Ivy's birthday

IMG_20100926_162114, originally uploaded by ebeegrn.

Had birthday party for Ivy at the Hewlens. Continuing a long tradition Ivy was covered in frosting. A tradition I think she started years ago. Paybacks are a .......

Game against East Bremerton.

It ended with an awesome 38 to 8. Great recoveries and some good team work. This is Nick. He is Mason's buddy on the team. Played with him both years so far.

zoo with Ani and Elias

zoo with Ani and Elias, originally uploaded by ebeegrn.

Ani Brower and I took our little guys, Cooper and Elias, to the Point Defiance zoo today. It was THE perfect day. No school groups, slightly over cast so it felt cool, not many people there cause of the rain sprinkling, and the animals were active. We got to get right up front and not have to fight to see anything. It was very fun!  Click here for more pics

Point Defiance Zoo

100_1455, originally uploaded by ebeegrn.

We again joined the zoo and are trying to use our membership more than once this time. We went with the Hewlen boys and Brysons. Cooper is in the background screaming somewhere. In hindsight it's a good thing we went when we did because summer didn't last long.
-Rick

Turkey fry

IMG_20100909_170610, originally uploaded by ebeegrn.

Glynn and family hosted a turkey fry. David cooked up the turkeys. Me and Ivy made the potatoes and stuffing. There was lots of other stuff to. Watched the first NFL game of the season and ate lots of food.

Our first bizarre foods. Join us.

IMG_20100902_155940, originally uploaded by ebeegrn.

We started of easy with kippered herring on ritz crackers. Just tasted like smoked salmon/tuna. Mason struggled with the idea. If you want to join us here are the rules.
1 all participants get to take turns picking the item.
2. you have to eat the item you picked with everyone else.
3. post the picture of you eating the item.
4. food has to be intended for human consumption
5. food has to safe. No raw meat, spoonfuls of salt etc.
6. once you're in no backing out. You're chance for revenge is when you get to pick the item.

List of participants so far
Cory and Ani Brower

My second or third attempt at doing a brisket.  This time I decided I might have better luck with doing two at a time since they could drip onto each other.  Sort of self basting.  This is the spices I used for the rub.  Each brisket was around 7-8 lbs.  link to susanminor.org that contains recipe for rub and general brisket instructions.

I didn't do much prep.  Trimmed of some of the hanging fat.

I followed the very nicely done tutorial on the bradley smoker forum. click here for tutorial.  This is my briskets patted down with the rub and then slathered in mustard.

Right out of the smoker.  Picture makes it look a little too black but it had a perfect bark. I put it in at 8pm and it came out of smoker around 3pm the next day.  Most of the time smoker was between 200-225F.  I followed the instructions linked above.  Used a water tray in bottom and rotated so they would baste each other.  Took out at internal temp of 190F.

This is my first attempt using the "foil, towel, cooler method."

Here is the finished product.  Bark was perfect.  Much better than my previous attempts where I finished in oven using the "texas crutch"  My issue was they were a little dry on the bottom.  The rest was beautifully moist and tasty.  I think I will leave them on the top two racks instead of the bottom ones next time and see if that helps.

Either way was a good dinner.  The Browers came over.  She brought red rice, fresh rolls and corn on the cob.  Ivy made loaded mashed potatoes.  I have become a big fan of having rice and mashed potatoes mixed together?
-rick