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.

Brisket

Haven't updated in quite a while, have done quite a bit of griiling and roasting on my smoker but didn't get around to taking any pics, I did make a top round roast that I couldn't believe how good it turned out, never thought top round could be that good.

Well, finally time to try a Brisket, supposedly the holy grail of BBQ, so picked up a 13 1/2 LB'er and time to get to work, researched quite a while on this, people telling you to marinade, inject, fancy rubs, but everytime I read what a real Texan said it was basic bub and smoke it, so got out the Bourbon and lemon lime soda and time to get to work, eating at 2:00 Sun, fired up the smoker at 9:30 Sat night.

trimmed some excess fat off and left 1/4 layer of fat across the top side, mixed up salt, pepper, garlic powder, & onion powder and rubbed it down, put it in smoker at 10:00
















Checked about an hour later and temp is holing steady where I want it, back in the house, more bourban and watch TV, fell asleep and didn't wake up until 6:30, here's what it looked like
















stuck my remote thermometer in it that the girls gave me for my birthday and just ignore it till it beeps at me, this thing is so sweet, don't know how I got along without one
















never set the time on it, really about 8:00 here

Well about 1:00 it started beeping, pulled it off, wrapped in foil and into the cooler chest for an hour to rest (not to cool, to keep warm)

look how much it shrunk from the top picture, barely fit in pan earlier
















invited Rocky and Laurie over because they have been to Texas a couple times and had the real thing, wanted to know how it compared, they said it was perfect, Heater just got back from Boise and drove down just in time to get in on it
















Now I'll be sacriligeous, I don't see what the big thing is about Brisket, it was good but I like Beef medium rare, would rather buy a good quality roast and cook it that way, now pork is another story, but now I can say I did a brisket and was successful, gonna go make another brisket
sandwich now

Spare Ribs

Last weekend Aubree was home for Heather's shower and she warned me I better smoke something for her, had a turkey in freezer so gave it a try, it was a 25Lb'er, would take forever to cook, so I cut out the breasts and thigh and leg portions, forgot to take pic's so can't see what it looked like, everyone that tried it said it was really good, I thought it had too much garlic, thought I was going really light with seasoning, next time no garlic, but was still very tasty

This weekend time for some spare ribs I got a good deal on a while back, was gonna do 'em Sat but went with Spud to car shop (we found a sweet one) so cook 'em on Sun. rubbed 'em down Sat. night and in the smoker Sun morning.

here they are ready to cook



threw 'em on and smoked 6 1/2 hrs.



then thew em in roasting pan, slathered em with sweet bay ray's and trew em in oven at 170 til dinner, made a greek salad that we are making for Heather's wedding to see if it's any good, and baked potatoes


invited Gene and Linda over for dinner, ribs were perfect, salad was very good,

My 1st Fatty

Been reading about fatty's on all the BBQ sites and wanted to try one, all a fatty is a LB of sausage flattened out and rolled around whatever you feel like filling it with, then smoke it, I got the Idea of a breakfast fatty, I'm sure it's been done before, but I haven't seen any and like to think it's an original idea, everything I read they were stuffing em with peppers and onions and cheese and stuff like that, I'm putting scrambled eggs, ham and cheese in mine

here's what it looked like before smoking it



and here it's done, smoked for 3 hrs with apple pellets



now slice it up and enjoy



I think the ham was a little overkill, a meat wrapped in a meat is kinda weird, and didn't put enough cheese in, next time no ham, more cheese and maybe some green peppers or something if I can sell that to Lynn, if not maybe green onions

but , all in all, another successful BBQ adventure

1st real test

Lynn invited everyone over for Pulled Pork Sunday for my birthday, 1st extended smoke on the new smoker, got 2 7 1/2 lb pork shoulders, trying a new recipe, gonna inject em'



injected em' Sat afternoon and let em' sit in fridge all day, took em' out of fridge at 8:00, rubbed em' down, and let em' come up to room temp,started the smoker at 10:00, got the temp where I wanted it and threw em in, watched it pretty close for about an hour and looks good, temp staying right where I want it, this is too easy, no more checking it every 1/2 hr, I set alarm for 2:00 and went to sleep, wanted to check again just to make sure temp was holding steady, still looks good so go to sleep and let em' cook

when I woke up, temp still holding steady and looking good



up to temp at noon, took em out to rest for an hour before shredding



Mom, Dawn and little dude, Erik, Bonnie and Wayne, Dennis and Sue and their little dude, Andrea and her boyfriend (sorry I forgot his name again) Shawna and Spud, Heather, Lynn and me all present,

pork turned out good, lots of other good food to be had, this is by far a more pleasant smoking experience, almost seems like cheating, I got all sorts of things I wanna try now, so expect your food to taste smokey whenever you eat at our house.

got my new smoker

Been quite a while since my last post, Haven't really done any smokin lately, had a few grilling adventures but never got around to putting 'em up.

But I'm starting a whole new era in my BBQ adventures, been looking at the Traeger pellet smokers for about 3 yrs. but just too expensive, when I bought my smoker earlier this year I was really wanting a Traeger, well thanks to the lady that hit me in Walmart parking lot and state farm insurance, I got me a bonus for my new birthday present to myself, this is what $2646 worth of damage looks like now a days















it actually looks worse in the picture than it really does, well the car is getting close to 200,000 miles and drives fine, sooooooo, that's our new buddy YB, had to get in the picture.

Well, started investigating where I could get the best deal on my new Traeger and discovered Louisianna Country Smokers, pellet smoker like the Traeger but made with heavier guage steel, and will get to higher temps so you can grill on it too, plus about $400 cheaper. needless to say, I got one.

here's a couple pics of it






Didn't really have time to try it out, 1st big test this weekend, 15 lbs of pork shoulder. but did have to cook something, a 4lb prime rib in the freezer just screaming to get out, they say this thing smokes, roasts, sears, grills and bakes, let's see how well it roasts I guess

Here's the roast, I cut slits in it and stuffed with about 10 cloves of garlic



Put a rub on it and threw it on the smoker



slow smoked it for 2 hrs. then turned up the heat and roasted for another 2 hrs. Here's the finished product





Also roasted a couple ears of corn and some garlic bread on it and was one of the best meals I've had in quite a while, didn't have to turn on oven and heat up house, roast was moist, tender and flavorful,

another complete success,