Marlene

I'm having the opposite problem. Mine keeps going up ← Shut the bottom vents. ← Yeah I did that. btw, I need to give major thanks to Daddy-A who has been walkiing me through this very patiently via AIM.

Now all I have to do is find it in Canada. Amazon doesn't do Canada. I need a drink.

I'm having the opposite problem. Mine keeps going up

I have one of those. it's in the butt. I need to get another one, but that will be for the next smoke. What I want is one of these The thermometer, not the beef, although it doesn't suck either.

Just checked. It was running a bit high, 275 so I closed the vents a bit. The water seemed to be low so I added some hot water. Will go back in 20 minutes to check on the temp again

I'm thinking a Bloody Ceasar would work fine right about now. I've got breakfast pics to post, but I want to go check the smoker first, and Ryan's dad will arrive in about 10 minutes to pick him up. I also need to get going on the sauce which I did not make yesterday as planned. My kitchen is still a mess from last night, and now from breakfast as well!

Thanks Mike. I'm likely to ask several stupid questions throughout the process. Will I need to add water to the pan during the day?

Ryan was up early for some very strange reason. He had doughnuts for breakfast. I am contemplating food as well, but I think I really need another pot of coffee.

I don't know about Ottawa Safran, but it was plenty cold when we started: We're getting set up: Don starts the chimney. Let me tell you folks, this man is an absolute gem! Ready to go: After two hours:

Ok, it's been on for almost two hours. The internal temp of the butt is reading 103 right now on my thermometer. I need to go out and check it soon, but there's still smoke coming out, so I assume the chips are still good. Last time we checked, the temp was sitting around 225-230. This is all good right?

All right, we're off and running. Pics just as soon as I go turn on my main computer. It's cold out there, baby! Don is getting ready to go to work. Ryan goes back to his dad's at noon today. It's going to be just me and the smoker. Be afraid, be very afraid. (am I the only one of my partners to be up this early? Am insane? )

I don't apologize for using pre shredded cheese, I use it a lot. A busy mother, wife, CEO, and volunteer can use all the shortcuts she can get. Plus Susan, as you say, it's great for kids. Ryan can use it to sprinkle extra on his pizza's or other snacks that I let him use the toaster oven for. And tortillas are great for tortilla crisps and are Ryan's choice for tacos usually.

Sounds to me like it's a presentation thing, which doesn't concern me a whole lot. I can't say I noticed any strings or stretchy things, but then again, I don't carve it.

No. No, I don't think we do actually. I could stand a trip to the warmth of Los Angeles right now!

I've got my brine in the garage. I don't think it will freeze out there. I've put the chips on to soak overnight, and Pam, your foil packet thing sounds perfect! (Don is so looking forward to getting up at 7:30 on a Sunday morning to do this. ) Fortunately, he has to work anyway. We do have an apple farm not to far from here, so maybe we'll take a trip and see if we can hit them up for branches etc for future projects

So partners lets talk smokin. Pig, people. Pig. I have these: I have one bag of them in fact. I have another bag of mesquite. That's it. That's all I've got. Am I screwed? Will this stuff do the trick and is one bag going to be enough?

If you hate mayonnaise, This one is really good too.

No. Was I supposed to?

We do our gas by the litre here and today on the way home, Don bought gas for .80 cents a litre. You do the math. I hate conversions. Dinner was late tonight but oh Lord, we are so stuffed we can't move. (Remember that 3 lbs I lost? I think I just found them again). I put a rub on the chicken of butter, garlic, fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and lemon juice: Meanwhile, I chopped the stuff for the Carnival Corn. This is a huge favourite of ours. In fact Ryan had three bowls of it. There's bacon too, but it's not in the picture: Then I cubed the gingerbread cake. This will get mixed with eggs, milk and sugar and go into the oven to bake while we're eating dinner. Once the chicken was out of the oven, I started the Carnival Corn: Saute the bacon first. Normally, I'd let it cook longer than I did tonight, but we were so late, I was in a hurry. When the bacon has rendered, add the butter: When the butter melts, add the onions and peppers. It's supposed to be red and green peppers but I didn't have any green so I used red and orange. The orange fades into the corn a bit, colourwise though. Saute until soft and then add corn, in this case frozen corn as there isn't any fresh corn to be had this time of year. What you end up with is this: Varmint gave me this recipe during my first tag team blog and it very quickly became a family favourite. It's pretty rich, but who cares! Then I started on the gravy while the chicken rested. The two dark blobs you see in the gravy are concentrated chicken stock. Meanwhile the gingerbread went back into the oven: And finally we are ready to eat: After dinner I made the carmel sauce, which in retrospect, I probably should have made earlier. It was still a little warm when we used it, but this was oh so good. I have no idea if this is what it's supposed to look like, but man it was awesome. Thanks Neil, for the recipe! My kitchen is a disaster, I'm so full I can't move and I want a cigarette.

this is the one I'm making. Dinner is late tonight. We should be eating in about 15 minutes or so.

Hmmm. I may still have some firewood in the garage left over from camping season.

It just ocurred to me. I bet I need wood for the smoker right? I have wood chips, but I doubt if I have wood nor do I know where to get wood in the dead of winter in Ontariol

Ryan voted for stroganoff, Don voted for chicken, so I got to decide. Based on the fact that I think the beef will last till Monday in the fridge because it's vacumn sealed, and the chicken won't and isn't sealed, we're having chicken. Ryan is not impressed. So dinner will be Roast Chicken with mashed and gravy carnival corn gingerbread pudding with carmel sauce

I did not add any sugar to my brine. The OXO is definately going back. We're making a trip into Toronto for dinner next weekend and a trip to WS was on my list anyway. I don't think WS carries a Benriner but I could choose from one of these I guess. Which one?

Breakfast was a scattered affair. I got tired of waiting for Ryan to wake up and finally decided on a couple of soft boiled eggs. I have these cute little egg cups. (actually I almost never use egg cups, but I brought them out for your viewing pleasure) Four minute eggs: When Ryan woke up, he insisted on these frozen French Toast sticks. I offered to make him real French Toast, but no dice. He also prefers his syrup in a bowl for dipping: Gingerbread cake out of the oven and cooling: