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After much waiting and anticipation, I finally got a crew together to move the KK out of my driveway! A local relative of mine has “a guy” for just about any service you could need, so when I had trouble getting a group of friends together on the same day, I went to her. The very next day she brought a man over to take a look at the KK and the path it needed to take, and the next morning he came back with his two sons to do the deed. It ended up taking almost 4 hours. Instead of leapfrogging on plywood through the whole yard, they took a pallet Jack and dragged the whole pallet onto the road and around the corner, so that it would be a straight shot to the side gate and the first set of not too steep stairs. That straight shot, with myself and the 2 sons pushing and the man pulling the jack, was pretty smooth. When we got to the stairs they constructed a ramp with some bricks, a couple 2x4s, and more plywood. Another round of pushing and the KK, pallet and all, was up the steps and through my side gate. I didn’t take any further progress photos, because that’s about where the simple parts of the process ended. From there, we needed to make a tight 90 degree turn, take it through an old playground set that came with the house, then approach the second, steeper set of steps at another tight angle, before pushing it up to its final destination. The plywood was still useful, but much harder to maneuver here due to the tight quarters. The approach to the tight turn into the stairs took several attempts, because one wheel of the pallet jack kept coming off the plywood platforms and getting stuck. Perseverance paid off, and we were finally in the home stretch, the big push up the steps. Again with three pushers and one puller, we went for it. Once, twice, three times we pushed, making a little progress each time. As the first wheel of the jack finally crested the top, the pallet itself stopped, having hit the lip of the step due to uneven elevation. We tried again, same result. We tried using 2x4s as levers to elevate particular corners of the pallet and get it over the hump. No luck. Eventually we carefully rolled the kk back down the ramp to strategize. The stairs were out unless we could get at least a couple more sets of hands. Instead, my crew suggested an alternate approach: remove the quarter-wall of decking next to the stairs, smooth out the dirt to form a hill, and roll it up that until it stands even with the concrete pad, and then roll it right over. Pretty soon there were scraps of wood everywhere and one less section of decking in my back yard. Those wood scraps became shovels to take out the sharp elevation difference in the dirt on either side, and then the plywood came back out. We needed to do some creative maneuvering to get one of our 2x4 levers out from under the pallet where it had gotten stuck, and then it was time to push again. Again we got close, but had to reinforce the top of the ramp with more bricks. Finally, another round of pushing and we made it to the concrete pad where my KK will sit until the end of time, because I swear if I have to move this thing again I will go insane. Photos attached (including up to the present, when I am lighting her up for the first time). One final note. You might be thinking “why use a pallet jack when the KK itself is quite maneuverable?” And you should be. I am convinced the job would have been much easier without the jack, which got stuck on ever lip and corner and tight turn. But I wasn’t going to tell that to the generous men who spent their morning toiling with me.

Congratulations !!!!!!!! You have excellent taste in KK’s. You got the best color and style of tiles. Everyone knows blue tiles cook the best food 😀

I didn’t end up firing up the KK until about 6:00 last night. I fiddled with it for several hours trying different vent settings and seeing where they put me temp-wise before bringing it up to burn-in temperature. A few hours there and decided to do the all-important First Cook before shutting the vents down. At this point it was about 2:30 am and I was struggling to stay awake. It sure was delicious though. I did have one scare when I looked at the probe I was using to monitor grate temp from inside was showing 600+. I ran outside only to realize the dome temperature hadn’t budged. The fire had simply shifted to right below the probe so it was getting direct heat. Photos are the coal basket just before closing the lid, after about 35 minutes, after 2 hours, after 4ish hours, and finally The Cook.

So I did the normal prep - dry and leave in the fridge for ~24 hours. Just before cooking, I seasoned with some olive oil, baking powder and salt. Cooked on the rotisserie at 300f for about 4 hours until my internal temp was about 170f and the meat was probing pretty tender. Removed and covered loosely with foil. Cranked the grill to about 500f and finished it for 15 minutes to allow the crackle to form. I did move a few coals directly below, but the heat caused a bit of charing. Come out great - but forgot the photos sorry Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

Super Bowl Sunday tradition. Going on 20+ years now. Pulled pork served on Hawaiian rolls and homemade coleslaw. Marinated in mustard and rub for 3 days then smoked for 15 hours. Let it rest 90 minutes then spritzed with apple juice, dusted with brown sugar, hit with rub again and slathered in siracha and finished under the broiler to crisp it up With Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce

@C6Bill - you can always serve the beans "on the side" and let folks put them in their bowl with the chili, if they so choose. That's a totally acceptable alternative, just like some folks like to add cheese, onions, sour cream, etc. to their bowl of red. Everyone gets what they like, while still preserving the actual chili for the purists. Just a suggestion.

Well the brisket was done in 11 hours so it went in the cooler for a few hours. I got up at 5 AM today and started the chili, and it was a great chili until I put beans in it lol My lady friend likes beans in it so she gets beans in it. It’s the least I can do as we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day tomorrow And @tyrus there is no dry part of my brisket. And this is a large batch so 90% of that brisket is in the pot 😀 Happy Valentines Day everyone !!!!!!

A great story of perseverance!

Tyrus, most Texans and most CASI (competitive) chili cooks would say that chili with anything but meat (in other words, no beans) in it is not really "chili". It might be something, and it might be something good to eat, but it is not really "chili". Chili is meat, spices, broth or water, and maybe some tomato sauce or paste. No beans. And if it is made with chicken or turkey or beans/vegetables, it is not "chili". Not that the others can't be good to eat, no one is saying that. Tony, you're right, Penzey's also has generally very high quality spices. Pendery's my go-to, though. For a commercial chili blend, I still think Gebhardt's, a very old brand, is the best.

Tried this new pulled pork technique with fantastic results. Smokey, moist without being watery, incredible flavor throughout so much so putting sauce on it wasn’t necessary. The video is below. I used 250 ambient temp at the meat. Once wrapped with Leaf Lard as per the video, increased temp to 300. Just follow the instructions in the video for the best pulled pork you’ve ever tasted.