In Honor Of The Braves Final Season At The Ted - A Tomahawk Ribeye

After the final game at Turner Field, I decided to pay a little homage. Ok, so the wife and I were walking through our new Lowes Foods and I saw these beautiful, massive Tomahawk Ribeyes and I justified it because of the Braves.

I seasoned it with some Worcestershire sauce and my new Moe Cason Beef Rub (that you can get at his website Ponderosa BBQ).

First I fired up the smoker, and let it sit in there for an hour.

Then moved it to the grill, and had it over the sear station.

This was one of the most delicious steaks I've ever done.

Vaughn Packing Co. Brisket

There's a local butcher shop/meat packing company that I found a couple of years ago. I say I found it, because it's about 2 miles from my Papa's house, and they've been in business for 60 years ... maybe I'm really bad at finding things. I've been meaning to go by there and picking up some meat to cook, but they're not in the direction we usually go, and I just kept forgetting.

We were out running a few errands, and Rhett was having his annually check up so we were trying to kill a little time. As we were in the grocery store, D looked up at me and said, "Hey, would you want to go over to that butcher shop place to see what they have?"

When your wife not only says you can go meat shopping, but suggests it, you do not pass up on that opportunity.

We had no clue what we were wanting. As we were looking over the price sheet, we heard one gentleman order a 2lb bone in brisket for a stock that he was making, and we both looked at each other and said "aahhh, brisket."

We went with a 10lb cut, and you could tell it was fresh.

It was a little more fatty on top than you tend to get in the grocery store, but the trimming is part of the fun, so I had no issues with that.

Trimmed most of the fat, arteries, and all of the other gunk off, and cut a piece off the corner so I'd know which direction to slice once it was finished.

Did a mixture of Oakridge BBQ's Habanero Death Dust and Black Ops Brisket Rub.

I didn't feel like waking up super early, so threw it on Bullet Bill (WSM) and set my BBQ Guru to 275 degrees.

After about 10-11 hours, I pulled it out and let it rest for an hour.

This was one of the most tender briskets I've ever cooked. I know it sounds cliche, but you could taste the freshness of the brisket. One of the best compliments D can give my cooking is when she takes a bite and goes, "mmmmmm". I don't think she said a word the entire dinner other than "mmmm".

The next time I do a big cook, I will definitely be going back to Vaughn's ... I just may go a little lighter with the Habanero Death Dust.

Brisket #2

I've shied away from doing Brisket #2 for as long as I could, since I bombed the first one so badly. Well, I wouldn't say I bombed it. It had good flavor, but it was just dry (I think I cut it the wrong way).

Our neighbor 3 doors down (no, I'm not saying that our neighbor is the band 3 Doors Down), messaged me and asked if I'd want to join his friendly Brisket Throwdown. I figured I'd waited long enough and it was finally time to get back on the saddle, so I accepted. I knew if I told him I'd do it, I wouldn't be able to talk myself out of it.

We ended up waiting till the last minute to get the meat, so we had to drive about 45 minutes out to the local Sam's and pick up this baby. It was a just shy of 11lbs flat. 

Obviously since I hadn't used it but once, I still had some Oakridge BBQ Black Ops Brisket Rub.

Trimmed it up some and gave it a good layering of rub.

It went on Bullet Bill and I set my BBQ Guru to run around 225 degrees. I kept an eye on it for about 3 hours and then this guy took off to bed.

Got up and checked it a few times throughout the night, and it was pushing through like a champ.

Took it out and let it rest for 2 solid hours before it was time to take it out slice it up.

To help myself know which way to slice it, I took a notch out of the corner going against the grain.

The picture isn't the best, but you can see the great smoke ring I got on this brisket.3

The electric knife help make some pretty nice cuts.

This wasn't just, by far, the best brisket that I've ever made, but it ranks up there with the best brisket I've ever eaten, period. After my first brisket, I was dreading that thought of cooking another. After brisket #2, I'm looking forward to my next cook.

First Ever Catering Event/Corporate Event At The Range

I work for an IT solutions provider (NWN, if you need anything, let me know), so we're always having some type of corporate event. I was having a casual conversation with one of our vendor reps and made the comment that we needed to have a gun range event. He used to do pyrotechnics for Hollywood, so he responded with "get the information together and I'll pay for it."

As I was speaking to our marketing director she asked what were we going to do for food? Word has gotten around through our corporation that I do BBQ, so she then asked "would this be something you could cook for?" We guesstimated around 30-40 people, so I said sure, I can do the BBQ and have Dawn do some baked beans and mac 'n' cheese. 

Dawn's super amazingly awesome top secret baked beans in the making.

I did 3 butts totaling around 30lbs pre-cook. Everything really kind of worked out perfectly. The pork, mac, and beans each filled 2 trays. We threw in some chips on the side in case someone may not like beans or mac (I would say who wouldn't like either of those, but one of the customers didn't eat BBQ ...?)

We even threw together a home-made sweet sauce to go with our hot sauce we had. 

I had nearly every customer, vendor rep, and coworker approach me at some point during the event to tell me thanks and how great the food was. Dawn doesn't believe me, but I told each and every one that my wife was the one that made the sides.

Ok, so now to good stuff. We set up the event so everyone could bring their own personal guns and fire a couple down range. Little did we know that some of our customers had some rather nice weapons.

There were a couple of AR's in the house ... 

But my absolute favorite was the SCAR. Back in my younger (non-married) days, I used to really be into Call of Duty. I had my clan that I would play with nearly every night, and not to brag but ... we were pretty daggum good. I had fairly good accuracy, so I didn't need a gun that had rapid fire. I needed a gun that had stopping power, and the SCAR definitely had that. Since then, I've wanted to shoot one for real to see what it really was like.

I was in my lane sending a couple rounds with my Glock and all of a sudden I hear a BOOM ... BOOM ... BOOM!!!!! Everyone in the entire range stops what they're doing to walk over to see what in the heck was making that sound. Once he finished, he turns around and I look at him like a 12 year old girl at a teeny bopper concert and say "Is that a SCAR?" He looks back with a grin like a 12 year old boy that just saw his first dirty magazine and said "Yeah, it just came in yesterday. That was the first time I've ever shot it." After we both giggled for a second he looks back and says, "You want to give it a turn?"

What followed was an absolute dream come true (if you couldn't tell from the cheesy smile in the picture below).

Call of Duty had some installments that were based in the World War II area. One of the guns that I used and owned fools in those games was the MP40. After putting a couple of mags through my Glock 19 (and a round or 2 with the SCAR, I walked over to the bay that the range had set up for us with some of their guns they have for rent. I went to the very last lane, look down, look up at the instructor and ask, "Is that a fully auto MP40?" He smirked a little and simply said, "Yeah, want to shoot it?"

I definitely didn't miss my chance at that.

As the event died down a little, the vendor that funded it also brought his personal custom FNS-40 with holographic sight. FNH also manufactures the SCAR, and has a huge plant in Columbia, SC. We had a little competition between myself, him, my boss, and a 2 others with the zombie splatter targets. I don't know if we really determined a winner, but you see that big missing piece in the side of the zombie's head? That's 5 consecutive rounds fired in a very tight cluster.

All in all, I'd say it was one of the best corporate events EVAR!!!!!

Country Style Ribs

Motivated by one of the recent BBQ Pitmaster's episodes, Dawn saw some Country Style Ribs and picked them up to try. They're a lot different than they appeared on the show, but you work with what ya got, I guess. 

I took out the pieces and trimmed some of the larger hunks of fat off. 

I used some of my new Bone Suckin' Sauce for these. 

We all know nothing goes better with meat than potatoes, so we decided to smoke some red potatoes too. I sprinkled them the 3 Beer Rub and then with the Bacon Seasoning. 

Through the ribs on Bullet Bill for about an hour and then finished them on the grill. The potatoes needed a little longer to cook, so our first attempt at smoked red potatoes kind of failed ... had to ... sniff sniff ... nuke them.

The potatoes didn't have the crunch with the skin since we had to nuke them, but the rub and smoke was really good on them. The ribs were delicious, and will definitely be done again. I'm thinking next time I'll go a little lower and longer on the smoker and then finish on the grill for a good sear. 

First Spares To St. Louis Ribs For A Myron Mixon Contest

Myron Mixon/Jack's Old South is doing a competition during the month of July to send in a picture and a brief description of your favorite BBQ meal. The grand prize (supposedly selected by Myron himself) wins a free cooking class for 2 with Myron at his new restaurant in NY, Pride And Joy. 

I hadn't done ribs in a while, so thought this would be the perfect excuse. BiLo suckered me in with a .99 per pound sale, but once I got there it was Baby Backs. I went over to the St. Louis and they were $2+, but I looked over and the whole Spare Ribs were actually .99 per pound too. I've never cut Spares down before but wanted to step up to the plate and picked up 2 racks. 

My sister and her husband went to Savannah for their anniversary and stopped by Southern Soul BBQ. I got about 30 pictures sent to my phone while they were there and a jar of rub ... it wasn't a lost cause for me. I figured this would be the perfect use for them too. A South Georgia rub to go on ribs for a contest for a South Georgia man. 

Thanks to the weather, I had to wait weeks before I could do this cook. The news still showed a chance of scatter thunderstorms for the afternoon, but it looked great outside and I was willing to take my chances. I hadn't done ribs in months, so I was jonesing for them.

I started trimming some of the huge chunks of fat off.  

And then cut them down to St. Louis cut. I think I was closer to Carolina Cut (includes the joints) than St. Louis though. We had to throw them in the freezer over time, and they weren't completely thawed. Of course the area that was the least thawed was right at the top of the bones, so I had to guess where it was and cut. For those that don't know, to get St. Louis cut, you find the top of the longest bone and cut straight across at that level. 

The ribs are trimmed down, and still need a little love to get ready. The extra meat I'm going to put in my meat grinder (finally), and use later for meatballs or something else. 

I tried not to do a huge coat of the rub so I wouldn't use it all, but these bad boys were so big it didn't work. There's still a little in there, but it'll have to be on a tenderloin or something smaller. 

I have to give credit on the dessert to Dawn. I've done peaches on the grill before, but she questioned how they'd do in the smoker. We threw them on a tray, sprinkled some brown sugar and cinnamon on top, and threw them in for the last hour or so. 

Dawn made her jalapeno sweet cornbread and baked beans to go with it. For my entry picture I have the ribs, jalapeno sweet cornbread, and baked beans. With smoked peaches and ice cream for dessert. All capped off with an after dinner drink. 

Both racks were a little over (a little more fall off the bone than I strive for). If you got them at a restaurant it would have been what you would expect "fall off the bone" to be. I prefer mine to have a little bite to them. They were still really good, but as Dawn says, I'm a rib snob and they didn't meet my standards haha. 

As for the rub, the ribs tasted great. They didn't get as dark as other rubs tend to get, so there isn't a large amount of brown sugar in it. It was a good, classic BBQ flavor. 

If you're wondering, smoked peaches are AMAZING. Even when I did them on the grill, they were still a little tough to eat. I hit them on the head in the smoker, and they were soft and juicy and you could get just a hint of the smoke flavor. I'm not a huge peach fan (I don't hate them either), but this could be one of my favorite desserts now.