Thursday was Donny’s birthday. We normally don’t do cake. Instead we do a cheesecake or pie. In this case we did both. I also made some ribs, beans, potatoes and cole slaw. It was a good night.

if you have an instant pot you need to make these ribs. My daughter works at Texas Roadhouse and said these are better.

i used baby back ribs. Make a rub with 1 tsp each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and brown sugar. Rub this all over the ribs. Add 1 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to the IP. Put in the trivet and place the ribs in the pot in a circle meat side out. Manual cook for 30 mins with a natural release of 15. Slather on your favorite BBQ sauce and put in a 400 degree oven until the sauce is caramelized (about 10 mins). That’s it. The meat is so tender and falls off the bone.

it’s been so hot here and, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to refinish two dining chairs outside in the heat. Well, I finished one and vowed to wait until it cools down a bit to do the other one.

they are very well made sturdy chairs and at 5 bucks each I couldn’t pass them up. I wanted to recover them, but the kids liked the green. It took forever to get all of the white paint stripped off.

i also refinished the top of our antique table. It looks so much better.

i still have a chest of drawers to paint, the remaining chair and 2 bookshelves. Now that the weather is, hopefully, cooling off a little I’ll be able to get it done.