What a crazy year...

I was recently asked, "what happened to your BBQ blog?" and I thought to myself, "I have no fucking idea", then I said, "It's been a crazy year and I just haven't had time." Which is the truth I guess, but I'm sure I had some time over the last year...it just wasn't on my mind. So here's my year in review...a lot has happened, a lot has changed, and I think in general I'm pretty happy.

Starting where I left off...Santa Barbara. I enjoyed my job, BBQ'd a few times, I coached the UCSB hockey team and my little sister (Jenna) got married there. My brief love affair with that city came to an end this past fall when I took a new job in West LA doing basically the same thing but for a much larger and more stable company. Jenny and I also parted ways months ago which has honestly probably been the most significant change to my life...even with all of my job moves. So now I'm single and living in Venice Beach and REALLY enjoying it. I have been extremely active where before I really wasn't. I signed up for a triathlon and have been training multiple times during the week and every weekend. I also joined 2 hockey teams, one in Torrance and one in Huntington Beach. I've just been having a lot of fun exploring my new area and meeting new people and re-connecting with old friends (if you're reading this and you live in the LA area, I'd love to meet up and grab a drink).

So now for the fun part...I got myself a new beautiful BBQ smoker. Her name is Barbra Q. Moyer and she is 10.6 Cubic feet of awesome smoking power! I can now cook full racks without having to cut them in half and put them in a little rib rack device to fit them in. It's pretty great.

Yes, I'm wearing a sleeveless denim shirt...

I did my first smoke on the 4th of July and filled the entire smoke up with 6 racks of pork ribs and 10 lbs of chicken drumsticks and thighs. For the ribs I used my tried and true wet rub then dry rub then modified the normal 3-2-1 smoke to 2.5-1.5-1 (2.5 hours smoke, 1.5 hours foil, 1 hour un-foiled) for the sake of time. They still turned out great and everyone loved them! The chicken is really simple too. I get the biggest bowls I can find and put all of the chicken in with a full bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, approximately: 1/4 cup of garlic salt, a couple tablespoons of pepper, a tablespoon of paprika, a tablespoon of chili powder, and a tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning...I think? I don't really measure anymore and I tend to just add seasoning until "it just feels right". But that's the gist of it. I usually mix it all together with the chicken and let it sit in the fridge for an hour to marinate. It only takes about 2 hours to cook and I usually flip every piece at least once. The chicken also turned out great and I took all the food to my sister's friend Roz's house for her 4th of July party. Everyone loved the ribs and chicken and it really made me feel good to fill everyone's stomachs with good BBQ. Since then I've done a couple more batches of chicken because it randomly went on sale for $0.79/lb so for $12 I had more than enough food for a whole week and then some.

Well, I think that's enough of an update for now. Hopefully I'll get more regular with my entries. I really enjoyed this when I started it so I'd like to get back into it.

The Times They Are A-Changin

Come gather 'round people, Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters, Around you have grown
And accept it that soon, You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you, Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin', Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.


I think Bob Dylan sums it up nicely. The last few months of my life have thrown me out of my comfort zone to say the least. So I apologize for my hiatus from the blog. I know a few people were expecting some shout outs from some of the many BBQs over the last few months but I dropped the ball...and here's why:


I was unemployed for two agonizing months but I just started with a new company in beautiful Santa Barbara and I really couldn't be happier. I'm now a Project Manager at Frank Schipper Construction which is a smaller company than Bycor but they have given me the opportunity to bid my own jobs and then run them which I think is really the best way to do it in a perfect world. Normally, a lot gets lost in the hand-off from estimating to production but since I'm involved with both it should be a smooth transition. I'll also be working on different types of projects than before like condos, hotels, and historical restorations...things I've never done before. 


In moving to SB I was now suddenly homeless in a new town that I had only vague recollections about where things were. I couch surfed for a week with an old high school friend and one night with a former college roommate/hockey teammate. Sleeping on an air mattress got pretty old pretty fast and I was determined to find the perfect living situation so I looked at close to 30 places before finally the owner of the 3rd place (and my favorite) I looked at called me back and said that he'd accepted my application to to rent. It was a long week but it all paid off in the end with the amazing place that I ended up in. The house and views are just...epic. There's even a nice built in BBQ and outdoor kitchen that I plan on getting some good use out of. Here's a quick look at what I'm working with :)...

Patio balcony in front of house.

Outdoor BBQ kitchen!

So yea, pretty awesome huh? I am, needless to say, pretty damn excited about it. I've only been living here a few days but everything has been great so far. I'm getting settled in and finding new places to go around SB every day. I can't wait to show Jenny everything. I'm sure she'll enjoy SB as much as I have so far. 


That's all for now, I'll be sure to make a post soon about my huge BBQ from 4th of July in Palm Springs, CA. It was by far my biggest and most ambitious BBQ ever and it turned out pretty damn well if I do say so myself. Ohhh Biscuits! ;)

My Next House Project?

For the first 5 months after buying my first home I was constantly doing projects on it. Once Winter came though...I kinda lost that drive and motivation when the daylight hours became limited and I was going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Now that it's springtime again and it's starting to stay light out later I'm looking for my next project. Not to mention that I'm getting tired of people asking me what my next house project will be and not having an answer for them. There are LOTS of things that I WANT to do and nothing that I really NEED to do besides landscape/pool maintenance. So here's a list of what I want to do...

1. New Roof: It is painfully obvious to me that I need a new roof just by looking at it. It's a comp shingle roof and the asphalt tiles are basically disintegrating. This is something that I've known I'd have to do since last year but my big dilemma is that it doesn't appear to be leaking AT ALL! Even after this wetter than normal winter I don't seem to have any issues which is great! So why fix something that's not broken? Exactly...I'll probably put this project off...and it's going to cost some $$$.

2. New Balcony Deck: This is another project I've been wanting to do since the beginning. The current balcony just looks like crap with cheap looking fence panels for railing and the flooring is asphalt roofing. Ideally I'd build a wooden deck above the asphalt and build a new wood railing painted white to match the other balcony. Sounds simple enough right? Well, I'm a bit worried that all the added weight of the wood on the roof/patio awning will be too much. Luckily I have an amazing structural engineer for a girlfriend ;) Maybe she will help me figure this one out. This project will also cost a nice chunk of change but is likely the best candidate for my next big project.

3. Studio (Man Cave): There is an area of my back yard that is on a slope and has no real use. I really want to build a studio or shed in this area but can't decide if I want to have it up on stilts to be at grade like the existing deck or if I should dig a little bit and have it set a little bit further down the hill and build a retaining wall to hold back the dirt. I think it would be cooler to dig it down but either way this will be another pricey project.

4. Upstairs Bathroom Remodel: A couple months ago I got this bug to draw designs to remodel the dated upstairs bathroom. The major problem is the flow of the bathroom just sucks and it's definitely like stepping into the 70's. I have a lot of different layouts and styles in mind but I'm afraid that my tastes are too expensive for my budget. Again, this is probably something that will get put off until I can find a hookup on tile/cabinets/granite.

5. Built in Outdoor Kitchen & BBQ: I know what you're thinking...but it's still not a slam dunk. If I'm going to put in the effort to do this I'm going to do it right. And that will take a lot of research and careful planning. I'll want to build a BBQ smoke pit obviously and I'll probably want to have a traditional grill as well. Not to mention plenty of counter space and a sink. My ideal setup would allow me to do ALL of my food prep, cooking, and post cooking activities at this station and not leave a huge mess in the kitchen like i have been doing. I already have a water hookup out there so...yea, done deal.

....to be continued

I want my Baby Back Baby Back Baby Back...

So yea, needless to say, two things are true...I have that damn Chili's jingle in my head (if you don't know it don't look it up because it's annoying) and I cooked up some epic Baby Back Ribs this weekend. I was actually cooking up a storm this weekend. On Saturday I decided to make my dad's legendary "secret" beef jerky recipe, which I ironically had to obtain from my childhood neighbor Paul McCarthy (best mortgage broker in the country!), and it turned out perfect. It really took me back to my childhood as if he had made it himself and I was sneaking little pieces off of the dehydrator before they were done. It's hard for me to eat barbecue or beef jerky and not think of my dad. He taught me so much about barbecue and I have come to the realization (very recently) that he is a big part of the reason I have been obsessed with it lately. It allows me to be artificially brought back to the "good times" through great tasting food (nature's best anti-depressant). Side note: I planned to bring some of the jerky into work this morning to share with the office but I completely spaced...I'm a zombie in the mornings...especially Mondays.

Sunday would be the main event with plans for cooking a pair of Baby Back Ribs and one rack of Beef Ribs for good measure. I used basically the same recipe for both meats with slight variation. I started with the standard mustard, Worcestershire, and apple cider vinegar wet rub; then a chili powder, paprika, garlic salt, black pepper, brown sugar, kosher salt, dry mustard, and cayenne pepper dry rub on the ribs. I placed them into the rib rack and put them in the smoker for 2 hours at 250 degrees. After 2 hours I took them out and wrapped them in tin foil while adding a brown sugar, honey, and apple juice mixture to the ribs. I put them back in the smoker for a little over an hour then removed the tinfoil and added some leftover dry rub and the ribs went back in the smoker for 30 minutes. Then I took them out and covered half of them in my home made apple BBQ sauce and the other half in Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and put the ribs back in the smoker for another 30 minutes. FINALLY they were done and looking pretty amazing...take a look at them fresh out of the smoker.

Beef Ribs on the left and Pork Baby Back Ribs on the right

Admittedly, the picture is not one of my best photographic masterpieces nor have any of my other BBQ pictures for that matter (I need to perfect the art of photographing food but for all intents and purposes of this blog isn't really the focus at this point). But yea, that $h!t tasted GOOOD! One of my better finished products if I don't say so myself! And I'm happy to report that they got great reviews from the girlfriend, roommates, and friends in attendance yesterday afternoon that braved the active treacherous San Diego storm just to eat my soon to be famous (haha) BBQ.

Here come the shout-outs...
If that wasn't enough for one day I also had some pretty great side dishes of Asparragus made by Jenny "Micro" Jirschefske and signature Guacamole made by Chris "Jazzin" Alkazin. I also made some baked beans, because what's a BBQ without baked beans, but it's not like that took any skill.

All in all a pretty great weekend with great friends despite the less than great weather and yet another successful BBQ to add to the books. Until next time, I'm Pmoyer...Stay Dry San Diego.