Good time watching the launch yesterday and the docking with the International Space Station today. My wife's birthday is Wednesday so I did a double dose of fancy cooking last night.

First round of cooking was a brisket overnight on the egg. It's a 10-pounder from a farm in middle Tennessee. Here's how it stood an hour or two ago just before I wrapped it in foil with some cider for the final 20 or 30 degrees:



Skillet of cornbread and pot of collards will follow eventually. Though with the weather still perfect, I may try to get in quick hike this afternoon before pulling it all together.

The second prong of my Birthday Shock and Awe campaign was an unannounced batch of made-from-scratch sticky buns that I started late last night while everyone was asleep. Dough rose for a couple of hours while I sipped on Bushmills 10-year-old single malt (which I've really been digging recently). Toasted some pecans, mixed 'em up with a brown-sugar-butter sauce, and poured all that into the bottom of a casserole dish. Rolled out the dough, brushed it with melted butter, covered it with brown sugar and cinnamon, rolled the whole thing up into a log, cut a dozen pinwheels, and stuck them on top of the pecan-brown-sugar-butter mix. Rose overnight in the fridge and baked this morning. Here they are after he second rise, after the bake, and finally turned out of the dish in their full gooey glory:







Other than some run-of-the-mill obnoxiousness from my six-year-old, it's been a solid weekend.