Long Smoke Pulled Pork

I have been having a blast with my new Char-Griller Off-Set Smoker. Last weekend I did a long smoke pulled pork, and it was so good.

I started by picking up a 5.5-pound Boston butt. I mixed my own rub with the help of David Farrell's book The Old Fat Guy's Guide to Smoking meat for Beginners.

You'll find many amazing recipes on his blog oldfatguy.ca.

David calls this Rub a Do Anything Rub, which you can find in his book or on his blog. I didn't use all of his ingredients for this but, I did add a few of my own.

Rub I used for this Long Smoke Pulled Pork:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
2 tablespoons Sea Salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
3 tablespoons Carolina Seasoning (Rub Some Butt)

My Process for Long Smoke Pulled Pork:

After mixing the rub. I rubbed both sides of the pork butt, then covered it and set in the refrigerator overnight.

Early the next morning I fired up my smoker using charcoal, and then added oak and hickory wood splits. When the smoker temperature reached 250 degrees I placed the pork butt in the smoker.

I kept the smoker temperature between 250 and 300 degrees by adding wood splits every 30 to 45 minutes.  After 3 and a half hours I opened the smoker and inserted my probe to monitor the internal temperature of the pork butt. The internal temperature was 160 degrees at his time.

This was the only time I opened the smoker through the whole process. I needed to reach an internal temperature of 205 degrees.

After 8 hours and 15 minutes, we finally reached 205 degrees. We removed the pork butt from the smoker, covered it to let it rest for about 40 minutes before shredding it.

The outside had a beautiful tasty bark on it, while the inside was juicy and tender. The total cook time equaled 90 minutes per pound.

We made delicious sandwiches using my homemade barbeque sauce you find the recipe here. 
This pulled pork made the best game-day sandwiches. We had a house full of happy people.

Fran made this amazing Coleslaw from this Food Network Recipe.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy!

The Old Fat Guy's Guide to Smoking Meat for BeginnersThermoPro TP20 Wireless Remote Digital Cooking Food Meat Thermometer with Dual Probe for Smoker Grill BBQ Thermometer

Mountain Pies

How to make mountain pies

Summer time is finally here in Western New York and that means a lot of family fun with our weekly backyard camp fires. 

Roasting marshmallows, making S’mores, and of course, my favorite mountain pies. In this post, I’m going to show you how to make mountain pies, just in case you've never heard of one. Some people call the campfire hobo pies.

The first thing you need is a nice roaring camp fire, we use our portable camping fire pit in our back yard. Next, you’ll need mountain pie irons, and then some goodies to fill them up and enjoy these tasty little treats.

For Father’s Day this year my daughter got me a set of Rome cast iron mountain pie irons. After following the directions to season them, they made the most wonderful and delicious mountain pies.

Rome: Mountain pie Irons

There are so many mountain pie recipes: This is one of my favorites

·         Butter a slice of white bread and place it butter side down on one-half of the pie iron.

·         Add about a tablespoon of pizza sauce, you can whip up your own or buy it already in a jar.

·         Now add some pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. Add some mushrooms if you like.

·         Butter a second slice of bread and place it on top of your fillings with the butter side up.

·         Close the pie iron and place it in the fire, turning it occasionally, for about 4 to 5 minutes. 

Cooking in the fire

You can pull it out of the fire to check it during the process to make sure it’s not burning. The hotter the mountain pie iron gets the quicker they cook.

The best thing about mountain pies is that you can use any filling your heart desires. For example, my second pie was apple and cheddar cheese, you can make any hot sandwich you like using these pie irons.

The pie irons come with some nice recipes to get you started, from sweet treats to savory pies and sandwiches. 

This is my pizza mountain pie

Just a word of caution: Your mountain pie irons will be extremely hot so be careful for yourself and the kids.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

Rome Industries 1705 Pie Iron Sandwich CookerCreative Pie Iron Cooking45; 100 Award Winning RecipesLandmann 26364 23-1/2-Inch Savannah Garden Light Fire Pit, Black

& 

Grilled Italian Sausage Sandwiches

The other night my wife and my daughter took a trip out of town, and I knew they were going to have a late lunch. That left me wondering what I was going to have for dinner when I got home from work.

I had two Italian sausage links in the freezer; I took them out so they would be ready when I got home. I decided to fire up the grill for my sausage links, I set the grill to medium heat.

While the links were grilling I sliced up some red and green bell peppers, along with some onions and then just for some extra flavor I added some diced up garlic.

My Sliced peppers and onions with the garlic

I simmered these in my cast iron skillet covered, on medium heat on the stove. My wife picked up a couple of sausage rolls for me before she left so I was all set for my Italian sausage sandwiches. 

Simmered over medium heat until tender

These are the kind of sausage sandwiches you love to buy when you go to the county fairs. There is always a vendor selling delicious sausage with peppers and onions. So just in case you missed the county fair with that favorite vendor, you can give this a try. These were quick and easy to make and Oh so good.

What you need:

2 Italian sausage links

½ of each red and green bell pepper sliced in strips

½ onions sliced

1 clove of garlic diced

2 nice sausage rolls

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy

Hamilton Beach 25360 Indoor Flavor/Searing GrillChar-Broil Performance TRU Infrared 500 3-Burner Cabinet Gas Grill

& 

The Classic Reuben Sandwich

This Reuben sandwich served with a salad and some fruit makes a great lunch or dinner. I call this classic because it was made with Corned Beef, Swiss cheese, Sauerkraut, and creamy Thousand Island dressing,

My daughter made these and served them with a nice salad, some grapes and strawberries. Well I ate the Reuben and a few grapes, the kids had Mac and Cheese and fruit. The Reuben is not difficult to make, and you can serve it cold or toasted, we made ours toasted, that’s the way I like it.

This is what you need:

• 6 or 8 slices of Corned Beef
• 6 Slices of Swiss Cheese
• 1 bag of sauerkraut
• 1 bottle of thousand island dressing
• 6 slices of marble rye bread
• Some butter

Here is all you need to do:

1. Brown the sauerkraut in a skillet
2. Heat up your griddle to medium heat, butter one side of a slice of bread and place it butter side down on the griddle.
3. Now begin to build your sandwich, place 1 or 2 slices of cheese, and then the slices of corned beef, now heap on the sauerkraut.
4. Butter another slice of bread and place it on top, now all you need to do is grill your sandwich to perfection.
5. Now open it up and pour on the dressing and serve. This was enough to make 3 delicious sandwiches.

 As always thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it!

Granitestone Blue Nonstick 10.5” Griddle Pan/Flat Grill with Ultra Durable Mineral and Diamond Triple Coated Surface, Stay Cool Stainless-Steel Handle, Oven & Dishwasher Safe, 100% PFOA Free…Annie's Thousand Island Salad Dressing, Certified Organic, Non-GMO, 8 fl oz

 

Easy Light Lunch or Dinner

This is a quick and easy idea for a light lunch or dinner, with some leftovers that you may have in the refrigerator.

I call this mini crescent roll chicken salad sandwich, with broccoli salad. If you have some leftover chicken this is a delicious way to use it up.

Make your favorite chicken salad, I like a little crunch to my chicken salad, so I add some chopped-up celery and chopped almonds.

Pick up some Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and bake them according to the package instructions. (I know that I didn’t really have to tell you that, but just in case!)

Now how to make the Broccoli Salad:

8 cups of broccoli (Chopped Very Fine)

1 cup Miracle Whip Light Dressing

6 slices of bacon (cooked and crumbled)

½ cup of red onion (Chopped Very Fine)

3 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. white vinegar

Mix the Miracle Whip, sugar, and white vinegar until it’s blended. Now in a large bowl add the remaining ingredients, pour in the dressing, and mix.

Refrigerate this for about one hour and it’s ready to serve. Slice your crescent rolls and fill them with that delicious chicken salad and enjoy.

As always Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this recipe.