Blogger Party – Part Last

If you haven’t already, please have a look at the first two Blogger Party Posts.  
 

This is the one shot I got on the dock after some folks arrived.

Here are some pictures sent to me by Laurie of our pontoon boat ride.  Bev is in her usual all-dogged-up situation.

The front group - looks like folks moved around a little.

The Aucoin girls.

The captain and first mate.

The relief captain and fine docker of boats.

There were some pretty tired folks (and critters) aboard – the teenagers and Chris for sure.

From a food standpoint, Bev and I provided the brisket, sausage, pork ribs, turkey, and slaw.  I used a modified version of Chris Lily’s brisket as he cooked at Kingsford’s BBQ University and posted on Robyn’s blog (Grill Grrl).  It was modified in three ways – first I forgot to rub the meat with beef baste prior to rubbing so I added a tbsp full to my 2 cups of homemade beef broth.  Secondly, since I was cooking whole briskets, I took them to an internal temp of 190* vs. his 185*, knowing I would get drier meat on the thin part of the flat, to render more fat from the point.  I put them in a pan, poured the broth (1 cup per brisket) over them and covered at 170* per his directions.  I cooked them at 220* thru the night, then at 250* after I added the ribs to the smoker – I think the total cook time was about 14 hours.  I like his rub and broth combo and may make it my SOP.

For the pork ribs, I used the process that came out of my recent taste test, but made one slab dry and one with Big Bob Gibson’s Red Sauce.

For the turkey I rubbed it with Wolfe Citrus the night before cooking and wrapped it in plastic.  Since it was already flavor enhanced, no need to brine it, but I did lift the skin and got the rub against the meat then added a good coat all over the outside.  From this point, it was kept skin side down until served.  I like to have the spices and juice that are in the cavity have a chance to seep down through the meat.  I cooked it with the ribs at 250* and pulled it at an internal of 161*.  I didn’t eat any of it, and it looked good, but Bev said it was a little dry.

For the sausage, I used the spices I get from Novak’s Meat Market in El Campo, Tx which was just recently mentioned as one of the top examples of Texas Sausage, but I wish I’d done several things differently – but I was just wanting to get it done.  First, I liked the taste of it, but it was a little salty, so I’ll cut back a little next time.  Secondly I wish I’d added cheese to half of it and cheese and jalapenos to the other half.  Maybe next time but for just my second or third time, it wasn’t half bad.

I thought Bev's slaw turned out good (I had some pre-party) and one of the secrets was the nice sweet from-the-garden cabbage.  Her dressing was 2 parts mayo, 1 part sour cream, 1 part Greek yogurt, then vinegar,  sugar, celery salt, and black pepper to taste - no salt added at this point or it will pull the water from the cabbage.  Hope you enjoyed the party recap - sorry there weren't more photos.  Last year I think there were about 6 cameras going full time, but not the case this year - next time we need a designated photographer - assuming we can find an anti-social, tea tottling, good photographer to do it - I fail on all three of these.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Not a thing.

Larry