Up in Smoke

"You smell like smoke."

"Yeah, well, I've been camping for a couple of days and there's smoke out there in the wilderness and I got into it."

And that was that. She went off to do soccer stuff and I worked at home to de-smoke-ify myself, put the camping gear away and figure out what was happening for dinner.

In the fridge were beef ribs.

Ohhh, beef ribs, I did in my best Homer Simpson. Must marinate. Beef ribs...

So, I set off gathering stuff around the house: bbq sauce, red wine, garlic, onion, hot sauce and some other stuff. I put all the "stuff" in a large plastic bag, cut the ribs into two chunks and put the whole mess back into the fridge to do its thing.

Here's the plan. Marinate the ribs for a couple of hours. Soak some mesquite chips in water. Fire up the grill. Seal the ribs on the hot side of the grill, move them to the cool side and load in the chips for smoking. Smoked beef ribs. My favorite.

Much later the soccer pro returned home and started clanging around in the kitchen.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Dinner."

"It's under control."

"What?"

"The ribs! I've got them marinating and the chips are soaking and I'm about to fire up the grill."

"Ah, change in plans, I have a new recipe." At which point the ribs are tossed into a baking pan with all sorts of good things I didn't know were around: potatoes, peppers, spices, onions and stuff.

New recipe.

Oh?

Well, sitting here the smells are starting to permeate the house and I'm beginning to like the new recipe already.

At least at the end of the day I won't smell like smoke.