Post-Birthday Smoking
Jun. 6th, 2016 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroTo make life easier, when I use the phrase “smoking” or “smoked” in the following post, please mentally add “in my electric food-smoker” to the end, because common parlance seems to lead people into thinking I put a pork shoulder in a bong.
Anyways, though, because of the placement of Reunions this year, my birthday party got pushed out to this past weekend. I got a nice crowd, around 20 people (several of whom I hadn’t gotten a chance to see in a while), and it went very nicely. ARR played very nicely with the two other (younger) kids who were in attendance, and shared his toys well; and when he got bored with the adults he went over to the computer and watched some videos.
I started smoking at 7am, when I loaded peppers, eggplant and pineapple into the smoker with some mesquite. Two hours later, I chopped the peppers into a pasta salad and pureed the eggplant into a very simple dip—salt, pepper, garlic, onion, little bit of mayo, and that was all. The pineapple I had peeled, halved and put raw sugar on before smoking; and drizzled with a little dark rum after, then sliced up and chilled. Very simple, but it came out really nicely.
Then I made a traditional coleslaw and a vinegar apple slaw to round out the meal. (There was also an assortment of veggies, chips, and dips. And Bigscary brought mango clafoutis.)
Around 1pm, I loaded the smoker again with two turkey breasts (one with a traditional BBQ rub, one with a mignonette pepper and basil rub) and a boneless pork roast. I used applewood chips for that one and it took about 3.5 hours. I probably could have taken them out a little earlier—they dried out a little—but they all went over well. Even the small children liked my smoked turkey.
(Sunday was comparatively quiet. I did lots of laundry. ARR and I got caught in the rain on the way back from My Gym. Many art projects were done. I invented a pizza-pig-in-blanket by wrapping Italian sausage in crescent rolls with a dab of tomato paste and pizza seasoning.)
Anyways, though, because of the placement of Reunions this year, my birthday party got pushed out to this past weekend. I got a nice crowd, around 20 people (several of whom I hadn’t gotten a chance to see in a while), and it went very nicely. ARR played very nicely with the two other (younger) kids who were in attendance, and shared his toys well; and when he got bored with the adults he went over to the computer and watched some videos.
I started smoking at 7am, when I loaded peppers, eggplant and pineapple into the smoker with some mesquite. Two hours later, I chopped the peppers into a pasta salad and pureed the eggplant into a very simple dip—salt, pepper, garlic, onion, little bit of mayo, and that was all. The pineapple I had peeled, halved and put raw sugar on before smoking; and drizzled with a little dark rum after, then sliced up and chilled. Very simple, but it came out really nicely.
Then I made a traditional coleslaw and a vinegar apple slaw to round out the meal. (There was also an assortment of veggies, chips, and dips. And Bigscary brought mango clafoutis.)
Around 1pm, I loaded the smoker again with two turkey breasts (one with a traditional BBQ rub, one with a mignonette pepper and basil rub) and a boneless pork roast. I used applewood chips for that one and it took about 3.5 hours. I probably could have taken them out a little earlier—they dried out a little—but they all went over well. Even the small children liked my smoked turkey.
(Sunday was comparatively quiet. I did lots of laundry. ARR and I got caught in the rain on the way back from My Gym. Many art projects were done. I invented a pizza-pig-in-blanket by wrapping Italian sausage in crescent rolls with a dab of tomato paste and pizza seasoning.)
