It's been a long time

It's been a long time but I have been busy with the new job. I have worked 18 miles from my house or 25 mins. away. Then I was transferred to a store that was 45 mins. away. That was hard but a great store. I miss them much. I have a new store as of May 20th that I adore. It's slower which means less bonus and less people to do my evil bidding but it is staffed with alot of great people.
I have alot of new pics which I will post on here in a bit. I am trying to at least post once a week but no less than once a month. I do inventory and stay up til 5 a.m. most tues nights/weds mornings.So that's 2-3 hours I am still pumped and not able to sleep and nothing constructive to do.
I do lurve me some FACEBOOK though. I have connected with friends and people I have met and had good times with and seen that they are still as goofy, smart, cynical and even funnier than back in the 80's/90's/naught's.
Well, we have the annual July 4th party coming up and it looks to be a bust. The people that came last year have all made plans because they know I am in restaurants now and there is not a way I can get a Saturday off. Well I managed it, 'cuz I don't ask for much. I have another shoulder for BBQ, making ABT's, watermelon, burgers, brats, baked beans and games. Plus pyrotechnics at the end!
I am still looking forward to lifting up my friends and bring diverse people together. How very Obama of me--I really just wanna show off my skills to the people I like & love. If I must say it myself-I am a bad man when it come to a grill-I am using propane and lump charcoal grills this year! That's right - Dual grillin. Eat my smoke Bobby Flay!
So I'll give you some pictures to catch up on whilst you read this dry rambling post. Something I am not comfortable with in the FB world.

End of Summer,BBQ, Olympics & cars.

Well it is getting close to the traditional end of Summer here in the Midwest & that means end of Summer cookouts, more festivals to go to, high school football and cooler weather. I mentioned before that we had our first real party in 13 years on July 4th. Well, a friend of ours has an annual Memorial day cookout and an annual Labor day weekend cookout. She says they always do burgers and dogs and many, many side dishes. She mentioned something about me BBQing a pork shoulder for her at one of her parties. I am pleased to announce that I have been summoned. I am taking my show on the road, albeit about 2 miles down the road, but this is for a different crowd. She asked me how I do what it is that I do and what she needed to buy, so I sent her an e-mail. I decided to put a portion of it here. This is by no means and end all be all list or procedure-just an better than novice take on BBQ pork shoulder. If you see something not quite right or have a better idea-please comment and help a brother out.
***********************************************************************************
Dear CJ
I could come over early and start the pork and from there it is just adding coals, wood,turning it every 2 hours and waiting around for it to cook. I can bring over my charcoal grill if you only have propane. ( I didn't want to say "if you only have gas"-just doesn't sound right) Anyway You'll need about 2 medium size pork shoulders 6-9 pounds, (I'll split the cost of those so I can take some BBq to the draft) Some hickory chips, and lump charcoal. I also use Famous Dave's rib rub, celery seed, garlic salt and coarse ground black pepper for the rub, Worcestershire, apple juice and BBq sauce for the baste. I really like Sweet baby rays' BBq sauce. But it is up to you. I get the soulders at Cubs. You have to do it a day or two early cuz they cut them up for chops & stuff. Sorry about the long e-mail, but I get really excited about this stuff. So, the process, I get the shoulders the night before and wash and dry them. Then I put the rib rub all over each shoulder. You wanna do this on a cookie sheet as it gets really messy. Make sure they are evenly coated and not caked on. I then sprinkle celery seed on them, just a light coat-like if you were putting salt or pepper on a steak. Then Double wrap them in aluminum foil & put in the fridge.The next morning I start the fire 7 hours before the food needs to be on the table. Take about an hour to get the fire just right. You wanna big fire but only on one side of the grill, the opposite side of the flu/chimney. Soak your wood chips overnight in apple juice. You're gonna use the whole bag. When the fire is ready, spread the coals only halfway until they are even. Take the wrapped pork and put it on the opposite side of the coals fat side up and open your flu/chimney halfway and your air intake? about 1/4 of the way. You don't want a super hot fire. remember "slow and low". It will start out really hot, around450, but you can control this with adjustments to the flu/air intake. Hotter-open wide, cooler-almost closed. Turn the pork, just rotating-you do not want to flip it as you want the fat to melt into it to make it moist--mmmm....moist pork. Sorry, got off track. So you wanna rotate this about every 1 1/2-2 hours.You're gonna wanna check your coals about that time. If it needs it, add a couple of hand fulls to the furthest end. After about 4 1/2 hours you wanna take the foil off of the pork and set it fat side up basting with half apple juice, 1/4 Worcestershire and1/4 BBq sauce mixture. Check your coals and start putting the wood chips directly on the hot coals. Close the lid and watch the smoke rise. After about 30minutes, check the pork for color, rotate and baste. Pull the pork off of fire when color is a golden to dark brown. Let sit on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Pull or chop pork, put in deep pan and sprinkle some rib rub and hot basting sauce to keep moist----mmmm...moist pork. Sorry, I am getting hungry. *Mix it all together and put a baseball size hand full, compacted on a bun, put BBq sauce, hot sauce and slaw on top of that. You want a tower of a sandwich. put top bun on and put your bib on. Eat,Drink & repeat last step*. I hope this helps. If not you can read this later for insomnia.
************************************************************************************
Like I said in my earlier disclaimer-I ain't no expert, but it sure tastes good.
So on to other stuff. Like I said end of Summer, blah, blah blah. I still have yet to take a vacation, still brokety, broke, broke and am still longing for the beach and the people at the beach are longing for my money. But some great festivals are coming up. The Italian festival is in a couple of weeks with pizza, calzones, live Italian music (played by live Italians) and college football on the big screen in the courtyard; Seafood festival, popcorn festival and soon after that Harvest festival and Oktoberfest. Mmmmm....bratwurst! I love me some festivals.
Speaking of festivals, how about that big festival in China? (how's that for a segway) I have a couple of questions. The United States is spelled in English, as is Canada Great Britain, Jamaica and the like. Why is China, South Korea, Russia & every other non-English speaking country spelling their name in English on their uniforms? They are not spelling it in their home language. I have a hunch that it is because English is the language of business and a bunch of people from other countries speak English as well as their native tongue. It could be that most of the countries are being sponsored by American interests such as Nike, but then most of the stuff they are wearing was made 40 some odd miles from Beijing. It could be that we, as Americans just don't care to learn another language & T.V. coverage is generating mucho dinero for the teams and countries. Any thoughts?
Speaking of thoughts, we have to turn our trusty Caravan in by Monday and are thinking about either buying it or getting a newer, cheaper car. As you may or may not know, I sell cars. I have done a boatload of home work on this and we will come out better if we just bite the bullet and buy a new car. The Caravan served us well, but it has almost 60k miles on it and it is due to break down or explode or do whatever Dodges do. It is sure to depreciate more in value and we would be $9000 in the hole as soon as we signed the paperwork. I'll keep all 2 of you updated.
Wow that could've been about 5 different posts. I'll try to keep this updated a little better, we are having internet trouble yet again. If we wanna watch the satellite we cannot be on the computer & vise versa.
Have a good end of Summer,
SF

Lazy summer days????

Wow! It has been busy here at the house of unmade beds. We had a July 4th cookout with fireworks supplied by the city. The cookout went well I thought and I can officially call it a BBQ. We had 2 pork shoulders that I started at 11am and they slow cooked over hickory wood and lump charcoal for more than 5 1/2 hours. They were the hit of the cookout...er...I mean BBQ. I also had some burgers, the biggest hotdogs I have ever seen, veggie K-bobs (thanks Dallas) and 3 smoked chickens. I worked on the yard for about 2 weeks straight and it did not look half bad for someone who doesn't know anything about yardwork. The flowers we bought last month decided to bloom and look their best on that Friday. It rained off & on until the first guests started showing up around 4:30. I had a great time and would like to thank everyone who was there for coming out. I will do it again real soon. I have already started planning. Next time it will be later and will be adults only. More to come about that in august.
Not much going on here except looking for a new job. Lack of car sales are killing me and I cannot take on a second job right now because it would force me to slack on my first job. I love selling cars-especially to people who really fall in love with said car. I love the cars. Suzuki makes a really nice vehicle. I am not just saying that to promote Suzuki. I deal with all kinds of trade ins and other than a Saab, Lexus, Honda or Mercedes I do not think you can get a better car. For the money you would spend on any of those--you can get a better equipped Suzuki at a great discount. I am just saying that when my lease is up on the monster truck ( Awesome Kong II) I will be buying a Suzuki Grand Vitara, SX4 or the new Suzuki truck the-Equator- Coming out this fall. People complain that they don't get 45 miles MPG & that they cost around $15,000, but go look at cars on the lot after you do some Internet shopping and see what is really out there. You will be surprised. There are no, I mean none, zero, zilch, nada Honda Fits in the area and there is a sign up list for those tiny little wind up toys. The Smartcar is on a 9 month wait up here and the are selling for more than sticker. I almost ran over one yesterday because I did not see it. I sit up higher than most every vehicle on the road and it was hiding behind a GEO Metro. The chick that was driving it was also doing 45 in a 35 and swiveling her head to see who was looking at her.
Maybe I am just bitter & broke and have no one to lash out at, but it seems to me the buying public are a little brainwashed as to what is really going on. Anyone remember the dotcom bubble. Same thing is happening with fuel speculation. Anyone remember the real estate bubble-same thing. Somehow all of this money making is going to draw the common man into investing in the oil/fuel market and then it will crash. By then the guys who got wealthy off of this will be out and the small companies and the little guy will be left holding the bag.
Wow, this started off as a small post but became a rant real quick. So to recap---BBQ good, Car sales bad, panic in the streets, very bad. I am still looking for a job that pays higher than minimum wage and I can be rented for parties, bar mitzvas and weddings----for catering. But I will dress up like a clown for an extra $50.
p.s. My computer seems to have been struck by lightning. It looks like one of those old console T.V.s from the early 70's. I switched monitors so that is not it & I did a system restore back to 2 days before the storm. anyone with any info would help. I have a similar system I can organ farm if needed. Any Ideas?--Uncle Don? Uncle Jeff? David?
Thanks Y'all
SF