Smokin’ Birthday Party
May. 26th, 2015 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroAn advantage to getting my birthday presents early: I get to play with them in advance of my actual birthday.
I started smoking before 9am with three eggplants that I mesquite and apple-smoked for two hours, then put in the food processor and mixed with tahini, garlic and lemon to make dip. (The recipe is here.) I was a little concerned, but the smokiness came through nicely. (I actually had to microwave the eggplants to get them soft even after two hours in the smoker—next time, an hour or two of smoke and then finish in the oven.)
The pork shoulder, which had been sitting in an apple juice/salt/spice bath overnight, got rubbed with salt, brown sugar and garlic and put in at 200 with apple wood around 9:30am. (I was basically working from this recipe.) That smoked for almost eight hours and came out really tasty and moist, but not soft enough to pull. (Jethrien just carved it for me.) Bigscary suggested higher temperature and longer smoke to make a pork shoulder pullable (I usually do it in cast iron at 300 for three hours, so that makes sense), so I’ll either do that or use a smaller boneless pork roast next time.
The chicken went in the smoker just before the party started an was also in the apple smoke for about two hours, after sitting in a BBQ sauce+ graze for four hours. (That was effectively this recipe.) They came out pretty much exactly as I expected them to; tender, sweet and moist.
(I also rounded this out with grilled burgers, because who doesn’t like a good burger?)
The party itself seemed to be a great success. It was very well attended; the final attendance tally was 28 adults and 3 kids. I apparently have the right amount of meat and too many appetizers, because there were fewer leftovers than I might have feared. Everybody seemed to have a good time, and some folks who hadn’t met before seemed to hit it off rather nicely. So, yay!
ARR was very good for much of the party and seemed to generally enjoy himself. He spent a solid chunk of it with his guitar, serenading A (who taught his Sing & Sign class) with every song he knows. Also, his dinner consisted of watermelon, pineapple, potato chips, buttered hamburger buns and chocolate cake, and what toddler would be unhappy with that?
Jethrien made me a rainbow cookie cake, then ran ARR around for most of the morning so I could prep everything for the party, and then was “on duty” for most of the party itself so I could cook and actually enjoy some socializing. Which made me feel a little selfish for taking advantage of, but hey, it’s my birthday?
And I got lots of hugs, much of that owing to the presence of elissali, dushai, fyrna and ladymondegreen. That was one of the best parts.
I started smoking before 9am with three eggplants that I mesquite and apple-smoked for two hours, then put in the food processor and mixed with tahini, garlic and lemon to make dip. (The recipe is here.) I was a little concerned, but the smokiness came through nicely. (I actually had to microwave the eggplants to get them soft even after two hours in the smoker—next time, an hour or two of smoke and then finish in the oven.)
The pork shoulder, which had been sitting in an apple juice/salt/spice bath overnight, got rubbed with salt, brown sugar and garlic and put in at 200 with apple wood around 9:30am. (I was basically working from this recipe.) That smoked for almost eight hours and came out really tasty and moist, but not soft enough to pull. (Jethrien just carved it for me.) Bigscary suggested higher temperature and longer smoke to make a pork shoulder pullable (I usually do it in cast iron at 300 for three hours, so that makes sense), so I’ll either do that or use a smaller boneless pork roast next time.
The chicken went in the smoker just before the party started an was also in the apple smoke for about two hours, after sitting in a BBQ sauce+ graze for four hours. (That was effectively this recipe.) They came out pretty much exactly as I expected them to; tender, sweet and moist.
(I also rounded this out with grilled burgers, because who doesn’t like a good burger?)
The party itself seemed to be a great success. It was very well attended; the final attendance tally was 28 adults and 3 kids. I apparently have the right amount of meat and too many appetizers, because there were fewer leftovers than I might have feared. Everybody seemed to have a good time, and some folks who hadn’t met before seemed to hit it off rather nicely. So, yay!
ARR was very good for much of the party and seemed to generally enjoy himself. He spent a solid chunk of it with his guitar, serenading A (who taught his Sing & Sign class) with every song he knows. Also, his dinner consisted of watermelon, pineapple, potato chips, buttered hamburger buns and chocolate cake, and what toddler would be unhappy with that?
Jethrien made me a rainbow cookie cake, then ran ARR around for most of the morning so I could prep everything for the party, and then was “on duty” for most of the party itself so I could cook and actually enjoy some socializing. Which made me feel a little selfish for taking advantage of, but hey, it’s my birthday?
And I got lots of hugs, much of that owing to the presence of elissali, dushai, fyrna and ladymondegreen. That was one of the best parts.
