Lordy, lordy, look who’s forty!!!

April 7th, 2009

Down here in the ATL we had some snow flurries passing through on my 40th birthday! I guess I’ll have to start watching for more hair growing in my ears and nose. I was taken out to lunch by co-workers yesterday to a mexican restaurant. I got to wear a big sombrero and have some free ice cream along with the below photo they took and gave to me in a commemorative advertisement for their chain of restaurants. Best news of the day was that the Canon camera we sent back for warranty work was accepted and in the process of being repaired at no cost. Katherine is hand-me-downing that camera to me once we get it back so I won’t have to use my cheapo media player camera.

Rogerto eating luncho

Rogerto eating luncho

Work hard, play harder!

April 6th, 2009

Since this past Saturday was to have real nice weather, I set that day aside for cleaning out the gutters on the house. It’s been years since I did it last, and I really want the mosquitoes to be at a minimum this year. I have those metal screens that clip on the gutters, but debris still gets in there, mainly pine needles and pollen and stuff like that. So I threw on my work gloves and climbed the ladder. I would end up scraping over 1/2 of real black dirt from the gutters that the leaves have broken down into the past several years. Fine dirt, I should market “Roger’s Gutter Dirt” or something. Afterwards I would flush the gutters with my garden hose to give me that bare metal look inside the gutters. The night before we went food shopping so I picked up a $7 clearance T-Bone steak. Once I got done with the roof, I sparked up some charcoal. While that was catching in my charcoal chimney, I prepared some potatoes. I speared up some red potatoes so I got 6 spears from each of the 4 tots. I spread them on some foil and sprayed them with spray butter. I wrapped up the foil and that’s what you see on the grill along with the T-Bone, some chicken, and a few hot dogs.

Saturday Slaughter

Saturday Slaughter

While the food was cooking, Katherine decided (great idea) we eat outside! The weather was go and the bugs were no. I found a fold-up table and got some camping chairs together along with Lily’s high chair so she can partake in the festivities. Of course, this whole time, I have the radio playing some rock-n-roll.

Lily Can't Wait

Lily Can't Wait

Finally, the meal was cooked, the meat was done, and the potatoes were melt-in-your-mouth with a buttery texture. I shared my T-Bone with Katherine & Lily. Lily loved it sooo much that…

T-Bone Tear-up

T-Bone Tear-up

Still Smokin’

March 25th, 2009
No, not cigarettes. And certainly not anything else either. I’ve been smoke free since the beginning of the year! Thank you nicotine patches. You’ve worked wonders unlike the nicotine gum I’ve tried before some time ago. I’m supposed to get reimbursed for the cost so let’s see if the county pans out the dough. So on this day (yesterday actually) we had fine weather (~68 F) so it was high time to get the old smoker out. While I was getting things in order, Lily and ‘D’ hung out with me on the smaller (and un-guard-railed deck – I wanted to say porch but I don’t know if that’s the correct terminology). Anyways, I tried a new technique that I call hybrid-smoking. Yeah, I use the smoker, but the lower grill and the fuel bowl WITHOUT the water bowl. I then line the fuel bowl with hickory chunks (not soaked) and fill the middle with hot charcoal (that came from my charcoal chimney – or whatever it’s called). The temperature stood at medium the duration. And the duration turned out to be one hour. These were chicken-leg quarters I was working with. The cheapest of the cheap in regards to chicken at Kroger. We brought them in and I plopped them in some KC-style BBQ sauce for added flavor. Now, it may be hard to tell from the picture, but Katherine actually pulled the skin off of 4 of those pieces and the final one she left it on so I can enjoy. I must say that the piece with the skin “steamed” the chicken inside so it was quite juicy and delicious. So we shall now leave the skin on all the chicken we “gr-oke” and “sm-ill”. Feel free to leave me a comment if you have a question or a suggestion!

Lily and her doggy #1 Lily and her doggy #2 Clucker-nickel

Perfect weather for grilling some steaks!

March 12th, 2009

It was right around 72 degrees last evening and I had planned to get some red meat sizzling on the charcoals. I went to this butcher shop called The Meat Man and picked up an inch thick top sirloin which I had them sliced into 2 – 1/2 inch steaks. Each steak was over a pound in weight. I marinated it for an hour or so (wish I could have done that longer) in a mixture of ketchup, Hickory Smoke flavored BBQ sauce, Worchestire sauce, water and some herbs and spices. This crappy camera I used doesn’t do the below pictures any justice. Go ahead, click on each of the pictures in a futileĀ  attempt to savor the tender meat.

Steaks Part 1 Steaks Part 2 Steaks Part 3

I’m dreaming of a white…

March 5th, 2009

St. Patrick’s Day?? Huh?? In Georgia?? WTF??

Yup, this past Sunday it actually snowed here. We got like 1-1/2 to 2 inches that stuck to the ground. I had a fire going in the fireplace all day long, even had to go chop up some more wood in the snow. We played in the yard and threw snowballs around. And Monday morning, the roads were a bit icy. Check out the pics…

Fireplace Backyard Lily in the backyard