Kyle

 Yesterday Kyle turned THIRTY!!!!

He doesn't like cake, so every year

I draw a cake on the patio 

with sidewalk chalk.

It's a tradition.

And then we all drove over beachside to the

local Lowe's where they had a GREAT sale

on a new smoker.

We've been trying to buy him one for a

couple of years but couldn't find the

"right" one for the "right" price.

But this time we DID!

Terrible picture.

But a great smoker.

We had bought a couple of racks of

baby back ribs at Sam's on Friday

and were just going to do them on the

grill, but it was the perfect thing to

try out the new smoker with.

They turned out yummy.

Jim and Sabrina came over and shared them with us.

We spent the ENTIRE day making these ribs,

between buying the smoker,

putting it all together,

reading recipes, etc.,

and then it took about an hour for it to

come to the automatic 350 and burn off all

the factory gunk for half an hour and then

cool off and then come back up to temp for

the ribs and then COOK the ribs...

When we heard Jim and Sabrina were on their

way, I suddenly realized I had ONLY been

thinking about ribs.

I had NO sides planned!

So I opened the pantry and discovered a big

can of baked beans and a box of Kraft dinner.

Hahahahaha.

I doctored the beans (not as well as Mom's though!)

and made a pot of mac and cheese and called it dinner.

With fresh peaches for desert for any who wanted.

It was delicious

and we had a good time visiting!

Happy Birthday Kyle!