Me and Mine – Page 27 – A Good Beer Blog

BBQ

One thing about growing up Canadian, you have a sneaking suspicion that you have missed out big time on the whole BBQ ribs thing. You can brag about Canadian beer, about how its a dry cold so you should suck it up or how watching hockey is sooooo much better than any other team sport but then you remember how all those things would be improved by a pile o ‘ribs and you know something is missing. In this morning’s New York Times there is a description of New Yorkers lining up at a ribs-fest:

In New York, demand for great barbecue tends to outstrip supply. A few weekends ago, thousands of ‘cue-seekers descended on Madison Square Park for the Second Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, hoping for a shot at Mike Mills’s Memphis baby backs and Ed Mitchell’s North Carolina ribs. The lines were epic. Some waited it out. Many fled to nearby Blue Smoke, figuring that New York barbecue is better than no barbecue at all. And quite a few — present company included — hopped on the subway to Chinatown and sated the craving with a huge pile of Cantonese spareribs.

I know that fever, BBQ rib fever. Apparently, I live 2 and a half hours north of a very legitimate ribs joint, the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse but it looks too bikerish for the kiddie set. Regardless, we are not going that far south this weekend, heading for Oswego checking out the canal, Fort Ontario and Rudy’s, more of a fish joint on the beach, an inland Bill’s. The Kingston Brewpub does a very nice smoked ribs but they are not cheap and not plenty. My ideals would be like the lobster feeds of youth, picnic table covered with newspapers and piled with red sea spiders. Does such a ribs place exist in Canada?

Saranac Lake

I could yap it up like a Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce membership nominee. Suffice it to say it is a beautiful town to which we will return.

The view to the south from the fifth floor of the Hotel Saranac.

The view to the west from the same fifth floor of the Hotel Saranac.

Beach

Surprised to find ourselves facing 22° C, we headed to Scarborough Beach south of Portland. This is what happy feet look like in the big ocean: [2.5 MB mpg]. Never had ice cream head ache below the ankles before. Happy kids nonetheless: [2.9 MB mpg].

Elizabeth Cottage

At the corner of Brock and Clergy up from the Hotel Dieu Hospital and half a block down from the back door to the Royal Tavern sits the Elizabeth Cottage built in the 1840’s. It was the private home of the architect of the Kingston Pen and is now a national historic site. I was thinking of typing this out but I am too lazy so here is the FedGov’t plaque out front.

Rev. Whillans’s War

The father of my Owen Sound connection, my great-grandfather-in-law, was a chaplain in the First World War, Rev. William James Whillans of Winnipeg. This evening, hunting through photos, I came across a post card sent from the front as well as a few others. He is the jaunty gent in the lower right of the first photo.

This is an example of the postcards I discussed in an earlier post. As you can see from the photo below, he was involved with those doing the fighting.

…with a few of the saved from the trenches

…in the trenches…

…and Rev. Whillans with one particular bear brought from Winnipeg during WWI.

Cousins

Line Up For The Photo!!

....must grill...must...grill...

On Saturday afternoon, the four year old cousin had her birthday. Lots of family photos. Many Canadian men begging for grilled meats causing much shovelling of snow from around the gas BBQ at brother-in-law’s.

March is clearly the snakey, cabin-fever month after the glum of February. The maple syrup shacks are opening up in defiance of both Lent and winter, making the first agricultural crop of the year, boiling tree sap down something like 1/20th. Through the spring the sugars made by the tree shift from the first light runnings to dark.

As it roasts, baste a leg of lamb in dark maple syrup after poking it full of garlic and rosemary.

America

America is grey line on the horizon beyond Wolfe Island to the south east as viewed from the mouth of the Little Cataraqui River. The highlands, beyond Watertown, in the south-east of Jefferson County, New York, fifty some miles away, rise to 1,500 feet and form the western edge of the Adirondacks.

Martello Towers

Martello towers guard the mouth of the Rideau. There are actually three in the picture, the third hidden by the trees to the left. It stands out in the mist better here. Built in the 1840s to protect the then high-tech canal technology of the Rideau accessed between the nearest two towers, the theory was similar to Halifax Harbour’s defences – a killing zone of miles deterring any thought of attack. One gun in the red roofed tower to the left had a range of 7 miles. Greater detail and a harbour map can be found here.

Less Ice, More Water

The St. Lawrence from the Thousand Islands Bridge. In the good news section, winter is over because I could see water in the St. Lawrence. Remember, you read it on a blog so it must be true.

Wuzza Hot?

So we are back from being over the border, having had a great time. I took some movies to be posted later of the Battle of Ogdensburg recreation which are fairly neat – if seeing grown men dressed up funny shooting cannon within town limits is cool to you.

But as I was driving through east end Ogdensburg, New York, I noticed this. What is a “Hot” that you could win first prize for? The particular outlet for them is called Whimpy’s Inn.