Here is a little Bourbon Cherry Wine smoked Ham with Brussel Sprouts stir fried in the WOC with bacon bits & good olive oil. Then there is a Mediterranean Salad with peppers, olives, garlic, artichokes, maters, & mushrooms drowned in good olive oil & balsamic vinegar & seasoned with Walton’s Greek Seasoning. I would call that deesert for dinner. Injected the cherry juice brine with bourbon & a little red wind into the ham. Smoked the ham with Cherry wood & Wine barrel staves. Then of course, maybe the deesert should be Andy’s French Baguettes with sweet salted good butter.

Decided to do an Apple Bourbon Brined pork loin then smoke it in Apple Wood. Figured those would be some good flavors for this cold weather finally reaching us. Of course I had to add a little spice & garlic to kick it up a notch or two.

Got a hankering for some homemade Calzones. What the stomach asks for, the stomach gets. As much as they do not look very professional, they always taste better than professional. Andrew made the dough as he really likes doing that & I made the Calzones along with the homemade marinara sauce to dip them in.

Here is that Canadian Bacon, finally ready for slicing & frying up a bit for breakfast. I got a good solid jar of lemon zest dehydrated in the oven from some of the lemons too. I brined the bacon for 10 days in a mix of Walton’s Maple Bacon Brine deuced up with Apple Cider, Bourbon, & a few other herbs & spices. Rinsed it well & peppered it lightly. Smoked with applewood chips at a smoke schedule starting at 120° in 30 minute increments increasing to 185° until the internal meat temperature reached 145° for 30 minutes, then racked it & in the refer overnight open & exposed to air. Sliced it the next morning & fried up a bit. It was good.

Did not go for the highest quality beef on this one, but we were extremely satisfied with the outcome & quality on this particular pick, especially these days at $3.99 pound for the beef & 2 apx. 4 oz tails for $5.99. You just do not get that very often, even if I could not produce the perfect looking tails. The taste was great though. Reverse Seared with Cherry this time. Margaret was very satisfied & I suppose, that is what counts.

Here are a few little slow smoked Country Style Ribs that are left, after everyone chomped away on them something quick. They were real good with some last years corn on the cob & this really nice Country Boule Andrew made. Got lucky on a few of the ribs & they had a little back rib in them.

Well, ere is a we bit of pastrami. It was a wee bit as it ended up being the smallest I had ever ended up with. I cooled it over night, sliced a little bit off, steamed it, & put it on that wee bit of Jewish Rye. Of all the times I was looking for some nice good stuff for Reubens, I could not find it. But, the taste was not wee, it was big & bold. Included with home fermented kraut & homemade Russian dressing. So that is what matters I suppose, taste . So now, I will have to have a wee dram of dew & a bit of Guinness to wash it all down.

Had to have some hot grilled Bif, so here we are. But, had to keep it healthy too & get those veggies. Now you have Red Potatoes, sweet corn, & green beans from the garden plus hot grilled crooked necked squash too. The squash & taters are seasoned with Walton’s Beer & Sriracha seasoning & it is good!

Here are a few little “Andrewchello’s” pizzas my youngest son & I put together. Man were they good. He really did most of the work, I did most of the grading!

Andrew calls this Blackberry Forest Ham I just call it Blackberry/Dewberry Bourbon Boston Butt Ham. The brine-injection has strong hints of Freshly picked Blackberry & Dewberry juice with Bourbon. After the ham is smoked, I put a nice Blackberry/Dewberry Bourbon glaze on it for about the last hour & sit it on the pan to not loose any of the glazing. We had it with fresh sauteed Red Cabbage from the garden & roasted sweet taters. This stuff is not only good, but addicting. It is like having deesert for dinner.

Here are some beef chuck trimmings that were marinated in a Soy/Worcestershire marinade & put to pasture as shish kabobs with onions, cherry tomatoes, & peppers from the garden, Baby portabella mushrooms & olives. Smoked in Apple wood for about 1 hour & 15 minutes, then seared on the hot iron. The beef was very tender & tasty with this set-up.

Andrew made his first attempt at Whole Wheat French Baguettes & they turned out really nice & delicious too. Just look at that!

Well, I finally was able to squeeze in the 4th of July effort. We enjoyed these slow smoked ribs and shank (no crutch used, just slow smoke) that I made every effort to produce something halfway decent while writing reports & working at the same time thought the holiday. Of course it took us several days to chew through these delicious morsels that were paired up with smoked corn on the cob, potato salad, basic BBQ beans, & a tomato cucumber watermelon salad from the garden. No time nor any room left for Strawberry Ice Cream though this year.

Then some folks say no, it is the Trinity that counts. Here is a little bit of Trinity for you, or more. Then maybe its just that ol stewing hen running around out back that does it. Whoops, where did them two cups of Red Wine go?

Well, I finally had a chance to load a few photos from that Gumbo I made last week before hitting the road. I am still reeling from the road, but lots more work to do. So I won’t say much.
Some folks figure it is that Roux that makes the Gumbo. Here is a photo of it just before it is ready. No time for sure for picture taking when it gets ready. You gotta move fast.

All I know is Here’s the Gumbo & I like Gumbo. I wanted to do that nice display with the rice & cottage cheese & green onions & French Bread, but there was too much gobbling going on.

PapaSop I know I have always been all for Texas, but never the less, My chili does not come without beans unless I am making chili dog chili or something. Chili to me has beans to be chili, just like gumbo has to have Okra to be gumbo. That’s my thing, but I respect everyone else’s too.

Just smoked up some simple burgers & sausages for an awful warm late Fall evening. Not much to that. But, the real crowning glory is this Nanner Pudding Margaret & Andrew whipped up. Whew, that was good!

Don’t forget them Christmas Peppers.
Pardon the pickens off the end of those ribs, folks were picking at it faster than Andrew could take pictures.