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.
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| 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.
