Marlene

So I need to smoke some serious butt next week for a big party. Here's my question. How many butts can I do on the WSM at one time, 2, 3 4? The WSM has two racks but I don't know if I should just stick to using the top rack, (in which case I will have to do two at a time) or can I use both racks and get 4 going at the same time. Is that pushing it? Assume each butt will be 9 or 10 lbs.

Exactly! I like the idea of providing fried chicken and other comfort foods and since I'm not about to start frying up a batch of chicken the day of, I think we'll order some. My brother was also a lover of good plain food that was cooked well too. At the reception last night for family I was surprised by what a nice job the caterer did. I didn't vet them in advance, simply picked one of three that the funeral home uses and hoped for the best. They had smoked salmon, chicken satays, pate, spring rolls, brie and cranberry phyllo twists and more. I was really happy with it.

My sister in law and I will be going to Costco today to get supplies (paper goods etc) for the party, so I'll add pecan halves to the list. thanks for this!

If you've modified it, you should be able to post it. they sound great! I'm in charge of all the food, so I have to make sure the non pork types get something else. The chicken sounds good!

An online resource, so at least you know they do make these things! sink covers I also used to have a combination cutting board/colander that fit over the sink, but for the life of me, I can't find an example online at the moment!

I'm pretty sure I saw these for regualr size sinks at Canadian Tire the other day. I remember remarking at the time that they were a larger version of the cutting board/covers we have for the RV. Try their site to see. Also, the sinks in the big RVS (Class A's) tend to be regular sized. So an RV store would have covers to accomdate them as well which would fit over kitchen sinks.

Ok, that makes sense if I can smoke and pull in advance. Easier in fact. This looks like a great book . Ok, so now I think I've got the main. Coleslaw and potato salad of course and =Mark's sauce for the pork. I'm hoping the weather will be nice enough to hold the event outside. I need nibble types of food now to put out when people first arrive. Thoughts?

Hmmm, given that, I might have to smoke a couple on thursday and a couple more on Friday. Since I've always smoked and eaten the same day, I'll have to wander over to the butt thread and ask some questions about smoking in advance and re heating and pulling for service, but it could be doable.

I'm in the process of planning a wake. The wake will be held two weeks after the funeral which is this evening, so I've got a little time. I must confess, for the funeral, we just picked a caterer and a package at the funeral home and just let them handle it. The wake will be different. We're expecting around 125 people. I've got two kitchens to work with and plenty of fridge storage space. I'd like to keep the food simple but interesting. My brother was a simple guy who really loved good food, but was never into the fancy food in high end restaurants. I'll be back in my home kitchen next week so I will have good kitchen space, but will have to transport whatever I make in the car to the destination a little over an hour away. Any brilliant ideas? One of the things I'm thinking of is to bring my smoker up and smoke a couple of butts. (how many butts does one need for that many people? We're having the party on Labour Day weekend for a reason. For years and years, my brother and his friends went to an annual pig roast on labour day weekend. It was one of those manly "guy" weekends with much drinking and eating. I don't think I'm quite up to roasting a whole pig, but I could probably manage some smoked butt! Oh and there will be raspberry pies. His favourite. Other than that, it's wide open right now.

I can only get flats here it seems. I've got a huge flat at home in the freezer and if I ever get to spend enough time at home, I intend to smoke it, to see how it works. I mean, it's stll brisket, right?

I'm with JAZ. Even with hand washing, I'd be concerned about making sure they got clean. And the knives just don't do it for me at all.

i cannot stress this point strongly enough. We had a year with my brother which we used to have huge family meals and get togethers. The memories we built over the last year are ones that will stay in my mind forever. We are getting into the final weeks now, where he's not eating much and is in a lot of pain, but when I walk into his hospital room the things we talk about are the memories we bulid over this last year, all of which revolved around food. "Remember that awesome steak? That lazagna you made me was the best ever." He's even planned his wake in which he has been very specific about the food he wants served. That's my bro. Food brings it all home and completes the circle. Food is comfort and really can help with the healing process as well for both the patient and the ones suffering along with them. Cook your brains out, would be my advice.

I first met Matt at the Pegu Club when I was in town to attend eG's China 46 event. We spoke then of eGullet and how much he enjoyed it. I further interacted with him at the China 46 event and we corresponded off and on since then. I also had the pleasure and honour of recruiting Matt to become a host for the Society. Matt was an asset to the Society and was a friend to me. When I first read this last night, this hit me hard. 22 is too young. I will miss you Matt.

I use spring water in my cooler at home and Dasani bottles in my RV. I use Dasani because they come in a box of small bottles which fit in my RV fridge nicely. I'd prefer Fiji but they don't sell it by the case here.

how about a broccoli and cherry tomato salad with a mustard vinigrette? Not too much cooking, just briefly blanch the broccoli for colour. Oops. I just saw the part about no tomatoes. Well, you could substitute something else! Pasta salad, but then you'd have to cook the pasta.

It took my brother's taste buds a bit to come back after radiation therapy (for lung cancer). Tell your friend to be patient. They should come back at least some but not until treatment is completed.

Support/service isn't an issue for either one. The place where I buy all my appliances is terrific and I just call them. The main difference I see with the Dacor is that it accepts either ground coffee or whole beans, while the Miele only accepts ground beans. but I've seen the Miele coffee system in use, but not the Dacor so I wondered if anyone had experience with it.

As I start to research my coffee system for my new kitchen, I notice that Dacor also makes a Coffee System similar to Miele's. Knowing in advance that I just want to choose between one of these two systems, which one is the better unit?

Having gone through this with a close family member for the last year, the best I can say is: it depends. It depends on their reaction to the drugs and the stage of the cancer. My brother sailed through his first round of extremely intensive chemo and ate anything I would bring him, the higher in fat the better. The second round of chemo, he lost his appetite completely and I was happy if I could get a can or two of Ensure into him everyday. Recently he underwent radiation therapy and while he was ravenous, the therapy induced severe heartburn, so all foods had to be really really bland and soft. I'd say if your patient wants it, try it. Be guided by what they ask for. If your patient is an in patient, most hospital floors at least have a microwave to warm stuff up in. Good thing since my brother wasn't even going to try the hospital food. Don't worry if they don't eat everything you bring right away. They'll eat it all eventually. And there is no doubt a lot of this is mental. I could literally see my brother make up his mind he was not going to get sick from his treatment. I swear. And he's not supposed to be here now. but he is.

I've had this, it's very very good. Grainy mustard works well and I might be tempted to try it with asiago cheese instead of goat cheese, but you'll like this however you make it.

See, this is exactly what I mean. I want to make this now, and I'm not even a big dessert eater. Would you share this recipe?

That one definately looks good Marsha. It just went on my list to try!

Ann, of all the posts in the dinner! thread, yours are the ones I most like to re-create. Besides the fact that you're a fellow Canadian. But mostly, I want a butcher like that! When we come west to visit family, I'm going to head straight for that meat shop. I'm enjoying your blog.

I now have a set of magum mills, salt and pepper. While I like the Supreme mills, I find that the battery seems to always need charging just when I need a lot of salt and pepper. The magnum has amazing pepper output. Now if it just wasn't so damn ugly!

Excellent idea Anna. I'll have to try that next time!