Reciprocity

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It's a double header on the BBQ tonight 👍 We have T-Bone Steak, done med-rare and ( @Abby will love this one) Garlic Grilled Jumbo Shrimp 🍤 First job is to prepare the shrimp and let them soak for hours in a pool of buttery garlic. This is where the magic happens. It's no longer about just shrimp. The mission here is to infuse as much garlic laced butter into those plump, juicy shrimp. I start off with frozen, jumbo shrimp bought from Costco. They are 16-20 count per pound so they're a good size and, the bonus is their shells are split down the backs and they're deveined already. All that's left to do is thaw them and strip the shells off. Meanwhile, I melt a good amount of better and I fine chop about a half head of fresh garlic. Once the shrimp are shelled, in they go to the buttery garlic bath 😉 The T-Bone steak is easy. although this one is a little thin so it'll be challenging to get some kind of sear on it without over cooking it. We'll see. 1st thing is to ensure it's fully thawed (if it was frozen previously). Next, dry it using a paper towel so there's no excess moisture when you throw it on the grill. I keep the seasoning simple. A very light rub of olive oil as a binder for the spices which are just SPG (salt, pepper, garlic). Time to put that hunk of beef on a super hot grill for a bit of a sear! Baked spud has been on for awhile as it takes about an hour to cook through. Got a bit of a sear on ............................. After searing the other side. heat goes to low to cook the steak through to med-rare. I don't use an internal temp measure for steaks. I use the finger/thumb method to tell the doneness. Med. Rare is putting your thumb and your middle finger together then feeling the fleshy part of your hand, just below your thumb, using your index finger of the other hand. That's the feel you want when you push a finger against the cooking steak. Steak is now done to med-rare Now don't worry folks, I didn't forget about those juicy, jumbo shrimp. They've been soaking for about 6 hours now in that garlic-butter mixture I made earlier. By the way, I added some Kosher salt, coarse ground black pepper and a sprinkle of paprika to the garlic butter back when I was first making it. Now, these little heavenly morsels will take about 3 minutes to cook on the ribbed, cast iron plate that goes right on top of the BBQ grates. You don't want to lose one of these heavenly morsels by dropping it between the BBQ grate openings 😞 You can tell they're done when they curl up! Just look at that garlicy butter sizzling on the channels between the ribs on the cast iron grate 🤩 Let's get those juicy little morsels back into the garlic butter dish and see if they can't soak up a little more flavor? The only rule in grilling shrimp is 'Do NOT Over Cook Them!!' Now while I've been preparing and cooking the shrimp, the steak has been resting for 15 mins. in foil. I drizzled some of that super yummy garlic butter over the steak before closing the foil 😉 You can never have too much garlic and besides, who cares? We're still wearing masks in public so not like you're gonna be breathing on anyone for the next few days 😄 Trust me, these shrimp are tender and juicy and there's an explosion of garlic with every bite 😍 I was so hungry after all this grilling I almost forgot to take a pick of the outcome but halfway through my meal I managed to remember to take a pic of the plated result. There were some saulteed mushrooms done to go with the steak as well. Cost of ingredients used roughly $21.00 for feeding 2 people. Cost for this meal at a steakhouse for two 😱

Nope!

Yeah! This is weird what's going on lately. Lost one our cats tonight as well. Strange stuff happening

Thought there was a weird wind thing happening high up in the sky this evening. The day was clear then suddenly a cloud appeared from the north (over the lake we live by) and heading south. As I watched it I noticed three very odd columnar clouds hanging down from the main cloud mass. They kind of looked like mini funnel clouds of a tornado -very strange! Have a look at the pic I took and look toward the tree line from the top of the cloud where the sun is. You'll see spinning cloud formations, three or four of them with another trying to form on the left and yet there's a cloud to the right that appears to be unaffected by whatever is going on, as is the top of the cloud formation. (sorry the sun kind of interferes with the top of the cloud formation). Double left click on the pic to enlarge it. Easier to see the circular rotation of those cloud columns. Perhaps the strangest part was that within probably 30 seconds of taking this pic, the whole cloud mass dissipated into just a small, thin, wispy cirrus cloud. Weird, very weird. Never seen anything like that and I'm a bit of a cloud nerd (in case you couldn't tell).

You may know them as Prawns? Basically the same thing and interchangeable in recipes. There's just some slight anatomical differences between shrimps & prawns. And yes. From what I understand, the cost of smokes down under is crazy 🤪

You are no different than any of us Anita! We are all addicts but we have learned that we can bury that addiction and all those long held habits of smoking to hide from life. Now is the time to make a change. Take back YOUR life! We can help. This site can help you with all the information we have here. Stick around and heal yourself. It IS possible! There's only one rule ..... NOPE (Not One Puff Ever). Once you stop smoking, never take another puff. It's simple but not easy; if that makes sense?

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I feel like if I have to go out in public, I need to be packing one of these to ward off the virus people 😱 Yeah, OK. That looks like at least 2 meters 😆

The wife's 'fine china' lol. The pattern is 'Trillium'. That's the Provincial Flower of Ontario; the Province in which we live. Would be the like you having plates with a pattern of the Cherokee Rose on them

-16 Yeah ..... I Know

OK - So now you've redeemed yourself!!! Brussel Sprouts 🤢🤮

Yes, I'm well aware of exactly what you said and no, my 'building days' are well over so no lumber or steel for me. I'm just hoping an appliance doesn't decide to die on us. I hear those are in short supply as well. As you said. Pretty much all supply chains are FUBAR right now. Hopefully that will improve soon. The inordinate price increases, ha! Those will stay I'm sure no matter what 😞

So today is the first day of the opening of the economy in the place I live in 🎉🥳 The big issues are outdoor dining on patios/decks is now allowed but with some restrictions still in terms of who you can sit with, which is dumb I think but anyway. You can now go into stores and buy stuff other than food/pharmacy items. You know, stuff you might need sometimes like, shoes, clothes, hardware or building supplies? They are going to open things up in 3 stages with a gap of 21 days between stages. They're being super conservative as they don't want to close things down again. We are at about 75% vaccinated 1st dose and they are rapidly working on 2nd doses now so by end of July, if not sooner we will likely be close to 80-85% fully vaccinated. I don't know what's right or wrong in terms of opening things back up. Other places seem to have flung the doors open wider than here. I guess the powers to be here are concerned about the India variant. It's here and from what they are saying, you need full vaccination to avoid the bad effects of getting that strain. Now; today and likely all weekend around these parts, it will be next to impossible to get a table on a patio because they will not take reservations and the crowd capacity will be pretty low. Almost everyone will want to get out, have a drink/meal in a more social setting. I think the warden & I will hold off going out for awhile yet. I think the next stage of opening will allow for personal care places to open like hairdressers, nail places and what not. The wife is chomping at the bit to get her nails done. Don't know why. I never notice any difference but she seems to just love it Same issue will be there when these places open up. Try and book a haircut! Yeah; umm .... how bout mid-Sept? How's that work for ya? I have had mine in a ponytail the past month or so cuz it's just too long and gets in the way. Can't remember the last cut I got & I'm not doing it myself! I'll just be an old hippie dude for the summer I guess 😋

-16 Get back chicks!!

There's lots of info. elsewhere on the site indicating my little corner of the world - Canada; the town next to Niagara Falls lol In terms of why I quit, I think my story is pretty boring and probably similar to many others. I had finally had enough of getting bronchitis every winter that would last for weeks if not a month and a half or so. Not to mention the ever increasing cost of smokes, finding places to smoke and generally feeling like a social pariah. It was Sat. morning Jan. 28th and I was standing in a cold damp parking lot having just come out from grocery shopping and as I lit up a smoke, to 'get me fix' I launched into a coughing fit to end all coughing fits. After managing to regain some control over this coughing fit, it just dawned on me; "what the hell was I doing to myself?' This was insane and I decided at that moment to quit the very next day. I went out and bought some stage 1 patches 21mg I believe and slapped one on after having my last smoke at about 8:30 AM the next day, Sunday. I ended up forgetting to replace it after my morning shower on Monday so decided to go cold turkey at that point. I didn't join a quit smoking forum until about a week later, as I was researching addiction and quitting smoking. I really didn't expect much to come from joining but as I went along and read all the posts from others experiencing the same things I was going through, the site became my home almost 24/7 while I rode the monster (the early days of quitting). Surprising to me, I found being a member and staying active on the site helped me immensely! Can't recommend it enough to new comers and I am not a social media person normally - not at all.

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Hey now!! -16

Pretty sure I could change that dislike of shrimp for ya 😉

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Nope!