.....without it sounding like a Craigslist personal or a 12 Step Program?
"Hi, I'm TwoWheeler and I like piña coladas, getting caught in the rain...."
-or-
"Hi, I'm TwoWheeler and I'm a food-a-holic".......
I guess the second one is closer - except that I am not at all repentant about my love of food. I can quit any time, I just don't want to.
I was brought up in a house where both parents cooked - my mom did the day-to-day and my dad had his specialties (breakfast and applesauce). Pretty much everything was made from scratch from the best ingredients we could afford. My parents even had their own garden. While it was a combination of my mom's devotion to nutrition and economics, it also instilled a belief that food wasn't something you half-ass. (Must have been a pretty potent lesson because my sister cooks for a living).
I cook because I enjoy it, because I like to know what's in my food, and because it's a way of giving to my friends and family. I just wouldn't feel right saying "Here, I nuked you up a plate of Frankenfood....enjoy..." I also cook because I like doing things the hard way. (More on (moron?) this in a minute....)
I first got introduced to "real" BBQ by a Cook's Illustrated article on "St. Louis style ribs". I used a cheap-ass Walmart clam-shell charcoal grill, built a fire in the back, rubbed the ribs and threw on a couple of chunks of hickory. I propped the front open with a rock. I was blown away by how well it came out - even with my ghetto setup.
After that, I bought a Brinkmann smoker, but really didn't know what I was doing (pre-Internet days). I made a few things that came out _ok_ but when it rusted out in fairly short order, I didn't replace it. When it came time for a new gas grill, I went with the Weber Genesis Silver A that Cook's recommended. I got signed up for Weber's email recipe of the week and started turning out some really good stuff. I tried smoking on it, but it was mediocre at best. My wife bought me a WSM for my birthday a few years ago and it's been all downhill from there..... I have a WSM, a new Genesis (also a gift from my wife....I'm thinking she has ulterior motives...) and the Silver A got "retired" to my camp. I also (don't remember why) have a Weber tabletop grill. As you can tell, I'm somewhat of a Weber whore. I'm perilously close to adding a Primo Oval to my "collection" but I promised myself I was going to finish the deck it's going on, first.
As I said, I like doing things the hard way. I scratch cook pretty much everything, keep bees, make my own maple syrup and homebrew. (I would make my own whiskey -with an e- but it takes too damned long. I'm not doing all the work so that fifteen years from now someone else can drink it....). I dabble in snausage-making, too. I'd really like to get into dried snausages like sopressatta, but the whole "curing" thing scares me a little. As I said, I cook as a way of "giving" to my family and friends, but "salmonella" is not something I'd like to give them. I do almost all my own home repairs and remodeling - although the older I get, the easier it is to just say "screw it" and write a check.... I dabble in woodworking. Used to have a garden and can stuff and may again someday, but put it aside when I dove into remodeling the house. ("The siding project from hell" has eaten most of the last two summers....) I hike, I bike, I ski, I snowhshoe and I run.
I've been using this site on and off for a while now and was finally "guilted" into joining after making Meathead's bodacious pastrami. Pastrami is one of those things you just can't get around here and I miss it. (Lived in the NYC area when I was a kid).
Don't have much in the way of knowledge to contribute except this: The legs on a WSM get hot - hot enough to melt into the snow, even though you packed it down. So if you see the temperature on your Maverick plummet, don't go on a tirade about "....the sh*tty thermometer probes failing...." because when you then go outside and see your WSM lying on it's side in the snow, like a sad little R2D2, you'll feel bad that you doubted what the thermometer was telling you.
Oh, and the username stems from my love of two wheeled things - powered and unpowered.
Bonus: here is the pastrami above mentioned being carefully monitored by the QC department:
"Hi, I'm TwoWheeler and I like piña coladas, getting caught in the rain...."
-or-
"Hi, I'm TwoWheeler and I'm a food-a-holic".......
I guess the second one is closer - except that I am not at all repentant about my love of food. I can quit any time, I just don't want to.
I was brought up in a house where both parents cooked - my mom did the day-to-day and my dad had his specialties (breakfast and applesauce). Pretty much everything was made from scratch from the best ingredients we could afford. My parents even had their own garden. While it was a combination of my mom's devotion to nutrition and economics, it also instilled a belief that food wasn't something you half-ass. (Must have been a pretty potent lesson because my sister cooks for a living).
I cook because I enjoy it, because I like to know what's in my food, and because it's a way of giving to my friends and family. I just wouldn't feel right saying "Here, I nuked you up a plate of Frankenfood....enjoy..." I also cook because I like doing things the hard way. (More on (moron?) this in a minute....)
I first got introduced to "real" BBQ by a Cook's Illustrated article on "St. Louis style ribs". I used a cheap-ass Walmart clam-shell charcoal grill, built a fire in the back, rubbed the ribs and threw on a couple of chunks of hickory. I propped the front open with a rock. I was blown away by how well it came out - even with my ghetto setup.
After that, I bought a Brinkmann smoker, but really didn't know what I was doing (pre-Internet days). I made a few things that came out _ok_ but when it rusted out in fairly short order, I didn't replace it. When it came time for a new gas grill, I went with the Weber Genesis Silver A that Cook's recommended. I got signed up for Weber's email recipe of the week and started turning out some really good stuff. I tried smoking on it, but it was mediocre at best. My wife bought me a WSM for my birthday a few years ago and it's been all downhill from there..... I have a WSM, a new Genesis (also a gift from my wife....I'm thinking she has ulterior motives...) and the Silver A got "retired" to my camp. I also (don't remember why) have a Weber tabletop grill. As you can tell, I'm somewhat of a Weber whore. I'm perilously close to adding a Primo Oval to my "collection" but I promised myself I was going to finish the deck it's going on, first.
As I said, I like doing things the hard way. I scratch cook pretty much everything, keep bees, make my own maple syrup and homebrew. (I would make my own whiskey -with an e- but it takes too damned long. I'm not doing all the work so that fifteen years from now someone else can drink it....). I dabble in snausage-making, too. I'd really like to get into dried snausages like sopressatta, but the whole "curing" thing scares me a little. As I said, I cook as a way of "giving" to my family and friends, but "salmonella" is not something I'd like to give them. I do almost all my own home repairs and remodeling - although the older I get, the easier it is to just say "screw it" and write a check.... I dabble in woodworking. Used to have a garden and can stuff and may again someday, but put it aside when I dove into remodeling the house. ("The siding project from hell" has eaten most of the last two summers....) I hike, I bike, I ski, I snowhshoe and I run.
I've been using this site on and off for a while now and was finally "guilted" into joining after making Meathead's bodacious pastrami. Pastrami is one of those things you just can't get around here and I miss it. (Lived in the NYC area when I was a kid).
Don't have much in the way of knowledge to contribute except this: The legs on a WSM get hot - hot enough to melt into the snow, even though you packed it down. So if you see the temperature on your Maverick plummet, don't go on a tirade about "....the sh*tty thermometer probes failing...." because when you then go outside and see your WSM lying on it's side in the snow, like a sad little R2D2, you'll feel bad that you doubted what the thermometer was telling you.
Oh, and the username stems from my love of two wheeled things - powered and unpowered.
Bonus: here is the pastrami above mentioned being carefully monitored by the QC department:
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