Wonderful Vacation

I am back from vacation. I kind of would like to be back there right now. Chincoteague is so peaceful.  this is the view off the back of the house. Crazy beautiful, right? 

Every year my family rents a house on Chincoteague Island (sometimes parts of the family camp, but I prefer a house, with you know, a bed. and air conditioning. it is hot out there)  We've rented this house a bunch of times, and I love it.  It's gorgeous, has a great big and wonderful kitchen, and a long table for everyone to sit at.  I have spent lots of hours in this house- we've rented it a couple of times, and I really, really like it.

I really like the whole island. It is restful, and relaxing, and easy vacation. I can spend time sleeping, and crocheting, and reading.  Cooking good things, and hanging out with the family.  Not everyone was able to make it this year, and even those that were were not able to be there the whole time, which was a bummer. But I'm glad I had the time with those that did make it there this year.  And there's always next year!

I've posted a bit about my rib competition with my uncle: (and other people who want to enter, last year was Potter)  and these are my ribs:

And this is my trophy:

:)

The trrophy returns to Baltimore once more, to grace my bookshelves and inspire me to kick ass again next year.  I already have ideas marinating for next year's rub and sauce. (and maybe also my rib competition videos)

Just before we chow down on ribs.  Chilling with the family.  One thing this family has down is eating and drinking.  We had a ton of "food coma" moments, usually after eating dinner, and occasionally after lunch (see: Woody's barbecue, Woody's fried chicken, Vientamese resturaunt, The Creamery, and Mr. Whippy)
One of the things that I like is how much cooking we all do while we're there- Appetizer night,  Seafood night, Rib competition, and lots of other meals, and snacks (I did not make nearly enough guac this year. Must remedy that next year)

Helena and Auntie Ange feeding the seagulls. Which they continued to do even after Uncle Dave told a story about a friend of his who was feeding seagulls and the seagull bit off the tip of his finger. I was not going to be going anywhere near seagulls after that. They, however, purchased a whole loaf of bread to feed the seagulls with.

It was a great week, and I can't wait until next year.

Preparing for the awesome.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a competitive person.  I like to play games, and I like to win.  And for the last two years, when I go on vacation with my family at Chincoteague Island,  we  have a Rib Cookoff competition.  The first year, I was victorious. Basking in the glow of my win, I took the tropy home, and reveled in my win for a whole year.  Last year brought sadness. I was competing against my uncle, and my cousin Potter, and  my uncle pulled out a miraculous win (by a large freaking margin).

Last year's devistating loss meant that I could not rest on my laurels. I could not fly by the seat of my pants and expect to pull out victiory. I need to be more methodical. more calculating.... more awesome.

So I put together my rub,  which is based off of Alton Brown's 8 + 3 +1 +1 ratio, and I rubbed up a rack of ribs and let it sit overnight.  I made my own tomato-based barbecue sauce, Which is a new tactic that i'm trying this year. (I've never used a tomato based sauce before).

I invited Paul over for dinner, so he could guinea pig the ribs for me, to make sure that they were okay.

I cooked the ribs, low and slow, and in the last half hour, I brushed on the bbq sauce.  Then, once they were done, i cut them, and tossed them in a bowl with more sauce.

They were messy, but they were pretty awesome.  I need to tweak a little (A little less heat is needed) but they were pretty freaking great.

Watch out, Uncle Dave.... I'm comin' to get ya.

And for dessert, we had oreo cupcakes with cream cheese oreo frosting. MMMMMMMMM