Marlene

By the time we made it through the nibbles, the pork was ready at 174 to pull from the smoker and let rest. Then pulled I made two kinds of coleslaw. Creamy And JAZ' spicy asian: Corn on the cob: And the buns and =Mark's bbq sauce: One of my three cats, thinks he's getting some of this . Not. Plated Dessert is something else I was really proud of. My blog partner, Mike suggested the butterscotch chocolate mile high pie: (I do have pics of the process of making this, but I figured, enough is enough with the pics!) Ok. We're offically full now.

Having company, means nibbles. Having my best friends over, means experimenting. I wanted to make carpaccio and I wanted to cedar plank grill a brie. With special thanks to the executive chef of Ruth's Chris, Jess Ostlund, I made it through this process. Jess, spent a lot of time with me via email explaining how they do carpaccio at Ruth's. And we love Ruth's carpaccio. Our new Waring Pro slicer: Slicing up the beef tenderloin: Carpaccio, plated. My friends (they of the well done beef school) absolutely raved about this. And I must admit, I'm pretty proud of it. The beef was sliced then, drizzled with lemon and cracked pepper and salt. The criss cross sauce is a sort of ceasar salad dressing. The beef was laid on a bed of baby agruala (sp. ok it's late and I've had wine. I can't spell) and shaved parmesan and toast points to complement it. Some of my pics have this yellow tint to them and I haven't figured out why yet. My apologies in advance: The next thing up was the cedar planked brie. This took a little longer than we thought it would, but hey, the pork wasn't ready, we had drinks and who cared! Next, dinner and dessert

What a fabulous day. I've got several pics, so I'll do this in a couple of posts. This is what my butt looked like about 3 hours into the process: Since we had nothing better to do that watch the smoke curl out of the smoker, I wandered over to check out my herb garden. I've got thyme, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, green onions, garlic and shallots growing at the moment: Mid afternoon it was time for a snack of garlic and cheese breadsticks and beer. Ok, I like tomato juice in my beer, sue me. don always opts for a little lime in his beer Around 4 or so the butt stalled at 161. When my guests arrived it was still in it's stall. Dona dn Al went to pick up our rig from storage.

Please tell Peter that indeed my butt is naked, but alas, my butt has not yet stalled. Sitting at 161 at the moment. Please also let him know that my butt is a beautiful golden brown at the moment. It's clouding over again and I'm hoping the promised thunderstorm holds off for a while longer. i've been taking pics all afternoon, but they won't get uploaded until later. Our friends arrive in the next half hour or so and I'll be offline until they leave. I take it back. My butt appears to have stalled at 161.

It's turned into a fairly nice day so far. The sun has come out and there is just the gentlest of breezes. My butt is at 137, four and half hours in. No one is hungry, not even the lad. (I checked. He doesn't seem to be sick0. That makes it easier for me to finish up my prep for dinner since I don't have to stop and make food for anyone! My fellow bloggers are smoking salmon tommorrow. I am not. I'll be doing a prime rib on the rotisserie for Mother's Day. I'm also looking at a recipe for grilled shrimp, which i really want to try. Don doesn't like shrimp, and by tomorrow evening, it will be just him and I for dinner as Ryan will go to his Dad's for a week. I may try them anyway! In the meantime, a beer out on the deck seems to be in order!

My butt has been smoking for a couple of hours now and the internal temp is 95. The smoker temp is holding steady at about 227. Ryan is still in bed, and Don's gone to run errands. He'll pick up some groceries for me as well as get my car gassed up and washed. He's been rumbling about buying a tow vehicle for the rig for a while, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he came home and told me he did. I'm contemplating more coffee. In the meantime, I'm making two kinds of coleslaw my Creamy coleslaw and JAZ's Spicy Asian Coleslaw. then I'll get to work on the sauce and some toast points for the brie.

My butt is on. I'm thinking we're going to have to rig up some sort of umbrella to cover the smoker. It's clouding up pretty good here. Sigh. I bet, right after this blog is over, the sun is going to come out and stay out for a month solid. Mike how do you handle your WSM in the rain?

Don's up. We're about to fire up the smoker, then Don will go for a run and we'll contemplate breakfast. The lad likely won't surface till 11 or so. After breakfast, I'll get the coleslaw made and the bbq sauce ready. Don will go shopping for me for buns etc. I'm really glad I got the dessert made last night. All that is left to do is whip the cream for the topping and make chocolate curls. We are also going to try plank grilling a brie for appetizers and carpaccio may make an appearance as well.

I must get my butt in gear and get the smoker going. We are running late this morning and Don is still sleeping. I really hate to wake him up. The forecast calls for a risk of thunderstorms this afternoon, and it's grey and dreary here as well. I like your Saturday morning tradition.

Grits. Gah. Neil, I'm surprised they allowed them across the border

Count on it, DL. Peel? What peel? I just cut the bottoms off. No?

this is why I have bowls with lids.

I think of it all the time---that great tall black one in the Entertaining thread. I vote for that. It's time for another stroll. ← Since I have another dessert planned for tomorrow night, I promise I'll make this one on Monday, how's that?

Marlene, I think Chris should weigh in on this one for you because as I recall, his cracked butt was a tidge over 8 pounds and was also boneless. He could weigh in on whether you should tie it so we don't see your butt crack! ← I'd certainly tie it. When I smoked my butt, I pulled it out too early after about ten hours, so... 12? 14? ← My butt is tied tighter than a drum. I'm thinking that we'll start a couple of hours earlier, like 7 a.m. (which is going to make my husband adore me I'm sure). We can always wrap it in foil if it gets done early.

Did I mention that Friday's were relaxing? What on earth was I thinking? In between dinner prep, I got the dessert made for tomorrow night, but you can wait for those pictures. Tonight's menu was kebabs, pork and beef, rice and grilled asparagus Marinating the pork and beef: Pork Beef Mise for the kebabs, red peppers, red onions, and pinapple for the pork. About half way through, I ran out of red pepper for the beef kebabs. I had meant to pick up some cherry tomatoes for the beef kebabs, but totally forgot. And of course, soaked wooden stakes. Did I mention that kebabs are fiddly to put together? No? They are. Pork Kebabs waiting for the grill Beef kebabs: Asparagus. (I found a use for one of those pizza pans!) By the time I got the dessert made and the kebabs put together, it was time for a Friday night libation. Scotch for Don and a Manhattan for me (psst. I did not take this picture) then it was grilling time. Of course, no rain. It wouldn't dare rain on Don while he's grilling. And finally, dinner: A question on the asparagus. I've always thought that thinner stalks were better than thick, but I've read here and there that fatter is better. Which is it and why?

I second the grilled desserts request. I am very fond of grilled peaches and nectarines, drizzled with a slighly sweet, slightly caramelized glaze of balsamic vinegar. I'll bet a touch of pomegranate molasses would work well on that, too. If all else fails, you could do s'mores. ← Come now. I'm already sacrificing myself for the great blog good by making veggies! You don't really think you're going to see fruits of any description from me do you?

Ok, here's another question. How long exactly, does it take to grill asparagus? I've only ever roasted or steamed it. I bought some today to go with the kebabs and rice, and I figured I'd grill them.

How about individual servings French Onion soup? Or mini soufflés. ← Mini souffles sound like a wonderful idea! French onion soup would work too.

Bingo, Mike. This is on the menu! Back to butt. Susan, do you remember how big my butt was? (just trying to keep Peter happy), last time we did this? I recall putting in on the smoker at 9:a.m. and pulling it off around 7:30. Since we aren't brining, will we need more time? My current butt is 8lbs, no bone remember. Since we're having company to help us eat this, I'd like to try to be a little more specific about timing.

I have a Waring Pro slicer which I haven't had a chance to use yet, but I'll let you know tomorrow how it works!

I think Tim Horton's is a required first job for Canadian teenagers. I liked the pizza enough that I'm certainly interested in trying it again under better weather conditions!

Surprisingly enough, i don't have an ice cream maker. Butterscotch pudding is sounding rather nice though!

The rice krispy squares before cutting. Don insists on calling this rice krispy cake, which drives me crazy. Everyone knows they're squares. (or they will be when I get around to cutting them. One of my mottos in life is "a day without new kitchen toys, is a day without sunshine" And lo, new toys arrived on my doorstep. 4 Le Crueset mini casserole dishes. I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to use them for, but I thought they were darned cute. Some desperately needed new cutting boards. I like these because of the 'grippers" on the bottom: And a gravy separator ladle. I'm not quite sure how to use this and there's no instructions. I suppose it's supposed to be intuative. Not pictured is the new set of stainless steel mixing bowls with lids, or the 5 qt waffle bowl. Mostly because I forgot to take a picture and now that I'm uploading, I don't feel like running back downstairs to take pictures.

I'm not sure, but I'm considering committing the ultimate heresy of not brining first.

Time for a coffee break. Laundry is done. How can three people go through that many clothes? Particularly since I do laundry every other day! I've made rice krispie squares for Ryan for after school snack, because, well Fridays are special. I have to say though, they may be the easiest treats on the planet to make, but they require significant arm power and with an arthritic shoulder, I'm finding it harder to make these. I think I'm going to have to pass the making of them on to Ryan in future. I'm all set for dinner tonight. But I'm wondering what I should make for dessert tomorrow. There'll be smoked pork of course, coleslaw and corn on the cob. =Mark's BBQ sauce for the pork. But I'm at a loss for dessert. I thought of a 4 layer devil's food cake, or molten lava cakes. I've done creme brulee too many times, and i'm not looking to wrestle with pie dough. Any suggestions?