A Nice Beginning.......

It was a nice beginning to the 2014 Summer Season.  Mary and Fuji Jansen were having a Memorial Day Bash for the Glen 8 folks.  The last one was the first one after Rudy died and after that one (in 2012) there had not been a big holiday get together.

So on Thursday, I put my navy beans in to soak.  Friday I added fresh water, onions, brown sugar and some meaty ham ends and placed them in the oven to bake for close to 12 hours.  Saturday I moved them into a crockpot, Debby Patton came over and we headed to Indian Acres.

We stopped at Fast Eddies in Northeast, MD to get a Pit Beef with fries and a drink.  Once we were inside  Indian Acres, we headed to Mary Davis's house but there was no answer... she had just finished a 12 hour shift at the gate, so we let her sleep and went to Glen 8.

There we found many of my old friends.  They all seemed happy to see me as I ended up hugged and kissed a great deal.  We went over to see Janet Flower.  We also visited with Linda and Boo-Boo Morrison to get caught up.  Boo had both hips replaced in the fall so we swapped a few war stories of surgery and rehab.

We went up to the ball field and watched the softball game, leaving early to go see Mary, who had finally awakened.  After our visit we headed back to Glen 8 to find the food coming out and a mad dash to find someone who could let Marji and Danny in.  Janet went down and got them in, so they joined the party as did Mary and the Flowers.  To my surprise, the food began being cooked pretty much on time so Mary got enjoy some food before going back to work at the gate.

It was really, really fun to see everyone and to spend the time with Debby.  I was home and in bed by 10:30 PM.  I am wondering when the party ended.  When Rudy and I were in charge, many parties went way into the next morning.  But the new owners of my house were not there and it was the first time they had experienced a Glen 8 bash.  I will be curious to hear how late things went.

Today I am using my smoker for the first time.  I decided to do a rack of ribs on it   I seasoned the ribs with a rub and some brown sugar.  I wrapped them in foil as they got to room temperature.

At around noon, I started the smoker up to get to temperature.

The bucket is holding a combination of hickory and mesquite wood, soaking in water flavored with garlic powder.  Once up to the temp, I cut the rack in two and put them inside.

Then I placed water in the water pan and wood chunks in the bottom pan and closed the door.  I check the temp from time to time and added water.  Should be ready by 5:00 PM, cooking at 200 degrees give or take a degree.  It is my first attempt, but I really like smoked meats, so I am determined to get a handle on this to add a new layer to my cooking.  Looking forward to some smoked turkey, smoked beef brisket and even some smoked beer can chicken.  This is going to be a really fun summer!

UPDATE:

Not perfect but not bad.... they looked worse than they were.  They were BLACK when I checked them, but the black on the top was due to smoke... the black on the bottom was a bit more dry/burned.  But I got some lovely, tasty meat from the ribs, so I am going to call this one a fairly good learning day.  Next time, the smoker will be at a little lower temperature, I will not cook them quite as long.  If the smoker were full, it might have taken longer.  Tomorrow will be the beer can chicken.  Yum!!