Smoked Chuckie

Smoked a chuck roast on the kettle grill Sunday afternoon. I used about 5lbs of charcoal, offset grilled using the minion method with a few hickory chunks for flavor. The fire burned pretty warm at around 300, nice and steady for about 3 1/2 hours. Took them off with an internal temp of 205.

Keeping it simple with some kosher salt, black pepper and granulated garlic.



Pulled the chuckie after about an hour of rest.



Grilled asparagus over the remaining coal bed.



Everything turned out wonderful..

Double Brew Day

Well I finally got a chance to catch up on some things that have been sorely neglected lately, besides the blog *ashamed*.

Saturday night I had a double brew day with another member of the Ale-ian Society homebrew club, Elliot Brewing. We brewed a Caribou Slobber (Moose Drool Brown Ale clone) and an American Wheat. As a fairly new homebrewer, this was my first time to brew along with someone that knew what they were doing so it was nice to see the differences in our methods and learn from each other. We had a great time and Jerry was a very gracious host. Maybe a little too gracious with the 14% Applewein and the 9% Old Ale *ouchy*.

Here is the set-up for two all grain brews in Jerry's beer friendly garage.




Jerry vorlauf's the second running of the American Wheat.



We hit all of our numbers and even exceeded them with about 80% brewhouse efficiency. Other than the fact that I ran out of propane, we had a very trouble free and enjoyable brew day. Don't forget that November 7th is Teach A Friend to Homebrew Day!

Labor Day 2009

Been a lot going on in the world of Sograte BBQ and the long Labor day weekend was much needed. After using Saturday and Sunday to catch up on beef jerky orders, it was finally time to cook some low and slow BBQ. It has been a while since I have been able to cook some barbecue and I was ready to light the fire. On the menu was a couple racks of spare ribs, orange/honey/chipolte glazed chicken and the star of the show was the stuffed pork loin. Pork loin has to be my favorite cut of meat yet I rarely cook them.

In Heaven There is No Beer!

Make Your Own Barbecue Mop

Wiki How posted an interesting new article on the process of making your own barbecue mop. Perfect for the do-it-yourselfer.

A common tool in any barbecue arsenal, the mop is used to baste meat while it's on the grill or smoker. The mop looks like a miniature floor mop, and is essentially a cotton-string head on a handle, so it's easy to make your own! This mop has the added bonus of having a removable head for easier washing.

Friday Night Drinking Music

Here is a nice thirst quenching song for a Friday night. The legendary Tom T Hall is known to have played many songs in the early days of Stubbs Bar-B-Q here in Lubbock TX (now located in Austin) as did many Texas musicians as they worked their way to the national stage.

La vie en rose - Louis Armstrong

Atomic buffalo Turds, Revisited

Almost five years ago, I posted a recipe blog for the crazy spicy delicacy called Atomic Buffalo Turds here on the Barbecue and Beer blog. Since then, it has been featured on the White Trash BBQ blog and even The BBQ Report. After all this time, the Atomic Buffalo Turds post continues to be the most viewed post of the blog. While I am still not a great writer or photographer, both skills have improved since that time as well general BBQ knowledge and skills. It is humorous to look back at the post see how far I have come.

Beyond my own growth, the ABT recipe itself has also come a long way as well. There have been several blog posts featuring a similar recipe such as this one on Hogwild BBQ. Most recently, the talented crew at BBQ Addicts (home of The Original Bacon Explosion) has provided their new take on an old recipe. The photography and graphic design is much better for sure and the results look delicious!

ABT's continue to be a favorite of my family and friends as well. Rarely is there a fire in the smoker without some ABT's on the grates. Below are some pictures from one of the last cooks in a simplified version, minus the lil smokies. While there is always room for improvement, the photography has come a long way.

BBQ Chicken Bacon Ranch Taco

In this weeks Taco Tuesday challenge, it was a battle of the BBQ chicken tacos. Although, it was not much of a contest against my girl's mad skillz. While I can admit defeat on this challenge, I will maintain that my Chicken Bacon Ranch Taco was indeed worthy of an honorable mention.

My smoked Chicken Bacon taco with topped with Ranch Salsa




Her Smoked Chicken Taco with cilantro Caesar ranchero cheese, salad and pinto beans with jalapeno's

So it has Begun

My free pre-release copy of the Full Plate Diet book arrived in the mail today. This diet was created by the Lifestyle Center of America (read the back story here), a non-profit organization "whose only mission is to improve the health and vitality of hum beings around the world". This is a well planned spiral bound book beginning with The Full Plate Concept as chapter one then walking you through the steps of changing your eating habits. The general concept being that you add fiber to your meals by way of fruits and vegetables. Easy and basic. Loaded with recipes as well as lessons and instruction, it looks like the Full Plate Diet will be easy to follow.

Taco Fail

The wonderful woman in my life and I have turned Tuesday nights in a semi-challenge with Taco Tuesdays. It all started innocently enough with a little chatter about not having to decide what to make for dinner on Taco Tuesdays. We both enjoy cooking and sharing our food adventures through pictures so it It didn't take long before this came as a challenge between us to make the better taco. She is an amazing cook with the unlimited creativity of an artist and the hands of a surgeon so the idea of one-upping her is not an easy task to take on. As we create our different tacos, I will post pictures and recipes as a series in the blog.

This week, I decided to stick with a traditional ground beef style taco and shift my focus to making my own puffy style fried taco shells using Maseca Corn Flour. I made the the tortillas as per the directions on the bag and rolled them into little balls. With a dutch oven full of hot oil, I began pressing these balls into gorgeous flat tortillas. Well at least I tried to make gorgeous flat tortillas. This is where some nice tools like a tortilla press or even a rolling pin would have come in handy. I could quickly tell that a lack of these simple tools was going to be a distinct disadvantage.

After using every thing I could get my hands on to smash these little balls into a semi-recognizable tortilla like shape, they were carefully folded into the hot frying oil. Unfortunately the Home Sick Texan made this look at lot easier than it really was. In the end, we had some pretty tasty nachos on a bed of homemade fried puffy crumbled tortillas that were not worthy of a picture.

Luckily, I had a huge advantage this week as my sweetie was unable to make it to the kitchen which allowed me to take this week by default. Next week, I wont be so lucky!

The Full Plate Diet

As I was reading the Monday Morning Memo this morning, Roy introduced us to a new book by the name of The Full Plate Diet. I am not big on the idea of chasing diet fads and looking for easy answers to all of life's problems. Everyone knows that the trick to losing weight is simple math, burn more calories than you take in. Even though it seems so simple I have the hardest time feeding myself and my family healthy foods and getting the exorcise we need. You can read all the diet books in the world and nothing will help you until you are ready to make a change to your own behavior and self control.

After I read the memo my interest and curiosity was peaked. Just like any hungry fish in the sea, I took the bait and ordered up my pre-release free copy. The only catch is that they want feedback on how it worked. Now as a taker of the free pre-release copy, I agree to share my thoughts and experience using this diet method. Therefor, this is the beginning of a new journey which will document here for the record.

Promises, Promises

I have been very unfaithful to my poor little blog over the years so I am now looking to fix that problem. Writing is not a strong point for me which makes the whole blogging thing very difficult. It is not for a lack of ideas, rather a lack of organization of my thoughts and spitting them out in a legible format. Maybe I should not have slept though all those classes at school. Whoda thunkit?!?

Things have changed in many ways since the time I started the Barbecue and Beer blog and I have a lot to talk about. I have gone from building a smoker for the backyard to competing in BBQ competitions to creating and building a marketable brand. All of this said, I have a lot of great things to blog about.

Now for the promise.. I promise to myself and to my poor little neglected blog that I will dedicate the time needed to create at least one blog entry per week about a BBQ or beer related issue. So, starting at this point I will start posting entries to the Barbecue and Beer blog as well as the Sograte BBQ Blog. K, that's it for now, see you soon!

Oh and don't forget to subscribe!

"Life's a Pitch, Then You Buy It" - RIP Billy Mays

Every time I turned on the TV, this man was yelling at me about some life altering product. Some of these products became common house hold items. Whether or not you ever bought anything Billy Mays was selling, you were familiar with his face, his voice and his pitch.

In April of 2009 Discovery Channel launched a new series featuring this unique man and the team behind him called Pitchmen. In a single episode, Pitchmen earned my respect. In a single episode, I was no longer annoyed with these commercials selling a magic putty, drill mounted hole diggers and other seemingly crazy products. I was now mesmerized with Billy Mays and his producer Anthony Sullivan for the process of finding products that thought would be useful in our lives. The insight into the process of finding products to pitch, the effort put into giving the consumer maximum value was eye opening. The Pitchmen series quickly became a 'must see' show along with Deadliest Catch and Man Vs Food.

Billy Mays made many peoples dreams come true. He spent his life bringing other peoples inventions to a very broad market. Billy put everything he had into closing the sale, no matter what the product was. What an inspiration to us aspiring entrepreneurs.

On June 28th 2009, Billy Mays was found unresponsive by his wife. The fascinating pitch man had passed. With my new found respect for his booming voice telling me why I need Oxy Clean or Kaboom, I will truly miss this man yelling at me about his latest product.

Discover Channel will be airing a tribute show to Billy on on July 9th.

May GOD bless your soul, Billy Mays!

Friday Night Drinking Thread

As I work on getting back to blogging on a regular basis, I introduce the BBQ and Beer blogs's Friday Night Drinking Song. This Fiday the 13th and Valentine's eve I give you Ribs and Whiskey from Widespread Panic.

Lyrics:
I seen your sister naked
Nothing I tried to see
Caught your sister by the pool there
Nothing I tried to see
Well I hope it's not huntin' day
I hope it's not your daddy's shootin' day
Ribs and whiskey make my mind feel tight
Whiskey makes my body feel hot
If you won't be my love
I'm gonna find a new place to spend my night

The 2009 Crawfish Season is Here!

If you are in the market for live crawfish but cant find them locally, I highly recommend The Cajun Shop. You can order live or precooked crawfish delivered to your door in a shippable and reusable cooler. A shipment of crawfish comes complete with cajun spices, mardi gras beads, instructions and even crawfish bibs.

At the time of my last order, crawfish were out of season and only available as pre-cooked and frozen. Even being pre-cooked we re-boiled with more spices and had a great time with it. I chose them because they were about $4.00/b cheaper than buying them locally, and that included overnight shipping charges.

Check them out here cajun-shop.com

2008 Barbecue Season Wrap-Up

This is a quick wrap-up of the 2008 season. Out of 6 events, we placed a total of 13 top ten finishes. Of these 13 top tens, there were three 1st places, one 3rd place, one 4th place, one 6th place, three 7th places, two 9th places and two 10th places. This was a good year overall with some good times and some bad times. We endured some very crazy weather and even a flood but still managed to leave every event with at least one reward. Looking forward, we are very excited about the 2009 season as we will be chasing a few bigger events this year and even try to hit some Texas State Championships cook-offs. As always, we are willing to promote the good name of any business that wishes to support the efforts of the Sograte BBQ team.


13 top ten finishes out of 6 events


4th Buffalo Springs Lake Buffalo Wing BBQ, Lubbock, TX
Date: 4-26-08
Number of Teams: 51

Brisket, 7th
Pork Spare Ribs, 6th
Buffalo wings, 9th
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Homer's Backyard Ball BBQ, Amarillo, TX
Date: 5-17-08
Number of Teams: 79

Brisket, 10th
Chicken, 9th
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Odessa, TX
Date: Not sure
Number of Teams: Not sure, 30ish

Brisket, 10th
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No Adult Supervision BBQ Cookoff, Tahoka, TX
July 26, 2008
Number of Teams: 31

Brisket, 7th
Ribs 7th
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High Plains Epilepsy BBQ Cookoff, Lubbock, TX
August 2, 2008
Number of Teams: 5

Brisket, 1st
Ribs, 3rd
Chicken, 1st
Beans, 1st
High Point winner
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Bruce Thornton AC BBQ Battle, Lubbock, TX
Date: 8-16-08

Chicken, 4th (Ashlee's Chicken)
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