Sushipup, for a marinated roast (or even long marinated steaks)the trimming is not as crucial. Steaks that are to receive only a 12 minute grilling require a bit more tedious cleaning of silver skin and strong veins of fat to render it tender. Plus, remember my hour and a half of prep time was preparing for steaks for hundred. A handful of steaks would be no big deal timewise. Bumblebeez, the rub was modified to my taste buds but the basic recipe is: 2 parts paprika 2 parts black pepper 2 parts kosher salt 1 part garlic powder (I used 1/2 granulated, half powder) 1 part onion powder (I used 1/2 granulated, half powder) The rest is up to you. I used a little: Dill Thyme and some other things I've forgotten. michaelp

Hi mellbee, Congratulations on a very wise decision. Having an alternative something, e.g. celery, carrot stick, toothpick, drinking straw or whatever to put into your mouth when craving comes has been helpful for many. Have a good look at your routines, and when you regularly smoked. Change those parts of your routine. Try to find something positive to do that will keep you busy, especially something that you can do in little chunks of time at a time. Teach yourself to walk away from yourself, turn around, and, looking you in the eye, ask some tough questions about what's going on when you have a craving. Many have found a great deal of help while sharing with others on the forums at www.quitnet.org. Quite a few say that they couldn't have quit without the empathy, advice, support and encouragement that they found there at any time of the day or night. I am glad that you have a buddy to carry on the journey along with you. Might be a good idea to look for some others who want to quit, as well, and would join you. It's a help if some of the quitters agree that someone else having a craving can call them at any hour of the day or night - sort of like the A A folks do. Have you ever heard the rather dry-witted comedian of a number of years ago, Bob Newhart, who impersonated the leaders in the head office in London when Walter Raleigh, calling home from the New World, tried to explain how cigarettes would work? And the sceptical laughter that it induced? See whether you can find someone who has it, for it might be helpful. There is no way on earth that I'd want to be a slave to another person. Much less would I want to be a slave to a little white paper tube filled with dead leaves. Come talk here whenever you feel like it - the folks here want you to succeed in this worthwhile (could be life-aving) task. Good wishes as you proceed with your Quit. ole joyful

update on tonight's dinner: early this morning I decided to eschew the pears and serve a spinach salad with pine nuts, crisp crumbled bacon and a drizzle of Vidalia onion dressing. I didn't do bacon dressing because one guest eats no pork products, so having bacon pieces on everyone's salad but his solved that dilemma very nicely. I also found beautiful fresh haricots verts, which I am steaming and tossing with a squeeze of a lemon. This way I get spinach and beans, which makes me very happy :-) Mtnrdredux, for your retro dinner I hope someone brings green bean casserole....I adore it!

My store in SoCal has skirt/flank, brisket and tritip. Maybe not all on a particular day, but they have them all. They're all popular cuts! I'm guessing that at Vons and Kroger this might be where economies of scale might work against shoppers. There isn't much skirt on a beef. Because it's small and tough, it used to be a cheap, giveaway cut that was given to the cowboys as part of their pay, which is the origin of fajitas. There just isn't enough of it to go around if everybody wants to make fajitas. Perhaps tritip isn't always available because it tends to be expensive, but it's very popular for barbecue here. I don't know why brisket would be hard to find because it tends to be less expensive, and while it takes a long time to cook, it's easy. Very popular for braising or smoking.