My G/F Is Going To Kill Me

So, Dawn has been telling me that I'm going a little too "spend happy" since I've gotten my new job (although I haven't started it yet). I tell her, it's not blowing money if I NEED all of what I'm buying. As a gift to myself (and to everyone that will be eating the food this helps make). I made a purchase of a few more rubs (I won't mention that this isn't all of them, and the rest still hasn't arrived SSHHHH).

I ran out of my Plowboys Yardbird Sunday while making my Farewell Ribs, so the order of that was a DEFINITE necessity. The rest I purchased due to the overwhelmingly huge following on the Brethren. From day one I've heard praise after praise for Simply Marvelous. Don't worry, these will be put to the test ... SOON.

Week Off Cooking

I'm off the rest of this week before I move to my new job. Since I'm going to be bored out of my mind. I figured why not cook all week. However, I have no clue what I want to cook. Any suggestions followers ...?

Farewell Rib (cook)

When I left work Friday afternoon I ran by BiLo to pick up the ribs. I normally like Food Lion/Bloom's ribs better, but BiLo was across the street and Food Lion was 30 minutes down the road. I went with St Louis cut as always, but these were a bit more fatty than usual.

I trimmed off the big hunks of fat and removed the membrane.

Then added my last bit of Plowboys Yardbird Rub. (I have to cut the racks in half to fit in my smoker)

One tool that I don't believe I could live without is my Redi-Chek Remote theremometer. It sends the signal up to 100 feet, so when it's 30 degrees outside. I can check my temps while sitting on the couch.

The ribs have just gone in the smoker, and the wood chips are added.

I let them cook for 3 hours, then wrapped in foil for an hour and a half, then took them back out and cooked another half hour to 45 minutes. I cut them up in 2 bones and took them to work. One guy that NEVER shuts up took a bite and all he could do was give me a thumbs up. I had another tell me that these were better than one of the strong local BBQ restaurants. Needless to say, these were pretty good ... whether they were a day "old" or not.

Farewell Ribs

Next week marks the end of an era. After 9 1/2 years I'm leaving my company to follow a new opportunity. Over the last few months my coworkers have heard how my Q has gotten better and better, and constantly are asking for their taste.
Over the past couple of days I couldn't name how many times I've heard "you can't leave till we get some BBQ." To make everyone (and their stomachs) happy. I'm going to cook up a batch of ribs this weekend and bring them in Monday for everyone to try out.
I'm going to do my home run combination of Plowboys Yardbird Rub and cover it with Stubb's Spicy and Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet.
If this isn't the best goodbye ... then I give up.

Not So World Famous. Regular Ol' Oven Pizza

We've been making homemade pizzas for a while now, and usually do the same (every meat I can find). Right now we're both trying to get in shape a bit, so we decided to tone it down a bit.

We went to our local grocery store and purchased fresh pizza dough, pizza sauce, sliced ham, and mozzarella cheese.

We took those ingredients and added turkey italian sausage that we already had.

No pizza is worth while unless you can toss it ... not my best toss ever.

Rolled out the dough and covered it with the sauce and red pepper flakes, italian seasoning, and chopped onion flakes.

The meat is cooked and ready to start layering (it's flag football season so I have my QB band close by at all times)

I added the italian sausage and sliced ham to the crust.

Then covered it with a pack and a half of cheese (not so healthy I know)

We put it in the over at 425 for about 16 minutes (it's a lot bigger than your cardboard pizzas, so it takes longer)

Once it came out ... one delicious pizza is served.

If a Pig, Chicken, and Apple Had a Baby ...

It'd be Myron Mixon's Apple and Bacon stuffed Chicken. We're out grabbing a few last ingredients for dinner tonight with my sister, he'd hubby, and their little girl.

I started out by making Myron's "Basic Chicken Rub"

Precooked bacon and diced Yellow Delicious Apples.

As you can see with the closest chicken I cut the pocket on top instead of on the side (the other 3 are correct). I made the the correct cuts on the other 3 by going down the fat side about 3-4inches and cutting approx 3 inches deep, filled the inside with apple and bacon mix, and closed with toothpicks.

The chicken has been prepped and is in the smoker. Its now time to play with the niece. (Updates not as often as I expected. Time ran up on me real quick with all the prep)

The chicken cooked in the smoker for an hour at around 300 degrees. The instructions are to spray with AJ every 15 minutes. I sprayed the first 2 15 marks, but didn't the last time ... and I should have. The skin came out a little tough. Still great, but a little tough.

The chicken went with twice baked potatoes, and both were delicious. The skin was tougher than I'd liked, but the inside was juicy and amazing.

I'm crazy

Its 44 degrees outside and I'm grilling and having a cold beer with it. Yes, the beer is necessary. If you're grilling you have to have a beer ... its a law I'm pretty sure of.

Mr. Bambi's Big Balls Subs

(Disclaimer: No testicles were harmed during the making of this meal)

As I posted earlier, the idea of this came from the Almighty Meatball Throwdown on the BBQ Brethren. A friend of ours made the comment about how he had so much Venison meat from a recent hunting trip, so I texted Dawn and asked if it'd be possible to make deer meat meatballs. Once she found time in her oh so busy day to respond and say yes ... the deer meatball sub came to life. That night she found an actual venison meatball recipe that included ............ BACON!!!!!! Since bacon makes everything better, I decided that would be what we went with.

Before the meat made it to our house I cooked up a full pack of bacon (a few pieces may not have made it to the meatballs).

Once the meat arrived it was go time. The recipe calls for 1 pound, but I wanted to go big so we doubled everything.

While the guys made the meatballs, Dawn made some homemade marinara sauce.

We made 26 jumbo balls with the doubled recipe.

I used my grill pans hoping it'd keep the balls from sticking so much (with the help of Pam). For the most part it worked.

And they're ready to eat.

The subs assembled and about to go in the oven to melt together.

The finished product (note the pen in the background for a size comparison). These were by far the greatest meatball subs I've ever eaten in my life.

Return to Throwdown

There is currently an Almighty Meatball Throwdown on The Brethren, and I've decided to make my return to the ultra competitive world of TDs.
Some friends of ours has a load if deer meat, so we're going to make Venison (and bacon) Meatball Jumbo Subs (an official name is in the works).
Dawn and I are also going to work on a homemade sauce.
The post with pictures will go up this weekend. Stay tuned

Habanero Death Dust and The Rub Co. HOT WINGS

Due to a huge following on The Brethren I decided to purchase some Habanero Death Dust, and for Christmas Dawn bought me some of The Rub Co. Hot Wing Rub. I've been dying to try them both out, so I thought why not for the Gamecocks Capital One Bowl game.

I started with a single bag of naked chicken wings, and split it in half. For the first half, I placed them in a container with 1/4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and a little over 1/4 HDD and let them sit for 2 days.

About an hour before I threw them on the grill I added another coat of HDD and rubbed other half with the Hot Wing Rub. The only issue I have with The Rub Co.'s rub is how easily it fills the air. Just opening the container makes the rub turn the whole area into a dust bowl. This needs to be done over the oer with the fan on full blast if you don't want to choke for 10 minutes.

After Alshon Jeffery caught a 51 yard Hail Mary pass to take the lead going into halftime. I fired up the grill and the wings went on. Deciding to shoot for the "worst" first. I dug into the HDD (by dug into I mean ate one). I must say, these things were GOOOOOOOOOD. Some of the best flavored rub I've had ... oh yeah ... and they lit me on FIRE!!!!!

The Rub Co's Hot Wings were also very very good. They definitely didn't have the kick the HDD did, but enough spice to taste it.

Both rubs pass the test with flying colors ... HDD will just be used in extreme moderation.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone. Habanero Death Dust and The Rub Co hot wing rub wings coming soon