Blogs have been combined.

I had separate blogs for travel, trains, breakfast and reading/cooking. I figured it was time to combine them. Once I found the name I wanted (well, the 2nd place name: livingthedream wasn't available).

Please check out my new blog home here: http://2for66.blogspot.com/

Dinners for 8

We hosted our semi-regular Dinners for 8 group dinner tonight. I did some baby back ribs; Carla made Mac and Cheese. Donelle and Dewey brought delicious appetizers (battered/deep-fried jalapenos anyone?) and rolls. Ron and Karen brought a Caesar salad with parmesan cheese crackers. Sharon and Dan made a marscapone/strawberry tart.

I should have grabbed pictures of everything; sorry! I got too focused on the regular barbecue stuff.
Here is what I got.

Rubbed the ribs with some a memphis-style rub the night before. Here they are on the MAK. 4 racks on top; 2 on the bottom with a water pan (barely visible on the bottom left). I wanted to try adding some moisture.

They cooked for about 5 hours at 250. I had figured on 4, but they took longer than expected to pass the bend test. While they cooked, we did the misé en placé for the Mac and Cheese.

Here it is almost all assembled.

After 5 hours on the smoker, I cranked up the heat on the MAK to high and turned on the Weber gas grill. Spread some Kansas City style sauce and grilled them for about 10 minutes 

Dinner is served

So-so food pics; terrible (as in none) group pics.

Italian-Style grilled chicken

It was time to try the Mak 2 Star as a grill rather than a smoker. It hit 60 degrees today and was almost sunny so I thought I'd go for summer style dinner. Grilled chicken with cole slaw and yams on the side (more on the yams later).

I tried a recipe from Cook's Illustrated last summer on my charcoal grill, so thought I'd try a proven recipe. My version of the recipe is here. The recipe is for a gas grill; they also have a version for a charcoal grill so I had to adjust a few things for the pellet burner. I overshot the target temp for the thigh, but it ended up pretty tasty anyway. My full cooking log can be found here.

This is a Cook's Illustrated recipe; so we know it's going to be a little more involved than tossing a chicken on the grill. First we simmer 8 cloves of minced garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, and thyme in some olive oil.

After 3 or 4 minutes we separate the oil from the solids. That oil is liquid gold; we'll use it later.

The chicken is butterflied with the rub going under the skin. We salt and pepper the underside of the chicken and slap it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to let things meld.

Wrap a couple of bricks; normal, Lowes, Home Depot, style bricks in aluminum foil and place in the cooker. Set the temp to high and let things come up to temp.

The chicken starts skin side down on the cool side of the grill with the legs pointed to the heat; we want the thighs to get hotter than the breasts. It's hidden under the bricks here, but it's under there, really. The bricks pressing down on the grill  help the skin get nice and crispy; and since they are hot, they help cook the top side.

About 20 minutes later, I flip the chicken skin side up and put on the hot side. Bricks will go back on right after the photo is taken.

After 15 more minutes, the bricks come off and the chicken is flipped skin side down for the final crisping. Not too much worry about flame up at this point. I flip it back over to take its temp. It ended up a bit higher than I wanted; but it didn't dry out.

Tented under foil for 10 minutes then carved and served.

Sorry this picture is a bit washed out. I should have taken 2, but was hungry. The white cutting board reflected too much flash.

While the chicken was resting I added 2 Tablespoons of the lemon juice from the zested lemon along with a bit more thyme and rosemary. Drizzle that over the chicken and you've got some good eats.

I meant to buy a yam, but looks like I got a sweet potato instead. I like yams better and the color of a sweet potato is not real pleasing. The cole slaw is interesting. It also comes from Cook's Illustrated. The vinaigrette is put together and placed in the freezer for 30 minutes. In the meantime, the cabbage is microwaved for 2 minutes with some salt and sugar. The cold vinaigrette then restores it to room temperature.

Both recipes are 4 stars. Nice summer-style dinner even if it barely hit 60 today.

Baby Back Ribs and Mac and Cheese

Trying  a few new things today. New rub; new cooking method and new side.

First, I'm changing the rub. I'm giving Jan's Dry Rub a shot. I first  heard about it on the pellet smoking forum   I participate in. Lots of great folks sharing successes (and warnings). KyNoLa is a regular poster; his wife (I think) developed a rub that you can read about by clicking the link on the rub name above,  Someone said on the blog this rub and some BBQ smoke would make a brick taste good.

Here are the ingredients; first in the class picture;

Into the bowl

All mixed up

 I halved the recipe and it made plenty for this cook and a couple others.

My second change is the method of cooking. I'm still using the MAK; but thought I'd try with a water pan. When I cooked on my gas grill and with the "Smokenator" on the weber kettle I used water. I figured I'd try it here. I've got a full upper rack on the smoker; so I put the water pan on the bottom and the ribs on the rack over them.

It's a little risky but we'll see. The grill is set for 250 and I' added boiling water.

I rubbed the ribs the night before and wrapped in plastic wrap. Let them come to room temperature and then onto the grill.

A little later (well a few hours later) I decided I wasn't a huge fan of the water pan; it seemed to be slowing things down. So, I removed it and moved the ribs down to the bottom rack for the last hour

The third new challenge for the day is a Mac and Cheese side dish; this recipe is from the Amazing Ribs website and is called "Crack 'n Cheese".  Mine didn't look as good as Meathead's but it was plenty tasty.

The line up:

Cook the bacon and then saute the onion, red pepper, and jalapeño in a couple of tablespoons of the bacon fat. Meanwhile. melt the butter for the roux, which will become a béchamel sauce when the milk is added which will become a cheese sauce when the grated cheese is added.

Ready for the oven

30 minutes later; looks like I could have rescued it maybe 2 minutes earlier.

I coated the ribs with sauce and grilled them the last 20 minutes while the mac was in the oven. Then dinner is served. Linda came over for dinner and brought a salad.

Yum!

The ribs were delicious. Think I'll go back to the water pan again; maybe just count on a longer cooking time.

Pulled Pork - Tryout for family party

I've had the MAK 2 Star for a couple of months now and done a few cooks, but nothing that really knocked my socks off. I was starting to sweat bullets because we are having a big family party next weekend here where I promised barbecue. Andrew and Henriët are coming from Chicago and Emmy is coming from Sweden. So, the pressure was on.

I figured I'd go back to basics and do pulled pork which I've done successfully a number of times. The plan: brine, rub, smoke. I used the Alton Brown recipe brine and rub. The brine is made up of molasses, pickling salt and water. The rub has coriander, cumin, fennel seed, chili powder, paprika and what-not. There is no sugar in the rub since it will be cooking so long, You can grab the recipe from the link above or from my recipe collection here. My cooking setup was different than the recipe calls for; my plan:

1. Cook at 225 until the internal temp hits 145
2. Raise the cooker temp to 255 until internal temp hits 195.
3. Take off the MAK,  double wrap in foil and place in a cooler lined with towels. I only did this step for 30 minutes tonight; next week I'll keep the butts in for a few hours.
4. Pull and serve

My cooking log you can be found here.

Carla had Friday off and picked up a 7 lb bone-in pork shoulder (Boston Butt) at Haggens. I made the brine Friday evening after dinner and set the container in the garage refrigerator.

We went out to Jimmy Mak's on Friday night to see Lloyd Jones (AWESOME) so I knew I wouldn't be getting up early to start this; late dinner for the Thompsons. But I woke up at 6:30 and it wasn't raining yet, so I figured get out and start when I could be dry.

Out of the brine and patted dry

The rub is on

Onto the smoker

The frog mat is curled up on the edges because I have an extra couple of Maverick probes in there to double check my temps. After a while I cut a piece of apple up and pierced it with a probe to rest on top. And I replace the other smoker probe with a meat probe.

I went back to bed and woke up around 8:30. The MAK is great: program it and let it do its thing

Internal temp hit  145 at 12:18  (about 5 1/2 hours after the start) and 195 around 5:45 11 hours after the start. I wrapped in foil and placed in a towel-lined cooler; this is known in the BBQ Biz as FTC (Foil, Towel, Cooler). I cleaned things up and came back to start pulling around 6:15

The bone in the background came right out clean as a whistle. Chelea's dogs will have a treat this week! Chelea works in my group and has a couple of dogs who love bones.

Dinner is served

Not a traditional presentation, but Carla and I figured we didn't need the bread. Next week we'll have lots of buns. The barbecue sauce is from Epicurious.com / Bon Apetit. It is a sweet/red Kansas City sauce. It's a little sweet for me. It's dead simple to make; just put a bunch of tasty things together with a 1/2 cup of commercial barbecue sauce; I used Trader Joe's Kansas City sauce. My copy of the recipe is here.

Definitely the best thing I've done on the MAK; and rivals the best of my pulled pork over the years. I'm ready for next week when I do two!

Birthday Celebration

Birthday

I had a great birthday. I took the day off: slept in, bought a remote control for my new grill. I met Jeff at Busters for lunch. One of my goals is to make brisket as well as they do. Then I went to the bowling alley to work on my release. I've had a horrible couple of weeks bowling and my release point was completely messed up. I did pretty well; hopefully I can take that success to next Monday. Then a walk in the late afternoon.

Jeff came over for dinner:  Guactacs and cake! Then I got to open my present; a fantastic apron to go with the grill!

Here's a close-up so you can read it.

Weekend birthday weekend in Portland

Carla and I went to downtown Portland for the weekend. We went to Jimmy Mak's to see Linda Hornbuckle. Fantastic. We are going back on March 15 to see Lloyd Jones, a local blues band.

We also walked all over (of course). Got a couple of pictures at Union Station. And saw a cairn that made us think of our nephew Fran Camosse

And a train coming across the Steel Bridge

BBQ Short Ribs February 12-13 2011 - Part 2

I've got the ribs on the smoker and I'm using a user program for the first time. If I set it up right I'll get

• 250 degrees for 2 1/2 hours
• Down to "Smoke"for an hour
• Back up to 250 until the meat probe in one of the ribs reaches 180 degrees

After 2 hours at 250 degrees

The rib with the probe was up to 154 degrees when the temp was at 250. Once the smoker went down to "smoke" (about 170 - 180) the probe dipped to 149, then 141. 

After 2 1/2 hours at 250 and 1 hour on "smoke"

I imagine the probe temp will start to rise again.
.
.
.
I checked again at 3:20; the biggest rib with the probe was at 167 but the others were at 180 or above so I took the finished ones off:

Wrapped in foil; they got done sooner than I expected. They'll have to wait 'til Jeff gets here for dinner.

That bit on the lower left was actually a piece of meat that came off the biggest rib, which was a dinner in itself. It didn't have any fat in it and ended up way too tough; kind of like I expect my first brisket will taste like :(

The last big rib wasn't finished until 4:45.

Dinner is served

One of the better ribs; nice smoke ring.

The smaller pieces were good; the very lean pieces were too tough. I liked the rub. I think a do-over but I'll need to make sure that the ribs are similar in size. The Pellet Boss did not turn off automatically which is something I'll have to figure out.