Marlene

We used Arne's spray on our butt yesterday. It certainly adds a nice shine. I think becuase your butt is skinless, the flavour will penetrate more than it did with mine. The more I think about this, the more I think skinless is the way to go. Oh and the wood we used yesterday was applewood which is rapidly becoming my favourite wood to smoke with.

We had temperature troubles all day. It rained, sometimes with rather torential downpours.. My butt went on at 8:00 a.m. and by 8:30 p.m. it was still sitting in the stall at 171. We pulled it off the smoker at that point anyway and foiled it for half an hour. Otherwise we would have been eating at midnight. My naked butt. This was sold as boneless, but it was actually bone in, a rare thing to find around here. Butt after 4 hours While we waited for the butt, we started with carpaccio and champagne: For some reason, I have no pictures of the meat itself after pulling it off the bone, but here's the carcass: Served with =Marks sauce and some terrific buns, pluz JAZ's Spicy Asian Coleslaw: Dessert was strawberries marinated in Grand marnier and a cheese course: I have another butt just like this one in the freezer and I'm really tempted next time to take the skin off just to see what happens.

I've never turned my butt over either. My butt was totally awesome, but pictures will have to wait unitl tomorrow because it's way late and I'm exhausted..

I am definately in the camp that uses Miracle Whip in certain situations. One of the potato salads I make uses half Miracle Whip, half mayonnaise. I use it in deviled eggs, and chicken and turkey sandwhiches. And I prefer it over mayonnaise for BLTs.

It has rained steadilly on my butt all day. The smoker is holding steady at 220 now, although we had some wild temp fluctations earlier due to weather. My butt is currently at 145. My butt has been spritzed once.

Arne, what does "at the turn" mean? I'm going to use your spray tomorrow for my butt!

I have a glourious butt. the wonderous layer of fat beneath the skin is a joy to behold. But, I ask the question. Does anyone ever take off the top skin of their butts to expose the fat underneath thereby getting some wonderful cracklin? Is this verbotten in the smoking world?

Ahem. A real woman doesn't need a bullet! ← Yes she does.

You can do this Sara! I'm a relatively new smoker myself. And Mike, there is smoked butt on the menu at my house this Sat!

Lori, congrats. That braiser pot looks very nice. Is the handle easy to grasp? It's hard to tell from the pictures of it that I saw on Amazon. Next up, try some short ribs in it!

No problem. It can't be all that expensive can it? Hmmm, maybe I need to look for or start a rack of lamb topic. It's been ages since I've made it.

If you insist. Marinade ribs in a ziplock bag. Get a good bed of coals going and wrap the ribs in foil and bury them in the coals. Leave for a couple of hours. Eat.

Ahem. That's Marlene to you. I've got a period coming up with the boys away. I'm thinking rack of lamb would be really good one night! I love love love cheese plates. I don't bother much at home, but I'd much rather have a cheese plate than a sweet dessert. Unfortunately few restaurants have them anymore, but when they do, I always order one.

Arne, I'm going to have to try that. I've got company coming on Saturday, and I've promised to smoke a butt. I love this idea

I'm not sure what happened with your cooking times, other than once the heat was up that high, it took a while to come down and as a result the roast continued to cook faster. When I cook a prime rib, I estimate 18 minutes a lb at 300 convection steady. No extremes of temperatures. I figure your roast using this method would take a little over 5 hours.

For me, it's lamb. I love lamb, but no one else does, so I'll often order it when we go out. I confess to ordering liver sometimes as well. Something else that would never make it across my doorstep. Until recently, it was also carpaccio but I can make that at home now!

For my husband, who has terrible arthritis, its the dampness of being in a tent. Ryan is getting to the point now, if he wants to bring friends along, they are going to have to sleep in a tent, because none of his friends will fit on the folded down dinette. We do have a camp bed which does get you off the ground and it's pretty comfy too. For me, I like the RV not only for the comfort it provides but it allows me to bring all kinds of kitchen toys and still produce some really good and diverse meals when camping. Otherwise, we'd be doing the steak, burgers, hotdog routine all the time.

Hey, we had corn on Friday night! Potatoes are a vegetable aren't they? The portable bar always goes with us, although this weekend was mostly a cc and coke or beer weekend with wine for dinner. Yes, we managed to eat all of the porterhouse. Don't forget I have this weed known as a teenage boy with me.

Finally. An absolutely beautiful weekend for camping. We went to Bronte Provincial Park, which is all of about 10 minutes from our house but that holds its own advantages. Once I picked up the lad from school, we loaded up and after a 10 minute drive and a quick set up, we were good to relax the rest of the weekend. Camping so close also allows us to stay longer on Sunday and relax and enjoy the day. Camping at a Provincial park means electrical hookups but no city water or sewer. So we run with our water tank full. Water is used only for the washroom and for doing dishes. Showers are taken at the campground facilities. It also means we use paper plates more than we normally do. Besides, Ryan likes throwing them on the fire! Dinner Friday night was a simple one of peanut burgers and corn: The corn dishes are acryllic versions of the stoneware ones I have at home. As darkness falls, we turn the lights on and prepare for campfire: Sat's breakfast was bacon from St. Lawrence market, eggs and toast, courtesy of my husband: Saturday afternoon snack was a cheese and cracker plate that I forgot to take a picture of and then we had porterhouses and baked potatoes for dinner: Sunday morning, we had peameal bacon sandwiches and fried potatoes and onions from the extra baked potato I'd made the night before.: It was wonderful weather and relaxing. I managed to read three books in two days. In scrutinizing our setup, I've decided against the Waring convection oven and I'm going to go for the Cusinart convection toaster oven. That way I can replace my toaster with it, since I noticed this weekend I was constantly having to make six pieces of toast at once, I can do my bries and other smaller things in it as well. It will be a couple of weeks now before we get to hit the road again, and by then I'll have the oven and will be all set for experimenting.

Well, I could be mistaken, but from reading the Fiddlehead thread I think Europeans are not familiar at all with them. ← That's likely true. I'm pretty sure one of your friends was plotting to take some back to France with him!

You'll love the bread machine. No I didn't bake bread this time around. The buns for the sandwiches came from a bakery around the corner from me who does some of the best breads I've ever tasted. The peameal bacon, fiddleheads and cheeses came from the St. Lawrence market, and the sandwiches were served with Kozliks Amazing Maple Mustard. I did make the butter tarts and I also cut up a honeydew, canteloupe and watermelon for a fruit plate. The fiddleheads were blanched then dressed with a mustard vinegrette. The wines were: Reds: Chateau du Charmes (Canadian) a French bordeux who's name escapes me and an Italian Amarone. The white was a sauvingon blanc Wolf Blass from Australia. Mostly red was preferred.

It was my pleasure! I didn't have time to take any pictures, but the French certainly live up to their reputation for being gracious and friendly. I think they liked the fiddleheads in particular!

I will note here though that Stoney Ridge is not in NOTL. It's rather in the Vineland/Jordan area. ← True enough. It's worth the detour though.

Oh yes. That was the one from Fine Cooking. I've been away, so I'll post it tomorrow in RG. I modified more than enough.

We do all the same things when we go camping. I guess I need to be sleeping outdoors to complete that package. Nah. No way I'll ever be behind the wheel of one of those rigs ... especially not once gas hits $2/litre! Once I can't tent it, I figure I've earned the right to stay in hotels the rest of my life! A. ← You camp your way and I'll camp mine. It is rather interesting though to see all those tent campers booking electrical sites to plug their space heaters, coffee pots and toasters into though.