Here’s a great July 4th barbecue chicken recipe. My variation is a riff on the classic beer-can chicken using your smoker such that it yields crispy, delicious skin.
The trick with poultry is to use the smoker without the water pan. The heat is far enough away to avoid scorching, but close enough to render any winged contender in about an hour.
I mentioned last week that I have often meant to document smashburgers here on Uncorrected. I tried again tonight and was reminded why, despite my intentions, they don’t lend themselves to a photo procedural: things get fast near the end.
I did get some staged shots tho:
I make 2 oz patties, and each burger sammich gets two patties.
I chop lettuce and make a copy of In and Out Burger’s Animal Sauce. I also slice up some onion and throw them on the grill while the burgers sear. Each sandwich gets a slice of Cooper Sharp.
I chopped some peppers-jalapeno, long hot, and cherry-up and let them sit in a pinch of salt and acv.
I crisped up some bacon from the butcher and toasted the buns.
I use a cast iron press and a piece of parchment paper to smash the burgers on the hot griddle.
Here are the two extras, unadorned, which ended up in the fridge. The pace kept from taking a pic of the finished product. Here’s one from March though.
Holy crap it’s hot out there. Here are some things for your consideration on this blistering Sunday.
Feedle is an RSS search service, billing itself as a search engine for blogs and podcasts. The obvious expectation would be that you could search for blogs and podcasts and add them to whatever RSS source you’re using (Feedbin over here). But each search generates its own RSS feed, so you can subscribe in your RSS reader to the search results. Very cool.
I have always been a swimmer. Both of my parents could swim. We spent a lot of time at the beach and a local swim club when I was a kid. It’s something you take for granted but it’s a valuable survival skill for sure, and a tremendous source of pleasure. It’s good exercise, too. I had a couple of friends in the neighborhood growing up whose fathers installed in-ground pools, so I was lucky enough to always be able to find a cool place to swim in the summer.
I’m pretty sure Rhonda and I installed our pool back in 2012; it’s a memorable time not only because we opened it for the first time, but because a derecho hit this corner of southern New Jersey while we were filling it up, and it was a hell of a storm, with multiple days of power outages and considerable damage (not our property, fortunately). The pool, only partially full, served as a tank of water from which we could bail water to keep the toilet flushing. Not exactly the first week of ownership experience we were looking forward to, but it was helpful.
Anyway, we’ve replaced the liner once, but otherwise it’s pretty much still the same setup. I used to be neurotic about maintenance, but I’ve mellowed some over the years. Despite the apparent complexity, you can effectively manage your pool using bleach (which is chlorine), baking soda, and borax. These three ingredients, alongside a basic test kit, are all you need. And once you’ve dialed in the alkalinity and pH, they tend not to move around too much, so it’s really a matter of keeping the pool chlorinated. As with cars and lawn mowers and everything else that we rely upon for a more convenient and efficient life, the internet abounds with people who are happy to document and explain complicated things so you don’t have to figure them out for yourself. I used Trouble Free Pool and the Pool Calculator a lot when I was first getting started, and while many of the lessons have stuck and I operate from a place of experience now, I still rely on the calculator to get things up and running.
The kids, not being kids anymore, don’t spend a lot of time in the pool; we tend to sit in there on Sundays in the summer, draining spritzes and hanging out before dinner. It’s really nice and warms my heart to see the boys trundle out after Rhonda and I have been floating around in there.
I mentioned the Pool Calculator above; it’s worth the measly 10 bucks a year to subscribe. You can create a profile with your pool settings and come back to it all season for advice on how to dose your pool water to keep it safe and clean. There’s an app, but I tend not to use it. I don’t recall it being intuitive, and my pool isn’t so far from my Mac that I can’t just pop back inside to update my entries.
Aaron, our youngest son, graduated high school last Tuesday. It was really hot and they moved the ceremony back to 7pm to beat the heat. It was still plenty hot at 7 pm but that was a smart move.
I usually just take my iPhone with me if I plan to take some pictures, but for an event like this, I typically pack up my Olympus E-PL5, which is a 3/4 mirrorless I got over ten years ago. One of the main reasons I take it is because I have a cheap-if-effective zoom lens for it. So for a situation where I’m physically back in the bleachers on the football field, but want to get a nice shot, I can.
This is a pic I took of the school principal at the beginning of the ceremony. That’s probably full magnification. Pretty amazing to me; it’s very clear (not always a given, depending upon the steadiness of your hands).
That’s one use case for the E-PL5, but my favorite usage is sneaker zoom using the Lumix G II prime lens I bought. It cost more than the camera back in 2015 when I purchased it, and it takes wonderful shots. As with the zoom lens, it’s not good for everything, but it’s perfect for portrait-style shots.
I caught myself at one point totally in everyone else’s way: a bunch of parents were taking pics (with their phones) from a distance back, but I was up in the kids’ faces because that’s what you do with a prime lens. I said sorry and backed up after I got my shots, but I love the results I get.
Today, June 28th, is the seven-year anniversary of my first Uncorrected post: 2018’s Essential Software list. I get a kick out of my nod to it being originally posted on Nonjo.com; that was my (and still is) my Tumblr blog, and it’s where I wrote until I moved to WordPress and started Uncorrected. I read or heard somewhere where Gary Veynerchuck said, “Your Tumblr Won’t Get You Paid,” so I thought maybe I should move my site to something more serious. It still doesn’t get me paid, and it costs a lot more, but hey: I like it.
Ruben Schade notes that macOS Tahoe will be the last release of macOS to support Intel Macs, but pauses to wax ecstatic about OS X:
Mac OS X had its golden era on the Intel platform. The best versions of the OS were released during this time, which perhaps says more about modern macOS than anything else. The last great, serviceable desktop Mac—the original Mac Pro—also sported Intel CPUs.
Panther and Snow Leopard are good memories for me.
And here’s a link to my Intel MacBook Pro I had at work.
I often have the urge to document some of my dishes, including ribs and smash burgers. They’re dishes we don’t have often but require a number of steps. Today, making baby backs, I tried to be mindful of the stages and taken pictures accordingly. Behold.
Ribs have a membrane of the interior (bone) side that you can peel off. I have a pairing knife I use; I slide the knife up between the membrane and the bone on a few ribs and then use a paper towel to get a good purchase on it before slowly peeling it off. You know you’re getting good at it when it only takes a pass or two to remove the whole membrane.
I do “wet” style ribs with jacked bottled barbecue sauce, so I’m not sure that this step is necessary, but I do it anyway. I’ve been getting a good store-brand rub for pork that isn’t too salty, and we all enjoy pork prepared with it.
I follow two methods of smoking, straight from the Virtual Weber Bullet: the Standard and Minion methods (increasingly the latter). Today, I filled the charcoal chamber with Kingsford briquettes and some smoke wood, added a little bit of lump to round out the kitty, and then lit a small amount of lump in a chimney starter using these starters.
Once the lump was ablaze, I dumped them on top of the unlit coals in the smoker, assembled the rig, and added the meat.
Time to wait.
The ribs went on around 11:30 am. The smoker slowly came up to about 212 degrees Fahrenheit while we ran errands.
At 14:30, I pulled the lid off of the smoker and flipped the ribs. Looking good! The temp came up to 235 or so after all that oxygen rushed in.
I brushed some KC Masterpiece straight from the bottle as the ribs finished. I use the “tear test” to see when they’re finishing up. If the meat separates easily from the bone, you know you’re good to go. These were good to go.
You don’t have to let the ribs sit before eating them, but it doesn’t hurt. I had a glass of Pinto Grigio to drink with mine.
Now we’re talking Jersey summer weather: hot, humid, oppressive. Today’s a bit less hot than forecasted, happily. The paradoxical sameness of winter, where despite the thermostat moving in the opposite direction, the upshot–staying inside–becomes preference. Friday started out sweltering, but turned into a memorable evening. Once the pool is open, we’ll be inclined to spend the day in our tiny oasis in the blaze. For me, today, though, I’m smoking some baby backs. See you on the other side of an Aperol spritz.
I am as much a creature of habit as I am an explorer. Routine has its delights, yet novelty beckons. To obey the latter, we found ourselves at the delightful Auburn Road Vineyards recently. We tried the barrel reserve Chardonnay and the dry rosé, along with the burrata salad and a pizza. The Chardonnay was surprisingly bright and crisp, not as much to Rhonda’s taste (she digs “buttery” wines), but I enjoyed it. The rosé is an exemplar of the local style. The vineyard is quietly ensconced among the wandering fields of Salem County, said terroir a common sight for me in middle school when my parents would drive to and from the Eastern Shore each weekend to sail.
And we still roll through on our way to Delaware and other Eastern Shore locales.
The whole experience was a blissed-out delight.
Poor Aaron: our youngest son got a taste of freedom in getting his drivers license and a car to enjoy for the last three semesters of his high school career. An otherwise uneventful accident saw his car eventually totaled by the insurance company, after months of repair attempts, during which time he was reliant upon the largess of friends with wheels.
Nevertheless, insurance money in hand, we hit a local Mini dealership Friday to check out a 2022 hardtop coupe. I didn’t realize it was an S until we got there.
Aaron drove the car and loved it and I did, too. It looked great and was a good for fit Aaron. We made the purchase and it’s been fun snapping pics of this cool little go cart in the driveway.
I got a chance to drive it briefly after the ride home and it’s a very nice car indeed.
After many hours of car shopping, Aaron and I hit Ruchi Indian Cuisine for a late lunch. We both had the lunch special. I love an utterly mysterious dish that you may not identify before, during, or even after service. Just try everything.
Rhonda and I attended the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Bellview Winery this past Friday night. I was really looking forward to this all week. We sipped some wine we don’t often (or ever) try, including the excellent Traminette, which we agreed was both of our favorites.
It was an eclectic crowd for sure; we had a nice time catching up with familiar faces. There was cheese and other nummies in the winery house, and canapés from Top Shelf Mobile Cuisine.
I was padding back to our table and stopped to snap a couple of pics of the vineyard during the golden hour. And it struck me that I love spending time at a place that looks like my backyard.
It’s nice out here.
We had a Scottish Terrier, Haddie, who would have been 25 years old today. She almost made it to 20!
I’ve used Tripsy to plan a few trips since I heard about it on a podcast. It’s an iOS app that runs on your Mac, so Tripsy is everywhere.
In Tripsy, you create a trip specifying dates (or leaving it open) and add all manner of trip-related data to it: notes, emails, expenses, map locations, and more.
One of my favorite features in Tripsy allow you to forward any emails you get regarding reservations or other bookings to Tripsy, so it’s all collected in the app. I’ve done similar things using links or pdfs, but this is far superior. You can save map locations, emails, files, and take basic notes, all organized into your trip.
But what’s more, it parses the data for, say, your hotel reservation, and adds that to Tripsy as a booking. It’s not just a copy of the email. Which it then sends off to its own calendar, should you agree to it.
I find Tripsy pricey for my usage, but I have to admit I like using the app. Instead of notes in Notes and PDFs in Finder, and emails wherever, Trips gathers it all up for you.
Aaron designed his own graduation cap. What a cool kid.
Happy Father’s Day! I usually barbecue for this holiday, preferring the satisfaction of DIY to something prepackaged. Not always my wont, but for this day, it is. Here are some things to check out.
After resolving not to install iPad betas anymore, I found myself installing the iPadOS 26 Developer Beta on an older M1 iPad. It’s terrific and I’m looking forward to the full release in the fall.
I will admit that the windowing doesn’t make a ton of sense to me on an 11” screen, but it absolutely shines when plugged into a display (which I did). I found myself forgetting for a moment that I wasn’t using a Mac until a few keyboard shortcuts that don’t exist on the iPad didn’t work. It’s gonna be interesting.
Files is a revelation, and the new menu bar is revealing and helpful, but stays out of the way when you don’t need it. It doesn’t require a keyboard, either.
I’ve been taking the boys to this version of Bob D’Amico’s toy shows since 2022. It’s outside, and fairly close to home, both of which are plusses. We blast up to the show early and get home stat.
I’ve been taking Joey and Aaron to toy shows since 2011, and they’ve been a mix of magic, wonder, and meh at the same time. This year’s show was an eclectic mix, as ever, with a lot of vinyl thrown in, much to Aaron’s delight. I’m glad we went.
Rhonda and I wandered into Bellview yesterday afternoon to fill our growler, and the dry white we’ve been enjoying (Hyancinth) was replaced with Astraea. We tried a sip and agreed to a growler full. It’s a light, citrusy wine perfect for the dog days of summer ahead.
