Those of you who follow me on Twitter may remember that on Father’s Day, my wife and mom-in-law made us an incredible meal of beef ribs with homemade BBQ sauce, twice baked potatoes, grilled corn, homemade sangria, and homemade apple pie.
It was awesome.
And I have proof, of a sort. This being Caturday and all, and with me expanding it on this blog to include all animals as I see fit, here is a picture of our two dogs, affectionately and pseudonymously known as Canis Major and Minor, giving their opinion on the ribs:
Oh right, they can’t give their opinion because they’re too busy licking every last beef molecule off the pan. That’s all they got though. Leftover ribs are the domain of humans. Specifically, this human.
Picture credit: my brother-in-law Chris, who has lots more great pictures on his Flickr page.
Related posts:
- Decompressing on a rare day off
- Canis Minor shoots for the sky
- The price of freedom
- Dog tired
June 26th, 2010 at 7:48 am
At least give them the rib bones after you finish off the meat.
June 26th, 2010 at 7:56 am
“[Our two dogs are] too busy licking every last beef molecule off the pan.”
So, Phil, you don’t need a dishwasher in your kitchen, then?
June 26th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Yes, give the sweet pooches the bones.
June 26th, 2010 at 8:49 am
We had to stop letting our doberman “clean” our bakeware. In her effort to get every last bit of food off, she would perforate the metal with her fangs. We started scraping the pan onto a china plate so we could quit buying new baking pans every week.
June 26th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Do you mean this human?
P.S.: I know, I posted this link a few days ago, but I just wanted to show it again, and to test myself on html, which I just looked up at wiki
P.P.S.: It worked
June 26th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Dogs have a language all their own:
http://pupster.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/dog-translator.jpg
June 26th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Why would you bake a potato twice?
June 26th, 2010 at 9:58 am
@7 – Why NOT? (Have you ever HAD a 2x baked potato? Mmmm!)
DO NOT give the bones to the dogs! They splinter and can get caught in their throats. Always (ALWAYS) and only give them beef soup bones. Tough stuff and good for their teeth.
Besides, if Phil is anything like his older brother when it comes to ribs (and I have it on good authority that he is), there’s literally nothing left for the dogs anyway.
June 26th, 2010 at 10:32 am
@ 1. Josh Says:
&
@3. KSK Says:
Give them *RAW* bones sure – best thing for them – but NEVERgive dogs COOKED ones! (Same applies for cats and other pets too.) Bones that have been cooked are changed by the heating process and thus likely to splinter and cause internal injury.
(As #8 Barber of Civility says that message having just now appeared on my screen despite the apparent timings here..)
Also avoid giving any chocolate or anythig spicy which I understand is very bad – even leathal – for our canine friends.
Let me guess – real names Sirius & Procyon?
Nice photo although a wider angle shot (also?) showing all or more of both dogs would be better methinks.
@ 8. Barber of Civility :
What? The BA can devour *solid bone*!? He can crunch it up and swallow it entirely rather than having to leave some on his plate? What *is* he some kind of alien!?
June 26th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Love the mood you caught with this photo: such total concentration! And the way Major’s forward lateral sensors contrast with the pan
I’m not a “dog person” but I appreciate how a well-behaved dog can be a joyful companion. And I admire dogs for their ability to do everything with gusto: run, play, eat, say hello…
June 26th, 2010 at 10:54 am
PS. I had a dog called Sirius once – about three years ago. She was a staffy terrier and a pound dog that they named Nell and I renamed Sirius. (Or in full ‘Sirius Dogstar Nell.’ There was a bit of confusion with my brothers dog which had a fairly similar name -Cerberus.) She was a great dog although she didn’t get on too well with other dogs.
I am currently owned by a Jack Russell cross Fox terrier named – although not by me – Harry & a black tortoiseshell cat named – this time by me – purchased from an animal shelter, Zosma after the proper star name for Delta Leonis.
See : http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/zosma.html
If I was in charge of the IAU & could change just *one* thing then I’d restore Pluto to full planethood along with granting it to Eris, Ceres, Sedna, etc .. It strikes me illogical and inconsistent that dwraf stars suchas our Sun are still counted as full stars whereas dwarf planets are not. Actually, I could go wa-aay off course here into a number of other good reasons for for considering Pluto a proper planet but I’ll spare y’all this time. But if I could change *two* things I’d bring back the abandoned constellation of Felis as well!
See : http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/felis.htm
Weird that there are four dogs (Canis Major, Canis Minor & “the hunting dogs” Canes Venatici) in the sky but no cats. Okay, there’s a lion, a minor lion and a lynx but they’re not quite the same are they?
@ 5. DrFlimmer : How do you do links in that form please?
I should try it – although sticking with what works for me is also good.
June 26th, 2010 at 11:17 am
D’oh! Ran out of editing time. My cat is named Zosma not “Purchased-From-An-Animal-Shelter” and that sentence was intended to read :
Oops! Hope my earlier comment does get thorugh moderation (there shouldn’t be any issue with it!) otherwise this correction post won’t make too much sense.
I’ll also note in passing that perhaps the best dog my fmily’s ever had was named Tycho after the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Tycho the dog was not however a great dane but a doggy mixture – at least some border collie & labrador – and had the nicest most good natured temperament of any dog I’ve ever known. We got him from the pound and had him for over a decade and I could say just so much more about him .. but, again, I’ll spare y’all.
Ah, dogs – I wouldn’t be without one – they and cats are responsible for me keeping what shreds of sanity I do have left!
PS. Love your other posted doggy pics here BA.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Leftover ribs don´t exist!
PS can you share the BBQ sauce recipe?
Please.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I need to know about twice baked potatoes. Just bake them twice? As easy as that? Why?
June 26th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Not to rain on your parade or anything, Phil, but dogs also think dirty socks are a delicacy. Just sayin’…
June 26th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Second Michel:
Recipe! We want BBQ sauce recipe!
June 26th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
“they’re too busy licking every last beef molecule off the pan.”
Seemed like an oddly unscientific thing to say. How do you know they got every last molecule? I’m not seeing a description of the testing methodology used.
June 26th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
@ #13. davem:
Like, er… let me Google that for you: Click Here.
June 26th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
For those who want recipes, I can’t answer for the BA, but my own can be found here – I’ll be happy to enter it in a contest against Phil’s
And I’d be happy to see Phil’s, too! <Homer Gurgle>Beef ribs…</HGurgle>
June 26th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
@MTU – c’mon! Something about the BA surprises you??
Nah. What I meant (and you probably already know this) is that bone is ALL that’s left, And, by the way, the soup bones should be cooked (read: microwaved) for at least a minute or two before the dog gets it – mostly because you’ll hate the dog’s breath for days if you don’t.
@16 – Romeo, I don’t see any beef molecules there, do you?
June 26th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Beef ribs? Beef?!??
BBQ is pork. Pork! Accept no substitutes.
You know who likes BBQ beef? Texas!
I rest my case.
June 26th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
While we are on the topic….some BBQ sauce contains onion which is toxic to dogs. The amount they (may) have consumed by eating the goodies stuck to the pan probably is nothing to worry about….just something to keep an eye on.
Adorable pups though….my dog Honey looks a lot like the brown pup in the pic. =)
June 26th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Reminds me of the time I was visiting my husband’s aunt & uncle who had a farm near Charlottesville, VA. They had a young lamb running around in the house they were nursing back to health (nothing like seeing a diaper duct taped to a lamb). They also owned several dogs. After a nice dinner of lamb ribs, they put the plates with the scraps down on the kitchen floor for the dogs. The lamb was trying to butt his head in to get a lick as well!
I’ll venture a cook-off with Phil, but I don’t think I can compete in a baking contest with Mrs. BA!
June 26th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
More caturday cuteness: Caturday felid: Trifecta! Squee video, world’s cutest felid, and cat-dyed goggie
June 26th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
I would share the BBQ sauce recipe if I could, but sadly, it was an accident. I made one recipe that was too vinegary and then another that was ok, but not great, so I added a bit of bottled mesquite BBQ sauce and then I started throwing in spices and honey and molasses and soilent green and ended up with an irreproducible masterpiece. I guess I’m a BBQ sauce savant.
I’m going to try to do it again tomorrow and if it works I’ll have Phil post the recipe.
June 27th, 2010 at 12:34 am
For those who want to see the BA with his young canines: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186580&id=787508235&saved#!/photo.php?pid=4250127&id=787508235
June 27th, 2010 at 12:41 am
Nice photo. I couldn’t, however, imagine letting my dog lick anything that is also used for human consumption. Eww. She has her dishes, I have mine.
June 27th, 2010 at 2:12 am
@ jcm : Cheers!
@ 22. Orion_Vega Says:
I’ll second that – add onions to the list of cooked bones, chocolate and spicy stuff on the List Of Things Dogs Should Never Have! (For their sake as all these can be poisonous / harmful to them.)
@ 21. The Mutt Says:
AUSTRALIA!! We Aussies have the BBQ complete with chops (steak – beef, pork, lamb) &
snags (sausages) and prawns as our national cuisine (spelling?) as well as meat pies and, here in SA, pie floaters. Our national drink is, of course, BEER!
Of course, Texans may also do the odd BBQ as well!
Where the blazes did you get the very mistaken idea BBQ was just pork from? (Puzzled.)
@ 20. Barber of Civility Says:
Yeah, I was joking.
Breath-wise I don’t think raw bones (even soup ones) are the problem unless they’ve been buried and decayed. Them eating er .. how can I put this .. cat waste is a more serious problem bad doggy breath~wise, as is feeding them on a diet rich in the over-processed smelly wet dogfoods.
Best thing for them – natural and what cleans their teeth is raw meaty bones. Fresh bones that is – as noted burying and recovering after they’ve “matured” into ripe aromatic “dog treasure” is not so great. For us anyhow.
It amazes me that canines with their sense of smell so many thousands of times keener than ours will eat some of the things they eat and stick these amazing noses so close to .. certain things like other dogs butts. They must experience and percieve the world so extraordinarily differently than we do. Cats & other creatures too.
My dog (Harry, JackRussell-cross-Fox Terrier) has a diet of dried dogfood supplemented by chicken wings, chook necks, marrow bones, pigs ears and if he’s really good his favourite treats of fritz (ham-like salty meat stuff), lamb hearts and liver chews. All varied a bit for variety’s sake. Plus he often scores some human left overs too.
June 27th, 2010 at 2:33 am
Far as feeding dogs goes this book :
http://www.amazon.com/Give-Your-Dog-Bone-Commonsense/dp/0646160281/ref=cm_cmu_pg_t
is one I’d strongly recommend if I’m allowed to do so here – interesting reading and seems to work for me & all my families dogs.
June 27th, 2010 at 4:24 am
@ Messier Tidy Upper
I just typed “html” into Wikipedia and found an example.
June 27th, 2010 at 4:30 am
It amazes me that canines with their sense of smell so many thousands of times keener than ours will eat some of the things they eat and stick these amazing noses so close to .. certain things like other dogs butts. They must experience and percieve the world so extraordinarily differently than we do. Cats & other creatures too.
The human intelligence at one point evolved to the stage that it thought it knew better than it’s own brain and body what constituted good eating.
To protect itself, the brain then evolved into causing revulsion at the sight or smell of bad food.
June 27th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Bones for dogs, raw (possible toxins in the marrow and high caloric intake) or cooked (crack, splinter), are BAD. Domestic dogs do not need to eat bones. They are able to lead healthy and happy lives without them in their diet. Just because our great grandparents fed their dogs bones as table scraps doesn’t mean we should, and especially when we know that bones are the reason for many emergency visits to veterinarians. Bones can cause internal injuries like digestive tract perforations/bleeding, colon ruptures, block intestinal and esophagus passages, cause tooth fracturing, and other heath damaging effects from chewing and eating bones. No bones about it, bones aren’t good for your animals.
BBQ sauce – not sure and feed with caution.
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm208365.htm
June 27th, 2010 at 8:40 am
MTU is right!.
Anything goes on a BBQ. As long as it butchered.
We trow anything on the fire here on Menorca. Sheep, goat, pork, veal, crab, langoustines, fish, snails.
Whatever.
As long as the sauce is good that comes with it.
Which remids me.
Still no BBQ sauce recipe…
(well I got my own, but I´m always curious to see what others do)
June 27th, 2010 at 10:26 am
From the American Southeast. In many of the bible belt states, the term “barbecue” or simply BBQ refers to pork slow-cooked and shredded (“pulled”,) mixed with a sauce and served on a bun, similar to “Sloppy Joes” elsewhere in the US. It is a regional
delicacydish, very common at fairs and picnics, and a few restaurants that specialize in it can be found in most areas. The other food staple around here is buttermilk biscuits – “crumbly tasteless flour scones” for people from the UK/Europe.When I moved to North Carolina from New York, I found barbecue on the menu and had to ask, “barbecued what?,” which confused the waitress. I had come from an area with barbecued pork and beef ribs, chicken, and occasionally shrimp. And despite the popularity of shrimp in NC, they do not barbecue it here.
Never did develop a taste for the stuff (southern barbecue, I mean.) The sauces tend to have too much vinegar.
June 27th, 2010 at 10:33 am
@ ^ Just Al : Thanks. That explains it then.
Still its strange for me to think of a BBQ restricted to only pork though.
PS. Did I mention we also have kangaroo steaks on our barbies sometimes too?
June 27th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Phil, you realize of course that the pan containing the ‘drippings’ contains a very high concentration of fat.
Not that that is at all objectionable – dogs LOVE the taste of what the Japanese call ‘umami’, that ‘flavor’, and, man, that stuff sure does taste great…and with their powerful olfactory and taste senses that puts the human equivalent to shame, they will no doubt receive an ecstatic fountain of endorphins through the experience, which might offset the obvious drawbacks somewhat. (All Good Things Enjoyed within reasonable moderation and temperance, of course…).
But I hasten to wonder if you or any of your guests slipped them some decent morsels of the fleshy meat in the ribs as part of a convivial cross-species celebration of excellent taste? You know, giving them the added pleasure of something for their teeth to sink into. (Well, dogs will tend to gulp rather than chew, but still…what’s solid protein is solid protein. They at least enjoy the aftertaste better than we do, however brief the passage past their tongues).
Dogs just love the heck out of belonging to the “pack” like that. They’re social ‘party animals’ in a league easily equivalent to ours.
Damn, I’m drooling now and off to get a rack o’ribs. My dogs will love it as much as I…and I look forward to sampling the taste of the drippings with a good chunk of bread myself, as is my typical custom.
June 27th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
BBQ can be a noun and a verb. You can barbecue all kinds of things on a grill with sauce, but BBQ is pork!
June 28th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Pfff, my dog will hungrily devour ANYTHING except white rice and plain popcorn, which he thinks of as packing material.
We have to be careful not to let him get too fat.