Reciprocity

We're not wine drinkers but they also distil Rye-Whiskey there and we love their Salted Caramel Whiskey based Cream Liquor! So tasty on the rocks as an after dinner treat Puts Bailey's Irish Cream to shame (IMO) From what I have ever heard, Niagara wines are OK for locally produced wines but they are not really up there on a world wide scale. They do make excellent dessert Ice Wines though. If you ever make your way to Niagara on the Lake again, it's worth a visit because you can buy taste testing packages and sample many of their products, both wine & whiskey products. They have a lovely patio and large indoor area for this. Even a skating rink for winter months. And of course, a retail store lol.

We all had many times when we thought about or wanted to go back to smoking ... for various reasons. Stress, sadness, happiness; you name it! The one thing that is universally true in EVERY case is that lighting up will not help the situation and in fact would put you in a deep dark place because you would have thrown away 5 months of hard work. I don't see the positive side anywhere to lighting up. It's junkie thinking for sure. Your addiction wants control again .... don't let that happen under any circumstances! Sorry your friend is in a tough spot Please honor her by keeping your quit. I'm sure she would want to know you're making a positive change for your future.

She had to do the clean up

Wow! Great work Robbie!! Keep moving forward and active on the forum. It will help you

We were there at Juno Beach. So many died to keep us free. A victory wrapped in tragedy.

There's so many great things to discover with food recipes. Some we just stumble across through experimentation. I read one the other day about mixing some cream cheese in with mashed potatoes. Think I'm gonna try that one sometime. Sounded interesting.

Got lucky as today the weather was very hot and it was windy so that helps get the temp. up. I stayed even at 300 for 2 hours which is unusual. I'm normally smoking ribs at 225F - 250F with water in the pan to keep temps down. Had a few cups of water in the pan to keep things moist and cooked it on the lower rack where temps will be a little higher than the upper rack. Yes, I slashed the skin/fat layer but not the meat itself. Gotta render that duck fat during the cook or the meat goes greasy. You can just prick the skin with a metal pick or the tip of a knife if you prefer long as there's an escape route for the liquified fat. Rub was just salt pepper and some orange zest from the orange I stuffed into the cavity of the bird. I dry brined the duck night before. 1/2 cup of Kosher salt all over the bird and in the cavity; let stand in the fridge overnight. The glaze I used was Honey/Orange/Maple syrup with balsamic Vinegar, dried thyme, honey, maple syrup and orange juice. There's other glaze recipes you could use. The interweb is full of them. Stuff the cavity with whatever you have on hand. Apples, oranges celery, onions, any spices you like. Helps to keep the breast from collapsing while cooking. Most will say to pull the bird when the breast temp is 160F. I was going for 145F because I heard 160 would be a little too well done. I pulled it at 150-155F internal. That seemed to be about right. Med/rare but a little more on the medium side. Not dried out though & that's key The Raspberry sauce was a huge pain in the as*!! Took an hour and a half to get the seeds out after cooking. Pushing all that mush through a fine sieve (strainer) was brutal!! The liquid gold that resulted was very worthwhile though. Paired perfectly with the roasted duck Yum! And yes, I agree. Duck, even cooked well, is dense almost to the point of being chewy. Add dryness from over cooking or a bunch of duck fat because the fat wasn't rendered properly during cooking and you have a disaster It's not something I would cook often but I wanted to give it a try at least once

Had beans, fired eggs and toast the other night - tasted great! Simple is just fine in my books

Here's the results of the 'smoke a duck' experience today Duck was dry-brined last night in the fridge overnight. Fired up the smoker and prepared the duck with some Kosher Salt, Coarse grind black pepper and some orange zest rubbed onto the skin. brush on some of the Orange/Honey/Maple glaze. Stuff the cavity with orange quarters, onions, thyme and rosemary. Onto the smoker it goes at 300F: After 1 hour cooking time with spritzing the glaze every 15 minutes: Added some apple wood chunks for the smoke flavor: After 2 hours cook time: Internal temp was 155F so I pulled it and wrapped in foil for 15 mins. resting time. Carved and on the table after resting Plated with the Raspberry sauce made from scratch last night: Turned out better than I thought it would as I've never cooked duck before so was a little intimidated. The only lesson I really learned after the cook was finish is that my original time calculation was off by 1 hour. Only took 2 hours and I calculate 3 originally. I always go by internal meat temp rather than recommended cooking time otherwise you risk under or over cooking.

Don't be discouraged, any of you newbies! You have done the really hard work and yes, the challenges continue at times. That's to be expected but if you think about things and look back to the early days of your quits, you'll see things are improving overall. Now (a months or 2 or 3 in), is the time to consciously start changing your thoughts from; Geez I wish I could have a smoke right now to; am I ever happy and impressed with myself that I don't have to hide behind a smoke anymore in this situation! Looking towards the benefits you're seeing and dismissing any urges to smoke will take you far and help get you to where you want to be. The other big issue is patience! You really need to have that at this point. Patience and faith in the process. We all wanted our quits to be further advanced than what they were early on. It's happing, even though you may not see it daily. You developed smoking triggers/habits over 20-30-40 years. Give your quit at least 1 year to start erasing those triggers/habits that you've imprinted on your brains. It WILL happen if you give it a chance and the proper timeframe Now, speaking of smoking .... I gotta go slow cook that duck on the smoker

Just finished making a Raspberry Sauce for the roast duck I'll be slow cooking on my Weber Smoker tomorrow. Guess I should have put it in a white bowl for better color contrast lol. Never cooked a duck before. Hope it turns out OK. Dry brining it tonight. Will season tomorrow morning and stuff some quartered oranges in the body cavity then throw it on the charcoal smoker for probably 3 hours at about 300F. Have an Orange/Maple Glaze I will add while cooking.

We've been looking all over for you! Welcome back

Nope! Rather play Frisbee

Political shell game with tax revenue is what's happening there perhaps?

I believe these are what she's referring to Abby. Interesting Series, each about an hour long.

Are those people in the movie or just random people you know that you're naming to confuse me more than I normally am?

Your description seems familiar now. Humm ........ maybe I saw it and just don't remember? The warden would likely agree with that theory

We've been under an 'Emergency Stay At Home' order so long now that I can't remember when it was instituted. Feels like an emotional weight on your shoulders after awhile, even when you don't realize it all the time. Our vaccination roll out was slow in starting but we are now rolling along pretty well and that seems to be making a huge difference in new case numbers and hospitalizations. The current 'Emergency Order' expired today and they did not extend it however, nothing is allowed to open so there's really not many places to go. Technically, yesterday, we were breaking the law with our little outing. Today, it would be allowed. Good thing we didn't get busted and sent to the crowbar hotel - lol. They are going to start opening some things up in 2 weeks. Very slowly and gradually because the last thing anybody here wants is a 4th lockdown. There does seem to be hope here now. I just hope there are no variants out there coming our way that the vaccines aren't capable of fighting. I'm sure your situation there will improve at some point. I think once it does, things will move fairly quickly toward normalcy in most things. I don't envy you quitting during these times for sure but on all fronts, you life will be much, much better in the very near future. Now that's something to lift your spirits and something to celebrate

I've never heard of that movie, lol.

This is why it's so vitally important to quit as soon as you have a mind to do so! What greater reason could you want to have to motivate you to keep moving forward with your quit?

These are the things you will realize later on in your quit. The real gems that you didn't even expect to find when you started out. Dealing with life's issues becomes easier and more direct, instead of hiding behind a cloud of deadly smoke while contemplating things. That and just being free from having your life controlled 24/7 by a senseless addiction. Holy cow! What were we thinking all those years?

-4

The mental health benefit for us today was huge I firmly believe we acted responsibly. We were outdoors the whole time. We were not in close to anyone, aside from the wife paying for the mood enhancer stuff - lol. We came home, had a BBQ and drank some of Wayne's finest . All in all, it was a great day!