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Hi KKers! Well, I finally got around to remembering to snap a few pics of a cook. Now this is my take on the old beer can burger cook that has been done a million times. HOWEVER, my twist is on the meat side, the filling side, and the beer side. First the meat: This was a 50/50 mix of 90/10 burger grind and a local spicy breakfast sausage. It turned out a corking good vessel for the delivery of the stuffing. Second the stuffing: This was a mixture of sautéed diced sweet onions, green bell peppers, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, capers, and Chevrai (local fresh goat cheese). I helped a friend do some peppered bacon about 3 weeks back and that's what I used to surround the burgers. For the beer component, I soused the Chef with some world class beer ... Delirium Tremens and Delirium Nocturnum. I can highly recommend both. They helped form the cups in the burgers with the filling. This was a really tasty cook and my company for the evening, a beautiful young lady, was really impressed with my culinary expertise. I wasn't about to tell her otherwise and that this was a throw-together quickie! Here are a few pics. The beer: And the star of the show: Sorry about the oblong picture, Dennis but I wanted to get in the KK at the bottom of the pic and I forgot about the new format. Next time. These were really good according to my company! Enjoy!

Howdy KKers! Below are just a couple of simple, quick cooks done recently here at ChezChef. Hope you enjoy! First are spiral cut jalapeño sausages and hot links smother in chili, cheese, a few chopped onions, garnished with Fritos, Franks Hot Sauce, and LandShark Lager. Wonderful meal. Now for the healthy choice, hamburger steak, salad, Brussels Sprouts, and last summer's corn. A sumptuous repast each and every one! Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend!

Howdy KKers! Today was one of those days. I decided some comfort food was in order and I didn't want to go to great lengths to get it. I had some ham steaks in the refrigerator from a hog that my brother and i bought and custom butchered. So I decided that nothing would taste much better than breakfast for dinner. The ham steaks had not been cured, so the first thing I had to do was lay some smoke on them. I chose hickory. Here are the ham steaks right out of the cryovac packaging and on the KK's grate. You can see some hickory smoke wafting over the steaks. Here the steaks are after about 30 minutes on smoke with a grate temp of 225F. Another 15 minutes on smoke and these bad boys are ready for for the eggs to meet the pork. [NOTE: I took the hickory wood out of the KK as I don't really like smoked eggs. Eggs soak up smoke in a BIG hurry!] A few minutes later and here is dinner, ready to plate! And another shot before plating. Finally, here is the money shot. Ham and eggs, breakfast for dinner! You can see Pete The Salt Pig's feet at the top of the picture. He chose for obvious reasons not to participate in this evening's cook! This was a simple little cook that was really quite tasty. The ham steaks were about 45 minutes on hickory smoke and were delicious. The eggs didn't take more than about 7 minutes to cook. I'll do this cook again simply because it is so simple to do, no cleanup to speak of, and its great comfort food. Thanks for looking! Have a happy and safe 4th of July holiday! Happy Birthday, America!

Posted Today, 06:02 PM Howdy KKers! So last evening was a nice night to try a cook that I only do occasionally ... planked salmon. I found these Canadian Sugar Maple planks at the local BBQ Speciality Shop and they were on sale ... at $14.95! I'm a sucker and got a package as I had a nice couple of pieces of salmon marinating in an olive oil, garlic, a tad bit of lemon juice, red pepper flakes, etc. Here is that cook. I soaked the planks about 2 hours as prescribed on the packaging and here it is going on the grate. This picture shows the salmon placed on the plank after the plank had heated for about 45 minutes and was flipped. I decided to use the marinade and poured it on top of the salmon. Here is a top view immediately the salmon went on the plank. This is a shot of the salmon right before I pulled it. Now the table shots ... This is a salad a Friend made for me; her's was about a third this size! Pete The Salt Pig likes seeing me eat salad instead of his kin! Here are a couple of money shots. This was a really nice cook. I'm a big fan os fish and I'll cook fish just about any way you can imagine. In every previous cook, I've always tossed the plank but this time the Canadian Sugar Maple came through the cook in great shape. I washed it off and put it back on the grate to sanitize and dry at the direction of the guys at the BBQ Speciality Store. We'll see how that works out. Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July Holiday. Please don't drink and drive!

Howdy KK Cookers! Last night I did something a little unusual and thought I'd share with you good cooks. I had a pineapple sitting on the counter that needed to be sliced and used. I also had a couple of pork loin chops that I needed to cook. So, knowing that pork and pineapple go together well, I did the following. I sliced off the sides of the pineapple and laid out my pork chops on them, covered both sides with a little butt rub, and tied everything together with butchers' string. All trussed up and ready to put on Beauty! my 19" KK. On Beauty! @ 400F with a nice FOGO fire in the KK. Temps were rock steady at 400F the entire time of the cook ... about 40 minutes. Here are the pineapple pork chops after about 40 minutes @ 400F. Just a slight char of the strings which never really threatened to burn. After about 40 minutes the pork loin IT was 135. Dadgummit, I let the temps get away from me. I was looking for about and IT of 120-125F. The lesson learned was that the pineapple didn't provide much insulation and the pineapple pork loins cooked much quicker than I anticipated. Next time I'll reduce the heat in Beauty! to about 300-325F and not be in a rush to head out to a meeting up at church. Here's a pic of the pork loin that has been pulled and untrussed. The pork loin here is essentially cooked through and through. So, even though the pork loin was cooked, I decided to finish the reverse sear and let them rest. The pork IT going back on Beauty! was 120F and Beauty was rocking along at 550F. Here are the pork chops on Beauty! right before I pulled them to let them rest and plate. Here are the pork loin chops on the cutting board with a final IT of 140F. And finally here are the pork loins slides open. and ready to plate. There are s few tips that I would pass on after this cook. First, the pork loin chops should have been marinated in a solution of pineapple juice, soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, and a little crushed black pepper. Second, I mistakenly thought that the pineapple skin slices would provide more insulation than they did. Third, running Beauty! at 400F was an attempt to hurry the process along; future cooks of this type should be done between 300-350F. The pork loin chops were tasty, not as juicy as I like, and you could taste a slight flavor of pineapple. Marinating the pork in the above marinade would have helped the flavor. I also think that I'll score the pineapple flesh that comes in contact with the pork to insure a better pineapple flavor. All in all, this cook, while interesting and tasty, could have been much better if I had not tried to do so much in such a compressed time frame as I allowed. This was my first time doing this cook and I should have known to leave some slack in the rope. Thanks for looking.

Dear MacKenzie - you wanted meager, here it is, especially for you! I wouldn't want you to feel cheated! Ok, let's set the record straight. In my previous post, some of you thought I eat like a king or that my definition of "meager" was a little skewed. Yes, I did cook all that food, but I purposefully left out the merely prosaic. Nothing could be further from the truth. How many burger, brats, and dawg cooks can you look at before you doze off. But just to prove a point here are more of the everyday cooks here at ChezChef. So, without further ado, here is my homage to the Merely Meager Cooks here at ChezChef! Some Juicy Lucies Pulled pork on TheBeast Pulled pork It doesn't get any more common that pulled pork and corn chips Here are the burgers, brats, and dawgs Here's something for the waistline More burgers and brats on TheBeast And comfort food ... the humble chicken pot pie Ready to serve See? There really isn't a big production every evening here at ChezChef! Thanks for looking (again).

Howdy KKers - I've seen so many really wonderful cooks documented by Wilbur, MavKenzie, ckreef, and a whole host of others that I've got to post a few of my meager cooks. I've done all these since I returned from my various trips. I'm not much on verbiage, I'll just let the pics speak for themselves. it may take a few posts to get all this in, but ... Quiche Roasted yard Bird and corn FOGO One HUGE pan of lasagna Lasagna plated Smoked & Stuffed pork chops Stuffed Pork Chops plated Grilled salmon Plated Salmon More to follow soon.

Here are a few pics I found kind of nice. This right before the sear. Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful weekend.

Hi Dennis! I just got back in town from an extended trip, first to Houston and then to Australia. Over the course of this trip, I had absolutely no access to my KKs, Beauty! & TheBeast. Talk about going through withdrawal! All I had to cook on we're friends cheap gassers, stick burners, the odd kettle, and a kamado that was a hideous color of green and just another Joe kind of kamado. During my travels (or travails, if you will) I cooked a lot of good food for my hosts, and I did it on their equipment. Dennis, I'd frankly grown complacent cooking on my KKs. Familiarity does tend to breed complacency. Your KKs are just too good and make cooking way too easy and enjoyable. I've always said that the KK experience is very tacit in nature. Everything about the KK is uncompromised. And you get used to that in a big hurry. You get used to uncompromised excellence at every turn. And as the saying goes, "You don't know what you have 'til it's gone!" I certainly didn't realize how deep your design thinking went until I had to use something else to cook. Look, I'm not even going to talk about the differences between gassers, stick burners, kettles etc. those cooks can't haul water for the KK. The differences are stunning. Trying to cook ribs in those cookers is real work! Mopping, spritzing, temp control, having to reload fuels, etc. is just too dadgummed much work! Let's not even talk about the restrictions on the types of cooks you can do. Pizza is generally out of the question and who wants that!? Let's not even talk about breads, deserts, etc. The KKs that you've designed are exceptional in the depth of analysis and attention to detail you've poured into each model. And we who use the KK get so used to so much we take a lot of the whole experience for granted. It might be that our purchase decisions are based on the KK reputation. From the top vent to the casters, the KK never disappoints. In fact it always exceeds expectations. Take the top hat vent on a KK. First, compared to other vents which are monkey see, monkey do, the KK top vent is remarkable. It's gorgeous; the other vents are just butt ugly in comparison. A detail of the KK top vent too often overlooked is the square threads. Those threads solve a host of problems other kamados build in. That square threaded KK top vent doesn't change position when the lid is raised. I've never had a KK top vent jamb shut. Other kamado makers don't even want to go there. Let's not even begin the differences in temperature control because the KK top vent is so good. I also don't have to jury rig something to fit over my top vent so I can cook in a driving Oklahoma thunderstorm! Take the hinge on any KK and compare it to hinges on other kamados. Talk about the difference between chicken salad and chicken crap! Dennis, as you know I've had experience on kamados ranging from the least expensive pos you can buy, to BGEs, KJs, and Primos. The hinge systems on every single one of those kamados isn't even in the same league as the KK hinge. With a KK all you do is pop the front latch and the lid majestically raises to fully open all by itself. That has never happened with those other lids. Never! The KK hinge is rock solid. It's not rickety, it never lets the lid slam shut! OUCH! I know of guys who have owned those other kamados and the lids shattered they slammed shut so hard. The KK hinge system so perfectly balances its heavy lid that every woman who has every been around my 32", TheBeast, was able to open the lid with two fingers and absolutely no effort whatsoever. That never happened on my other kamados. Your gaskets are simply genius. Food grade silicone! Why doesn't any other kamado manufacturer use this type of gasket material! Why do they cheapen their product with those stupid felt gaskets that burn so easily, get grease soaked so readily, that pull apart so readily in cold weather? Why do they build problems into their kamados? Again, your deep thought did away with problems from the onset simply by specifying a better gasket. Again, uncompromised excellence! The firebox on the KK is something special. Refractory. Two piece. No broken fire bowls in a KK as is all too common on every ceramic I know of. As you say, "You can't get away from the physics of it!" but it's absolutely true and you'd think the other manufacturers would take a page from your KK book! Replacement cost have got to be killing them! And speaking of refractory, I've gotta tell you how much I appreciate that choice. I was cooking pizza on a ceramic down in Houston and burned the ever living daylights out of my kneecap when my bare leg hit the side of kamado during a 700° pizza cook. That has never happened with my KKs because of the superior insulating capabilities of your unique refractory. The way the KK handles airflow is something few of us think about. Dennis, you've obviously put an incredible amount of thought into such a subtle process. You've designed the KK to force all airflow through the lump pile. The others haven't. Now that may not sound like much to some, but to me it is the pinnacle of the KK. This simple little fact translates to more advantages than might be readily apparent. First, our KKs get up to temp in a BIG hurry! That means a lot to those of us who want to do a quick cook on a weekday evening. The KK firebox divider works in concert with the airflow capabilities and directs all the air thought the lump pile. Again, it's all about efficiency. Further, the divider allows for a couple of different configurations and again, we're talking about efficiency. The fact that the KK is more efficient in its use of air means less airflow through the cooker and that translates to cooks that are, ceterus paribus, more moist! When you consider the air control dual dial manifold, one really begins to understand how deep your thought processes really are. Those two dials changed the way I looked at airflow, temperature control, and cookin in a kamado. Nobody has anything remotely like it. You couple that air control manifold with the infinitely adjustable top hat vent and you've got a kamado that lends itself to really low temp smoking that even the best conventional kamados can't match. Low air flow equates to longer than normal residence times for the smoke component. Again, the hallmark of the KK, efficiency, come to the forefront. I could rave about your air control system and it's dynamic because I'm an engineer by training, but most folks don't care to get that deep in the weeds! all I'm going to say is that there isn't another kamado on the market as well engineered from an airflow perspective and kamado cooking is all about controlling airflow. That's a simple and undeniable fact. Being away from Beauty! & TheBeast for almost two months was bad enough. Being forced to cook on a host of other cookers compounded the pain. BUT (there is always a but, right?!) cooking on those other kamados again, gave me a real perspective of the KK that I came to take for granted in the year plus that I've had my KKs. Until recently, I was a real fan of the KK for its ease of use and the stunning results it produces. I could go on and on because while you're sitting up tending a fire at 3:00 AM there is a lot to do but think and drink fine bourbon! I examined your designs through an engineer's lens and I came to the conclusion that the KK is the most over engineered Kamado in the world! Now I understand your design so much more. And what amazes me is that you've had not one iota of formal engineering training is some very sublime subject like fluid mechanics and heat transfer! I've rambled on and on here, probably much longer than I should have, but if you're a potential KK customer, what are you waiting for? Nothing comes close to the KK on every dimension you can imagine. The KK is uncompromised excellence in every area. A KK must be experienced because mere words will never do the KK justice. Call Dennis. Get a KK. Enjoy life as never before! Thanks for reading this tome.

Hi Friends! Just returned from a few days out in Colorado Springs. I was just ahead of the snow out there ... always a good thing! Before I left, I went to Williams-Sonoma looking for wedding gifts for my Niece. She was getting married at the Air Force Academy Chapel. Beautiful wedding. While there I stumbled across a new, at least to me, burger press. Now understand that I am mostly absolutely unimpressed with the vast majority of burger presses I've see. TO my mind, they are just too flimsy to turn out really good burgers. I love a good burger and because most burger presses are so flimsy, they just ruin a burger. So what to my wondering eye should appear? A REALLY SUBSTANTIAL BURGER PRESS! It was substantial, made from cast aluminum. Even better, it was ON SALE for a mere $20! AT W-S that's a steal! So without further adieu, here it is. The front and back of the box: Now here is a side view of the press. Notice the set screw that allows for a really nice assortment of burger thicknesses. Here is the press in its open position. Now I decided to use some parchment paper on top and bottom to insure that meat particles didn't get trapped in the press. It just makes cleanup easier. So here is the press set up to make its first burger. And here is the finished product showing the burger pressed between the parchment papers. This is a picture of the finished burger. Perfection itself! I made 4 perfect 1/3 pound burgers in just seconds. Nothing has ever been easier! Here I am ready to put the burgers on Beauty! my 19" Hi-Cap. Notice that I am taking precautions to remain well hydrated! And here are the perfect burgers on the main grate of Beauty! These burgers grilled to a perfect MR/M without getting thick in the middle. They were absolutely perfect. Sorry, no money shot, but you get the point. This burger press is really a bargain at $20. I think of all the flimsy plastic presses I've spent much more money on and just tossed in the trash and I could buy everyone here a press just like this for Christmas! Unfortunately I can't do that because I went back the next day and they were all gone! Damn the luck anyway! When all is said and done, if there is a W-S near you, you might want to run by and see of you can get one of these is you like really good burgers.

I had my nephew Shaun over for dinner this evening. He just finished pilot training down in San Antonio after graduating from The United States Air Force Academy last May. He's staying with my brother, the one who lives about 100 yards down the road. You know him, he's the BBQ Mooch who has recycled the same bag of chips for the last nine months! So I decided to use up a Tri-Tip that I'd had in the refrigerator. I also decided to give Shaun a taste treat ... he's a bachelor. I found out today that all he eats every evening is steak, generally NY Strips. So, I'm thinking it time to put on the dog and impress Shaun, or at least try. Sous Vide here I come! I decided to use up some rub I'd had left over from a rib cook this weekend. It was Runnin' Wild's Peach Rub and my brother developed a real like for it when he was over for the rib cook. Here's a pic of the Tri-Tip on the cutting board with the Runnin' Wild Peach Rub. Here is picture of the trimmed and rubbed Tri-Tip after sealing it up with the FoodSaver. It's now ready for the Anova Sous Vide. Here are the Sous Vide parameters as shown on the Anova Sous Vide. Fast forward 8 hours and here is the Tri-Tip just out of the water bath and ready to meet Beauty! at 600F. Notice that there is more liquid now after 8 hours in the Sous Vide at 132F than there was in the previous picture. More on that liquid in a bit. No pic of the Tri-Tip on Beauty! as All us boys were kibitzing and I forgot to take a pic! You simply can't trust some people! Here is picture of the Tri-Tip on the cutting board ready for carving after a 5 minute rest (The natives were getting restless!). And here is the Tri-Tip after I made my initial cut at the bend. That's a perfect Medium Rare if I do say so myself. And finally, here is the money shot. We had Mexican rice, refried beans, and guac. For those who wanted, we had warm whole wheat tortillas for tacos, burritos, etc. for those so inclined. Sorry, no pics of that either, but I'm told they went down really well! And here is a pic of the aftermath of the carnage! Now here is the story of the "Astounding" part of this cook. Shaun cooks his nightly steak on a round griddle with raised runs that he calls a grill! He also said he has never had Tri-Tip and he likes his beef cooked Medium Well! Yeah, I know ... Kids, what are you gonna do with 'em, right? So I told Shaun to trust me and he would be pleasantly surprised. I took a slice of the Tri-Tip, dipped in the au jus, and gave it to him. I said go ahead, take a bite, and if that isn't the best bite of beef you've ever had, I'll cook your share Medium Well. He took a bite, chewed, took another bite, chewed again, and got this HUGE grin on his face. "This is the most astounding flavor! Can I have some more?" Yeah I said, you can have all you want. He ate his Tri-Tip just sliced and with the au jus drizzled on the top. He was too polite to ask for seconds, so I just dished up some of the remaining Tri-Tip on to his plate and he finished off the au jus. He asked me how I learned to cook like that. I just smiled. Shaun is coming over tomorrow evening for a lesson on how to cook a NY Strip properly. I'm also rehabbing my Lodge Hibachi as a gift to him as he travels to his new duty station in New Mexico. He is one very fine man and I am proud to know this office and gentleman.

Howdy KKers! Salade Nicoise is a classical french salade/meal from the area surrounding the town of Nice, hence the appellation Nicoise. Classical Salade Nicoise is made with Eggs, Olives, Tuna, and other garden greens. I'm not big on eggs in my salad, and I had some salmon in the fridge, so I took liberties with the classical French rendition and I've dubbed my concoction Grilled Sooner Seafood Salade Nicoise as an homage to the classic. First we start off with boiling potatoes. I used miniature purples, reds, and golds. I boiled them up using the NuWave induction cooktop as seen below. I really like this induction cooktop as it doesn't get the place hot. In Oklahoma and in the Summer, that's important! After they were cooked, I wanted to stop the cooking process, so into an ice bath the spuds went. Next came the haricots verts (that's green beans to everyone in the world but the French and Quebecois) which were blanched in the spud water after the spuds joined the polar bear club. And here the haricots verts are swimming amongst the ice bergs. And again, just like the spuds, the haricots verts jumped into the freezing water to stop the cooking, set the color, and to win a Polar Bear Club Certificate. As many of you know, I'm a sucker for new gadgets. A friend has a FoodSaver with a marinator, and I just had to get one. Below is a photo of the marinator in action. The marinator really works quite well. Here you see the salmon fillets in a quick marinade of olive oil, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, tarragon, and pepper. Total time in the marinator was about 15 minutes. IF you have a FOodSaver, you owe it to yourself to get this marinator. Its less than $25 and it's really worth every penny. Now it's time to get down to brass tacks and get the seafood on the grill. I made up a couple of skewers of shrimp and one skewer of scallops and set them on Beauty!'s main grate. Temp was about 400F The shrimp cooked quicker than the scallops so I pulled the shrimp and put on the salmon fillets. Everything cooked quite nicely. The salmon was wonderfully tasty and flakey, the shrimp were done just right, and the scallops had just a nice little sear to them. So everything is cooked and it's time to assemble the Grilled Sooner Salade Nicoise. As you can see, I'm definitely NOT a food stylist, but this salad was a really nice treat. Tasty, refreshing, and dressed with pomegranate-blueberry balsamic vinaigrette. It seems as if everywhere I turn lately pomegranates and blueberries have been paired together, so what not at ChezChef as well, right? Without further ado, here's the money shot of what I placed on the table before SWMBOI. Thanks for looking in. I had forgotten how much it takes to plate up a nice Salade Nicoise. Assembly took as long as it took to cook the seafood! I fell in love with Salade Nicoise over in Paris, but there, they had all kinds of folks to plate it up. Here it was just yours truly. Now I remember why I save Salade Nicoise for really special folks! Y'all have a wonderful and safe weekend. Here in OKC, we're looking at manning the boats. We've had almost 15" of rain this month and another 4" forecast this weekend. Please take a moment this Memorial Day weekend to remember those members of our Armed Forces who paid the ultimate price so that we could sleep well at night and live in the greatest country in the history of mankind!

I have a buddy in Stavanger, Norway, ask me about the KK line. He wanted to get an idea for the relative sizes of the two KKs I have. I took a few pics to given him an idea of what he cold expect. He's a single man and thinking that the KK BB 32" is what he wants when he throws a party every other month! I had to tell him that to spend that kind of money for a large cook every 6-8 weeks was nonsense. I've tried to steer him to the 23'Ultimate or the 19" Hi-Cap. I've also told him that he may just want to wait for the 21" that's supposed to be out in the next few months. I took a few pics and sent them too him. Many of those shots have been posted here and I don't want to repost them. There are, however, a few new ones that hopefully can give you an idea of the difference in size between the 19" Hi-Cap, Beauty! and the 32" BB, TheBeast. Here is my hand on the Top Hat vent of TheBeast and right nest to it the same shot on Beauty! I find the difference striking. MT hand easily can span the width of the Top hat on Beauty, my 19" Hi-Cap Many people have asked how I clean out the ash from the KKs. Here is a shot of the dust pan and brush I use on TheBeast leaning on the Top Hat vent of TheBeast. Not all that impressive, I know. But to give you some perspective, here is that same dust pan and brush in the belly of TheBeast and loaded in Beauty! There is no way I'm using that dustpan and brush to clean out the ash from Beauty! I use a much smaller dust pan and brush for that. Also notice how small the dust pan and brush look in the picture on the left? That's because it is so much further away from the bottom of the kamado. TheBeast is quite deep! Finally, here is a picture of the difference in size in baking stones between Beauty! and TheBeast. There is a good 6" on either side of the baking stone meant for Beauty! Every time I look at those two cookers, I'm struck by how small Beauty! looks in comparison to TheBeast. But then I have to remember that the KJ Classic, Large BGE, etc. the basic models of just about every line of kamados is 18". Beauty is 19" and she is small in the KK lineup! Heck, ckreef's 16.5" Table Top is only an inch and a half smaller than the basic entry kamado for most manufacturers. And that little Table Top ckreef has weighs just about as much as the larger 18" kamados, if not more!

Howdy KKers! Monday evening, I looked in the freezer to see what I had for dinner on Tuesday evening. There was a chuck roast, almost the last of a cow my brother and I had slaughtered and butchered. I pulled it and thawed it. Below are the results of yesterday's cook. Here is a picture of the guest of honor right out of the package. I decided to lay some smoke, peach smoke specifically, on the chuckie. I got this at Academy. I only used a couple of pieces directly in the heart of the lit lump. I was doing this indirect, hence the heat deflector. I"ll be laying on the smoke at 250ish. No big deal as the real key to this cook is the braising which comes later. I always like to keep my kamados as clean as possible, so I always set a drip pan on my heat deflector. A clean kamado is a safe kamado; no flashbacks for this Okie! And finally here is the chuckie on the grate. The temp probes are to the new iGrill thermometer that operates on BlueTooth. Red for the cook; yellow for the grate temp. I seasoned with my Embarrassed Zebra rub. Salt, pepper, granulated garlic, paprika, and cayenne. As many of you know Beauty! has thermometer probes built in the side through which you can run probes and their wires. Curved probes negate that capability, especially those that have a collar (red and yellow in this case. Hence the probe wires sitting on the lip of Beauty! I smoked this chuckie to about 160F internal according to the probe. Following is a pic of the chuckie at the end of this smoke. Here is picture of the chuckie in a pan with a liquid of beef broth and merlot wine. The veggies are red skin potatoes, turnips, carrots, and grossly chopped onions. Braising is classically combination cooking technique that consists of a sear on the meat and then a lower temp cook in a vessel, generally with some liquid in the bottom. Many of you may know this technique as pot roasting, hence the term pot roast! And here is the chuckie all buttoned up with its foil covering getting ready to be braised at a temp of 350F. It's back on Beauty! for the duration of the cook. Here is a picture of Beauty! holding rock solid smack dab in the middle of a rain storm. Here's the iGrill sitting on the KK teak side table. It's sitting under a glass bowl to protect it from the rain coming down and swirling around. Notice the water on the table. All in all Iwas quite pleased with the performance of the iGrill temperature unit. I had little if any problems with the BlueTooth. This was the first real test and it went well. I can recommend it. This next pic shows the finished product still in the pan after about 5 hours in the roasting portion of the cook. Here is a pic showing that the bone in the chuckie just easily wiggled loose. And finally here is a plated pic of the cook; braised chuckie, root veggies, and a green salad. SWMBOI and I used some of the broth over the meat and on the root veggies. Scrumptious! The chuckie, which can tend to the tough side, was really tender. Total time on smoke was about 2.5 hours and total time braising was about 6.5 hours. Because of the braise, the chuckie was incredibly moist. All in all, this was a very successful cook. I normally would reduce the liquid in the pan and make a gravy. But, SWMBOI's stomach thought her throat and been cut and she wanted to eat NOW! So, ever mindful of who butters my bread ...! Thanks for looking in!

The Soon_to-Be-Granddaughters were over the other evening for dinner. They had never had kabobs! They didn't even know what a kabob looked like! So we solved that situation in a hurry. I had four fresh chicken breasts, a bunch of bell peppers, some mushrooms, etc. and that is just perfect for a quick cook. We diced up the veggies and the chicken breasts. I'm having to teach this young ladies knife skills, how to light a fire, how to set temps, etc. Gurus, please start teaching your kids and grandkids these things at an early age. I'm staggered when I run across teens and young adults who can't boil water without a microwave! But, I digress ... So here are the veggies on a grate for cooking. I ALWAYS cook the veggies separately from the chicken, beef, etc. because they simply don't cook at the same rate. Here are the chicken kabobs as they went on the grate. These were strung together by the Ladies. Had to show the girls how to make certain you didn't skewer your fingers! This is a picture of the first turn of those kabobs. And these are the kabobs about to be pulled from the grate. The kabobs are about ready to march into the house and rest for 3-5 minutes. Cailey is holding the cook she supervised. And the money shot with my good buddy, Pete the Pink Salt Pig, supervising. The young ladies did a really good job on these. They ran the cook from lighting the fire to controlling temps to cook prep to the actual cook to plating the food. I think they did a heckuva job! Thanks for looking in! The Ladies and I appreciate it.

Last night it was dark and stormy. Severe Weather Warnings all over the great State of Oklahoma. And once again, the City of Moore, OK was hit by a tornado. I'm convinced there is a fundamental force in the universe unknown to physicists that exists in Moore and trailer parks that just attracts tornados. Moore has been hit by tornados more times in the past 10 years than I can count. In any event, my soon-to-be-Granddaughters were over last night and wanted me to cook for them. You know the outcome on that deal. They wanted hamburger steaks and roasted potatoes with a tossed salad. Nothing else would suffice. And the weather was no excuse. Just pull Beauty! under the covered part of the patio and get cooking! SWMBOI just looked and laughed. Here are the potatoes going on Beauty! I just toss the small golden potatoes in some olive oil, melted butter, S&P, crushed Rosemary and Thyme, and a dash of Cajun seasoning A buddy of mine makes. It only takes about 20-25 minutes in a 400F kamado. The spuds are placed in the back to get them away from the direct heat. I was too dadgummed lazy to use my heat deflector. I also wanted just a wee bit of color on the taters. Here is the end product of that tater roast. Just as I took the taters off, here come the screaming tornado sirens. I know that the danger is 15 miles south in Moore. We have the best severe weather meteorologists in the world here in OKC. It's Moore getting hit and where I live all we have are strong straight line winds and BUCKETS of rain. Thankfully no hail. So, I sally forth back outside to put the hamburger steaks on Beauty! I get drenched in the process because I don't want to walk through the garage and dodge the cars hiding from the hail that never showed. Here are the hamburger steaks sitting pretty on Beauty! And here they are as they look when they are pulled off the grate. Finally, here's the money shot. All in all a very simple but wonderful meal. SMWBOI was happy, Cailey and Gracie were happy, and I didn't catch my death of cold wearing wet and cold clothes. Thanks for looking. Please remember the good Citizens of Moore in your prayers as they rebuild, again.

KKers! Today, the saga ends, Beauty! was delivered yesterday at 2:30 p.m. weighing in at a svelte 548 pounds including all the extras! I about froze outside while Tom got her off the truck and safely into my garage. Here are a couple pics to whet your whistle for what's to come. This first picture of Beauty and her delivery driver, Tom. Tom delivered TheBeast to my home last August and remember him quite well. He said that Beauty! is a small little thing compared to her bigger brother! Beauty! herself weighs in at 338 lbs compared to TheBeast at 954 lbs! Quite a difference. Tom is a really great guy and told me he'd put Beauty anyplace I wanted. Here is Beauty! riding the lift gate down to the street. Here is another pic of Beauty! giving you an idea of all the accessories that came with her. As is the case with everything KK, it is so well wrapped as to preclude any damage in transit! That's all I have for right now. As I post this it is now 24F and with the wind chill it feels like 14F. I'm going to have to bring all the boxes into the house and open them in here. IT's just too dadgummed cold to do anything in the garage and NO! I don't have a garage heater. My hands are frozen and my fingers just now beginning to thaw out! More to come!

Shoot me a PM if you would like to see a 19" Hi-Cap Komodo Kamado in Northwest Oklahoma City, OK! We can always make it happen. I look forward to chatting with you. Ken