Happy Fourth of July!

I hope all of you have a happy Fourth of July. I will be in the North Carolina mountains spending time with my family. I plan on smoking ribs later this afternoon. I hope your barbecuing goes well, and I hope you find this blog helpful in trying new recipes and cooking techniques. I will not get back from North Carolina until late Friday, so I will pick back up with the posting next week. By the way, I have found a few cool things to incorporate into the blog while on my vacation. I will write more about them next week. 

Also, here is an interesting fact about one of our Founding Fathers, George Washington, and his fondness for barbecue:

 

"George Washington, a notoriously terse diarist, actually recorded all the barbecues he attended or hosted. For example, the entire entry for August 4, 1769, reads: 'Dined at the [Barbecue] with a great deal of other Company and [stayed] there till Sunset.' My favorite is another one-liner: 'Went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night.' As our first president, he was also responsible for our first presidential barbecue."

Felisa Rogers, 
http://www.salon.com/2011/05/30/memorial_day_barbecue/

Happy Fourth!