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This will be seriously pic heavy. The challenge over on the guru is to do a homemade BBQ.....in which every component has to be homemade. So this was a three day process and culminated in a very successful get together last evening. It was my last big cook before school starts again. So after shopping at 4 different stores I got to starting on my rubs for pork butt and brisket. Pork butt rub ingredients Brisket rub ingredients You may notice that I included Tasmanian pepper berries (in ample quantities) for both rubs...this was new for me. After preparing the rubs, I got to trimming and then seasoning the pork butt and brisket and then these babies went into the fridge for 24 hours Meanwhile after cleaning up I started boiling potatoes for my recently invented potato salad recipe. I assembled the ingredients... It is a highly herbaceous and garlic tasting potato salad, the perfect counterpart to a variety of grilled meats. I also sub a part of the mayo for extra virgin olive oil to make it that much lighter After all the chopping and the potatoes are done, I cooled the potatoes with ice then sliced them and mixed them together. it looks like regular potato salad, but trust me the taste is dramatically different. This was the thing that I got the most accolades for (well.... Other than the cake. But I invented the potatoes and Stella parks invented the cake) Then I set to making a simple coleslaw dressing. Then I fed my sourdough started the night before.... And lit my KK so it would be ready to go first thing in the morning. In the morning I got my smoke pot going with two large chunks of pecan and then added my meat to the main grate. I was thrilled that they both fit without having to use multiple grates... And shocked. Then I got to working on my sauces(and feeding the starter more) I started with brisket sauce which is from Aaron Franklin's book and in my opinion is the only sauce that is acceptable on brisket. All others are just gross. The only change is that I used liquid amino in place of worchestershire which I had done before and knew turned out great. After all ingredients were measured out you basically stir together and simmer just to meld the flavors. Then I got to making the hot vinegar sauce which is my preferred style of sauce for pulled pork. This sauce is just mixed, not cooked. Then I got to the cake. OK small fact you will all thank me for. I got Bravetart by Stella parks for mothers day and have been cooking through it this summer A LOT. I have made cherry pie, blueberry pie, key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, dark chocolate cream pie, yellow cake with fudge frosting cake, this chocolate cake (and the English muffins) and they have all be fabulous, I mean really really good. I'm not so into the gimmicky things like homemade oreos and I made her scones and chocolate chops cookies that were pretty good, but not like her cakes and pies. Her cakes and pies are so flippen good. If you like to bake sweets you NEED this book. I have made this chocolate cake 3 times this summer. Anyway, you start with the frosting which is the easiest thing here are the ingredients Yes, heavy cream and milk Chocolate. Heat up the heavy cream while chopping the chocolate. I used the food processer and saved my fingers this time. Then pour the super hot cream over the chocolate in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer and stir until smooth. Then cover and stick in the fridge... You will whip it after about 6 hrs in the fridge Then I assembled the rest of the ingredients for the cake itself. I had to go flip the meats at 2 hrs. Cooking time (oh yeah and spraying every 30 minutes) so I neglected to take the would be riveting pictures of the cake batter.... But I have proof I flipped my meats! And then of course, here are the cakes cooling Then I got to slicing and grating for the coleslaw Of course I didn't toss with the dressing until about an hour before party time. Meanwhile I was working on my sourdough bread. Assembled all the ingredients. and set for the first rise. Then I went about checking the meat and got ready to wrap This was actually the first time I tried this method with pork butt to see if I could get more consistency in cooking time. (Spoiler alert... It worked) Then put the bread into the loaf pans and waited for their second rise. After about an hour we were ready to bake. I don't think I can over state hoe much my family loves this bread. Then I got to whipping the frosting for the chocolate cake. And decorating.... Yes I know my cake decorating skills aren't the best but I'm practicing and it tastes amazing. Very shortly before guests arrived I planned to do something different. Well different for me... I'm ALMOST a non drinker, but I decided to batch make a cocktail that made use of all of the beautiful limes on my tree and found a great recipe. Into the blender.. After this was blended more water and a cup and a half of vodka was added. This was a super good summer drink, and I'd definitely make it for gatherings again. After guests arrived, had a drink and a few snacks. Then I unveiled the pulled pork. Shredded the pork, sliced the brisket and set everything out. This was my plate with each meat with the appropriate sauce. This was a huge success. I didn't take pics of the cake sliced (I was busy and sticky!) but everyone was raving. One of my friends texted me as soon as she got home that it was the best food of her life LOL. I wouldn't go that far but it was a dang good dinner. I probably wouldnt have done another big BBQ right before going back to work if it weren't for this challenge, so it was good to have friends and family over again.

For my recent birthday Mrs skreef got me this book. The begining is a section about WFO's in general, different tools needed, how to fire the oven and fire management for 5 different cooking scenarios. It's a pretty good section.  The rest of the book is a WFO cook book. It takes the stance that everything can be cooked in a WFO. While I agree most everything can be cooked in a WFO, the question stands. Should it be? In my opion not everything cooked in a WFO will produce optimum results. There are other grills that do some cooks better. With that said there is a bunch of tasty looking/sounding recipes in this cook book and some should work well in a WFO. Today I decided to explore that a bit. Some of this is an actual recipe while some is just a concept with my own recipe. Zucchini and Squash Gratin. Baked wild Alaskan salmon. Crab stuffed monster shrimp. Baked sweet potatoes. Dinner is served and it was a good one. The star of the show was the zucchini and Squash gratin which I'll definitely do again.

We found some prime NY strips on sale for 9.99 lb. Cooked at around 240 until ~125 in the center and then cranked up the kk to put a nice sear.

My wife and I had some friends down this weekend and I like to show off my talents. I cold smoke some bacon with coffee wood for 8hrs and finished it this morning at 215 degrees with some bourbon and merlot barrel chunks that I will be using for eggs Benedict tomorrow morning. Then moved on to finishing up my 80% biga that I started last night. The main course was Cornish game hens spun over some Brussels sprouts with garlic and shallots. I rubbed everything down with purple crack and herbs de Provence. The only potatoes my wife let’s me make now are Yukon mashed with chives, sour cream and horseradish. We washed everything down with a bottle of wollersheim winery prairie fume. For dessert I made sous vide vanilla Creme brûlée with grilled peaches soaked in calvados.

Nice job, Reefs! Those shrimp looks amazing!

Ha! Yes I can see some others have started this quest just like I am now! Im one of those that does TONS of research, and I’m utterly convinced there is nothing better, period. Going to start squirreling $$ away now :)

So to add to this pic I was going to do a picanha but my butcher was out but had heaps of Tri Tip ,so I decided to spin one cleaned one up I did not want the fat on this cook .. Gave it some purple Crack. . And some Santa Maria. .had an empty container of Twisted Q.@ckreef. Lol. Fits perfect in the package so I know what it is lol. . Set up Ora for a spin. . And on it goes. . I wanted to make up a Brazilian farofa but could not find any manoic flour or plantains. But looking up some recipes someone described manoic flour being like bread crumbs so because this is just soaking up the juices I decided to use panko. As for the plantains i like munching on these at work have a nice sweetness. . .got the bacon going in some butter..added the apple.. Some more butter and onion.. Then the panko. .mixed it all up.. Then made up a chimchurri sauce. . .I bought two tips decide to vaccum seal one in some chimchurri sause for another cook tomorrow. . Tip is looking good. .resting. . And carved. .I put some flat bread under the grill ..spread on some chimchurri sauce. .and plated with my take on Farofa which turned out terrific the panko done it's job of soaking up all the bacon fat and butter and the apples shined through. .and I made a mess can't take me anywhere. Lol. Outback kamado Bar and Grill

It was fun and definitely tasty. Worked on a house project for a few hours this morning than relaxed on the porch while the WFO was heating up. Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Today started with a very simple objective, make my first batch of basil pesto. I have a bumper crop of basil this year, first time ever. Thought I'd have an easy day, pesto, no big deal. This looks interesting, I have to taste it, but I don't have any spaghetti in the house. Guess I have to make some since I really do want to taste it on something. If it's good, then I'll make more and freeze it for the winter. Homemade spaghetti spinning in the pot. Add a little of the pasta water to thin the pesto a little. Plated with some previously KK grilled meatballs. Today I just warmed them up and put a rack on top of the SoloStove and got the outside of the meatballs a little crispy. It was delicious and now I'm up for making a lot more pesto. Say GOODBYE to that store bought pesto.

I am very pleased to report a rousing success all around. I wrapped the brisket about 1 am when it hit 160 F, and pulled it off the KK at 203 F around 7 am. It went faster than I expected (about 11 hours at grill temp 215 F overnight) but that was good. I wrapped it in a towel and placed it in a warm cooler. We ate it for lunch, with a homemade Texas style sauce on the side, with fresh fruit (plums and tangerines) and angel hair coleslaw. It was delicious, juicy, and tender. There was almost no bark, and I like bark, but there were also no overdone areas. It was so tender we cut it with a fork. No one at the table used a knife. My son in law said it was better than the brisket he had at bbq joints in Alabama and Texas. Even our 4 year old granddaughter cleared her plate. I also made a cake for Carla's birthday - fudge cake with chocolate butter cream frosting. The pork was done about 3 pm. I pulled one butt for freezing in bags, and we ate the other for supper, along with more of the brisket, which was still juicy and tender. Great day, thanks for all the help and encouragement.

A good American biscuit goes with just about everything-bacon and egg, ham, buttered, honey, gravy, I think I could go on for a while.

Now you are confusing me. I was getting used to the idea that an American biscuit was for savoury stuff and that was the difference between them and English scones. This looks like a scone, probably tastes like a scone and...is a scone??? Whatever, they look tasty!

Found an interesting, zero waste approach to starter maintenance called No Muss No Fuss. My NMNF stiff starter is on the left, and my levain build on the right: Where there is levain there must be bread. Here’s my steam oven doing what it does...steaming. 40’ish minutes later: And the crumb...nigh upon perfect: And with that post I bid adieu for awhile. Every so often I take stock of how I’m spending time online and make corrections, reducing or eliminating participation on various sites. This time around I’ve deleted FakeBook and am reducing my forum footprint. Will continue posting cooks at Amazing Ribs and on Instagram with the #komodokamado hashtag (or follow me directly at @dr_jpr if you dare...), but reducing other BBQ forums as redundant.

@MacKenzie - I also have a bumper crop of basil going this year, so I'll be putting up some pesto as well. I like to swap out the pine nuts for pistachios in mine. Steve - excellent steak cook!

Ooooh. That looks lovely Steve M. I think you have helped me decide on dinner for tonight. Steak, beans and chips. Yum.

Knocked that one out of the park, Aussie! Had a buddy come to town for the annual golf outing. We always do it up on Friday night. This year was local corn on the cob, twice baked spuds and a 2 1/2 lb grass fed cowboy ribeye, with a side of sautéed mushrooms and chimichurri sauce. Lots of adult beverages were consumed before bedtime - ha, ha! Cooked the ribeye sous vide for 3 hours @ 130F. Then finished on the lower grate after I roasted the corn. Spuds were done in the air fryer. Only 1 pic of the platter before we devoured it! (I'd de-boned the steak before plating, since I was going to slice it for service.)

The zucchini and Squash gratin was good enough to go into regular rotation. Plus could just as easily be cooked in a kamado. Win, win.

Killing it mate like you always do Outback kamado Bar and Grill

That looks seriously yummy @MacKenzie!

Nice! I like pesto quite a bit.

I make the peaches with a bit of oil for the grilling. I then do the balsamic like you but add fresh mint leaf sprinkled on top to finish. It adds a really nice depth to the peach. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Keep on rocking til you find your KK. Ultimately you might have to plan to break down and buy a new one. Start the piggybank now.

Someone with one of his pos’s with missing tiles and cracked bodies should post a pic Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

LOL - he's calling it ugly? Survival of the best and you're still around and growing. If I had the money I'd buy a 42" just so I could use it once or twice a year for a whole hog. I already told Mrs skreef it's coming one day. And this is coming from the small kamado king - LOL

Yes, thanks @tony b I’ve been in touch with Dozer who’s been very generous with his replies. He already sold, his buyer got a great kit! I’m a sucker for the pebble tiles. Not to mention the table and everything he included! It’s exactly what I’m on the hunt for. This search is reinvigorating my cooking. Smoking a pork butt on my MiniMax today and cooking up some mojo chicken and carne asada for a birthday party later today. Also started some pork belly on cure for some bacon in 10 days ;)

And so it begins. I put the brisket on a little while ago after a rub and injection. I think I will wrap it at 160 F, whenever that is, then return it to KK with a target temp of about 203, or sooner if it jiggles. Hopefully it will be tasty and tender. I appreciate all the help. I also put a couple of Boston Butts on with it because...... Wait, does there have to be a reason?

Well no sausage but previously grilled chicken and gravy.

Nice looking biscuits, MacKenzie! Only thing missing is the sausage gravy!

Whatever I made they were good- although my cream of tartar is decades old so I'd like to make the recipe with fresh. I think they might puff up even more. The pan does a nice job on the bottom, it was the same colour as the top. These biscuits are made with 1/2 C of butter so I don't think I needed to add more.

I am making sous vide Creme brûlée this weekend for some friends and I am going to grill some peaches for the top of them. I’ll post some Picts if they turn out well, if not I’ll keep quiet and act like nothing happened.

Pulled Pork buns. For bread in a WFO it's all about timing your fire management with the dough proofing time. Getting better at that. You want a small bed of coals at the most relying mainly on residual heat. 400* happened just as the buns had 1 hour proof time.