Can't Find A Stopping Place

It's no secret that I love to cook but this is getting rediculous. Had to have breakfast and I had a real brainy idea about making crutons out of some of our Thanksgiving Dressing (can you say - SAGE). It's a real winner and if you make dressing like we do (sliceable) I recommend you try it. Soft scrambled eggs is a lot easier than omelets so I usually do them. These were rushed as we were really getting hungry - soft scrambled eggs are better if they take like ages to finish on LOW LOW. The eggs got some green onions, onions, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper sauteed first and then added some turkey and cheese right before tossing in the slow baked Thankgiving Dressing Crutons and then just gave it a toss. Hmmmm. Moving on, I didn't really have anything else to do so a lil more cooking was in order. I've turned into the proverbial ABT junky seems like so I had to have some more of those since they were all gone Thursday except this time they were made out of the turkey breast meat and boy are they good. Just happened to rememeber that the second roll of sausage I lost the other day was at the office I stopped by and got that sucker on the way to pick up the japs. This dried apple fatty might not sound good to you but if you tasted it, you wouldn't want for no better fatty. I had what you see here for a meal while Sue had a ham sandwich on that homemade bread and made me want both but I held my own and this morning I'm kinda hot on the inside if you know what I mean.

Thanksgiving 09

Fresh pork shoulder injected with Butcher’s BEEF injection because I was out of pork injection, and rubbed with bbq rub but I forgot what kind I used. Cooked this piece of meat in the FatBoy to an internal temp of 185 and into the Cambro for 2 hrs.



And I liked it better than our double smoked ham which I didn’t get a picture of because slicing it was the last thing we had to do and everyone was ready to eat. It was done ala Dr Chicken method and was a 18 lb ham.



The ABT’s (Atomic Bull Terds) had some previously smoked and shredded chicken with velvetta cheese melted and mixed in and Sue didn’t think anyone would eat them but danged if I wasn’t right when I said “oh, yes they will” – they ate everyone of them! The Fatty (1 lb roll of sausage stuffed, rolled back up and cooked whole) had some spiced dried apples, parmesan and velvetta cheese, and a little grape jelly.



This dish right here I can personally recommend because I thought it was one of the best things on the rather LARGE menu. I like roasted potatoes done this was so I knew I’d like the brussel spouts and decided to add grape maters and onions but I don’t think the BS needed them to be good.



Do You?



We’ve been fixing this corn casserole for a long time now because it’s very good and easy to put together. Just some onion, garlic, jalapeno, yellow corn meal, eggs – stir it up and bake about 30 min. This ones originated with an EggHead named Jslot, I added some Tasso and it really jacked it up a notch.





The old standby: Creamy Potato Salad



The older I get the harder it is for me to feed this big crowd and part of the reason is I always cook way more than we need. With that in mind I knew ahead of time that I was going to try separating the Turkey parts and cook them separate to try making it easier and give more room in the cooker. This is a technique I will use again and again as it sure worked well for me.




We wound up braising these turkey parts in the Fatboy along with the breast but manged to save some to deep fry later.



The kiddos have to have the mac n cheese, but I’ve noticed that everyone else has their share as well.



The breast really turned out nice and moist and it was brined with Old Dave’s improved Shakes Honey brine for the recommened 12 hrs before hitting the smoker. I used Slab’s Birds n Bones rub along with some Sweet n Heat.

This & That Day Yesterday

My son’s Dennis & David were coming to put up that lone last piece of cabinet in our new kitchen we remodeled 2 years ago, so thought I’d do a lil Bottom Round Pot Roast and decided to use the little Backwoods Chubby as a grill for the first time. I like it! The ability to adjust the distance from the fire to the meat simply by pulling out the rack and moving it to a higher or lower runner would come in handy too although I didn’t need it here. Seasoned those with Cavenders and course salt and pepper, seared, and braised in beef broth. The vegetables wouldn’t go down in the pan cause I had so many and I think they took too much smoke because of that even though the smoking wood had long been used by the time they went into the cooker. The boys did a fine job on mounting that cabinet even if I did have to wait a couple of years. What’s a couple years anyway and besides it’s over the fridge and we can’t reach it without a latter. Also got a lil cleaning and just getting ready in general for that big turkey day coming up.

Beans, Taters, & Greens

The corn bread wasn't too shabby either and by the time you added the onions and peppers you gotta real meal deal. Fancy eatin in my book.

Wing Day

We picked up 18 fresh wings yesterday and decided to do several different ways using the Backwoods Chubby. I made pictures of them cooking in the Chubby and messed around and deleted them right before taking the pics you see here of the wings after they were cooked. I love wings and anytime someone is sharing a cooking technique or recipe for wings I automatically store that in my memory banks for future use and the three that stands out are: the Dizzy Pig crunchy style, and then just dusting them with cornstarch, and finally the smoked then fried method. So with 18 wings that I snipped the tips and the extra little triangle of fatty skin between the two sections our plan was to reserve 2 of the breaded Dizzy Pig wings in the fridge and just deep fry those without smoking which would now give us 4 different styles of wings. But why stop there – we then decided to deep fry 2 each of the Dizzy wings after smoking and 2 each of the cornstarch dusted wings which would now give us six styles of wings. I like wings soaked in butter and Texas Pete but I like em better with the sauce on the table to sprinkle on or dip in as you eat them so they stay crunchy. Slaw is about my first choice for a side with wings so we made some Carolina Oil / Vinegar Slaw and roasted some taters on a 3rd rack in the Chubby up over the wings which I had on two other racks providing plenty of room. They cooked at 275 – 300 and I think about 2 hrs or a little over and they were ready. I made a nice herb bread loaf but I used the wrong method on the yeast and it didn’t rise but we wound up eating the bottom off of it which was kinda like a very tasty cracker.

Top Sirloin & Tasso Maque Choux

Quality really does matter and the top sirloin from Sam's and Tasso from Findley's Butcher Shop in Acworth, Ga were certainly both very good quality. This 9 buck a pound pack of tasso has been hanging around in the fridge for a couple of months now just waiting for me to come up with just the right recipe and I think I found it with this Emeril Maque Choux recipe. Fresh corn, the Tasso, onion, garlic, red bell pepper, green onion, heavy cream. I made a little cilantro pesto to go with it. The top sirloin from Sam's had been hanging around about 2 weeks in the fridge as well as I just don't like to grill nice steaks until they have had some time in the fridge. It was a big pack and I removed them from the original packaging and vac sealed them first. If the steak is fresh when you get it, try a couple of weeks in the fridge cause you can really tell the difference. They looked and smelled so good when I opened them that it made you just want to eat em raw. The PK (Portable Kitchen) grill is the most underated grill in America and should be on every patio. I use to be crazy over ceramics but since cooking with the Backwood Chubby the long cooks (about 800 bucks) and grilling with the PK (about 200 or less). I would never consider anything else, especially considering the price.

Chili w/ABT

Well I wasn't about to let that last ABT go to waste, so here it is in my bowl of chili. Ever since I said I wasn't crazy about the abt wrapped in bacon, all I want to do is eat em. I'll never do that again.

My Best ABT's

I've been making these for 10 years at least and I've used all kinds of meats and cheese but this Spare Rib n Cream Cheese is my best yet. The ribs were vac sealed and frozen and were not completely thawed when I cut the meat off bone. They were also undercooked which is why they didn't score worth a toot in my last contest. The contest is over and history but these ribs will no doubt have a lasting memory cause they were that good. They were cooked on the PK Grill and indirect all the way as I think you get better results on the bacon that way. I do wish the jalapenos would not get so done and be kinda crisp so I may try and speed em up by letting them spend some time directly over the fire next time.

Lamb And Jalapeno Poppers

I'm never surprised at how much of a foodie I am, as I like just about everything. I've had lamb a number of times and cooked it a few times as well but I've NEVER had lamb this good. I marinated it for about 5 hours in herb buttermilk brine. Just added about 2 tbs of evoo along with dried dill, oregano, thyme, crushed red pepper, salt, blk pepper to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk. Wiped the marinade off and added Cavenders greek seasoning, grilled over hot fire to internal of 160 or med. Perfect! The jalapenos stuffed with pulled bbq chicken (plenty of sauce, with breading of flour, egg wash, bread crumbs and fried in pan big enough to do four at a time with 2 inch of veggie oil. The jalepenos were crunchy and we served them with a cheese sauce. A tex mex place in town serves these and I think it's everyones fav dish there and it has become my favorite way to prepare jalepenos. I just think ABT's for myself anyway are over rated and bacon is best fried.

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Tater

Well I never met a stuffed tater I didn't like and this was one of the best I've had EVER! I learned one thing about pulled chicken and that is "a lot of good sauce will make it better". Nice mixed greens for salad and roll and life is good. Even if the rest of the day was not. The leaves was so high I could see how wet the yard was and got my mower stuck. Then ran out of gas. Couldn't find a socket to take the plug out of my rv hot water heater to keep it from freezing. The tater was good though and we'll get back at it today and see what we can do.

Double Meat Birthday Dinner For Mom (77)

She’s like me – country cooking is always good and I knew she’d enjoy the double meat suppa. The wife’s chicken out done my meatloaf – man is she a good fry baby. She cut the breast in half and marinated in buttermilk over night and got a good breading on there, wooooo boy was they good. My meatloaf had some pulled pork that I took off the cooker while it was sliceable all chopped fine and then some onion, garlic, grilled then chopped shrooms, au jus, bread crumbs, eggs. For veggies we had slaw, crowder peas, smashed taters, bread n butter pickles, beets.