Food -grilled-smoked-campfire fixings etc.

Well, I pulled a ribeye out of the ice box this morn. I'll be burning it over wood this eve. Nothing fancy, no seasoning, just a Vodka/Cranberry in hand, hot wood fire for a short amount of time, and some salt when it is on the plate. Got some Tomatoes and Baisle from the garden, and a chunk of fresh Mozzerela in the fridge. That with some balsimic makes a fine salad. Something for starch and we are good to go.  

Oh, btw, when we were at Tumbleweeds, we had some nice ribs. We got more than we could eat that night, and not by mistake. Well, on the way home Sunday, tooling thur Tenn, I thought "wow, those ribs would be great right now". Then I thought "Wow, wish I haden't left them in the hotel room fridge!" > :'(

 

I confess, I'm drinking the cheap stuff tonight. Buziness has picked up, but I'm still in "cheap mode". But hey, you swill enough of it, it works. :

 

I'm especially eye-balling those ribs Burley, those look delicious!

 

What a spread! I love jalepeno poppers. We started using pineapple cream cheese to do ours; it adds a little sweet to the heat.

Another side item that my wife loves is slicing tomatoes thick, putting them in a pie pan, put a little italian dressing on them and top with mozzerella cheese. Put on the grill until the cheese melts.

 

joe, i'm starting to not like you. you making me hungry all over again.

wish i had that much meat around here all the time...

 

Damn you guys! There's four freakin' feet of snow on my deck, and I just spent the last 1/2 hour digging out the grill because of this thread!

 

I thought about grilling last week but there was still too much snow on the deck! We added another 8 inches of snow today! Maybe I will try again next week!


Craig

 

Wow! I just ate and that was enough to make my mouth water!

Since it's still cold out my favorite smoked treat is Nova Lox.

2 sides of fresh salmon (skin and grey meat off) go into a dry brine of 2 lbs dark brown sugar and 3 lbs kosher salt for 4 hours.
Move to wet brine with same amount of solute and enough H2O to cover the salmon for 4 more hours. (sample)
Move to large clean container in the sink and run a trickle of H2O into the container for 1-2 hours until the fish remains lightly salty. (sample)
Move to wire rack and air dry for about an hour or until a fine film forms on the salmon.
Place in smoker and smoke at no more than 70F. I found that a slick way to accomplish this was to poke a new pen style soldering iron through a tin can, fill it with alder chips and use that as the smoke generator.
In 4-6 hours you will be ready to remove delicious homemade Nova Lox. Slice very thin (fillet knife works well) and serve on crackers, bagels, in omelettes, on salads, or just eat it plain.

 

Cooked in a charity BBQ contest this weekend.  Here is a link to the event.  http://www.hogsforthecause.org/

Here is a pic of the pig we cooked- 75 lbs is a s big as we can fit on the smoker.

We also cooked shoulder, ribs and chicharones.

Didn't place in any category but it was fun and for a good cause. The event was well run and had a great draw.  Great music. Very much like a big backyard BBQ. I have cooked in Memphis in May before and I liked this a whole lot better.

here is a pic of the piggie we cooked- sorry to not have other pics but we were busy as a one leg man in an azz kicking competition.  

We cut back the belly fat to rub down the belly meat with rub and then trussed everything back up corset style to keep everything moist.  Came out great. No left overs!

PS- there are gators in that water you see behind the pig- this is in the middle of city park in NOLA! Cool.

 

I should have taken pics of my chuckies yesterday. they were awesome! Next time for sure though!