $5.34 chicken and the game I plan on having with that 5.39 pound plump Poulet.

Soooooo, when the missus and I went down to the “Big City” last week for our provisions from Uncle Freddies, I picked up the plump Poulet on sale for .99 per pound. As I cut through the wrapper yesterday and pulled la poulet out of the bag, grasping it by the legs, admiring the large breasts, I says to self, “how many meals can I get from this fine specimen?”   So, that’s the game  —- how many meals?  For years I have said that when I retire maybe I will teach low-income families how to shop the sales and get several good meals from one main meat. Meal #1:  Roasted the bird yesterday.  Pulled all the meat off the bones — bones in one bowl, meat in another.  Made chicken and dumplings for dinner last night with less than half the meat.  We’ll get one more meal from those leftovers. Meal #2:  Made chicken stock with the bones this morning. Forgot to mention that when we were getting our vittles for the week, I bought a 10# bag of taters for $1.88.  Made potato and cheddar soup using a little over half of the stock and only about 2# of taters. Still have enough soup left for about three more meals. Used some of the meat to make curried chicken salad sandwiches from a Tyler Florence recipe. Yes, the chix and dumps last night were also from Tyler. I’m into his recipes at the moment. Still have one and half large, juicy breasts left to do something with, plus about one quart of chix stock.Thinking maybe pasta with the boobies — will then have pasta leftover for another meal. Save the stock to do some sort of Asian  meal at the end of the week.  So there you have it — this poor pensioner probably will have meals for a week off of that $5.34 plump poulet.

What does that post have to do with anything today? Well, when we were grocery shopping on Wednesday, I bought a package of boneless pork ribs for $7.16. Sooooo, I am going to repeat my challenge from the chicken contest 9 years ago, but this time with the pork. I have a really good recipe for ribs that I got out of Gourmet magazine in 1970, called Chowning’s Tavern BBQ Ribs, from Chowning’s Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia. Last night I made the ribs, cooking all of them so we would have leftovers for my challenge. There are enough leftover ribs that tonight I will shred a couple of them to use on buns for sandwiches topped with coleslaw and cheddar cheese. There will still be some left over, so some of those will be chopped up to be added to a pot of Rancho Gordo beans that I will cook in the next day or so. I will keep you posted. Dinner last night was a big rib for each of us, homemade french fries in the air fryer, Yaw’s famous coleslaw, and an excellent bottle of 2013 Apex Cellars Tempranillo. Here is the recipe for the bbq ribs if you would like to give it a try.

Barbecued Spareribs Chowning’s Tavern

In a roasting pan arrange 6# spareribs, cut into 3 rib pieces, in one layer. Bake at 325 degrees — turning them for 1 hour, or until lightly browned.

In a skillet, sauté ½ cup chopped onion and 2 garlic cloves (minced) in oil until onions are soft. Stir in 2 cups tomato puree, 5 tablespoons brown sugar, ¼ cup lemon juice, ¼ cup vinegar, 4 teaspoons Tabasco, 1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard, salt and 6 bay leaves. Bring mixture to a boil.

Drain fat from roasting pan. Baste the ribs with half the sauce and bake them, basting with the remaining sauce and turning several times, for 1 hour.

In a dish, blend 1/3 cup flour with 3 tablespoons brown sugar. Sprinkle the ribs with the mixture and bake them for 30 minutes, or until browned and baked through.

That should do it for today. We are approaching the cocktail hour(s), so I need to go get spruced up for my Friday night date. Keep smilin’, stay healthy, stay sane and stay away from these dimwits. Ziggyman