Jar of Cars

Con loves his Pixar Racecars. Sometimes, they have to go to toy jail, which is this lovely canning jar. Don't they look pretty?

Flowers

Finally, Waterford gets an upgrade from it's normal dandelion flowers.

Ribs

First, clean off the ribs. Cut away that pesky membrane from the back. It's tricky to do the first few times, but I got a hold of it now. Just take a sharp fillet knife in there, and dry off the part you cut away, get a good hold and tear it off.

Dry Rub:
Brown Sugar (about 1/3 of the mix)
Lawery's Salt
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Coriander (I leave it whole)
Chili Powder
Cumin
Paprika

Mix these all together, and rub away! I like to put lots of salt, cause salt is yummy.

Put onto the grill for at least an hour, maybe even an hour and a quarter. Flip halfway through. Then take your BBQ sauce (I use a combo of Famous Daves Devil Spit and whatever other sweet sauce I have on hand), paint it on with a nice brush. I prefir those fancy silicone ones for a nice even coverage, with super cleaning powers. Grill for another 15 minutes or so. Allow to cool for a bit before chopping up.

Johnny loves it, 2 picky boys under 5 loved them, I call it a crowd pleaser.

Kale Chips

A bunch of clean ripped up Kale
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Parm Cheese

In a bowl, pour the olive oil over the kale. Add the salt and cheese, to your liking, and stir around with your hands. Make sure all the kale gets a good even covering.

Bake at 425 for a few (less than 10) minutes on a Silpat lined baking sheet. Comes out crispy.

It's not the best tasting, but what else are you going to do with kale? Seriously folks, what else are you going to do? I just read an article in TIME magazine about chimps and their sign language skills. They kind of make up their own phrases, and the chimp calls kale "Slow-Lettuce" cause it takes much longer to eat than lettuce, but resembles it. Cute.

Tomato Sauce

• About 20 Roma tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• basil

Peal and de-seed the tomatoes. Chop into eighths. Do the same with the pepper. Head olive oil to medium, cook chopped garlic for a moment. Don't let it burn! Add the tomatoes and pepper. Add salt, pepper and basil and cook forever, stir every once in awhile on low heat. Seriously, I let it simmer for at least a half hour. The tomatoes will break down by themselves in that amount of time.

It's a crazy amount of work for sauce that will cover MAYBE 2 pounds of pasta, I know. But, I like to control what I eat. I hate onions, and all store bought sauce has onions in it. I normally make my own sauce with a can of crushed tomatoes, but with fresh tomatoes in season, it was time to try it the hard way.

As Connor would say, "Tomato sauce, it's not growssy!"

Crayons

You take broken crayons, put them into a silcon mold or into paper cupcake holders, bake at like 200 degrees. For a few minutes, not long, maybe 5. I like to swirl the wax with a tooth pick when they come out of the oven. Let the wax cool off, pop out, and you have a fun multi colored crayon.

Pancakes

• 

I tried a new recipe. I really love Perkin's Pancakes, and was reading somewhere that they use "club soda" instead of milk. So, I subbed it in.

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1 and 1/4 cup club soda
• 2 tablespoons melted margarine (ewwww....)
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk

Mix it up, pour onto a medium hot griddle that has been slathered with canola oil. I added a handful of blueberries to mine, Con is a purest.