Welcome To My Kitchen

Everybody's got a favorite spot,
and  this one is mine.
Come on in and let me show you around.

If you watch HGTV you might think 
you can't afford to do this, 
but with a simple plan and rough lumber 
it doesn't have to cost an arm & a leg.  
We love our backyard space.

Here is our outdoor dining area.  
We went for a sort of  a Tex Mex theme for the 
dining room and kitchen. 
Note the chalk board menu.

 Here is the bar and saloon doors we built that separate the kitchen and dining area.

 The wooden box is actually an ice chest.

 Now let's check out the kitchen.

 Here are my two pellet grills.

 The cold water sink.

 Here is the Big Green Egg charcoal grill.

 Double propane burners.  
Some HOT..HOT chilli has been cooked on these as well as wok cooking etc.

 I told you it was Tex Mex.  Cool huh?

I wish you could sit down and stay a while.
I'd fire up a grill and start cookin!

Thanks for checking out my blog. 
 
I would love to hear your comments
 and if you're in the neighborhood stop by for some good food.

Steve (and Connie) 

Dollar Saving Ideas

How do you like my utensil rack.
An old garden rake makes a great place 
to hang your equipment or pot holders.  

I built these lamp holders out of scrap fencing 
and inserted those little solar garden stakes. 
 They don't give a lot of light, 
but they do light your pathway 
and provide a nice ambiance. 

Just another view of our solar lights. 

My crafty wife surprised me 
with this menu board. 
She used chalkboard paint 
and built it from scrap fencing 
and a scrap of plywood. 
We enjoy using it when we throw a dinner party. 

We have a family motto,
"Never throw out scrap lumber",
You would be surprised at all the things 
we have built with wood from our scrap bin. 

Have a wonderful day!
Keep improving your home and making it you,
and please leave a comment.

Steve

Father's Day Prime Rib.

There is nothing closer to a man's desire than a
 juicy delicious Prime Rib. 
 Well, almost nothing.  :-)

First we cut the rib bones away from the meat.  
We'll tie them back on later because they add 
a ton of flavor to the meat while its cooking.

Here are the spices I have decided on for this yummy Father's Day roast.
The Everglades seasoning is something we picked up on our Florida vacation. 
 It has a strong but very nice sage taste.

Let's mix them up so we can hammer this prime rib with flavor!

Next we coat the meat with regular yellow mustard
that everyone has in the refrigerator. 

We will completely cover the meat with these spices.

Then we heavily salt and pepper the rib bones 
before tying them back on to the meat.

Back on the bone!

We tie it up tight!

And back into the refrigerator it goes 
to sit overnight and 
let the meat absorb those flavors.

The afternoon of the following day,
 its time to put it in the Grilla Pellet Smoker.
(www.mygrilla.com) 


We will set the grill for 275 degrees F.
We will be using American Hickory pellets.

This Maverick digital meat thermometer with remote unit 
makes cooking it to a perfect medium a breeze.
We will bring the meat temp to 140 degrees F.

Tell me this isn't making your mouth water!

Now we cut the butchers twine and prepare to carve
 this luscious smoky prime rib.

Cooked to perfection, exactly the way Connie and I like it.

Dinner is served!

The following day we vacuum pack 
the leftovers in meal size packages 
and into the freezer they go. 

The Food Saver works great 
and keeps food good in the freezer for up to 2 years.  
Not that this yummy food will last that long.

We had enough leftovers for nine more meals for two.  
We will be enjoying this prime rib 
for many meals to come.  
I hope you liked this Father's Day Prime Rib post.

Thank you for stopping by my blog 
 and 
please consider being a follower.

Steve

Big Green Egg Table

Speaking of woodworking and good eats, my Big Green Egg is one of the best grill/smokers available.  Many BBQ competition winners
 have won using this incredible ceramic machine. 

Visit their website here, and really,  you should buy one of these.
They are an amazing cooking machine.


 http://www.biggreenegg.com/

 They sell tables for the Egg, but I love woodworking so I wanted to build my own.
I built the basic frame out of treated lumber and then had my sweet Connie help me lift it over the Egg before finishing construction. 

Everything is on castors so it's a piece of cake to roll it around
 wherever you want to put it.

 
Here is the table top after I used my router to cut the hole in it and then split it in half so it would fit over the Egg's hinge hardware.
The top is very simple to build.  Just 1/2 inch plywood with a border of 1X2 pine glued and nailed on.

 
Here is the other half.
If you would like to see what Connie did with the round piece that I cut out see her blog here.
http://crafty-home-cottage.blogspot.com/

 I stained it with Minwax Puritan Pine #218. 
After that I hammered it with 6 coats of tung oil.

 
I have had these horseshoes for quite awhile now and have been wondering about how to incorporate them into my Cowboy/Mexican Restaurant themed outdoor kitchen. 

I think they look absolutely great on my Big Green Egg table.

Like I have said before, our motto around here is "We aint buildin no piano".
But I think you'll have to admit that this table looks pretty dang good

 Looks to me like a good combination of 
"Woodworkin and good eats"
Don't you think?
Come by again soon to see what I cook on the Big Green Egg!
I love it when you visit and then I get to visit your blogs.

Pig Roast

I smoked this 220 lb (live weight) pig at an event to feed 160 people.  The construction crew starts very early so they have lunch at 9:00 am.  This means that my helper and I had to start cooking at 9:00 pm the night before.  Get ready to stay up all night with just a catnap or two for this cook.

This is the chuck wagon box I built that sits on the tailgate of my pickup.  
This is some serious tailgating.

Here is another view of the chuck wagon box 
and of the back side of my home built smoker. 

 I haven't said much about metal working on this blog 
but I designed and built this smoker myself.  

  The fire box is a 20 inch length of 30 inch diameter pipe with 
a piece of 1/2 inch steel plate welded on the top and bottom.  

I use the top of it to cook with my dutch ovens
 and cast iron skillets. 

The cooking chamber is an old air compressor tank.  
In this shot I have water heating on top of the fire box to wash dishes.

As you can see, the smoker is on a trailer 
so we are cooking on site.  

Here is where people miss out on the magic of BBQ pork.  They make the mistake of bringing the meat temp up to 160 degrees or so and calling it done.  But if you slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, bring it up to 190 degrees, something magic happens.  All the collagen in the meat melts and everything relaxes and starts falling apart.  We're talking pulled pork here.

 After 11 hours of cooking on an all apple wood fire 
at 225 degrees this baby is falling apart tender and smoky. 

Notice the stainless steel tray I built to cook pigs on.
 When they are done I can pull the whole tray
 out and carve them right on the tray.  

Have you ever tried to pull a hot falling apart pig 
out of a smoker? 

I had the pig skinned when it was butchered 
but left the fat on it.  
This not only bastes the meat throughout the entire cook but also protects the meat from any build up of carbon.

Before carving you simply scrape the fat off 
with the blade of your knife 
and 
succulent smoky meat is revealed.

Am I making you hungry yet?  Hope so!