The trick is to smoke the meat and not make the meat smoke
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2016 Blog Archive

Here is the ARCHIVE OF BLOGS for this year with links to all of the entries listed chronologically.
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Loooking Back, Looking Ahead-2016

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Starting with 2006’s BBQ blog, I have written a year end wrap up summing up my past year pursuing this hobby. At years end everybody in the media seems to do some sort of Top !0 list. In my case I have reduced it to several Top 5 lists. The list helps me to think about what I have learned during the last year, plus I also use it to chart my course for the next year. By looking at my previous years blog I can see just how I did in reaching my goals. Many times I may not do everything I wanted to, but by reviewing the list from last year it is easy to see what I missed doing and add those items to this years list. Plus it is sometimes fun for me to reread the lists for each year to see my progression pursuing this hobby. I am a bit late getting this online this year, but since it is a retrospective of the year 2016 I will post it in the 2016 Blogs area. Read More...
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Que Calendar 2017 Posted

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This is the 11th year I have been taking pictures from my previous years Grilling and Smoking activities and use them to create a calendar with Apple’s iPhoto software. The first year it was an experiment and I really didn’t expect it to be of interest to anyone but me. To my surprise other people took and interest and I started getting request for calendars for them. I have found they make nice stocking stuffers (yes BIG stockings) and they are professionally printed so they compare favorably with store bought calendars. Several people familiar with both the calendars and this website suggested I post them here too. So I added a section with the calendars several years ago, I post a quickie blog entry like this letting folks that a new calendar has been posted. The future of this calendar as it exists now, is a bit sketchy. Apple has created a new photo application and is discontinuing their two current photo apps: iPhoto and Aperture. Right now two years down the road, Aperture and iPhoto still run under the current operating system and calendars are still supported via iPhoto. The new Photos app is a work-in-progress and doesn’t support many features of the two apps it is replacing. We shall see whet develops.

Below please find the direct link to the 2016 Cue Calendar picture pages and a link to a previous year’s blog entry on making calendars in iPhoto.

RELATED PICTURE ENTRIES
  CUE CAL 2017 -2016 Cue Cal Picture Entry
  CALENDARS - Picture Entries from Previous Year’s Calendars

RELATED BLOG ENTRIES
  CALENDARS WITH IPHOTO 2008 Blog Entry

  BACK TO BBQ BLOG 2016
  ARCHIVE OF BLOGS: 2016
  INDEX OF BLOGS: ALL YEARS
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Ch-Ch-Changes II-New Diet

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In the blog entry CH-CH-CHANGES I I told the story of why the site was not receiving regular updates for a period of 5 months. In the middle of that I had a rather serious health scare that will forever change my diet and my lifestyle. It will change the focus of this website a little bit, but my goal is to keep the changes as minimal as possible. I am NOT going to get into the gritty details of what happened, nor am I going to get preachy about my new modified life style. I hate reading that kind of thing from others who have suddenly found a cause to champion and just keep beating you over the head with it. This site will continue to be about grilling and smoking with some modifications to the items I make and the ingredients I make them with. Read More...
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Ch-Ch-Changes I-Website

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This site has been essentially in suspended animation with no updates made to it for nearly 5 months. There were two reasons for this and they will both result in big changes to the site in appearance and direction. The first change, and the main reason it took 5 months to do and update, was my refreshing the appearance of the site. The project took on a life of it’s own and I could not publish new pages to the site without breaking the rest of the site. The new site has a more fresh and modern look and I think will be more useable for more folks. The main reason for the change was many under the hood improvements which and end user won’t see, but their experience will improve. I haven’t been inactive on the cooking front over this time, I have perhaps 15 or 16 cooks I will now be able to post. The other big change I alluded to will be described in the separate blog entry CH-CH-CHANGES II. Read More...
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High and Low

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The High and Low in the title refers to high temperature cooking, low in the grill down near the coals. I have wanted to try this form of grilling since getting my first charcoal grill (Big Green Egg) 4 years ago. I had most of the gear necessary, and with the purchase of one final item I was good to go. This blog entry will discuss the gear I used to accomplish cooking low over the coals and my first impressions. While this blog discusses the Big Green Egg, the Ceramic Grill Store Eggcessories will work on some other brands of Kamado grills and the Ceramic Grill Store has started making accessories for Primo, Kamado Joe and Vision Grills. Read More...
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Improved Photo Lighting with LEDs

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I recently started having some problems with the indoor flash pictures I was taking for this web site. I typically use bounce flash indoors to get even lighting without harsh glare and hard shadows. There is some setting I don’t have quite right for exposure, white balance or both. Suddenly my pictures were sometimes coming out underexposed and the pictures often had a color cast due to the combination of fluorescent, incandescent, LED and daylight found in the Kitchen. I tried a new type of lighting, an LED light panel, that has solved the exposure and color temperature problems. It also has some other unexpected advantages, as well as disadvantages versus shooting with a flash. For those of you who are interested in shooting pictures of the food you make, I thought I would share my results. Read More...
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Cooking Method Can Make ALL the Difference

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Initially some of you are probably thinking this blog entry is being guest written by Captain Obvious. But I am going to lay out a case where I didn’t think about cooking method for various reasons until years later. And it turned out that taking an old favorite and cooking it a totally different way, made all of the difference in the world. You may also see I am not quite as dumb as that blog title makes me sound. Read More...
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Salt Block Cooking-First Impressions

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I recently added a new tool to my grilling arsenal: a Himalayan Salt Block. They have been on my radar screen for several years. In the last 2 years I have tried some food cooked on them and frankly I was underwhelmed at best. But I recently decided to pick one up and give it a try. This blog entry will cover how I got to this place, what I have learned about the salt blocks on the market and my first experiences grilling with one. As more time goes by, I will probably write additional entries. In the meantime I have learned there is more to know than first meets the eye. I lucked out and bought the only salt block that I actually would have wanted. At least if I had I known some of the fussy and finicky things you must do with most of the other salt blocks on the market. It is going to seem like I am totally gung ho for the Salt Rox salt block and in a way I am. But my buying the Salt Rox was a happy accident in my case. I am going to stress the HUGE differences so anyone reading this will know what they are getting themselves into before taking out their cash. Read More...
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More BBQ & Grilling - Cookbook

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One of the things I love about this time of year (March, April & May) is it marks the time when a new round of Grilling & BBQ Cookbooks hit the shelves. The cookbook I was most looking forward to was: More BBQ & Grilling for the Big Green Egg and Other Kamado Style Cookers by Eric Mitchell. This cookbook came out last week and was the follow-up to his first cookbook: Smoke It LIKE A PRO on the Big Green Egg & Other Ceramic Cookers. This Blog entry will review this new cookbook, which I’ve already made two recipes from in under a week. The RIB EYE TOMAHAWKS recipe went straight to my favorite recipes list here on the site. I am expecting great things from this cookbook. Read More...
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Finding Favorites

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People visiting the site often asked me some variation on this question: Out of everything I’ve shown on here, what was my favorite? This was the reason behind the FAVORITE FOODS section where I added lists of the my personal favorites in various categories. Over time I added a notation in the Photo Album for the items to designate which ones were named as a favorite. Recently I changed the various Indexes to add a gold star next to the names of all of the favorites. This way people browsing the Indexes can see the recipes that were Favorites without having to specifically go to the FAVORITE FOODS section. Read More...
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Be Sensible

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Other than cooking on the grill in a limited fashion, I was pretty much a total newbie when it came to cooking for the first half of my life. When I got my first serious gas grill I began to get serious about cooking too. I wanted to learn more and I began gathering knowledge from various grilling and smoking cookbooks, websites and a few cooking classes or demonstrations. If you think about cooking on a superficial level your sense of taste would seem to be the sense most involved with cooking. But the more you think of it, your other senses are also deeply involved. Also I have learned that the more you let your other senses help you, the easier your task will be and the better the end results. This blog will discuss some of the ways your other senses can help you with your cooking tasks. It will mostly cover outdoor cooking, but some of these items apply indoors as well. Read More...
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CyberCook-A Fresh Look-Pt. 2

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PART 1 of this blog described the fresh perspective I had after returning to using the CyberQ with CyberCook. Using it for a brief time and then returning to it after many months away gave me new insights and a better understanding on the benefits of using the CyberQ WiFi/CyberCook combinations. The other thing that happened was a new version of CyberCook, version 3, came out. and I was asked to Beta test this software. I held off writing this blog for several months until the release version was out. It made no sense to write a blog concerning the v2 software that would soon be obsolete. It turns out there were enough new features in Version 3 that I decided to write this separate entry describing what is new with Version 3. Read More...
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CyberCook-A Fresh Look-Pt. 1

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This is the continuation of a recent blog entry I wrote: EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL - 2016 where I talked about using my Pit Controllers after a 6 month time out. I got a fresh perspective on things after the time away. My intention was to follow that right up with this entry on the CyberCook software I use on my iPad to control the Cyber Q WiFi. When I was getting ready to write the blog entry, I was asked to be a Beta tester for a new version of the software. I held up writing this blog entry so I wouldn’t have to worry about talking about things that may change with the new version. When I started writing this entry I decided to make it a two part entry. Part 1 (here) will discuss my fresh perspective on using CyberCook after some time away from it. PART 2 will be a discussion of the new features in CyberCook v3.0. Read More...
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Baby It's Cold Outside

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We just went through a fairly cold stretch of weather for these parts and I used my Egg(s) on 3 out of the 4 days. To my great surprise, I actually had some of the smoothest cooks I have ever had. This blog entry will summarize the experience by describing what I have learned along the way as well as recent discoveries. I will also talk about some of the thinking (or lack of) behind some of my decisions. Those of you who own a Big Green Egg or other kamado (ceramic) grill can cook in almost any weather. The experience isn’t much different than cooking in the summer, at least as far as the grill is concerned. The cook will certainly notice a difference, but the grill won’t be the limiting factor. If you are a backyard cook looking to buy a new grill and/or smoker a kamado grill is certainly an excellent choice for year round cooking. I hope the people who aren’t currently taking advantage of their kamado grill’s ability to cook throughout the winter will read this and be encouraged to try their hands at winter grilling and smoking. Read More...
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Craftsy Apple TV 4 App

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In October Apple released version 4 of their set top box, the so called Apple TV. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Apple TV is not a TV itself. It is a set top box for playing content through your HDTV. There are other products on the market such as the Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Roku and Sling TV. They each have similar and different features from one another. Even if you don’t own an Apple TV 4, but are unfamiliar with the Craftsy platform, you still may want to read on. Craftsy classes can be viewed via a web browser on your PC and there are apps for iOS and Android smart phones and tablets. I have found the Craftsy platform is a great way to learn new cooking skills or reinforce skills you have already picked up. There are some great cooking classes, including some specifically related to grilling and smoking foods. They have come at things from a different angle than some of the other online training sites, and this may appeal to many folks. Read More...
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Apple Watch-General & BBQ Specific Uses-Part 2

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PART I of this blog discussed the Apple Watch in general and my specific impressions after having used one for 6 months. It is a different animal in terms of use the cases for it. Most people want or need a smartphone. Many people want or need a tablet device. The watch isn’t so clear cut. As you can read in PART I of this blog entry I have mixed emotions about my purchase. This entry will describe how the Apple Watch has fit into my grilling and smoking activities. Once again, it is a different animal in terms of what you can do with it. Is it essential? At this point in time I would have to say absolutely not. Is it useless? Once again, absolutely not. The answer lies somewhere in between. Read More...
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Apple Watch-General & BBQ Specific Uses-Part 1

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When the Apple Watch was announced and previewed in late 2014, I thought it was some of the coolest tech I had ever seen. Dick Tracy meets Star Trek. But I had ZERO intention of buying one. The second or third generation model maybe, but I felt I did not want or need the first generation model. Well things changed and unexpected circumstances gave me a compelling use case for having one. So in early August 2015 I bought the Apple Watch Sport which is the entry level model. It served the original purpose well and now I am using it for other uses including BBQ. There is certainly not a use case for buying an Apple Watch for BBQ uses only. Therefor this two part blog entry will discuss the general uses I have found for the Apple Watch, plus some handy uses for BBQ. The BBQ related uses I will discuss in PART 2 of this blog. Read More...
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The Case for Keeping a Cooking Log

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Many years ago I wrote several blogs about the importance and benefits of keeping a cooking log. My methods of doing a log have changed, the ease of making them has vastly improved, but the importance and benefits have not changed. This past weekend’s brisket cook reminded me of the importance and benefits of having logs of past cooks. I figured a new blog entry was in order. If you are interested in the specifics of how I used my graphing capabilities this weekend, scroll to the bottom. For a little background on the How’s and Why’s of keeping a Cooking Log, read on here. Read More...
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Everything is Under Control - 2016

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My nearly 6 month hiatus from grilling has given me a new or refreshed perspective on many things about my hobby. I was away long enough that I was forced to think again about things I took for granted. A tiny bit of the information in this entry is specific to the Big Green Egg or other Kamado type grills. Almost all of it applies to any grill or smoker you can use with a pit controller. Last year, around Christmas time, I got my first pit controller. I soon added a second one to control my baking Egg. I had about 3 months or so using pit controllers when I had to hit the pause button on grilling to take care of some important real-life issues. I have been back at it full time for about 4 months now and I have found it interesting revisiting processes again. With the pit controllers, I had a certain base knowledge, from the 3 months I used them. I have also learned some new things and changed the way I operated a little. This will eventually be a two part blog because I went through the same process with the software, CYBERCOOK I use to remotely control my CyberQ WiFi. I will write a separate entry about getting reacquainted with this aspect of using a pit controller. It may not be one of the very next entries, but coming soon. But for now lets talk pit controllers. Read More...
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Stump Chunks = Stu(m)pendous

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The end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 has been very good in the grilling & smoking department. After my 6 month hiatus, I am back in a big way. A discovery I made this past summer has born fruit in the winter and in a big way. I will go over the background briefly and then get into the specifics of my discovery. Also in my last blog entry about Stump Chunks fire starters I mentioned I was starting to have some difficulties getting them lit. I have discovered the solution to this problem too and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Read More...
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December 2016
October 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016