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Just as I posted that last one, the hummingbird reappeared on my deck last night while I was cooking. It was flitting about my basil plant, sipping on the flowers. Simultaneously, a field mouse was running around, with 2 babies on her back hanging on for dear life, as she scurried around my hop plant. Got a good look at her and her cheeks were stuffed to the gills! Was fun to watch all this activity while making dinner.

I recently got a new grill. A 2 burner, table top griddle. Perfectly sized for 2 people. I've played with it a few times. I love griddle cooking. I have been doing them on my KK's since day one. I actually own a different sized CI griddle perfectly fit for both my KK's. When I saw this 2 burner table top griddle I just had to have it. It's just easier and faster for a griddle cook than using CI in a kamado and the results are the Same. Anywho the griddle and tonight's dinner.

Well, that and napalm. 15.3 lb SRF brisket on the kk since yesterday afternoon at 4:30. Hopefully should come off in about an hour or so. It went unwrapped until I got up this morning at 7am so I wrapped in pink butcher paper and will stay that way until I slice it.

While I was gone today Mrs skreef took a picture of a hummingbird. It landed on the porch next to a bag of Royal Oak Lump and tried to feed on the bar code. Silly hummingbird the feeders in its normal place in the garden. It was a very impromptu picture taken with her phone from a good ways back so not the clearest. Also if you look closely you can see 3 or 4 different spots where he pecked at the bar code. @MacKenzie I knew you would like this one.

So my husband and I stopped at a BBQ shop when we were on a trip and I picked up a couple of rubs- meat church's honey hog and john Henry's summer peach. I thought I'd do a side by side taste test along with my homemade rub as you can see I kept them straight by number of toothpicks overall, they are all good. I will use all of them. I was a little disappointed that my rib was in everyone's top two and has the most number one picks. However, I did like the peach a lot except I think it was stronger than I expected it to be. I'll use less next time. I also learned that I like ribs even without sauce.

Not exactly the same as trying to do "Black & Tans." Most sake bombs are made with Sapporo or other Japanese lagers.

Nothing new here today but I did do another sour dough loaf of bread with toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I used the Digi Q again it just works so well to get the whole KK to 450F.

Weekend with the Queen- success with brisket, bread, cheese tomato galette (thanks McKenzee!), squash caserole- all did great! Starting to fall in love...now if I can just get the rotisserie setup...

Wondered what cooks everyone has planned for the long weekend? I'm about 1/2 way into a 13# full brisket cook. Had it in a marinade for 2 days and put it on last night at 240F with a full smoke pot of coffee splits. The pic is at the 9 hour point. I separated the point from the flat, sprinkled more rub on the cut and put in back in. Will wrap the flat in butcher paper here in a couple of hours and let it soak. Taking the point to the black and crispy stage to make burnt ends.

Papa Del's inspired (NOT Chicago style) deep dish. A little more work to do on the crust, but the sauce is now spot on.

Ck, posted last night a delicious pasta dish and I just had to have one to eat today. Use some of the spaghetti I made a few days ago and added whatever I had that seem appropriate. Made a fresh tomato sauce, cut up some olives, and pimentos, more fresh off the vine tomatoes, sriracha sauce, three cheeses, etc. Ready for the grill. Thanks for the inspiration, ck.

What an amazing lunch. I put the butcher paper wrapped brisket in a cooler for 3 hours and just sliced it up.

Picanha burger Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

Howdy KKers! Here are pics of my smoke pot that I use while smoking in TheBeast. As you'll see, this little 2 qt Lodge Dutch Oven really won't fit well in Beauty!, my 19" Hi-Cap; she is too petite. When it comes to smoking meats, that is strictly within the purview of TheBeast, my KK BB 32". However, when you see the Lodge Dutch Oven smoke pot in the belly of TheBeast, you can see that it fits quite nicely even with a heat deflector in place. So, let's cut to the chase. Here is a bottom view of the drilled bottom. These are 1/8" holes drilled about every 1.25 inches around the perimeter of the DO. Here is the pot flipped over looking down inside the DO. Here is, hopefully, a better view of the hole pattern in the drilled DO. Now here is the DO smoke pot sitting on top of a full fire box in Beauty! As you can see there really isn't any room in Beauty! for the DO smoke pot and a heat deflector. Here is that same DO smoke pot sitting in the belly of TheBeast. Here is a look at the coffee wood i'll be using later today in a cook. This stuff is tremendous in conjunction with a coffee/cardamom rub. Finally, here is the DO smoke pot ready for action later in the day. Here is what you get at the end of every smoke. I just dump the charcoal back into the firebox for the next cook. There are not very many volatiles left so it makes good fuel. Waste not, want not. All I do before I put a cook on to smoke is move half of the heat deflector to one side, put the DO smoke pot directly over the lit charcoal and wiggle it to seat it well in the burning charcoal, move the heat deflector back into place, put the cooking grate back in place, put the cook on the grate and shut the lid. No waiting to thin blue smoke. It happens from the first instant you get smoke as the smoke generated by the DO smoke pot is injected directly down into the charcoal fire thus burning off all the foul tasting volatiles that you see in the initial gray smoke that is produced by laying the smoke wood directly on the coals. Now, what you may need to do is make certain that the cooks you smoke with this DO smoke pot is make certain that your cook, i.e. butt, brisket, ribs, etc., is really cold when you put it on the grate. Because this technique gives you a milder version of smoke at all times, your cook may not have the deep smoke taste many people want. You can combat that by cooling the meat your smoking thus doing a couple of things. First colder meat will condense more smoke on its surface for a longer period of time. Second, you may want to use woods that are not as sublime as alder, fruit woods, etc. Rather, look to hickory or mesquite. The originator of this little DO Smoke Pot runs a bead of flour paste around the rim of the DO and then puts the lid on. It seals the DO and forces all the smoke out the holes drilled in the bottom. I have not found the need to do that with this DO. I'd say about 95%+ of the smoke generated by this incarnation goes straight out through the holes in the bottom. I wasn't worth a damn with paste in the first grade and I haven't gotten any better with age! Finally, a disclaimer here. This IS NOT an idea that is original with me. Rather, I got this from a thread here at the KK Forum. And God help me, I can't find the original post where this smoke pot is described!. It originated with , I believe, @Syzygies, a KK owner and member of our Forum I'm certain most of you don't know that you know. Remember the movie "A Beautiful Mind"? I've been told by a reliable source that all the mathematical notion that you saw on chalk boards, windows, etc. is the work of our very own mathematician, i.e. @Syzygies, who came up with this technique. Who says mathematicians are out of touch and don't live in the real world!? This is about as real world as it gets! Syzygies, I give it up to you for this technique! It's aces. I owe you more than a couple of beers.