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As you may have heard, we have recently emerged from the world's longest COVID lockdown here in Melbourne... so finally had a chance to invite family over for some BBQ; first opportunity despite having the KK for almost 6 months. Put on a brisket (meat church holy cow, 300F, 7hrs, 2hr rest) and a couple of racks of pork ribs (home made rub)- served up with some buns, tortillas, coleslaw, smoked salsa, espresso BBQ sauce and horseradish cream. Great success!

It is pitch dark here by 5:30PM but that is not going to stop me from lighting the KK for dinner. Never say die. Chicken thighs were marinated in yogurt and spices for the afternoon for this evening's cook.

In my fantasy world I would make fresh pasta every week. It is so simple, and therapeutic, to get your flour and eggs on the table, knead them and turn them into beautiful home made dishes. That said, it is messy and time consuming and it is much faster to open a packet or grill a steak. Only two bits of advice from me: 1) don't go hand cranked. It is so much easier to have an electric roller helping you. Leaves you with two hands free to handle the pasta. I went to my local Kenwood outlet store and got the roller and cutter attachments at a good price. 2) find a local class with someone who has made a lot of pasta in their life. Having them show you how easy it all is and the tricks for particular types of pasta is worth a lot in time spent on trial and error on your own. Above all, have fun!

Congratulations @remi it must feel great to see your family and serve them a delicious meal like that. Well done

Nice one Remi! Great to share BBQ - it's what it's all about! @MacKenzie - stellar, as always!! It's getting dark early enough now that I have to use my portable light on the KK.

I don't know if you have ordered yet @EggheadRalphbut I wanted to update. Here's the reason to buy a 42. Check out this real estate inside. I bought 2 pork butts. One that I'm doing as just pulled pork BBQ and the other I am doing "Tacos Al Pastor". The smaller chunk of shoulder is the remainder / the portion I'm not using for Al Pastor on the 2nd pork butt. Check out how much real estate this thing has. I opened the grill up to test the pan I want to use for Al Pastor tonight. The thing will fit in here lengthwise! And I've only used 2/3 of the room - I still have room to get all the way down to the firebox if I need to reload. Note I don't even have the lower grate on so I can just get directly to the firebox. Anyway, I'm personally glad I got the 42. Once all this lower temp stuff is done later, I'm going to put the lower grid right down above that fire and grill some chicken and vac seal for the week ahead. But in fact, I could grill at the same time as smoking if I wanted to (I just don't want to open the lid that often). Anyway - talk about versatility. The 42SBB is the ultimate in versatility and space. And it's an awesome smoker. Can't wait to taste the food tonight, the al pastor and the pulled pork! As far as the charcoal usage for this cook, I am using the basket splitter 50/50, charcoal only on the left side. I have only loaded it with about 8lbs and I don't think I'm going to have to add any. I burned so much my first weekend b/c I ran it at 500 a very long time. It's not 3x what your big green egg uses, it's more like 2x, and you get at least 5x the room. Amazing machine this thing is.

Great way to celebrate the end of lockdown @remi

Hot and fast pork butt - 5.5 hours at 350° with hickory pellets in both the small MSR smoke pot and the KK cold smoker. Like the last butt i cooked, this one didn't stall - that's two turbo butts in a row. Both were bought at the same time.

I have the hand crank version and thought that's not too bad why would I need electric. Then I bought the electric pasta version for my Ankarsrum mixer and now I know why I needed electric. It is so much easier and as tekobo mentioned you now have 2 free hands.

Just two flat sheets of pasta, dollops of filling on the first sheet, wet slightly between the dollops, lay the second sheet on top, press and cut apart. Then cross your fingers that the pockets don't come apart when boiling.

Update after having leftovers tonight: After a quick reheat via microwave, the butt has a nice light smoke flavor but still not what I expect or want on my butts, so some improvement over previous attempts but still much lighter than i want.