Labor Day

Happy Labor Day, fellow Americans! And happy Monday to the rest of you. I woke up feeling a bit ambivalent about the day; I didn’t really have much to do, but I liked the idea of not working. I’d spent all of Saturday similarly aimless, though, and it just dragged on and on and on.
Today’s been good, though. I had a nice breakfast and then did a bit of this and that around the house, and I got an early start on preparations for lunch — Susan’s BBQ Seitan Ribz. As I said on flickr, I don’t usually abide by the use of ‘z’ in place of an ‘s’, but I think this recipe earned it. My only changes were to omit the liquid smoke (because I didn’t have any), and I only needed 1/2 a cup of BBQ sauce, not the full cup called for in the recipe.
These are really, really good. I mean, I never had an actual rib from an actual pig, so I can’t compare, but they’re good just as what they are. The seitan has a good texture and chew, and the charred bits (whoops!) were crunchy and extra delicious. I might have to wait until next grilling season, but I’ll definitely make these again, someday (for now, at least I have three more servings in the fridge!). The only thing I would do differently next time around would be to NOT cut the strips a second time, before putting them on the grill. Some came apart, and it would have been easier to handle the seitan on the grill as one big piece.
The ‘ribz’ were part of what wound up being a good, traditional Labor Day lunch. I had the last little ear-let of corn from my garden — sad to see that go! Booty had a great holiday, too, as I let him out with me three times today. He kept and eye on the squirrels while I ate lunch.
I also had a Labor Day doze after lunch, ate a piece of zucchini cake, made myself a new wallet (more on that in another post), and went for a walk. All in all, a pretty good day!