Labor Day Weekend

I know we still have one more day to go but we’ve already had a great Labor Day Weekend. For many winemakers around the state it’s the start of their harvest, but we still have many weeks ahead before we start. It’s a great weekend to spend with friends.

Saturday we had a long 3+ hour lunch at a Brazilian steak house in San Mateo. We had two 750 ml bottles and a magnum with lunch. Everyone started in the bar though with a cocktail. There was a strict limit of one Pisco Sour per person. Two creates dementia 🙂

We were celebrating a baby shower for our friends and with this group BBQ meat and wine is the best type of baby shower. Below beef ribs come out to the table. After lunch many of us went into a ‘meat coma’. The talk the next day was if anyone actually ate again the rest of the day ( 1 1/2 out of 11 of us did!)

Sunday it was time to regather and get the smoker going. I smoked a salmon for Stefania and then when the smoker had cooled to about 180 I put these ribs on. Our friend Gerard had done steaks like that for us on our trip to Nashville. I left the steaks on for just about 70 minutes. They don’t really cook at all, they just pick up the spice of the smoke.

Then I transfer them to a hot grill and finish them off there.

I did fall asleep on the coach but we had another great night of food and wine with friends.


One more event tonight with smoked ribs, brats and more wine!