Thoughts.com Blogs - Cough and choke central

I have such poor ventilation in my apartment. There is an exhaust fan above my stove, only problem is the exhaust isn't vented to the outside. Sometimes cooking can be a royal pain. I have a stove top grill, I have given up grilling steaks . The whole apartment gets ingulfed in smoke. Your eyes burn and water and you start to choke and cough. Makes it hard to eat dinner, just as you've come to from almost certain death of exfixiation.

I can grill chicken on this grill with little problem of certain choking death, unless I use too much Montreal grill seasoning (love that stuff) If I have over done it with my "sprinkling"...you guessed it another cough and choke session in apartment B. I swear I'm not trying to kill anyone, though I'm sure my neighbors would disagree.

So yesterday I decide to make country style pork ribs. I made way to much food for 3 people ( my neighbor down the hall has dinner with us, at least I know she has had more than a cereal bar for the day) Not that I would want to make any of you cough and choke, would of been nice to have you all over for dinner. I digress, back to the ribs....

I parboiled the ribs as I always do, I throw a bottle of barbaque sauce in the water along with spices. I had a neighbor from the south, this is what he did. I always liked his ribs, so I keep with his methods. Then again I have never had a rib I didn't like :) I also made German potato salad, corn with red peppers, walla wall onions (I love those and vidalia's) garlic, and fresh thyme. Also cadillac corn bread (recipe to follow) Then came time to grill off the ribs.....

First step is to always remove the smoke detector I always set that sucker off. I heat the grill pan on a very low flame. I always laugh when I watch 30 minute meals and Rachael says get your grill screaming hot. If I did that I'd burn my building down. I only crank the burners on high if I'm boiling water or stir frying. Grilling noway Jose. Well even at the lowest setting the smoke is forming fast, I'm sure the no stick spray was part of the culprit. Dammit I came close to burning them. I'm waving a towel through the air so I can see the ribs. Needless to say I had to turn the burners off, then sauce the ribs. There was so much heat it was enough to carmelize the sauce.

Dinner turned out, too much food. We will be eating this for the next few days. To the point that I wont want to see another rib until hell freezes over. I just cant wait til sweet corn is in season!

Cadillac corn bread

2 boxes of jiffy corn muffin mix
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 can creamed corn
1 can diced green chiles
1 cup of diced onion (omit if you don't like onions)
1 16oz container of sour cream
2 cups grated cheese whatever your favorite is

heat oven to 400

Mix together muffin mix, eggs,milk,creamed corn,onions and green chiles
Place half of mixture in a 13x9 baking dish that has been greased or use Pam
dollop sour cream over 1st layer
Dollop remaining cornbread mixture over the sour cream, smooth out top
sprinkle cheese over top and bake for 20-30 minutes. Depends on your oven. Check it after 20 minutes if not done check again in 5 minutes.
Doesn't have to be eaten hot. It actually tastes better at room temperature.

This morning I woke up and my apartment smelled like a dirty grill, yuck. The windows have been open all night, good grief. Febreeze here I come.