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.

BBQs and Birthdays

Alright so I guess I jinx'd myself proclaiming "update Monday" to be a recurring thing. I guess I've just been too preoccupied to post these past few days. So here we go...

This past weekend had all the makings of greatness. The weather was AWESOME and made me long for Summer (granted, not last summer...an actually warm Summer). It was also my sister Jenna's fiancée's birthday weekend. I broke my Sunday BBQ tradition and decided to go for it on Saturday. Partially because I was inspired by the beautiful day and wanted to hang out in my backyard and also because I knew that my girlfriend Jenny would only be around Saturday night and Sunday morning and wanted her to enjoy a little bit of the obsession that she ultimately created.

Grizzly the Helper

The beer of the day was Corona, with the weather it was an obvious choice. I decided I wanted to BBQ a pork shoulder and make pulled pork sandwiches out of it. Stater Bros. was having a sale on pork shoulders so I took the opportunity. What I failed to realize at first was how long it was actually going to take. At first glance I read 3.5 hours...but that was just the first HALF of the smoking. I was going for fruity but spicy flavor and the apricot glazed pork shoulder recipe was going to be perfect. I started off injecting the meat with apricot nectar, water, and apple cider vinegar and let it marinate for about an hour. Then went with the wet rub of standard mustard, worcestershire, apple cider vinegar and then generously sprinkled the dry rub consisting of black pepper, chili powder, dry mustard, paprika, old bay seasoning, kosher salt, and garlic salt. I sealed all that in with a light amount of canola oil that I brushed on with a BBQ brush. I preheated the smoker to about 250 degrees and put the pork shoulder in for about 4.5 hours (In hind sight I let it go a little long) while periodically spraying it with apricot nectar juice. At around this time I read further along in the recipe and realized I had a long way to go. Now it was time for the wrapping technique. I drizzled honey, brown sugar, and butter over the shoulder and wrapped it in tinfoil and let it cook for another 2 hours. I should have probably let it go for another 3 hours but now I was pressed for time. I took it out, re-wrapped it in foil and clear plastic wrap then bundled in a big beach towel and let it rest for about 30 mins (again rushed, should have been an hour). Then finally unwrapped it and put it back in the smoker unwrapped. By now it was dark out and I was getting really hungry and Jenny had just arrived and we were supposed to leave to Nic's (Jenna's Fiancée) birthday party in downtown San Diego very shortly. The last cooking step was to coat the entire shoulder with the homemade apple BBQ sauce I had made earlier (that will have to be a separate post I think). Let that cook for another 20 minutes then took it out finally. So about 7.5 hours later I finally had a pretty delicious looking pork shoulder sitting in front of me...take a look.

Pre-cut Pork Shoulder (object larger than appears on camera)

The final product

The final step was to "Pull" the pork and add the homemade apple BBQ sauce to the mix and slap all that delicious meat on a toasted bun and call it done (See left). Overall I was very pleased with how it turned out but as usual I saw some room for improvement (I'm my own biggest critic). I definitely rushed it at the end and wondered how much better it could have been if I took my time and let it cook for the times recommended in the recipe. The pork wasn't quite "fall off the bone" as I had hoped but definitely maintained the tenderness I was going for. Definitely made for some delicious pulled pork sandwiches and lots of leftovers which I will probably be finishing off tonight actually!

After the long day of BBQing it was time to party at the Andaz hotel in downtown San Diego and celebrate Nic's 30th birthday and his brother's 40th. It was quite the family affair in their beautiful suites and rooftop cabana. We ate, we drank, we danced, and had a great time. It actually took me a day or so to recover but at least I had the spoils of my sweet sweet BBQ creation to keep me feeling alright.

One thing I didn't go into detail about was the homemade BBQ sauce. I'll save that for another post as it was a pretty involved process but I had a lot of fun making it.

Cheers!

Short Cook Beef Brisket!

So this is looking like a recurring theme here... It's UPDATE MONDAY! I guess I'm just always so excited about my weekend exploits that I like to experience it all over again in my head on Mondays. Well, this weekend I was really hoping the terrible weather forecast wouldn't prevent me from smoking the brisket I'd been thawing. A little background, I found the brisket in my mom's 2nd freezer and it was from a cow she bought with her friend that was "organic grass fed". So needless to say I was pretty excited about it and to be honest, there wasn't any weather that was going to stop me from cooking it. The original plan was to cook on Saturday but who was I kidding, I always do my BBQing on Sunday and why should this week be any different? I ended up kinda sleeping in anyways and Jenny was in town for one of her best friend's birthdays (girls weekend...lame I know) and I ended up meeting up with them for lunch near Downtown San Diego in Little Italy. So Saturday was out of the question. Sunday, as I should have known, worked out to be a much better day and it was clear and beautiful out on top of it.

So as any good BBQ goes it starts with a beer. This time I went with a Sierra Nevada. One thing I should just mention is that there is always beer in the fridge at my house. It doesn't seem like we even buy beer very often either. People that come over for BBQ's just tend to bring beer and we end up with lots leftover. That and I seem to always be doing favors for people that like to pay in cases of beer. Fine with me!

Ok, I just realized I've been rambling...Let's get to the meat of this thing! I picked the "Short Cook Beef Brisket" recipe from the BBQ book Jenny got me (the gift that keeps on giving). Again, a lot of the same basic ingredients as the ribs but with a few variations. I've either gotten lazy with measuring out ingredients or I just feel more confident with the portions now but this time I definitely misread teaspoon and tablespoon for the cayenne pepper...oops! The basic recipe was mustard, chili powder, and water for the wet rub and garlic salt, black pepper, lemon pepper, cayenne pepper, and chili powder for the dry rub. It also called for pieces of fresh garlic to be stuffed into little slots cut into the meat. I had some left over garlic so I sliced it and placed them on top just for the hell of it. The cook time was relatively short at 2.5 hours at 325 degrees but I can't seem to get my smoker to get higher than 250-275 so I just put it on high and let it go. When I opened it up 2.5 hours later it looked beautiful. Nice and golden brown with the "burnt" tips (the heavily smoked tips are my favorite). The final step, which I'm becoming quite fond of, is the wrapping. I took the meat out and wrapped it with tin foil after drizzling a mixture of brown sugar, honey, and water over it. Then I placed the wrapped brisket back into the smoker for 45 minutes. After taking out the brisket it is always extremely tempting to just dive right in but I swear to you that you'll get even better results if you wait about 20 minutes and let the meat "rest". It just turns out juicier that way...and here is the result!

Smoked Beef Brisket

Closing Comments
Overall I was very pleased with how this brisket turned out. It had a great tender texture with a crispy crust and was very juicy. I especially liked the little garlic pieces. This brisket definitely had a kick to it which I liked to a point but I think I will pay attention to the seasoning portions a little better next time and cut back a little on the cayenne pepper and chili powder. I also want to try this without the wrapping method because it already looks REALLY good before the wrapping and I'm just curious how it tastes. I'd guess a little less sweet without the honey and brown sugar. That's what I really love about BBQ though, you can do whatever you want and tweak it to your liking and it's pretty forgiving. As long as you're not going overboard on any one ingredient, adding random spices, or over/under cooking the meat, it's hard to go wrong. I guess that's the  hard part though...oh well, I seem to have a knack for it so I'm just not going to worry about that :)

SLO Doesn't Disappoint!

Firestone Tri-Tip Sandwich

The weekend trip to SLO (San Luis Obispo) was a success! I consumed two tri-tip sandwiches and probably more fries than I probably should have from Firestone Grill. I freakin' love that place. I swear I'm going to figure out what is in that BBQ sauce of theirs...probably lots of Crack because I get the shakes just thinking about it. I used to go to Firestone AT LEAST once if not twice a week when I was in college...it just never gets old.  I also went to my favorite sandwich place in SLO, High St. Deli. Everything is fresh and the sandwiches are of a very generous size which is a great combo for me. The place has a very old school feel with tin signs from the 50's on the walls. They also only seem to sell beer in 24oz cans/bottles which is just perfect for a college town eatery.

Another awesome and unplanned part of my trip to SLO was a morning drive up Prefumo Canyon Rd. which very suddenly takes you away from civilization and into the wide open rolling hills above San Luis Obispo. I've been up there a few times before but it was Jenny's first time which made it pretty cool to show her something new in SLO (She went to Cal Poly too). I don't know why but that girl just inspires me to do awesome things. It was an exceptionally beautiful, clear, and crisp morning after a storm had swept through the day/night before and we had the sunroof open and windows down with the heat on. When we reached the top and saw the view it pretty much solidified my dream of retiring in a place like this. My only regret on this drive was that I didn't stop and get out of my car and really soak it in...and take some pictures. Lord knows I had my nice camera with me too! Maybe it was the fact that I had no shoes or sandals because we slipped out of our overcrowded room at the Madonna Inn and I wasn't able to find anything in the dark amongst the bodies strewn about...but regardless, I should have stopped and just sacked it up. So as a consolation, I was able to google a sunset picture of the view we saw...Notice Morro Rock on the far left side.

View from Prefumo Canyon Rd. Towards Morro Bay.

View from Prefumo Canyon Rd. Towards SLO.

Pretty awesome...can't wait to retire!

Edit: I realize the panoramic pictures aren't really aligned properly but they are just too nice to shrink down.

Valentine's Day Ribs!

After that Super Bowl BBQ success I decided to do it again for Jenny since she missed out last weekend. This time I decided to also try some pork spare ribs. The recipes were almost identical besides the pork ribs calling for some apple juice added to the mixture and some paprika. I'm definitely seeing a trend in this book by Adam Perry Lang. Once I get the hang of these recipes I will easily be able to just wing it on my own and try my own flavorings. This time the ribs were in the smoker for only about 3 hours. Jenny was getting impatient and it was incredibly difficult for me to deny her my beautifully smoked meats. I've realized that the real "flavor saver" is in the wrapping technique. For the last 30 minutes I wrap the ribs in foil with my 2nd favorite BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's (my favorite is Firestone of course),  and some brown sugar, honey, and butter. This gives the ribs a sweet and juicy flavor that just makes my mouth water thinking about it. This time the side was grilled asparagus. The recipe was pretty simple and I was improvising the whole way. I started by drizzling some olive oil over the asparagus in a flat pan then sprinkled garlic salt, black pepper, kosher salt, and freshly minced garlic to the spread. When I placed all of the asparagus on the grill I had a flare up really quickly. I think it was the olive oil. I calmed the flare up but it definitely blackened some of the asparagus more than I would have liked and masked the flavorings I had added. This is where I improvised and really struck gold. I used my BBQ brush to add some canola oil and melted butter to the grilling asparagus and then squeezed out a half lemon all over it. The result was a tart and fresh tasting asparagus with some peppery undertones. I was really pleased with how it turned out. Take a look!

Smoked Beef and Pork Ribs with side of Asparagus

I probably won't be BBQing for a couple weeks as I'll be in SLO next weekend but I think I want to try a pork shoulder or a prime rib next time. And since I'll be in SLO I'll definitely be stopping by my all-time favorite BBQ place, Firestone Grill. I simply cannot resist their tri-tip sandwich and their BBQ sauce is something I'm going to attempt to replicate soon!

The Art of the Smoker

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday and what better reason to have a big BBQ than on Super Bowl right?! It all started earlier in the week at Ralphs Supermarket where they were having a sale on pretty much all of their beef and I decided to capitalize. I picked up about 6 pounds of beef ribs and 8 pounds of tri-tip (my favorite). I'd never cooked ribs before but I was excited to give it a shot. On Saturday I started doing some serious research on how best to cook the ribs and it became clear that I needed to acquire a smoker for this endeavor. Not knowing a whole lot about smokers I went to Home Depot to check the selection and spent about 3 hours there trying to figure out what I wanted. Charcoal vs. Gas, Vertical vs. Barrel/Pit smoker, $ vs. $$$. I ended up going for the opened box vertical gas smoker. Here's why: It was cheap ($100), I can control the temp easier with gas (I'm still a novice), and I liked the compactness of the vertical smoker. I brought home my new smoker and went to "season" it with a small batch of beef jerky and low and behold...it didn't work. Whatever mechanically challenged idiot that put this thing together had it all wrong...no wonder they took it back. So I did what I do best and took it apart and put it back together the RIGHT way. Presto, it works! The first attempt at smoking was a moderate success, the jerky was good but a bit overcooked.

Beef Ribs and Brisket in the smoker.

Super Bowl Sunday was upon us and my roommates were getting pretty excited to taste some smoked meats out of my new smoker. My roommate Brad picked up the biggest piece of Beef Brisket I've ever seen and we started smoking it around 9:30am and they'd be done by halftime. (Smoking meat takes a long time!) Around noon I started mixing up the ingredients to my wet rib rub from the book my amazing girlfriend got me. Yellow mustard, water, apple cider vinegar, and worcester sauce (pretty simple). And the dry rub: Garlic salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and Kosher salt (again, pretty simple). I applied the wet rub first then generously sprinkled the dry rub over all the ribs. Next, I put the ribs in the smoker and let it cook about 3 hours. After 3 hours I pulled out the golden brown ribs and wrapped them in tin foil but not before added the "wrapping mixture" of brown sugar, honey, and butter. I put the wrapped ribs back in the smoker for another 45 minutes to let the wrapping mixture caramelize and deliciousness really come out! After I took it out, this is what I ended up with!...

Finished Beef Ribs on top of my Dad's Famous Tri-Tip.

By far the best ribs I've ever had. The meat just peeled right off the bone and the flavors of the smokiness and sweetness together was simply amazing. The only draw back was that I couldn't stop eating which left me with a stomach ache and a food coma. I will definitely cook these ribs again soon!

Dreams...Revisited

I can't believe I started this mess almost two years ago. I've known I needed an outlet to express myself for a while, but it seems that I haven't been "inspired" to write anything until now. What inspired me?... a gift... A book... A BBQ book. Before I get into it I should give an update on my "Dream House". I bought a house in Cardiff-by-the-Sea in May 2010 and have been working on making it my dream home ever since. It's a slow process but I'll get there eventually. It has been very rewarding to work on something that I OWN!

So back to the book...This past weekend was my birthday and my girlfriend Jenny gave me this BBQ book that well...inspired me. I was really captivated by it and made me want to cook everything within the binding. It also made me want to buy every single BBQ accessory that this book suggested but that would be an expensive undertaking. I'll just let my girlfriend and family enjoy this new age of me being super easy to buy gifts for ;) . So far I've only read the introduction and skimmed through some of the recipes but one thing I've taken out of it so far was that the author suggested you write everything down as you do it... so I thought, "I have a blog! I can write!...sorta, as well as any other dumb construction guy at least." At first I though maybe I should start a new blog dedicated to BBQ but then I decided that my original blog might still be appropriate and I can post a wider variety of my ideas here. Unfortunately I left the book at my girlfriend's parent's house so I can't plan my first test of some of the recipes just yet but I hope to share my adventure in BBQ, Home-owning, and life in the medium. So here I am, writing, mostly for myself but also for anyone else who cares or is interested. Hopefully it doesn't take me another year to make my next post!