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.
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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.
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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

...and now for something completly different.

I got nothin'. So here's some pictures of the girlies from earlier this summer.

E & H strike a pose.

E is Muggin for the camera.H & E twinkie models.S has bedhead.

S faking that smile for all it's worth.

More to come.

SF

HOT! Like Africa HOT.

Most of the time I am on this thing whining about how I miss Memphis. You are not gonna get that today. I was just looking at the noa weather radar for Mphs and it is H.O.T. hot.It was 91 degrees at 10am. Where I am it is about 75. It is due to get up to around 98 with high humidity. The funny thing is, I do kinda miss it. I recall it being so hot that all you wanted to do was stay in the air conditioning and drink lots of beverages. No one relly expected you to do much of anything else.

In my youth, I can vividly remember my Mom and Dad saying "get in or out one". Which meant to go outside and stay there or stay inside and help clean. So outside it was. I would go to the woods where it was 20 degrees cooler and build a treehouse, make new trails or try to catch critters. When I would get thirsty and go in the house I would hear " in or out one or the other" and explain that I was thirsty---well that is what the garden hose was for. We were out all day in the summer and I don't recall putting on sunscreen or ever getting burned. I can't recall dying in the noontime sun and we didn't stop until the sun went down around 9:30, Sometimes later.

I am sure I wouldn't last 15 minutes doing what I did 30 years ago in the summer. I would be burned, dehydrated, hungry and passed out in the middle of the blacktop wondering why the icecream man has to drive so fast through my neighborhood.

So now I am going to go to work and sit in an airconditioned office here in the midwest, get up once or twice to go outside and help the customers and chuckle to myself when they complain about the heat and humidity.

If they only knew.

Stay cool,

SF

Happy Summer

Well, It's getting hotter. I remember my youth in the mid south as being alot of sweaty summers, riding my bike in the dustiest of fields, rolling in the woods and trees and culverts and smelling to high heaven. My mom would sometimes ask-no- demand that I take my clothes off before I came in the house. I am still really good at getting nekkid fast. Sometimes there would be the tic check, I had/have a really thick mop of hair & critters would get in there and try to subdivide. I am still really sensitive to bugs and creatures on my person. The best part of summer was freedom and to a ten year old boy that meant a fully functional bicycle. I would ride as far as my bony little legs would carry me and then I would ride back. I would look for the best hill to jump, the best trails to ride and build the nicest ramps you could out of cast off plywood and cinder blocks. I would never wear a helmet, knee pads or one of those little flags that people have on their bikes. I always rode in the street, up and down hills and through yards. I say this because I now live in the Midwest and I have seen some things that make my stomach twinge and a little bile build up in my throat.

Grown men and women wearing helmets. I can understand if you are on a trail or in a road race that you want that extra safety, I just do not understand why on God's green earth you would wear one whilst riding your Target bicycle, pulling a little toddler carrier, on a side street, doing 6 miles an hour why would you feel that need to get decked out like Lance himself. I understand that you wanna be a good influence on the kiddos and you wanna show them how to do right, but what happened to "do as I say, not as I do"? If you wanna show the kids some real life, take one for the team. Fall down and get a concussion and show them how to shake it off. Get hurt and don't cry about it or try to sue someone.

This in, fact, leads me to my "Rules of the road for bicyclists"

1. Share the road. That goes for you too, family of four taking up all of the road in both lanes.

2. If you are expecting to ride your bike on the street with gas powered HEMI's-there is a speed limit the people that need to get somewhere try to go. You better be doing your best to get to that speed. What I am saying is if you are on a street that has a speed limit of 45 MPH, you should be haulin at all times. Some of us have to be at work soon.

3. If I have to obey rules of the road, so do you. Do not bring your casual riding, taking up all of the lane on a 45MPH road, ATB up to a stop light and then decide you are a pedestrian and you can cross in the ped-xing like you were not just in my lane, dilly dallying and acting like you were annoyed that I was tailing you a mere 2 feet from your back tire. And I swear that if you cross against the light or jaywalk-I promise you this, I will find the nastiest, gooiest substance in my truck and fling it at you when I pass you.

4. Unless you are in a sanctioned event, you do not need the whole pointy helmet, spandexed racing outfit to go with your livestrong bracelet. I throw the football with the kids, play baseball, soccer and tennis. I am never decked out in full pads. When I played football in jr. high/high school, we didn't wear game jerseys to practice in. You look ridiculous-Just stop. Yes we know you spent $5000 on you titanium graphite bike with Italian & carbonite brakes, but you do not have to show off the wiener shorts every Saturday on you casual ride through my neighborhood.

5. For the love of all that is holy, stop telling everyone within earshot that you are doing this for the environment. I just saw you drive up in your Hummer and unload your bike-or better yet your Honda Hybrid that is causing the manufacture of batteries that will affect our landfills for thousands of years after you are dust.

All I am saying is ride you bike for fun, I do, Ride like you are on a bike, not a car and if you are in my lane, ride like you have someplace to be-soon.

And look out for gross projectiles.

Live to ride-Ride to live.

SF

lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of content up in here. We have had a busy beginning to May. H's birthday, citywide yard sales, bulk trash pickup and going to Columbus to race little cars around a little track for work. This is about the time of year I really start missing Memphis. Memphis in may is in full swing with Beale street music festival, World Championship BBQ festival, concerts, warm weather, more BBQ, family & friends for cookouts & overall lots of activities for all ages. Maybe too much activity including, shootings, mosquitoes, being panhandled in nearly every neighborhood, tornadoes, dirty politics, humidity. Where we live is less than an hour to 2 major cities and if you drive 2 1/2 hours you have about 5 major cities to go to and do stuff. We almost never do that. This is a great place to raise kids and own property, not such a great place to work, make good money, find fun activities and just go roaming around in search of things off the beaten path. It's almost all off the beaten path. So's I guess what I am sayin is-the grass is always greener near the fire hydrant. At least I wont see 90 degree days until mid august & that should last about 5 days. I cannot wait to start making lemonade & complaining about the 80 degree weather. I'll have a recap of the last 10 or so days soon. Right now it is (past) time for bed. TTFN

SF