Hibernation.

No recipe here and no real story, just the first time the smoker has been put to work in 2009! A random nice day and the husband decided to smoke some chicken wings, thus the trusty smoker was brought out of hibernation. Usually she's seen a few appearances by now, the husband is an all-weather griller and smoker - all three have manned their fair share of snowy days. But the arrival of nicer weather means the smoker will be out even more and so will the neighbors. It's amazing how much more friendly they all become when the smoker is doing her thing!

Football Feast.

The husbands love to smoke, the husbands love to smoke more when it's followed by OSU football and beer.

The well worth waiting for spread.

I don't think I'll make cornbread in any other shape than this from now on. Love it's perfect little size!

The husbands smoked six racks of ribs (beef baby back & pork spare ribs) with their top secret rub and mop sauce. I think this was the best rub & sauce combo to date!

These ribs were excellent! Probably the best they've ever made and certainly the best ribs I've EVER had!

Seriously, check out that smoke ring, that's what six hours in the smoker will give you! Fall off the bone tender.

The husband sampling some of his hard work.

Fresh collard greens, we all agreed these were the best we'd ever eaten. Recipe posted after the pictures.

The baked beans peaking into this picture were *gasp* canned beans, Bush's Grilling Beans - Southern Pit Style. I highly recommend them.

Miss J's fabulous & delicious Halloween cupcakes, complete with bat, pumpkin & ghost shaped sprinkles!

Country Collard Greens

3-31/2 lbs. collard greens or kale, tough stems removed and roughly chopped
1 smoked ham hock (about 1 pound)
4 medium onions, chopped
2 medium green or red bell peppers, chopped
2/3 c. cider vinegar, preferably unrefined
1 Tbs. honey
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs. coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp. Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce, or more to taste
2 tsp. celery seeds

Combine all the ingredients in a large pot with 8 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. With a slitted spoon, remove the ham hock. When the hock is cool enough to handle, pick the meat from it in small chunks or shreds and return it to the pot. Reheat the greens briefly, if necessary. Serve warm with some of the liquid, the pot likker. Leftovers keep for several days.

Yield: 8 servings
Recipe obtained from: Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the real way to Barbecue by Cheryl & Bill Jamison (If you have a smoker, this cookbook is a must! None of their recipes have disappointed us & have all been awesome!)

What the husband did: We actually bought the greens (we used collards) already chopped, which saved some prep time. The husband also added some salt pork, which added more flavor during the cooking process.

*Oh and if you thought I'd slip up and post the rub and sauce recipes, you were mistaken!

Big Ass BBQ

About 40 some people were in attendance for The 5th Annual Cornhole Tournament & Big Ass BBQ. It really doesn't seem like we've been hosting this event for five years, time really does fly! As always we had tons of food and some great BBQ! The husband went above and beyond in his quest for the perfect beef brisket this year, rising at 2am to start all 15 pounds of the brisket on the smoker - and somehow he still managed to be one of the last people up, 24 hours later!

The winning team this year took home $240, not bad for a few hours work! We hope everyone had a great time & can't wait for year six!

*On a technical does anyone know why Blogger is rotating my pictures when I download them? More importantly how do I rotate them back? Thanks!*

Now onto the food.......... I will post recipes later, the formatting issues on this post was starting to drive me insane!

The Meat

Beef brisket

Brats & burgers

Chili sauce, hot dogs & brats and sauerkraut

Side Dishes

Spinach artichoke dip with rosemary crackers

Kelly's famous taco dip

Vidalia onion peach salsa & beefy cheese dip

Fresh vegetables & dip

Fresh salsa & mango salsa

Jalapeno roll-up's

Ramen noodle salad

Roasted potatoes with squash & zucchini

Potato Salad

Macaroni & cheese and cheesy potatoes

Guacamole & my award winning salsa

Desserts

Zucchini bread

Tim Horton's Tim-bits

Brownies

Strawberry crunch cake

Giant chocolate chip cookie

Peanut M&M's

Gooey butter bars

Chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles

No pictures of - Asian style coleslaw, red skin potato salad, pesto with grilled garlic toast & brownies.

Random party pictures

Big Ass BBQ

Some 30 people showed up for today's 4th Annual Cornhole Tournament & Big Ass BBQ. For the first time in four years the weather was perfect on tournament day, it almost felt fall like. Everyone had a great time playing cornhole, catching up with friends and as always, eating a lot of fabulous foods, not to mention the tournament winners took home $260 - not bad for a few hours of work! Now, this would be the section where I'd tell you about all the great food we had & you could see all the pictures, however I was a bad cooking blog host and only ended up taking two, yes two, food related pictures. For the first time, in a long time, I actually took pictures of the people at our party and not what they brought to eat! Perhaps next time, I'll be able to strike a balance between the two. Enjoy now the two pictures I did take, and use your imagination for the rest. And yes, strangely enough I did take a picture of the cheese balls.


I made my usual tournament fare: macaroni & cheese, guacamole, my award winning salsa and decided to add the black bean & corn dip I tried out for the 4th of July Party. The husband and his trusty smoker were once again the stars of the day! The husband should also get the MVP award for putting the pork shoulder on at 4:30 am, way to early for me! His secret rub & mop have worked there magic again, since all 10 pounds of pork disappeared quickly. I did manage a picture of the pork the husband stashed away for us and the leftover macaroni & cheese - both of which made a fine lunch while recouping on the couch the next day.

Mayme's Macaroni & Cheese

3/4 pound Elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions

2 Tbs. Butter, preferably unsalted

3 Eggs

1 c. Buttermilk

1 c. Evaporated milk

1 1/2 tsp. Dry mustard

1/2 tsp. Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

1/2 tsp. Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 c. Sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a medium-size baking dish. Toss the warm macaroni with the butter.

2. In a medium-size bowl, beat the eggs lightly and add the buttermilk, evaporated milk, dry mustard, Tabasco, pepper, and salt. Mix well. Stir in the macaroni and the cheese and pour the macaroni mixture into the prepared dish.

3. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until the macaroni and cheese is lightly firm and browned. Serve warm. Any leftovers should be reheated gently to avoid developing the consistency of galvanized rubber.

Yield: 6 servings

Recipe obtained from: Smoke & Spice: Cooking with Smoke, the Real Way to Barbecue by Cheryl & Bill Jamison

What I did: Hands down I think this is the best baked macaroni & cheese! Never having any luck or desire to mix & stir milk and flour together - this is the only macaroni recipe I'll make. I generally double or triple this recipe and tend to add more pepper, hot sauce and dry mustard than indicated. I usually use Tabasco Chipotle brand, since I think it gives the macaroni more flavor.

Guacamole

Ripe Avocados, halved and chopped

Tomatoes, chopped

Fresh cilantro, chopped

Fresh lime juice

Garlic, minced

Jalapeno Chile, finely minced

Kosher salt

Ground cumin

1. Using a spoon scoop out the avocado flesh, mash with a potato masher or a fork to desired consistency. Stir in the remaining ingredients, adding more of any as needed for desired taste.

2. If not serving right away, cover with plastic wrap - making sure to press wrap directly onto the top of the guacamole. Refrigerate 4-6 hours. Taste & adjust seasonings before serving.

What I did: I don't follow the original measurements, since I'm usually making a lot. Guacamole is an easy, versatile and almost impossible to mess up! Add more of what you like (onion, corn, black beans) and omit what you don't like.

Recipe originally obtained from: Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook by Mary Corpening Barber & Sara Corpening Whiteford

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated the holiday by having some friends over to grill out and play some cornhole. Our much needed rain fell right as the party was to begin, but not to worry our friends braved the sudden downpour and brought with them some delicious side dishes as well.

I made a couple different dishes for the party: cheesecake tart, watermelon salad with rum and mint and black bean dip with corn & basil - which didn't photograph well. All of them turned out well, I especially loved the black bean dip and it's healthy, which is a plus. I served the cheesecake with some leftover blueberry syrup and diced strawberries.

The husband and his grills were the stars of the party, as usual! He grilled up flavorable hamburgers, brats and some delicious pork loin. He uses an assortment of secret spices in the burgers and decided, at the last minute, to go with the pork loin and follow a recipe from barbecue u's Steve Raichlen.

It seemed fitting to wash down all this delicious food with some Yuengling, after all it is America's oldest brewery. An interesting historical fact about Yuengling: 1933 Prohibition ends. The brewery celebrates with the production of Winner Beer and ships a truckload to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thank you, Mr. President.