A Great BBQ Party

I had 17 people over yesterday, all friends from jitsu and some with their families.

The Brisket, after 14 hours in the smoker came out great.  The Weber Smokey Mountain 18 really makes temperature control easy and the large water bowl keeps the heat moderated perfectly.  It works so much better and more consistent than the Ol' Brinkmann that it's not even funny.

Better than last year, and the guests devoured it.  Tender as all get out and people were happy.

The ribs took six hours in the smoker and were ready by 3:30 with the guests coming at 4.  I had started them in the driving rain Sunday morning and they turned out to be worth the effort.

They similarly were devoured happily, some had them straight, and some added sauce first.

The rain continued on and off all day, which made holding the party inside necessary, but it all worked out.

I also made a double batch of macaroni and cheese which was a hit for the kids some of the friends brought along.  

The kids also played with Jett and he enjoyed that profusely everything from retrieving a ball to chasing each other around.  Jett was tolerant the whole time and had a ball. Jett slept real well last night.

Guests brought dishes to pass including some really good Texas Caviar. This was the first time I've heard of that or tried it. It was a perfect accompaniment to the BBQ.  I need to add that to future BBQs as it works.

Lots of good discussions had an people had a good time.

Great food and a great bunch of people over.

Smoking Beef Ribs For Dinner

Not just any Beef ribs, but Glatt Kosher Beef Ribs.

A friend of mine had a goodly amount of meat and knowing I do smoking gave me the ribs.

I got them covered in my homemade rub.

Then using locally sourced hickory wood I got the fire going and started smoking the ribs,

The hickory burned a little hotter than anticipated, and while I had started at 220 and the temp stayed there for awhile, the temp in the smoker at around 45 minutes in suddenly climbed to 400, necessitating some action on my part to get the temperature back down.

But, even with that, they came out looking great and tasting awesome.

Didn't need any BBQ sauce either, the rub gave some nice flavor to the beef.

Benefit Of Working From Home - Smoked Ribs For Dinner

Since I was working from home today anyways, I decided to multitask.

Might as well prepare dinner while doing the work.

So I put together my special rub from its component spices and got things together.

I used locally sourced wood as usual, apple this time.

Started up the smoker and put the ribs on:

Get the smoker started and back to work. Just come back on occasion to add more wood and water to the mix.

4 hours on the smoker and the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender.

Tasted great, and I'm well on my way to getting my quarantine 15.

After dinner, a nice long walk with the dog, and after I finish my taxes, the week will come to an end.

Sunday Smoke Day!

Today was a home game of spring cleaning.

I spent the day cleaning the car's interior after a long winter, washing the mats and getting all the salt and grime out. Then it was cleaning the garage, and getting all the winter's dust and dirt out of there, and reorganizing and making it less of a mess.

While that was going on, I prepared two racks of ribs for dinner.

I made my own rub with salt, brown sugar, paprika, ancho chili pepper, pepper, garli,c and cumin and rubbed it on the ribs.

Then I got the smoker fired up with Leah helping light the charcoal - because, Fire!

Then when the charcoal was hot I combined it with locally-sourced apple and hickory wood for a sweet smokey smell.

After five hours on the smoker, low and slow at a nice steady 200 degrees, they were done and looked like this:

The ribs were fall-off-the-bone good. Didn't need any sauce either, the rub turned out to be just right and the ribs were excellently smoked with plenty of tasty smoke flavor.

The first smoking of spring.

Smoking Ribs - It's What's For Dinner

Today was a beautifully nice and sunny day here in Southeastern Michigan. Since we hadn't done any smoking in awhile, I was requested to do so and the weather promised to be good for it.

I picked up some ribs last night and prepared them for smoking, rinsing them off, drying and then applying some yellow mustard and spices. The mustard makes the spices stick.

So today after some errands I started the smoker, getitng the charcoal going and using some locally-sourced hickory wood as the smoking wood of choice for the ribs.

Smoked to perfection for hours, and they smell and more importantly taste great.

Smoked Beef Ribs - It's What's For Dinner

Tash wanted me to try something different on the smoker so I decided to give Beef Back Ribs a try.

First take the ribs from their package, cut into chunks, and give em a nice rub down.

Then heat up the smoker to 200 degrees. I used Hickory wood this time for a stronger flavor than cherry wood.

Add the meat and let smoke for four and a half hours until nice and tender.

After four and a half hours, check for doneness and if nice and tender, remove from the smoker.

A test of one rib indicated they were perfectly tender and awesomely beefy and flavorful.

Now they're in the oven keeping warm after being glazed in BBQ sauce and some apple juice so they will be ready for dinner and company tonight.