BBQ in the redwoods at Jedediah Smith in north west CA. Gorgeous day! 
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Spinaker have you been there? And I didn't even show the Smith river; fantastic clear water, beautiful deep pools, and rocky sandy beaches!
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Celebrated July 4th with a good ole fashioned grilled burger along with some smoked bbq baked beans, deviled eggs and mustard aioli grilled potatoes. Rounded it all out with a simple ice cream sandwich. Hope everyone had a great Independence Day! 🇺🇸🎇
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Here's a two-fer of homemade stuff: sourdough bread and buckboard bacon.
The bread was an experiment - I assembled dough for two loaves and left one to cold-retard for an overnight in the fridge (my usual technique) and then the second - this one - I left for 3 overnights. It ended up being a little over-proofed (it is a little deflated versus the first one, but not by much). Previously I've done 2 overnights that turned out really well, so that is probably the sweet spot in terms of flavor (and not over-proofing).
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Quick dinner of roasted chicken thighs and Brussels sprouts. With brown rice.
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Strip steak. Mrs. H potato salad and green salad. Leftover baked beans.
I used Huskee throw the trimmed off steak fat on the coals.
Hoooo. Man. Delicious.Attached FilesComment
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Leftover tri tip, so made a hot sandwich with it for lunch! Man I love me a hot sandwich!
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Bolognese - well, pretty close…because of a lack of celery and incorrect tomatoes and a red onion instead of white, I’d get laughed out of the Italian kitchen 🤣
but it was still an excellent meat sauce!
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I love green beans. I grow them, but my family and I can't grow enough on our own, so we buy them at a veggie farm. Today I processed 48 quarts. I'll pick and can my own when they're ready. 2 bushels today.
B
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A long time ago I decided I would rather fish than weed a garden. There have always been people in my churches who liked to garden and were happy to share with the pastor. The best was in my first church where we had a retired farmer and his wife who loved to garden and can. They would give us an assortment of veggies, we would give them the empty jars and they give us more full ones.
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I smoked a pork butt on the 4th. I had some problems with the Fireboard, (read about that here if interested). The butt ignored the large swings in temps and just kept cookin'. It turned out great anyway.
Sides were slaw and homemade onion rings. I didn't get any photos of the sides or any plated photos, but here's what I did get.
I removed the bone and cut the butt in half. This was the first time I have removed the bone and all I can say is that I need a lot more practice.
There was some meat left on the bone that I cut off the bone and put inside one of the pieces. You can see how much twine I had to use to keep it inside. 
It looks dry in this photo, but it had been sitting a while...
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Yesterday's cook: pulled pork.
Set up Kamander early Sunday (for me), 250F/121C pit temp, cherry chunks to smoke. Vortex was inserted and lump charcoal around it (snake method). I picked the higher temp for a faster cook, which worked out.
Trimmed excess fat, rubbed with my regular pork rub. Since it was boneless, it was a little bit floppy and uneven, so I trussed it with butcher's twine. Here we are, lid down at 8:20 am:
This cook, by my own fault, was a nightmare to keep the smoke going. I only have used the snake method with briquettes. I didn't position my hot coals and cherry so that they would produce smoke consistently. I usually use the pyramid method, but I like experimenting with techniques.
About once per hour, I had to shift around the cherry, add some mystery chips (long story), and some hickory pellets. Here we are at about 190F/88C, internal, on the coolest probe; super tender at the point, but not quite there yet:
At this point, I dropped the pit temp to 235F, as the DW decided to go for a bike ride and it was going to delay dinner time. I pulled at 204F, though the other probe was at 210F. Total pit time: 8.5 hours. I popped it right in our warming oven (no heat) until dinner, about an hour later, no wrapping and just a you see it here:
I don't have fancy shredding devices like DaveD (hint-hint to my future secret Santa, whoever you are), but my el cheapos work fine:
This is what you've been waiting for....
Brioche bun from Aldi (so glad I picked them up!), Lillie's Carolina Barbeque Sauce, that I probably picked up cheap somewhere. Oh, this was delicious.
Had some other stuff, including a huge salad (as per usual).
The pork was an A-. It was dry towards the cut end, so a little bit of pork jerky, if you will. Still, it was outstanding. The butcher did a great job on the meat, so I just shaved off some extra fat. Pretty lean considering the cut. The whole family loved it.
Other note: my regular pork rub has hot paprika, by accident, so this has more heat than usual. For a big chunk of meat and the long cooking time, it made less of a difference than with the ribs I made the other day.
Bonus pic:
The serving fork and claws amused me.
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Cut medallions of cheese grits (Polenta to my northern friends) and sautéed them in bacon grease with egg wash, panko, and cajun seasoning. Served on a bed of greens tossed in a Dijon-honey-lemon vinaigrette, topped with Mayport shrimp drizzled with a cajun cream sauce. Might have been my best ever.
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hoovarmin , 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Vinny: How could it take you five minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit-eating world 20 minutes?
Mr. Tipton: Um... I'm a fast cook, I guess.
....
Vinny: Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove! Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?
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I try to do this once a month. It's my take on Malcom Reed's Meatball Sub recipe. I've done it countless times and I seem to always tweak something each time!
This time I did a full 56 oz of Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Crushed Tomatoes, rather than half crushed and have pureed. It makes a thicker sauce and I think I prefer it. I also left out the chicken stock (as I had done easily available). I didn't miss it, but then I've been doing store bought and really should make my own again.
Did the meatballs outside to avoid heating up the house.
Here we are done, with the pasta nearly done and the sauce simmering away.
All plated up!
Ran out of parm cheese (eeek!), but I did use a copious amount of Flat Iron Pepper Company's Four Pepper Blend on this. Wow, that stuff is legit; it is so, so good. Worth the price, easily!Comment
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@SheliaAnn Well, it isn't *totally* devoid of parm: the sauce has 1/3 cup of it and the 2 lbs of meat have 1/2 cup of it, but year.....they do look weird lol.
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N227GB I just recently picked up their grinder and I like it far more than I thought I would. It is quite high quality. It also helps one go through the bottles more slowly, thus saving money.
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Smoked up 6 racks of ribs (3 baby backs, 3 st.louis) for a friend’s 60th birthday party. Forgot to grab the final pictures as we were busy all serving and eating. Told my hubby after placing these on the smoker that I need a bigger smoker. Haha!
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