Smoking A Brisket on the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker

Today was the third smoking using the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker!  It was my first time smoking brisket!

The brisket was only about 4-5 lbs. I used Kingston Original charcoal and positioned the briquettes using the Minion method of putting hot coals in the middle surrounded by unlit coals.  Because the meat was not a full brisket, the cook time was a lot less time than what some experts need for a full brisket. The rub was applied about a day and half in advance only because I didn't get a chance to cook it yesterday! I used Costco's Rib Rub and smoked with Apple wood.  Initial cook time was 2 hours and I sprayed the brisket after the first hour with apple juice and also at the second hour when the brisket reached 195 degrees.  I took it off the smoker at this point and put it in aluminum foil and let it rest for 1/2 hour inside of a cooler.  After putting the brisket back on the smoker, it stayed there for a total of two more hours.  From start to finish, the time was 4.5 hours.

The pit temp was ranging between 225 degrees and 325 degrees!  Since there was direct sunlight on the smoker, the temp rose as high as 325 degrees, but I was always able to bring that temperature down by closing down the lower air vents.  I tried to keep it as close to 250 to 275 degrees.  I can't wait for my new ThermoWorks Smoke thermometer / alarm to arrive.  With it, I will know when temperatures of both the pit and also the meat go above or below preset temperature levels.  The remote will allow me to stay indoors and still monitor the temperatures.

I took the brisket off the smoker and opened up the aluminum foil and let the meat rest for at least 1/2 hour.  My nephew Frank and his family came over and he sliced the brisket.  Frank has been smoking meat for quite a while now and has successfully used his Traeger pellet smoker for many family occasions.  He said the brisket wasn't bad for a first attempt!  However, I believe I could have left the brisket on for perhaps another hour if I wanted it more tender.  There was plenty of juice in the meat to have kept it going.

Many barbecue fans say that doing a good brisket is the test of the skill of the cook.  I can see that we'll be doing this more often!

Second Smoking on the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker - Chicken Drumsticks

I was planning on smoking brisket today for my second use of my new smoker, but too many other things got in the way. So instead, I decided to smoke chicken drumsticks since they were on sale for $0.39 / lb!

This is the second smoking on the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker! Smoke time was 2.75 hours. There is another rack of drumsticks below the rack of drumsticks you see in the photos. You can see a ThermoWorks RT600C Pocket Thermometer sticking into the side of the smoker through the rubber gasket to check internal temp of the smoker.  I am doing this until my new ThermoWorks Smoke remote thermometer/alarm comes in this coming week.

Chicken was cooked to 165 degree internal temperature.  Smoker temp was 225 degrees.  Once again, I used Costco's Rib Rub & Seasoning with three chunks of Apple wood for the smoke.  Kingsford's Original briquettes were used for the fuel.

I had some used briquettes left over from the cook of the country ribs from two days ago so I decided to use them in addition to some new ones.  I found that the used briquettes burned off a lot quicker and after the 2.75 hours, the burn was already diminishing.  Luckily, the chicken did not need more than 2.75 hours, so it all worked out.  But I think if I am going to smoke something like brisket that requires really long cook times, the only way to go is brand new, fresh briquettes!

Home Depot (along with other retailers) had two bags of 18.6 lb Kingsford Original briquettes for only $9.88 for the Memorial Day weekend.  I purchased 14 bags (7 packs), so I have plenty of fuel for the summer!

Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker - 18.5 inch

After much research and agonizing over which smoker would be best for my family, I decided on the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker smoker - 18.5 inch version!

I was debating to get either a Traeger pellet smoker or perhaps a Masterbuilt electric smoker, but decided that to get that real smoke flavor, I needed to go to charcoal smoking with wood chunks added.

My nephew has a Traeger and the quality of his food is top notch!  But I also read that some of the Traegers had issues with the auger not pushing the pellets consistently and that it could clog.  Also, some Traegers were running heat way above the settings on the electronics and causing all sorts of problems.  While this has not happened to those whom I know have one, it has happened to others.

The electric smokers to me seemed more like an outdoor electric oven more than anything else and that the small wood chips used just would not be enough to get that barbecue flavor that we all want.

In the end, after researching the various charcoal smokers out there, the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker smoker made the most sense to me.  Flare ups are controlled by the water pan that separates the coals from the food and maintaining a constant 225 to 250 degree temperature seemed rather easy to do with the three vents on the bottom of the cooker.  In addition, I didn't see any negative reviews from those who owned this smoker compared to the numerous negative reviews I had read about other smokers.

After picking up the smoker at Home Depot, I built the unit (very fast and easy... it's just attaching the legs and the internal rack holders and the top handle) and got to smoking country ribs.  I used a Weber chimney starter to get the briquettes going and within about 45 minutes, I was up and running with a decent temperature in the smoker.  I used the "minion style" of charcoal positioning to guarantee a longer burn if needed.

In the end, the country ribs achieved a nice smoke ring and flavor from the Costco rub and also apple wood chunks (three) on the Kingsford briquettes.

I'm very happy with the flavor and results.  Next?  Brisket!!

Doyle Dykes at Cream City Music - Brookfield Wisconsin

Spent yesterday with my friend Jerry at a Doyle Dykes concert in Brookfield, Wisconsin! Doyle is an internationally renown guitarist currently sponsored by Godin Guitars. He could not go out with us for dinner yesterday like we usually do after his concerts, but we’ve been spending this morning texting back and forth and sharing photos with each other.

Anyway, here's a photo of him taken with my Nikon D4 and Nikon 24-70 f2.8 lens. Guitarists always close their eyes when they play!

Doyle hired me to photograph his daughter Holli's wedding many years ago. Flew me out to Chatenooga Tennessee to shoot it! The most intimate wedding I have ever shot with only 18 people (including me) at it. Family only!! I was honored to do it and finally got to meet his whole family. We are all Facebook friends today!  Click here to see some photos of the wedding!

Field Trip to The Chicago Botanic

Today's field trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden was great!  The temperature was around 62 degrees and we had nice blue skies with some nice clouds.  Students got to practice HDR, shallow depth of field shooting, setting up custom white balance and taking photos of a waterfall.  Couldn't ask for a better day!

Images taken with a Lumix DMC-LX5 camera.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Ribs on the barbecue, getting ready for a bunch of relatives to stop by for dinner tonight!  I'll be frying up egg rolls on the wok and also frying up tofu!  The rest of the food is up to everyone else.

Three Racks of Barbecue Ribs!

Using the secret recipe of my fishing buddy, I barbecued three racks of ribs for tonight's dinner on my Weber Spirit E-310 grill! Photos are the ribs before starting the barbecue process (marinated overnight)... and the finished product! Perhaps the best ribs I've barbecued to date! 3 hours and 15 minutes grill time!

Images taken with an Apple iPhone 6s+

Dinosaurs - Milwaukee Public Museum

It's tough to be a dinosaur!  From this year's Milwaukee Public Museum field trip.  Image taken with a Lumix DMC-LX5 four thirds image sensor camera.

Backyard Umbrella Installed!

Installed an umbrella in the back yard! The black bag in front of the grill is covering a portable propane wok burner. Four 30 lb concrete slabs hold down the base of the umbrella. Two 70 lb tube sand bags reinforce the concrete slabs. That umbrella is not going anywhere!  

Now it won't be so hot when grilling or using the outdoor wok!

First Catch of the New Fishing Season - Kenosha Wisconsin

My fishing partner and I went to Kenosha Harbor today to try our luck at fishing again.  Last time we went, it hailed on us!  So today, we decided to arrive later in the day at 8 AM instead of our usual 5:30 AM!

Jim caught a 3 lb Brown Trout just moments after we got there.  Nice!  But I didn't get anything at all until the very last moment.

I had just said, "Hey Jim... time to go home now..." and then I followed up immediately with, "right after I catch this fish!"  Lo and behold, I had a 28" pike on my line!  Both Jim and another fisherman there were laughing that at the very moment of announcing we should leave, the fish hooked up on my line!

I released the pike because I thought the fish was not big enough.  But after checking the Wisconsin Fishing Regulations, a keeper size would be 26 inches.  Mine was 28 inches so it was legal to keep.  Oh well.  Jim kept the Brown Trout since there's no size limit on those fish.  Great day!

Blue Crabs

First time cooking Blue Crabs!

I've eaten blue crabs all my life, but I've never prepared them and cooked them myself!  I did it the Chinese way... ginger, scallions, soy sauce, water, black pepper and salt.  After cleaning the crabs, I stir-fried them in my outdoor wok.  It was a lot of fun!  Gotta do it again.

Plenty of smoke and flame generated from the wok helped give the crabs a nice "Wok Hei" flavoring.  Wok Hei means the "Breath of the Wok."  It's what gives Chinese food that restaurant quality flavor that you can't seem to get when cooking on your own stove.  Constant moving of the wok to get the flame onto the food is what creates that smoky Wok Hei flavor.

In the past few years, my interest in cooking seems to have taken off.  But I only like cooking in my cast iron skillets, dutch oven, or in this wok!  I'm a "gadgets" kind of guy in that I need gadgets to fiddle with.  These cooking tools make cooking fun for me.  If I had to just cook with regular teflon pans on a gas stove, I don't think I'd be as interested.

I like the concept of doing something that's a bit difficult for others to do.  Cooking with cast iron is relatively easy and non-stick, but unless you know how to do it properly, many people end up with food that just sticks to it.  With wok cooking, there's a technique to it as well.  If you want that Wok Hei flavor, you have to know how to do it.  I'm not 100% there yet, but I'm getting closer every time I try cooking something on the wok.  Playing with the right temperature, tossing the food with the right amount of oil and water as well as timing seems to be a key to success in wok cooking.  I'll get there eventually.

This website has a good explanation on how Wok Hei is achieved.  Click here.

Rapunzel - Cast Iron

Cast Iron is good for more than one thing... just ask Rapunzel.

Milwaukee Public Museum - Balanced Exposure Field Trip

I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum today with a few students. My daughter joined us as well! It was a Father / Daughter day! After the museum, we went to AJ Bombers just a couple of blocks away from the museum for lunch. You get to eat peanuts in the shell and dump all the shells on the floor! Haven't done that since high school! OK, I've done that at Cubs games as well. Drugstore photo: Nikon D4 / Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens. AJ Bombers photo: iPhone 6s +

Career Day at Aptakisic Junior High School

I was invited to speak at the Aptakisic Junior High's Career Day today. I went there to talk to the 7th and 8th graders. Some kids came to see me because they were interested in Forensics. Others came to see me because they were interested in Photography. But they all seemed to like trying their hand at developing fingerprints using magnetic print powder!

The school gave all the speakers candy as a gift!

Thanks to Joe Brennan for inviting me and for the photo of me with the kids!  (Photo of the magnetic brush and magnetic print powder courtesy of the Internet)

First Day Out Fishing For the 2017 Season - No Fish

I went fishing today at Racine Harbor (Wisconsin). First day out for the season.  My fishing partner and I got there around 5 AM, set up our lines and then saw lightning. We decided it was best to go back to the car and wait out the storm. Not one minute after we closed the car door it started to hail on my car! Good thing we got in the car! It was large marble sized hail! We waited until 6:30 AM to finally try fishing. Very windy and choppy waves out there. Not good.


With the wind and waves hindering all efforts of fishing, we decided to go to Kenosha where their channel was bound to be less choppy. Sure enough, it was a lot calmer and the water was clearer. Still, no fish for us today; however, I had a decent "bump" from a fish but it didn't hook up. It was definitely a fish and not just a hook up on weeds because it was pulling back on the line... twice! I think my hooks were not sharp enough so I lost it! Moments later, another guy ended up catching a fish. My buddy and I are thinking he ended up with my fish! I need to replace those old hooks! Even though we might think it is sharp, it may not be sharp enough to penetrate and hook up on the fish.  Lesson learned.

Spam Musubi

My brother-in-law made Spam Musubi for me when I was in San Francisco last week. I had not eaten Spam since I got married and perhaps even up to 5 or more years before that... so roughly 36 or 37 years ago!

Spam Musubi is actually a popular thing in Hawaii. Seasoned with Furikake, sushi rice (rice with vinegar) is wrapped together with Spam and a sheet of Nori (seaweed) to make Spam Musubi.  My brother-in-law took the easy route and didn't shape the rice like this, but rather just gave me a bowl of rice with the Spam and the toppings. Still tasted pretty good no matter how it's shaped!

I purchased my first can of Spam in 37 years... ok... it's my first purchase ever since I never bought Spam, my dad did and fed it to us!

Chinese Cheong Fun

I've been on this kick of making Chinese Cheong Fun with Char Siu filling lately.

This is a favorite at Dim Sum restaurants and my mom taught me how to make it many years ago.  Traditionally, the wrapper is made with rice flour and water and then steamed.  Char Siu, which is Chinese barbecued pork is baked in advance.  While this is the traditional method, I don't make my cheong fun this way.

My mom taught me that if you substitute rice flour with "Swans Down" cake mix, it actually turns out pretty good!  1 cup of water is mixed with 3/4 cup of Swans Down.  Pour a very thin mixture of this into a slightly oiled aluminum pie pan and then add the char siu.  Steam for 8 minutes and you'll be done!  It could not be easier!

As a dipping sauce, mix light soy sauce with sugar and add a dash of sesame oil.  Thin out with a little bit of water if the soy sauce is too powerful tasting.

So far, I still seem to make the cheong fun a bit too thick though.  I need to learn to pour in less liquid before steaming.  I also have a problem rolling the final product without tearing the skin.  And, I don't seem to be able to slice the char siu thin enough.  They tend to be too thick.  Still, the final product tastes great regardless of how poorly I make it look.  Try the recipe and be sure to give my mom credit for the substitution of the rice flour with Swans Down cake flour!

Never Rent a Modem From Your Cable Provider

Rant: Never believe what your cable provider tells you when they say a modem rental is only $5 or so per month! Mine was $14.95 per month! Figure in that I've had it for at least 44 months, that's about $658 of rental! If it was only $5 per month, it would have been around $220 for those 44 months. Still expensive, but ok... it's insurance in case something were to go wrong. 
You may ask, "Why didn't you see it on the bill?" Well, I really only looked at the total bill and the dollar amount always came out to what I was told I would pay. So I figured it was correct. I never look at the second page unless the total amount is wrong.
Business owners pay more for everything it seems, but I rented it in case something were to go wrong, the cable company would come out and fix it without charge. Home owners only rent it for $10 per month, I found out later from one of the reps at the cable store. Well, nothing has ever really gone wrong with it, so that's a lot of money for "insurance". 
When I found out I had been paying a lot more on the rental than I was told when I first got service in the office space, I immediately went and ordered a Motorola MB7420 for $89.95 from Amazon. Got it the next day, and now it's installed. So when the cable company tells you it's only $5 per month.... never believe them!
That is all.

Apple Mac Pro

Out with the Mac Mini and in with the Mac Pro!
Thanks to Balanced Exposure student Andrew J who was selling his used Mac Pro, I'm going to return the Mac Mini to the Apple Store and purchase his top of the line Apple Mac Pro instead!
The specs of the machine are: Intel Xeon E5 six-core, 3.5 GHz processor, 16 GB RAM, Dual AMD FirePro D500 graphics cards with 3 GB dedicated RAM, 256 GB PCIe SSD drive.
I've also purchased a new Google OnHub router for our WiFi at the school as well. I've been using an OnHub at home for the past year and it's extremely fast for WiFi! Read about it by clicking here.
This is going to be good!
Edit Note: I set up the entire computer and programs in about two hours. It's fast!

Apple Mac Mini - 2.6GHz Dual Core Intel i5 / 8 GB RAM

An update on my Apple Mac adventures...

I ordered an Apple Mac Mini 2.6 GHz Dual Core Intel i5 version with 8 GB RAM and a 256GB SSD drive.  (SSD stands for "Solid State Drive")  This will speed the machine up quite a bit over the standard version which only has a 5400 RPM hard drive. 

Once the new machine comes in, its speed should be near the equivalent speed of my MacBook Pro 13" computer that has a 2.7GHz Intel i5 processor and an SSD drive.

I got tired of the various issues I have been dealing with over the past six years with three PC's for the school each having various problems.  Those in my classes recently will know that I've had problems getting online and other issues with the PC.

While the Mac Mini is often looked down upon due to it's inability to be upgraded, it's actually a good choice for someone who already has a monitor.  You still need to buy a keyboard and a mouse too.  In all, with the machine, Apple Magic Keyboard and a standard Microsoft mouse, my total cost with tax was about $1100.  I already have a 25" 1080p monitor from HP, so while it's not a 5K 27" monitor like the iMac, it's good enough for me.

I am seriously considering offering a class for those thinking of moving from a PC to a Mac.  In the past two years, I've learned a lot about the Apple computers and what it really takes to make the transition.  You can't just buy a Mac and expect it to work like a PC.  There are definitely some things to do differently.  The class would concentrate on your purchase options, making the choice, and reviewing all the things I have found that are different on a Mac than on a PC.  I've been using the PC since it was invented and I'm a Microsoft Certified Professional as well (bet you didn't know that, eh?)

Edit Update: I'm switching to a Mac Pro!  Read about it by clicking here.