Figured out the Brisket

Well, had tried Brisket before and not happy with the results, the way everyone raves about it on the BBQ forums I just gotta get this right to see if it's as good as everyone says.

fired up the pit around 9:00, am I crazy look at that thermometer


















rubbed down the 13 1/2 LB brisket I picked up







got everything going and went to sleep, woke up a couple times during the night and checked it out, everything looking good.




about 6:00 I took it off and separated the point from the flat, a packer brisket which is what I'm using is actually 2 pieces of meat hooked together, Spud asked me to make some burnt ends someday, so this is what I'm doing with the point.

I wrapped the flat up in foil with some beef broth and put back in pit.

I cut the point into little cubes, sprinkled more rub on and poured on some BBQ sauce, then back on pit for a couple more hours, these are great for making BBQ brisket sandwiches







Burnt ends are done and I'm still not getting the "Butta" feeling that everyone talks about when I stick my thermometer in the flat, it's past the temp it should be done, I think I just got a tough piece of meat, I'll give it another half hour, I'm not feeling good, this brisket thing just doesn't work for me.

45 mins later "BUTTA" I did it, probe slides right in with no resistance,





Now I know why everyone talks about brisket so much, if done right it is great, and I finally done it right

nothing new

Think my blog is dead, I never get around to it much, will be cooking the Thanksgiving turkey on the pellet grill, but probably no pictures, always too hectic and forget to take any.

only thing new around here is new puppy, had Bailey so long, seems like we need a dog around here, so we got Barkley, He's gonna be bigger that Lynn wanted, but when the owner said both his parents caught moles, I was sold, thought we had him house broke after one day, but he regressed again, and he definitely is busy, supposedly a dachshund and jack russel terrier mix, he does look like some of the jack russel's I've seen online.




Here is what happens when you lock him up in the utility room for too long without properly puppy proofing it.






He's a handful, but if he gets rid of the moles will be worth the trouble

Getting ready for the Wedding

Well, somebody talked me into pulled pork for Shawna's wedding, gonna do it up ahead of time, food saver it and freeze, then re-heat for wedding, on vacation this week so gonna try to get it done, did 6-10Lb butts yesterday, here they are after first being put on, pretty much maxed out my pit.



This is just too much meat to cook at one time, everything was OK til time to pull and package up, if I did this too many times, might break me from barbecuing, I hope it turns out good for the wedding, people on all the forums I read say they do this and turns out good.

Was gonna do the rest today, but after yesterday I need a break, will finish up Friday

Tuna

Well Mom was expecting me to post something about the alderhouse pic nic but never got around to it, we had the surprise party for Lynn the night before and was pretty worn out from drinking Tequila all night, OK just til 1 am, that turned out really well, thank you Heather, Aubree and Shawna for giving your mother a special day, I got the crazy idea around 11:00 to make some bacon wrapped meatballs and nobody talked me out of that either, so at 12:30 we were feasting again, but man were they good. went to bed about 4:00 then got woke up at 7:15 to make breakfast, so wasn't really in top condition to have another big grilling adventure.

The alderhouse pic nic was over quickly, was still in the 100's then, just grilled some burgers and dogs, everyone ate, sat around talking for a little while and left, just too damn hot.

This weekend Lynn and I went out to Ocean Shores, Aubree & Hazen rented us a room there for our birthday presents, we had a really nice time, other than it kinda drizzeled all day, got up Sun. morning and ran around town a little more making sure we did everything there was to do, Then off towards Westport, they are catching Tuna there and I have been wanting to get out there for about 3 years now during tuna season, I've never had fresh tuna and everyone that has just raves about it, we walked around town for a while checking out the gift shops, woo hoo, then down to the docks to find some tuna, we found a guy selling it for $2.25 a lb, $2.50 a lb if he fileted it, being as I've never fileted a tuna I paid the extra 25 cents a lb, we had to wait an hour for the boat to get in so your not gonna get ant fresher than this.

We got a 21 lb fish, probably lose about half that after fileting out so probaly figures out to around $5 a lb for it, seems reasonable for fresh fish if you've ever bought it anywhere else, well today (Mon) for lunch I cut some steaks off, drizzeled them with olive oil, a little salt and pepper, seared 'em on the grill at really high temp, this is what I found on internet was best way yo cook 'em, people saying to cook 'em medium rare, I have never been a fan of undercooked fish, but everyone saying they get dry and lose their flavor if overcooked, I cooked 'em a little longer than recommended but still a little pink inside, all I can say is amazing, this was probably some of the best fish I have ever eaten, I may cook the next ones even a little more rare, It had a completely different texture than most fish, not mushy, reminded us more of really tender beef texture.

been wanting to get the fresh tuna for a long time, will probably be a yearly event now that we've tried it.

I don't think I've ever been through the highway from Aberdeen to Westport before, usually either go out to Westport/ Grayland area or to north beaches, but there is a sausage shop north of Westport we stopped at that makes a lot of different types of sausages, we bought a couple different kinds but haven't tried them out yet, hope they are good, might have found another reason to go to the coast.

Our trips are always about the food, I picked up a big fresh salmon filet too.

too lazy to post

Been having a lot of BBQ's lately, but just never take pictures and if I do don't get around to posting anything if I do,

Ryan and his brother Evan rode in STP last weekend, made big pot of spaghetti with homemade meatballs and some Italian sausage in it, Just mushrooms in Evan's, he's a vegetarian, Mom and Dawn and Shawna all stopped by too for dinner, I burnt both loaves of garlic bread so that kinda $#**@d me off, but they were edible

The italian sausage looked too good for just spaghetti, was gonna be grilling up some burgers and dogs on sunday and figured it was a good time to make a fatty, and a little Italian sausage couldn't do anything but help. so one less sausage in the sauce.

I split the sausage open, stuffed it with cream cheese, flattened out a Lb of my homemade pork sausage, covered it with shredded mexican cheese, a layer of pepperoni, then the Italian sausage in middle.

rubbed it down with my favorite rub and smoked it 2 1/2 hrs. no pics of it when it was done, it disapeared too quick,

2 Weeks after Mothers Day BBQ

Well it was the annual 2 weeks after Mothers Day BBQ, a week late, Big Menu planned, Ribs, Brat's, Beans, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, cornbread. everything done on the pellet smoker and gas grill except the beans, no room and was to busy to fire up the charcoal grill, so crock potted them, they turned out runnier than usual, so if doing it again will have to fire up another grill, OK cheated on the cornbread too, did it in oven.

I decided not doing ribs for a 1:00 meal any more, didn't think it through before putting ribs on the menu, gotta get up too early, pulled pork and brisket can put on and sleep til it's done, but haven't been happy with any of my rib attempts so far and gotta try again,

Heather and Ryan showed up about midnight Sat night and sat around talking til after 2:00, had to get up at 5:00 to start the pit, almost didn't make it, but somehow pulled through, was gonna go back to sleep after putting 'em on, but wide awake and ready for the day, never took many pics and not any good ones, here's the ribs rubbed down and ready for cooking.



6 racks of St Louis cut spares, Memphis style, just rubbed, no sauce, using the 3-2-1 method, on the smoker 3 hrs, wrap in foil with 1/2 cup apple juice for 2 hrs, then 1 hr in cooler to rest, well after 2 hrs in foil they were already overdone, everyone likes their ribs overdone so no problem, but was looking for perfect ribs this time, so back to the drawing board. gonna check 'em after 1 hr in foil next time.

threw the Brat's Hazen and Aubree gave me on the smoker, I told everyone they were made out of Antelope Hazen shot, I think that's what they were, hope I wasn't lying but not intentional, everyone really liked them. you got a good sausage man, I would use him again.

Mom, Dawn, Lumpy & Sunshine, Bonnie & Wane, Buzz, Drea, Damon, Erik, Andy, Heather & Ryan, Spud & Shawna, Me & Lynn, Thought was gonna run short on ribs so made a lot of other food, guess I made too much, had 2 full racks left over, sent one home with Heather and Ryan, Ryan was especially pleased there was so much left over, Me and Lynn had lunch for 2 days on the other, here was lunch on Tuesday

Heated up ribs on the gas grill, grilled some french rolls with garlic butter





pulled the bones out of ribs




put ribs on one half, poured on some sweet baby rays, mozzarella cheese on the other half, under broiler til cheese melted



now that was a good sandwich, will be making extra ribs from now on so we can have this again.

So Happy Mothers Day Mom, even if it is 3 weeks late,

Mother's Day

Had the Barr family over for Mother's Day pot luck, Bonnie, Wayne. Dennis, Sue, Jason, Bob, Debbie, Adam, Eva, and their kids, Sean, Shawna, Me & Lynn, I think that's all, hope I didn't forget anyone

cooked up 3 chickens and everyone else brought side dishes, had a very nice Day.

didn't take many pics, here's the chicken before I cooked it



Brined it for 3 hrs, sprinkled it with my rub, smoked it for 1 1/2 hrs, the dunked in a bowl of sweet baby rays, in a foil pan covered with foil for another hr on smoker, white meat was a little dry but everything else was fall off the bone moist and juicy, as Griffin said, the sauce is in fact the boss

Here's a cake Lynn made for Bonnie for her birthday, dual purpose BBQ



A new carrot cake recipe that was very good.

We had an enjoyable day and the chicken was almost entirely devoured, Griffin ate 4 pieces, he just couldn't get enough, wants to start getting into barbecueing

The 2 weeks after mother's day BBQ is coming up, 1 week late again, still haven't decided on the menu.

Seafood

Been doing quite a bit of BBQ'in lately, just never get around to taking pics, and too lazy to post 'em here if I do.

Me and Lynn went to the Astoria Seafood and Wine Festival Sunday, love the seafood and never been to it before, so thought we'd check it out.

Well think it should be called the wine festival, as the only seafood around was a few vendors selling food, it was all winery's and people selling jewelery, sauces, and spice blends, we walked around for quite awile and sampled many different wines, then went back where the food was and got a chunk of crab bread and a bowl of chowder, the crab bread was amazing, thick cut french Bread with cheese and some kind of sauce on it, with great big chunks of crab sprinkled all over the top.

Stopped at a seafood shop in town as we were heading out, bought some prawns, fish, and smoked salmon, I saw tubs of crab spread the were selling and checked out the ingredients, this might have been the same company that was selling them at festival, but not sure, then we stopped at pier 39 and bought a couple live crabs. we'll just have our own seafood festival.

When we got home we boiled up the crabs, I grilled a couple fish fillets, I can't even remember what kinda fish it was, just bought some they had on special, not bad but pretty tasteless. but went well with the crab legs.

Here is the closet thing we saw to live seafood at the festival



Here's a couple of bottles of wine we picked up




The crabs in a box with ice, when we got them home they said they wanted a hot bath




Monday for lunch, grilled Prawns and my take on the crab bread, no loaves of french bread, so just sliced sourdough.



I love that stuff, one of my new "go to" recipes.

We had a good time and would like to get out to Astoria again and do some more exploring, but seafood and wine festival is out for me, just a bunch of people trying to empty me wallet

The Big Cook

Aubree & Hazen home for the weekend and I haven't cooked any food for them on the smoker yet, trying to think of something different to do, had a ham in the freezer so lets give that a try.

cut the skin off ham and diagonally slashed the fat, injected with Pineapple & Apple Juice, soy & worcestershire sauce.



then rubbed it down with my favorite rub




Spatchcocked a couple chickens (cut the backbone out and broke breastbone so they lay flat) and brined overnight, sprinkled 'em with Tony C's




Mixed up a pot of beans, made a couple fatty's with my homemade sausage & 20 ABT's (jalapenos sliced lengthwise, filled with cream cheese and a little smokie in about 1/2 of em, wrapped with bacon) next time gonna chop the little smokies up and mix em with the cream cheese,

Here's everything happily cooking along



everything turned out very good, The Ham was dry around the outside but juicy inside, next time will wrap in foil after about 4 hrs, had a great flavor, my 1st time making ABT's and gonna be on the grill whenever I fire it up from now on, they were great, especially about midnight after many beers, when me and Ryan finished the leftovers, fatty's were amazing as always, chicken was moist with nice smokey flavor,


Aubree & Hazen, Heather & Ryan, Shawna & Spud, Mom, Dawn & Lumpy, Lynn & I were here, Bonnie & Wayne stopped by but had to leave before dinner, they did get to try the fatty, we had a great time and plenty of good food and fun, hope everyone enjoyed themselves, I did.

Pastrami

Safeway had corned beef on sale for St. Patrick's day, had read about people smoking 'em so you know I gotta try it, that's what Pastrami is, smoked corned beef, but I think there's a few more steps, I'm making backyard pastrami, just picked up a 4 Lb'er, at $1.49 a LB shoulda grabbed a couple more, soaked it in water overnight to take some of the salt out, then ground up the seasoning packet that came with it in the bullet, added some extra pepper, rubbed it down, wrapped it and let it sit in fridge overnight





Fired up the pit and threw 'er on Sun morning, smoked for about 5 hrs. then I notice temp dropping on the remote thermometer, went and checked, pellet hopper empty, first time I done that, I must not have filled it as full as normal, it usually lasts 6 to 7 hrs before adding more, instead of restarting it just took in house and put in oven, it should have taken enough smoke already, just sit back and wait til it got up to temp.




doesn't look like Pastrami, but tastes good, Rueben Time




got the fixin's together, I found this marble Rye bread at fred meyer, Kit Carson uses it and really liked the Rueben they make, threw 'em together and grilled 'em up




very tastey if I do say so myself, next year gotta remember the St Patrick's corned beef sale and pick up a few, will definately do this again

Chili Dogs

Ok, so it's not Barbecue, it's my blog though I can do whatever I want, I have just recently discovered the wonder that is the Chili Dog, never even tried 'em before, they just didn't sound good, Boy was I wrong, I was making some taco meat a couple weeks ago and wound up with something that tasted like chili dog sauce so got me thinking about trying to make one, the weather is so nasty outside anyway, not good 'cue weather.

well got out the cast iron dutch oven, threw in 1 1/2 lbs hamburger, 1 1/2 lbs ground pork, and started seasoning it up, covered and let it simmer for about 4 hrs stirring occasionally, probably didn't need that much time, but not doing anything today so just let it stew, well wasn't to happy with the taste, threw some more stuff in and simmer a little longer, much better

















Mustard up a couple buns.


















Boil hot dogs for 4 minutes, all the chilli dog research I have done says this is the perfect time, people get ridiculous, they're just hot dogs, get 'em warm and throw 'em on the buns



















Dump on some chilli sauce, sprinkle on some grated cheddar and enjoy

















Gonna freeze the leftover and whenever I get the chili dog craving got the cure ready

I made the mistake of missing out on this culinary masterpiece my whole life til now, if you too ignore the noble chili dog, just give him a chance, he won't disappoint

more sausage

We tried our hand at stuffing sausage, found a recipe for Texas Hot Links I wanted to try, got some hog casing and off to work, well to make a long story short, bad recipe, they looked good, but really tasted bad. I really can't explain it.
















smoked a few up with some beans, at least the bean recipe was good, I invited Gene and Linda down for dinner because I thought they were gonna be so good, what an embarrassment. I poured some BBQ sauce on em and helped a little, but definitely not trying this recipe again. but we played cribbage til wee in the morning and had a good time.

















that was a couple weeks ago, tried again last weekend, figured we'd try some brat's instead, no pics but would just look the same anyway, Heather came down Sun. smoked a 10Lb pork butt and had pulled pork sandwiches, and some mac 'n cheese to die for, if anyone wants a good mac 'n cheese, try this,
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/mac-daddy-mac-n-cheese-recipe/index.html

doesn't re-heat well though, so have some people around to eat it down.

then about 8:00 PM we were getting hungry again, so smoked up some brats, they turned out very good, smoking didn't seem to help em a lot, so just probably grill em next time.

Superbowl

We go to Gene's house every year to watch the superbowl, he's been promising it's gonna be in high def for about 4 yrs now, he finally came through, high definition on his new 52" LCD, game looked great, lots of good food, Linda always makes a ton of food, this year she made some kind of chicken wings, never asked what she called 'em, but they were good, she made these little pizza cup things, flattened out biscuits in a muffin pan, they were good, chips, dips, veggies, fruit, a bread that she always makes called beer bread, it's really good, I know there was something else, but can't think of it.

We always bring something to eat when we go, Gene had been hinting around that I need to bring ribs, so I did.

Here I'm pulling the membrane from the bone side, very important for tender ribs


















put a rub on 'em

















wrap em up and in the fridge overnight
















got up early Sun. morning and got the pit going, here's a few hours later
















they turned out really good, I should just left 'em dry, but Gene likes sauce on his ribs, I was out of sweet baby rays, had a big jug of kc masterpiece, figured it would work, last time I do that, there's just no substitute for SBR's, everyone enjoyed 'em though, made a lot of ribs and didn't bring that many back home.

hot links coming next, will be making 'em later today, but who knows when I'll get 'em on here

1st sausage

Well, have been searching internet since Christmas for sausage recipes, think I have found some good ones, time to start trying, gonna start out with just an easy breakfast sausage to make sure grinder is gonna work out, cash & carry had pork butts on sale for 99 cents a Lb. so stocked up. got out a 8 Lb'er and went to work, diced it up so it would fit through grinder
















didn't know how recipe was gonna turn out so just gonna make 5 Lbs in case it doesn't taste right, 1st 3 Lbs just frozen as ground pork, always use 1/2 ground pork & 1/2 beef when making lasagna or meatballs, so this will come in handy too, then on to grind the other 5 Lbs.
















Mixed spices together, then worked it into meat.
















let it sit in fridge about 4 hrs to let the flavors all distribute, took a small piece and fried it up for the taste test, this stuff has great flavor, better than any I have bought in grocery store and only 99 cents a Lb, plus a couple cents in spices.

Well, when I see pork sausage anymore, all I can think of is a Fatty, let's do it.

flattened a Lb out and searched the fridge, not much to be had, a couple green onions, some cheese, and some pickled wax peppers, Lynn didn't want any peppers, so only on half.
















rolled it up and put my rub on it

















in the smoker for a couple hours, looked good coming out
















sliced it up

















Man this thing was good, I might even say it's the best I've ever made, I hadn't ate all day so that might have had something to do with it, I was starved, but the taste was incredible, all I could keep saying was "I kicked Jimmy Deans ass" as I ate it

next projects will be pepperoni, polish, and summer sausage in no particular order.

I'm still Smoken'

Had quite a few good BBQ's but just never get around to post anything about em', Smoked the Thanksgiving turkey, a couple pork butts, beef roasts are always smoked now, I can't remember em all but my smoker is definably getting good use.

got a good deal on pork loin over at shop and cart a while back and thought I might see what I can do with that, so lean that it's really easy to dry out and taste like eating sawdust, I know, let's wrap it in bacon, the bacon grease should keep it moist and add some flavor.

put some rub on and got the bacon action going,
































cooked about 4 hrs with oak and apple pellets, looked pretty good coming off the smoker


















wrapped in foil, in the cooler chest to rest for an hour, Shawna and Spud came over for dinner so slice it up and see how it turned out,

moist, juicy, and great flavor, Spud said it was the best thing I ever cooked, but he always says that, he is addicted to my smoker, was really good though if I do say so myself.

next big smoke is for super bowl, go to Gene's every year to watch it, I think he's expecting ribs, on sale at cash and carry so his wish is gonna be granted.

going to start a new phase in my smoking adventures, got a meat grinder attachment for the kitchenaid and gonna try my hand at sausage making, will update a little more often maybe til that just starts becoming the same old thing too, actually got someting going on right now that will be posted soon, I can smell it.