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!