Sunday, June 12, 2011

Phone pics week of June 6th

So it turns out that using photos is not conducive to phone blogging. You can upload the pics easily, but have no way of moving them around or putting text between them in the Blogger app, so you have to use your phone browser and then can edit in the "edit HTML" mode only, but you can't see the pics so you have to open another browser window to see what to write above what pics and have to keep switching back and forth between browser windows and it's a lot of hassle. So I uploaded the pics from my phone and now I'm editing on my computer. Sigh. I can't wait till they update it so I don't have to do this. I've submitted my feedback on the form thingy they link to in the Blogger Buzz post about it. Oh, and I just realized, the pics I upload via the Blogger Droid app can't be clicked on to view them larger. Argh!

Here's Licorice being cute as usual:


Some flowers I saw on my way back from the gym one afternoon


Here's my friend Tiffany, she came over last weekend after we went to a yummy Greek restaurant. She came over yesterday as well for some bbq with me, Steph and Carlo:


Here's me, Carlo, Licoric and Tiffany:


My livingroom just now, Carlo's computer is at Steph's at the moment though:


Licorice being affectionate:



Here are the kebabs I made last night. They didn't turn out great cause the boxed mix I used said to let it sit once mixing with the meat for 3 hours, and I let it sit for 4 1/2, so the meat tenderizer turned the meat to mush, and they were falling off the skewers. They were too spicy for my taste, too onion-y for Steph's, and too mushy for either of our tastes, so Carlo is gonna throw them into some pasta sauce:


Some delicious burgers I made last weekend for Steph, Christelle, Carlo and I:


Carlo's uncle's dog Teddy in the back of his mom's car, she was driving us back from her place after we went there to pull up a small tree stump and plant her hydrangea last weekend:


Some peonies I saw on the way back from the gym, they smelled soooo good!!:


Some eggplant, portobello mushroom and shrimp I grilled, this time I didn't fail on the shrimp and they turned out great. I mixed them with oil, garlic salt & pepper beforehand instead of just slathering on some bbq sauce:


Some delicious grilled eggplant and chicken ballotine I made:


I've been sick all weekend and I can't wait for this stupid cold to go away. Yesterday I grilled more burgers and some chicken, the chicken I wasn't satisfied with though. I tried doing like I had seen at the cafeteria I worked at where they cooked the chicken in the oven for a while before finishing it on the grill, but the chicken wasn't smoky enough for my taste. When I've tried cooking it only on the grill in the past they burn too quickly since I don't have a way to make a two-zone indirect fire with my gas grill at the moment, and forget wrapping them in tin foil, the skin sticks to the foil and comes off. I'll have to try something else to get smoky, perfectly grilled chicken.

We didn't go to tams today, it was cold and rainy and I stayed in bed a lot. Next weekend my sister is coming over, and us and a bunch of friends are gonna go back to the Pho 88 on Sunday, and the weekend after that I start my two weeks of vacation! :D I don't have anything planned yet aside from visiting my parents with Carlo and doing lots of grilling!

4 comments:

  1. I've been playing with my charcoal grill and set up my coals and wood chip box on one side and put the meat on the other. It works really well. With the charcoal I have to tend it and add a few coals now and then but it is worth the effort. I learned a new trick for pulled pork (shoulder butt roast) and brisket: after doing the dry rub etc. and smoking the meat for about 4-5 hours, make a foil wrap, pour a lager beer in it, wrap it up tight and then put it in a 275 oven for 3 hours. Oh. My. Goodness. It seems it would work with chicken too.

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  2. I'd love to be able to do that but my gas grill only has one burner so I'd have to try doing some complicated fiddling to cover one side of it. I haven't attempted that yet, seeing as tin foil seems to melt when directly over the flame and I have yet to try and figure out another way to do it. What temperature do you smoke it at? And how much does a shoulder butt roast usually weigh?

    I'm thinking I may have to get myself a different gas grill (with two separate burners) or maybe a charcoal grill eventually if I want to be able to do stuff like that more easily.

    I've also considered rigging up some metal dryer hosing to my little gas hibachi with the wood chips in it to have the smoke run into my larger grill with the meat in it and let it smoke there, but... yeahhhh no lol. Not anytime soon anyways :P I got that idea after watching one of Alton Brown's episodes where he does the same thing in a bunch of old lockers in the junkyard cooking episode lol.

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  3. Yeah, a single burner would be hard to work with. I have a cast iron "dish" that I put my wood chips in. You might try putting the flames on really low and putting a small cast iron skillet or tray with chips in it over part of the burner. (I soak the chips for an hour before using them). I don't have a real thermometer on the grill but I keep the temp in the lower end of the "ideal" range (just above warm range) I assume that is around 200 or so. I'll prop the lid open about an inch to control the temp if it gets too hot. The shoulder butt was probably a good 5 pounds or more. It was pretty big, I think I smoked it for about 6 hours now that I think about it. The charcoal grill is a bit of trouble compared to a gas grill and I've heard "experts" say they can't tell the difference, but I like my coals.

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