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It’s finally here!! All I can say is wow, you guys told me that seeing one in the flesh was different to seeing pics, but nothing prepared me for the arrival experience. The whole process from ordering to shipping to delivery was fantastically managed by Dennis and team, the uncrating and setup was simply amazing, such craftsmanship and quality! Here are the delivery, uncrating and first Burn in pics. And here’s a shot of my old Akorn feeling sorry for itself Currently doing the initial burn in, it’s been sitting at 500f now for the last 4 hours and I’m seeing a bit of venting but nothing crazy. Looking forward to my first cook on this beauty!

Hi, finally getting closer to having a location for a KK. Just have to add the roof material and finalize size of KK. Trying to decide between 23” and 32 “, mostly cooking for family of 2 or 3. Like to cook burgers, chicken, roast of beef,pork, salmon and pizza. Regards

Turned out great carved them up. . Dee made a potato bake. . Plated with some corn. Outback kamado Bar and Grill

My local butcher made up these sausages I was lucky to get 4 they went quick .rightly so tasted so good .. Because I only had 4 I was thinking just a quick grill and into a bun .but I had a brain wave and thought I would try something different .not me at all lol. Gave them some happy Nancy. . And now lady's and gentalman I present you with .Toad in the hole Gin and Tonic black truffle burger . Got my pan and oil heating up on the top rack at 450f ..put the sausages on. .5 min each side gave them a turn. . Made up the batter. . And poured it over the snags. .35 min later. .resting. .burger time. . Something different that went down well . Outback kamado Bar and Grill

And the finished result. Amazingly juicy chicken that fell off the bone, absolutely loved the performance of the KK tonight, didn’t miss a beat! And the juices on the board after I’d cut the chicken into 4 pieces:

After a brief conversation with Cheech and Chong, we agreed on a name change... Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Picked up my Konro today and just had to do my Suya cook as the first cook. Yesterday I broke up some of Dennis' coffee and coco lump. This is just a sample of what I did. The 3 cookers. I happen to have some very well dried softwood and hardwood to start my fire. In the bottom of the SoloStove I put some of the softwood and a couple of pieces of hardwood, set that burning then added some coffee wood for this cook. I actually took some of it out before lighting and it worked just fine. Once the coffee wood was going I moved it to the Konro. A little air from the blower and the fire was good to go. Prepared some beef tenderloin for this Suya cook and let it marinate for a few hours prior to lighting the fire. Plated. Yum, almost on the edge of mouth over-burn for me. Perfect. Next might be chicken. The coals were still going after this cook so I used tongs and put them back into the SoloStove inside the KK and shout the KK down.

Dr Paul's Hot Sauce - Home of Perth Hot Sauce Pineapple Express Yea sounds innocent enough. OMG - Not!!! - both me and Mrs skreef sprinkled some on a taco salad. Had to break out the fire extinguisher to put out the flames on my lips. @Aussie Ora you're still not mad about the challenge certificate are you In all seriousness this is the hottest hot sauce that has ever passed my lips. After checking out their website I think this is one of their more mellow hot sauces - yikessss......

Another little cook on the Konro, still using leftover lump from the first cook although I did add a few pieces of softwood, couple of hardwood and 2 new pieces of regular lump. Ready to torch the Solo Grill. Done. Plated with potato salad and Swiss chard.

Clafoutis cooked on the KK is turning out to be the hit of the summer. I use this really simple recipe https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basic-clafoutis-51208430 and everyone, young and old, loves it. Getting them a little burnt and crusty on the outside makes them taste really good. Rhubarb clafoutis Seedless grape clafoutis

Yesterday we had more heat warnings out, 39C but that doesn't mean you can't have the hot dinner your were craving when you have a KK. Done. Plated with beets greens. I need to stop picking those tops if I want the bottoms to grow into nice beets for Aussie's burgers.

Uncle doughies wings with maple cider served with corn lol. . . .. Outback kamado Bar and Grill

...and here I was expecting to FINALLY learn how to cook flamingo.

I had an 8 lb Boston butt that I’d rubbed the night before and it was time to see what I could do. I had a “false start”. Let me explain. After the initial lighting and closing the lid the grate temp peaked at 120f and then slowly dropped to 115. I was puzzled and opened the lid, removed the grates, the diffuser, and charcoal basket to discover the fire had gone out because I had failed to remove a piece of plastic film directly below the firebox which was blocking the lower air intake. My friends were unimpressed with my fire building skills lol. I restarted the fire around 9:30 pm, got the temp up to 235F and cooked that butt over night and got the IT up to 203F around 11:30 am the next morning. I wrapped it in foil and put it in a cooler for another 2 hours til my friends could come back for their sandwich rewards. The guys WERE impressed with the lunch, which included some pickled red onions, homemade North Carolina pig pickin sauce and (optional) KC style sauce and some homemade Asian slaw. All in all, a fantastic start to a future of fun and delicious BBQ’n!

I got given a dry aged tomahawk from the butchers that sponsor the team, been meaning to cook this all week and today was the day. Cooked using the reverse sear method. The KK performed flawlessly and got up to a high searing temp in a matter of minutes after I had finished cooking the steak to the desired temp. This was one absolutely sensational steak, one of, if not the best I’ve ever had!

tekobo, has just moved to the top tier of KK members, that's where folks who are instrumental in causing other members to buy more toys go. Congratulations, tekobo. Washed and ready to go. Clafoutis in the wings.

Steven Raichlen cooks Brisket Tacos on a 42" Serious Big Bad on PBS' Project Fire

Toad in the hole is Yorkshire pudding with sausages baked in, I believe it Yorkshire pudding may be called Dutch baby in the US? If you want a really good recipe for them which has never failed me then Jamie Oliver’s Yorkshire pudding recipe is great: 3 eggs 115g flour 280ml milk Pinch of salt Mix those ingredients up into a batter. You can then either make individual puddings or one big one as Aussie has done above in one tray/skillet. The really important thing with Yorkshire pudding is getting the oil very hot before adding the batter, I put a teaspoon of oil in each individual muffin tin hole if I’m making individual serves or about 2mm of oil in the bottom if making a large one, turn the oven to 200c (about 400f) and let the oil pre-heat for at least 30 minutes, then pour the batter in and cook for 35 minutes, don’t open the door during this time or the puddings will collapse. Here’s some I made earlier

Hosted the annual Pink Flamingo dinner last evening. Weather was perfect for dining on the deck. Only used the KK this year to cold smoke the salmon for the appetizer course - salmon mousse. You can see the smoker in the lower right hand corner. Was loaded with hickory/maple/cherry wood pellets. First course was ponzu shrimp, done on the yakitori grill. No cooking pics, but here's the plated version, with red lentil pasta with a black garlic scampi sauce and frico crumbles on top. Got busy and could take pics of the rest of the dinner, but here are a couple of the decorations. It's a lot of work, but it's for charity, so it makes it worthwhile.

Ah...the joy and wonder of true two-zone grilling on display. Didn't even use the basket splitter. Just piled the lump to the side, letting distance squared do it’s thing. Simmered the brats in beer on the indirect side, then onto the direct sear with some corn. All done with the flick of a wrist and some tongs. Brats are done! Back to the indirect side to stay warm whilst the corn cooks direct for awhile longer. No grates were moved. Just some more magic with tongs.

It is not just people that are finding the days hot around here- They have almost all of the water splashed out of the bath. LOL

This is highlights from our cook for the Kamado Guru Homemade BBQ Dinner challenge. I'm cooking it in separate parts and that's how I'll post it here. There is going to be 4 or 5 parts then the final cook. I'll post updates as I go along. Part 1 - Mop, Rub, and Sauces.

Almost. Those appear to be beef chuck ribs (or so they call them here), which are also quite good. Beef plate ribs are these:

As you can see I have quite a supply of hardwood and softwood. I had these for a barbque that burned wood but it gave up the ghost years ago. This spring I nearly threw this wood out as I didn't see a need for it except to light the stove in the sunroom. Thanks goodness I got lazy. Using these woods gives me more of a real campfire taste. The barrel of softwood- The hardwood, I will likely split the bigger pieces into two pieces. This is mostly maple but I do see a little birch in there.

Well, while today's experiment didn't find the elusive "je ne sais quoi" in tekobo's spice mix, I have to say that it's pretty damn good regardless. The major changes were Nigerian Maggi cubes, Javanese long pepper, Grains of Salim, Indian chili pepper, and some Urfa Biber. In a side by side tasting of my previous batch (#1), this batch (#2) and tekobo's blend (T), I have to give the nod to Batch #2. By the end of dinner, my nose was running and the top of my head was sweating! Plated with local sweet corn (amazing!), some nice toasted cumin seed Basmati rice and side salad. The TJ wine (GSM - Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre) was a perfect accompaniment.