Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Beef......

With summer quickly coming to an end it's time to cram as many fair weather grilling sessions in as possible. This time around I decided to take my first stab at smoking a beef brisket. I had never done this before so a lot of internet research was conducted. Everything I found online said that briskets are always between 8-10lbs, so at an hour a pound I was going to have a long day ahead of me. A sigh of relief was breathed however when I found 3-4lb flat briskets at the local food hole. With the meat purchased I spent some time looking at dry rub recipes but already had a good idea of what I wanted to use. In a recent visit to Portsmouth Brewery I had the house reuben sandwich featuring beef brisket dry rubbed with a lot of black pepper. I loved it so a simple mixture of salt, brown sugar, and black pepper was applied to the meat the night before. The meat will be cooked in an aluminum pan to hold all the juices in and to prevent the bottom from drying out.


Facing a much more reasonable 3 hours of smoking, I got the coals going. The chimney starter is an absolute must have for any charcoal grilling/smoking. For about 25 bucks you never have to use lighter fluid again, and the coals are ready in as little as ten to fifteen minutes.


After soaking the hickory wood chips for a couple hours everything was ready and the smoking began. Randy really enjoyed the aroma as you can see.




A few hours later we all feasted on the brisket, BBQ baked beans, and some jalapeno cornbread. My beer of choice to pair with this hearty meal was Allagash Black. The maltiness and roasted flavors of the beer paired up perfectly with the beans and brisket and helped turn the jalapeno heat down. Taber n' Jess brought down a homemade apple pie for dessert that was amazing and helped put the finishing touch on another successful Sunday.


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hop Harvest

While doing the usual search on Craigslist for all things beer related I happened upon someone looking to get rid of some cascade hops. A couple emails and a phone call later I ended up in Pownal, ME getting about 3 lbs worth of hops. After dragging the whole bine(yes bine not vine) home I spent about an hour picking them off. They were slightly passed their prime but I still got plenty of nice cones to brew a wet hop, all cascade IPA immediately after harvest. Used 2lbs in the boil and have another lb drying which I will dry hop with this weekend once fermentation is complete. More on the whole brewing process later, but for now, pure unadulterated hop porn........












Thursday, September 2, 2010

Mexican Night




Buenos Noches Amigos! For the next round of Sunday dinners we shift things to lovely Bath, ME. While trying to figure out what to do for our next epic fest of gluttony, Taber 'n Jess offered to host the group for some home made mexican food. Taber warned us that this wouldn't be your average taco night. Apparently Jess likes to make everything from scratch which is perfectly fine with everyone involved. Little did we know the quality of food we were in for.

After getting a tour of the house and meeting "Zipper" the family dog we started things off with some guacamole, salsa, and chips.


Randy and Catherine show us two very different yet equally effective methods for eating a chip and guac.

Randy prefers the "Sticky Fingaz Chompdown". A nice firm bite and plenty of guac residue on his fingers shows us that he's not afraid to dig in.


Catherine shows us a very enthusiastic technique. Mouth wide open ready to consume as much avocado in one bite as possible.


While the rest of us spent the day with various other chores Jess was in the kitchen making everything from scratch. Facebook updates kept Catherine's mouth watering all day. We didn't arrive in time for any process pics but the amount of hardware involved in the meal was plenty impressive. Stainless steel and copper abound.....


After blowing through half a bowl of guac faster than zipper can inhale a package of pepperoni it was time for the main course. Jess made enchiladas, one batch with chicken, one with beef. The flour tortillas were made from scratch and so much better than any store bought versions I've had. The enchiladas were perfectly executed with pumpkin seeds being a very nice addition. A pumpkin seed and cilantro sauce was used on them as well as a tomato-chili salsa. All of that was topped off with, that's right, more pumpkin seeds.

The finished product ready to be consumed.....

At this point Taber really stepped up and finished this meal off. If it wasn't for his expert garnishing technique the whole meal would have failed. The pumpkin seeds on top put the finishing touch on things.


Black beans and some white rice with carrots cilantro, and peppers made for excellent sides....


Another successful dinner in the books. Jess 'n Taber really outdid themselves on this meal, and were wonderful hosts. Zipper even warmed up to us after a couple pounds of pepperoni. Next week it's time to fire up the smoker once again for a beef brisket, bbq baked beans, and cornbread.