I’ve got to say that I think I officially have the February blahs this year. Unfortunately, there’s no shot for that, though I probably wouldn’t get it because I avoid needles every chance I get.

So instead of doing much cooking, I mostly don’t cook anything. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, which included the loss of my mom’s lab, Wings. I brought Wings home when Woody, the Best Dog in the World, was about 2 1/2, and Wings was 2. The first day, she sniffed everywhere and wanted nothing to do with Woody, but the changed overnight when she greeted him coming downstairs from my apartment, tail wagging (hers, not mine). They got along great from then on, but, more importantly, she fell in love with my mom, who in turn fell in love with Wings. Wings would have been 16 in April, and it’s hard to say goodbye to her.

On the flip side of pet stuff, Bucky McKatt is growing like mad. He’s probably about 6 lbs now (he was 5 lbs 10 ounces 9 days ago, on his 4th birthday). He’s got Hobbit paws… big and lots of hair on them. I’m assuming he’ll stop growing at some point, but he’s expected to by over 4 times his current size when it’s all said and done.

One thing I have been doing is starting to plan for a barbecue event in May. Mark and I will be teaching our 4th barbecue class on May 19th, at Cooks’ Wares in Springboro, OH. If you’re interested, you can sign up online here.

The two days prior to that, my church, the Dayton Vineyard, will be host to several barbecue teams from the area and surrounding states. The event is called “A pretty good barbecue”, and the guidelines are simple… Teams show up, with meat and either a smoker or planned use of a smoker that’s already there, and they start cooking on Saturday. When the Sunday church service lets out, people will come by, and we’ll give them the food we cooked. That’s right, give it to them. No vending, no sales… we’re just giving it away to show people that God loves them, even in little things. If you’re interested in helping out, email me and let me know.

I’m going to be doing some more bread baking soon, along with more smoking of traditional and, hopefully, new things.

My wife and I were out over the weekend and decided to go to the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio. While there, I found an early example of how foodies captured food images before digital cameras:

I have to say, I’m thankful for my dslr! I already have enough trouble finding time to post. If I had to use this format, I’d get 2-3 posts up a year!

I have to say that I’m a really lucky man. Not only did my wife want to fix dinner for me, but her gift got to my office after I’d had to leave for the day. She could have been furious with me; instead, her response was, “I get to have Valentine’s Day two days in a row!” How many women out there would respond that way?

For the gifts, though, she made me this:

Psalm 37:4 has special meaning to us, and she had a friend help her emboss it onto paper, then fit it to the frame. And she got, finally, this (not a great pic, but I was in a hurry:

As it turns out, we each made part of dinner. I made her something she requested… bacon wrapped shrimp with peppers and cheese. I made something similar a few weeks ago, and she wanted it again. The only real differences were that I cooked the prawns on the stove and I wrapped the shrimp much better with bacon so they stayed together better.

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I was going to come up with some great meal to fix for Valentine’s Day this year and show how I made it, what ingredients I used, why it’s so great, etc., but I decided against it. For ideas on what to fix, though, here are some past posts:

Cedar Planked Salmon

Foie Gras

Shish Kabob

And maybe end with chocolate pot with burnt caramel and sea salt sauce

And let her pick the wine; if she prefers a white to a big red, but you like red, have a white instead, and don’t complain about it.

Instead of something new to cook, I’m going to talk about what means more than cooking a great, romantic meal one day a year… Getting to know your significant other.
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Okay, first things first. I do happen to know the Superbowl is over. And I apologize for not posting any foods prior to the Superbowl, for those looking for ideas.

But I did fix some stuff, and I had some thoughts on Superbowl foods. Here are my thoughts:

Food should never be fixed for the Superbowl if someome could categorize it as ‘gourmet’. That’s it. Everything else is fair game.

‘Gourmet’ foods don’t mix with the NFL. Fatties and pulled pork and wings and ribs fit pretty well. I can’t imagine a bunch of people sitting around watching the game while eating foie gras with blackberry balsamic glaze, or fish eggs on toast (sorry, caviar on toast points, forgive me!). Football food is meant to be stuff that you can chomp on and enjoy without having to pay too much attention to etiquette. Fancy foods have their time and place; half time at the Superbowl isn’t one of them!

So I kept it simple… Smofried wings and ABTs.

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A fellow barbecuer, Eric, is starting a blog called the Home of BBQ.  To start off, he’s doing a sauce give away as he’s getting going.  He’s got some good barbecue info, and it’s worth a visit.

Check out the contest; you might get some new stuff to try out!