Friday Afternoon Ambition

[Fire it up]

Kudos for the Yuengling

[eDJ]

Re:

Wednesday was a beautiful breezy day here. Got a call around noon asking if I'd be interested in cooking out on the river bank later that evening and I thought, yeah I could do that. So my friend said that the Grocery Store had those Pork Country Ribs (bone in) for cheap this week and said he and his girl friend would pick up the beer and meat and I explained that I'd slice up some red potatoes, onions, and jalapeno's to cook in a foil bag and that I had some corn soaking in a wine brine and ready to go. I had a big can of baked beans and some left over ATB's that I thought would make a meal out of.

So I run some hard wood fire wood down the slope to the fire pit and
light up some charcoal briquettes in the chimney for a fire starter. The breeze is helpful but I just go get the leaf blower and VOILA fire. (none of that silly fanning with a tray for ol' eDJ) So all that needs to be done is
to get those taters chopped up in the foil pillow with some butter & olive oil, garlic powder & garlic salt. Once sealed up tightly it will lay on the grill for about 40 or 50 minutes. The ribs cook for about 2 1/2 hours after they've been slathered up in dijon and rubbed with some coarse Kosher salt and some Kansas City style rub I made up. The corn and beans won't take much. Just roll the corn in foil to cook for about 10 minutes and then grill it to a finish. In the foil it will steam. The beans get some extra molasses and a little Bourbon.

Got busy and put rocks around my fire pit. Real treat lugging a 50+ lb box of rocks across the beach on that squishy clay like mud down there.
But I gotter done this afternoon. I don't need Smoky the Bear tapping me on the shoulder reminding me that "Forest fires prevent bears".



There, all safe for the next time. With yesterday's breeze the fire was beginning to travel outside the ring.

In my haste I didn't get the photos of the ribs on the grill and the lovely smoke that flavored them so well. But I was hustling trying to entertain guest, run back and forth to the house to get things I forgot etc. I think I got something else I need to build for cooking here on the lower yard.



Yep, one of these Boy Scout camp cook boxes. It could save a lot of
steps going up hill to fetch things. Nothing like getting organized.

My ribs, resting here, came out fine. A bit more salty than I wanted
but next time I'll know just how much I like. Of course there was plenty of Beer so the salt didn't linger on the tongue very long.



I got the potatoes, onions, and peppers cooking in the foil here along with
three left over ATB's from the last cook. Twice cooked ATB's aren't too bad. They don't get any hotter and if anything they're easier to eat.



To the grilling of the corn, it turned out to be best of show. It was DEVINE. I just wish I had more. This is the yellow and white mixed kernel corn that's coming into the stores right now. Soaked for about 13 hours in the wine, water, salt, & sugar brine.



and when it's all on the table it looked like this.



The ol picnic table is on it's last legs I think. May have to find some old barn boards to overhaul it with again before long. The river comes up
and floods the lower yard and water logs this poor table but it's still hanging in there.

My guest like that Sweet Baby Ray and brought a bottle of Hickory and
Vidalia Onion. They decided they didn't like the Vidalia Onion after buying it and thought it had a strange after taste. But the line up; in front of the SBR is a jar with my rub and the Kosher salt. The orange spray can is "Cutter". (but with the breeze the mosquitoes would have had to walk to get to us) To the right is the potatoes, and back to the left is the beans beside the paper towels. Then there is the plates with corn and the ribs in the front.

The ribs were tender and delicious and its the most impressed I've been with cheap meat. My friend claims he grew up on this kind of ribs and if I ate them growing up I don't remember now. But the corn was their favorite thing on the table. I liked it ALL !

I asked if there was anything else they would have liked to had on the table and they couldn't think of anything. I would liked to have some warm bread of some kind but they didn't think that was necessary at all.

I ate a couple ribs worth of the meat which his girlfriend had smeared some SBR on part of it. I started just with the rubbed end and was
happy with it by and large. The SBR que sauce does take me back to when I was a kid and poured A1 or 57 all over everything but I'm getting to the point where I don't need all of that stuff. Just that seasoned rub and good smoked flavor does it for me now days.

But this was a soul satisfying dinner for all of us.

[sweet_magnolia]

Great looking grub and pics! I love the Boy Scott cook box and tri-pod!

[eDJ]

Re:

Hey Becky, glad ya like it.

If you and your Husband would wanna build one here's a free set of plans courtesy of BSA Troop 680.

Kitchen Box

http://www.bsatroop680.org/documents...itchen_Box.pdf

I'm guessing for an amature pit master a couple or three of these could
stow all his rubs & spices, utensils, and one for Misc things, radio, office,
cell, computer iTablet, important papers and the like. These would make order of a lot of stuff. The rest would just be Smoker/grill(s) and coolers.

Or using them at Dutch Oven cook off's ;)

[sweet_magnolia]

Hey Becky, glad ya like it.

If you and your Husband would wanna build one here's a free set of plans courtesy of BSA Troop 680.

Kitchen Box

http://www.bsatroop680.org/documents...itchen_Box.pdf)

Cool! Thanks! He's just going to love me when he comes home tonight...."Baby, guess what...I have new project for you to build!"

[eDJ]

Re:

Well, these photos are from last Friday June 29. Half way through eating and the storm hit. Been working my butt off since and finally taking some time to post the photos.

So I started with some spare ribs I caught on sale. Got them home and skinned them of the membrane, and got them in a brine overnight.

Made this mop sauce:

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup apple cider
3 tablespoons Jim Beam white label sour mash bourbon
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I use the low sodium)

The Rub:

2 tablespoons coarse salt (kosher or sea)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon celery seed

Ribs out of the brine, patted dry with the towel. Then coated with dijon mustard. Set in bottom of the fridge for about 20 minutes before applying the rub.

Smoker fired up 250 F at the top 225 right at the grill. First photo taken one hour into the smoke and mopped.

Had some home made que sauce I used at the table as a side dressing.



This smoke started just after noon and were pulled off around 6pm to rest a bit before serving.

....and about half way through the smoking,




The last photo in the smoker with an hour left to go.




When these were pulled to rest for a bit this is how they looked.



I was hoping that the bones would twist loose but they were rather wide and flat and didn't break loose when I tried to twist them. Don't know if there was something I did wrong. But were they good anyway.

For the sides I had some wine soaked corn on the cob. Used "Moscato" with some Kosher salt and sugar for the brine. Turned out super. Brined the corn for about 6 hours. Grilled it on the gas grill and mopped it with melted butter with garlic salt and coarse ground pepper. (it don't make me sneeze when I'm trying to eat )



As for the other sides, I made some Memphis Mustard Coleslaw and the

Recipe follows,

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar or more to taste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon hot sauce
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper (to your taste)

1 small head cabbage, cored and cut into small pieces for the processor.

1 medium carrot, peeled and finely grated using the processor.



Mix mustard, sugar, vinegar, oil, and hot sauce in a glass bowl and allow it to sit so the flavors can merge.


Process cabbage in a food processor till it is medium fine. Similar with carrot. Toss this in a larger bowl with the dressing that is in the smaller bowl. Coat it well and refrigerate it at least 6 hours but over night is best.


Baked Beans recipe



2 (16-ounce) cans baked beans

2 (2.8-ounce) cans French-fried onion
1/4 cup molasses

3 tablespoons real bacon bits

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 tablespoon butter, softened


heat the oven to 350 F and grease an 8x8 baking dish.


combine all ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT one 2.8 oz can of French-fried onion. Mix well and pour into the preped baking dish. Then use the remaining French-fried onions to top the beans and then bake this for 20 to 30 minutes until bubbling and the onions are golden. Then remove from heat and allow to cool a little before serving.


I put together some pasta and white cheese sauce cause some of my guest like it. It's a comfort food and somehow enhances the BBQ ribs.





The red bowl contains a little left over rib rub. So ya can see it.



Iced Tea and Ice cold Beer to drink.



For desert I had some ice cream, pound cake, straw berries and some blue berries.



Some times I wonder if I should have some bread on the table but no one
ever request it or says that they miss it. Perhaps the aroma of fresh yeasty bread would compete too much with the smoke and aroma of the slow cooking meat. I also think I'm going to make a cucumber & onion salad marinated in vinegar with a little sugar and dill infused in it.


Aside from a Plumb tree trunk to take the chain saw to, that's about the last of the storm recovery I have to clean up. So I now have some Hickory, Apple, Plumb, and Maple laid by to smoke with. I'd love to find a Peach & Cherry that blew over and cut some limbs out of them to have
in storage for smoking wood.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/2...#storylink=cpy

[Fire it up]

Looks like it was a really great meal, love me some ribs and everything else sounded great as well!

Did you mean with the bone twist that you wanted the meat to come cleanly away from the bone? Perfection done ribs shouldn't be fall or pull off the bone but have the slightest bit of tug so when you bite them you leave a clean bite mark in the meat down to the bone which sounds like what you had going on so seemed perfect to me

Still got a few trees to clean up from that B.S storm we had here...but I figure a year from now I will be happy those trees came down cause I'll be smoking with them

And if you're looking for cherry I got more than enough, majority of trees in our grove are wild cherry trees so I had so much I was giving it away to be burned for firewood.

[eDJ]

Re:

well then, I may have done better than I though. I'm kinda new yet with this stuff and I was going on watching some of those You Tube tutorials. In one of those I saw the guy twist a bone and then move it in and out left and right and I was wondering if that was what I should be looking for.

As I bit into the meat it came off the bone fairly clean, as you describe.
This is about my 5th try at it.

I've been working all morning and afternoon and finally got everything cleaned up. I have the trunk of a big plumb laying in the yard now and that I'll have to cut on bit by bit in the cool of the evening. Mowed the grass, string trimmed, and cleaned up with the vacuum blower.

When I saw it was bumping the 100 F mark on the thermometer I knocked off and came inside.

Last night went over to an older friends place and cut up his tree debris so he could throw the small limbs in is pick up and haul them off. So he had a broken limb out of his pear tree and I got it. Had small pears on it in healthy abundance. About the size of those little Seckel pears.

On my smoking wood, I've been cutting small chips and soaking them in water for a bit, then wrapping them in foil and piercing the foil ball with a knife to vent it. Then I put those in the fire every so often to keep a steady smoke going.

On the question of the cherry wood for smoking, why don't you lay a bunch of that by to season and dry out. I'm working on some ideas right now and if I can get it off the ground you may be glad you didn't let it go up in smoke as firewood. So if you have a place to stack some of it up and let it sit you may be happy you did later.

But any of us here who has a downed fruit wood tree ought to lay by some of the wood for smoking and trading it. ;)

[sweet_magnolia]

Well, these photos are from last Friday June 29. Half way through eating and the storm hit. Been working my butt off since and finally taking some time to post the photos.

Very nice meal and I love the sides! Cole slaw recipe sounds good!

We got nothing out of that storm last Friday. Nice of you to help a neighbor clean up his place.