Challenge!! May 8th from Noon to 2pm at Sweet Bytes

With a stake put up by my mother-in-law I will be throwing down the gauntlet in the category of wings!!! Come cheer me on if you are so inclined, $5 will get you all the wings, potato salad and brownies/blondies you can eat. The challenge is not only against other local competitors but against the cafe itself, and these southern ladies know their cooking!

I'm a trifle concerned, but I think I'll show well, as I have a few strategies in mind. I'll keep you all updated and post my recipe on the morning of, once it's safely too late for duplication...

In other food news, I'm grilling up some short ribs this afternoon, dry rubbed with lots of heat and then finished with monterey jack and lime juice. These will be accompanied by skewers of red onion, squash, bell pepper and garlic all doused in cilantro and soy sauce. Most importantly I'm doing a fresh creamy guacamole for munching during the grilling process.

I'm not really a recipe kind of guy, but this blog seems like the perfect tool to change my ways. I will keep track of proportions today to the best of my abilities and then put them up later. This may of course be hampered by the number of beers I consume while cooking, hopefully I'll know how to interpret my scrawled, stained, alcohol soaked references.

Also on the radar, brewing beer tomorrow! I actually have a batch in the primary fermenter now, but it seems like a loss, as the yeast fizzled after only three days. It's going to get bottled anyway - even bad beer is still beer. Tomorrow will be an attempt at the same recipe just with more liquid malt and a dry yeast.

Pictures of tonight's dinner, and tomorrow's brewing will be posted as available.

Also I believe that I might rattle off an account of my earliest childhood memory tonight if I have enough time - not very traumatic but then again I'm no psychologist...