Smoked Pork Butt

removing the bone

The outer part is called the bark

be careful it still hot

Ok I left you a with a tantalizing picture and it is from my new toy. Doug got a smoker last year and at our music jams he always had the most mouth watering meat. We got lucky and found a electric smoker at Waley world that was being discontinued and on sale. So I have been looking up on smoking meat and the first thing they said to cook in it was a Boston butt or pork shoulder to help season the smoker. This is our Boston butt and it just melted in your mouth. I really did not need any Bar BQ sauce but we do like Sweet Baby Rays. Now this did take a good bit of time so it has to be done on a weekend for me as it is a two day event.
Injection Sauce
1 cup apple sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
4 teaspoons Cajun seasonings (Zatarains) we like a lot so we used 4 Tablespoons
2 teaspoons powdered mustard.
Dry Rub
4 Tablespoons paprika
2 Tablespoons chili powder
2 Tablespoons cumin
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon red pepper
Mustard
apple juice
Boston Butts are a cheep piece of meat and are found on sell during the summer. This also makes a whole lot so if cooking for a crowd or like us to but up and have later as sandwiches. I think we got 4 baggies of 4 cups each that we were able to put up in the freezer not counting what we stuffed our self with first. When it is in the 100's like this week being able to pull out a pack and have is great.
Now that you have all the ingredients gathered lets get started.
Take the meat and inject it with the injection sauce.
when that is done take the mustard and rub all over and sprinkle half of dry rub (do not rub it in) on meat and place in foil or Saran wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.
Next morning take out and put other half of rub on meat do not rub in just sprinkle it on all over.
Let it set about 20 to 30 minutes.
Get the smoker ready
We used apple and hickory wood chips.
A shoulder or butt will take about 1.5 hours per pound of meat to smoke. You will need to smoke the meat at 225° - 230°F until the internal temperature reaches 140°. From there take it up to or 200° - 205°F to pull it.
We pulled it. We also put some apple juice in a spray bottle and sprayed it on the meat every hour.
When the meat was ready we took it out and let it set wrapped in foil in a foil container for about an hour.
This was still hot so be careful pulling the meat apart. Pour the meat juices into a bowl and put it the refrigerator while you pull the pork or while the meat is resting. After the meat juice solidifies run paper towel lightly around the fat and it will stick to the paper towel. Add back to meat.
Whew that took a good bit of time but let me tell ya it melted in our mouths and we will have some great sandwiches for a few days. As Ramona's dog says nom, nom, nom good

Hello and a peek of what is comming up this weekend.

When I called home tonight wife told me she had added some new gadgets to my blog, Now I barley can type as you all can tell so. I thought I would check it out and tell every one thank you for coming by and checking out my blog. I'm new to this so I'm not sure what the correct way to do things, but I do try to reply to your comments as soon as I can under the comment section. During the summer I'm on the road Mon-Thursday most weeks and most nights I'm so tired I just shower and go to bed. I'm always open to suggestions to make things better.
I got a new toy and will be talking about it this weekend. This is all Doug's fault. One of my Jam buddies got one last year and he has cooked some great meat on his. This is bringing out the cave man in me. LOL

Sunday Cat feature starring the Stinker

This is our biggest baby and I do mean BIG. He must weight around 18 to 20 lbs maybe a little more. It takes two hands to pick him up. Stink was born sometimes around Sept 2005. We found him and his sister under our porch. We knew if we didn't capture them they would end up wild like so many around the neighborhood. We were able to find a home with a sweet 8 year old little girl through our Vets for Pip we kept Squeak (aka the Stinker).

This kitten had a mouth on him like none of our others. We almost called him Ted Turner mouth of the south, but his personality shone there as a real little stinker.... into everything and would not listen and always in trouble.

Like destroying a role of paper towels ,toilet paper you name it. We could not leave anything out as he would get it. He even would drag our clothes around the house. He loves to play with the rope and will bring it to us and drag it around the house. He has mellowed a little as he has gotten older but he still likes to hide in a closet and we always have to check, When we hear this wailing we know he has snuck by us into somewhere he should not be.

Last Friday Tomato post

Well this is our last tomato and it is the White Wonder and it is a white color. This tomato for us was a medium in size and was not our favorite and we will not be growing again. I don't know if it is the white color or what but we have have had better tasting tomatoes. In fact it didn't taste like a tomato to us very much. I can see using it as a garnish as it is a pretty color. We saw Providence Aces Portuguese heart tomato and could not believe the size so we are going to try to get a seed or two and try to plant one.

Out tomato plants only have a few tomatoes on them and we have saved seeds from three of them for next year. The heat down here has been brutal and we hope to start a new crop with the suckers to last until fall soon.

Black Sea Man Tomato

Our tomatoes are pouring in now and this is the Black Sea Man again another one that is supposed to have origins in the Crimea area in Russia. They are a darker red almost maroon and very sweet and mild no acid at all. It was very good naked(nothing on it) and delicious with a little salt and pepper. And made a great sandwich.

Sunday cat feature Laskha

This is a picture of my wife's cat Lashka. He was a pedigree Russian Blue and lived to a ripe old age of 18. We unfortunately do not have many pictures of him as we she did not have a camera. . Some where along the way he lost his eyesight but we didn't know till the Vet told us. He got around the house like he could see. Lash loved to be brushed and all you had to do is get the brush out and there he was. He also liked riding on your shoulder. He was very aloof with the other cats and never made friends with any of them and spent a lot of his time alone. His coat was very thick and frosty. We have other cats that have beautiful blue coats(we will feature them on another Sunday cat feature.) that are mutt cats we have rescued. Lash was the only one that was ever bought all the others found their way to our house and would not leave.

Southern Fried Green Tomatoes and eggplant

We had a dish a while back of tuna and orange white beans that was not as good as we thought so we gave it a try again and much better with fresh basil and a a better orange. See the side and click on tuna to see the recipe.

No..... the star of this meal was the fried green tomatoes as they are in abundance at the farmers market we go to. We also picked up an eggplant. Our tomatoes are coming in now but we wanted them to be ripe to taste as they are new to us.

Now we have cheated as we love Zatarains fish fry and used it in our of flour and corn meal. Made it spicier. Now we do sweat our eggplant and for those who don't know that is where we slice it and sprinkle salt on both sides and let stand for about 10 minutes. We do find this takes our the bitterness.

Chicken Pecan and Cransins with cheese sauce

Ok we thought this would be fantastic it has some of our favorite things. Maybe it was a bad day but it did not live up to our expectations. Now don't let us discourage any of you from trying it because it was good just not out of the ball park for us, maybe not enough heat for us as our taste buds like a little more heat. We got this from Zaar and hate to hear they are changing it as we get alot of our ideas there so we hope its still as easy to use.

We did cut this in half because its just two of us.

3/4 cup tosted and finley chopped pecans

1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries (we used crasins)

4 chicken breast

1/2 cup flour

2 beaten eggs

cheese sauce

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup jalapeno pepper cheese

2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375

Stir pecans and cranberries together

Lightly flour chicken breast and dip in beaten egg then coat well with pecan and cranberry's

Place chicken in oiled baking dish

Cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until meat is golden on outside and no longer pink inside. (we had two monster breast and had to cook it a good bit longer if doing this again I would use pounded or flattened breast.)

While that is cooking start cheese sauce

melt butter in sauce pan over med heat

Add flour and stir about one minute then add milk and whisk till mixture starts to thicken and begins to boil.

Add cheese and stir till completly melted

add chives and salt and pepper to taste

Serve with sauce over chicken

First Tomato taste test

Black and Red Boar

Sliced

Black Krim

Sliced

We picked and sliced two of our tomatoes the Red and Black Boar and the Black Krim.

The Red and Black Boar is a small tomato and looks like n o other tomato I have ever seen. My wife said it reminds her of a red and green zebra. The insides are a very dark maroon red and I must say it was a tomato explosion in the mouth. This was one small powerful tomato packing with a full flavor.

The Black Krim is larger and also a dark red color and is sweeter. It was real good sliced on a hamburger. So far we can see where the heirloom tomatoes have a great flavor and we will need to try and save some seeds.

Shrimp,Crab, Squash Pasta

We had some left over imitation crab meat and was looking for something to cook with it but we didn't have quite enough for any of the recipes we had. So we just kind of threw this together with some stuff we had left over and it turned out pretty good.

Pasta for two cooked and drained. (We really had enough for my honey to have for lunch the next day)
1/4 cup onion diced

1 one stalk celery diced

a few mushrooms sliced

1 or 2 squash (one per person if small or one larger sliced or cubed)

one or two cloves garlic we use 2 because we like garlic

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes more or less per your preference

1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary ( we have a bush out side the kitchen but you can use dried)

2 sweet basil leaves if small or one large( our basil plant is growing like gangbusters we have got to use more)

salt and pepper to taste

one tomato

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese with extra for topping

about 1/2 pack of imitation crab meat

about 12 medium shrimp

a little water about 1 Tablespoon

1 Tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon butter

Combine oil and butter in large skillet on med high heat. When hot add onion,celery,mushrooms and squash. Kinda stir fry for a few minutes till squash is starting to get tender about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add 1 Tablespoons water and the garlic and cook till squash is tender.

Add chopped tomato, red pepper flakes,rosemary,basil.

Add 1 cup cream and 1/2 cup water stir and bring to a boil. then reduce to a simmer to thicken.

Add salt and pepper to taste

Last add shrimp and crab after pasta has been cooked and drained.

Add pasta to sauce after shrimp have cooked (turned pink) if cooked to long shrimp will be rubbery.

Heat till warm serve immediately and top with Parmesan cheese.

Friday tomato update

Black Sea Man

Black and red Boar

Black Krim

White Wonder

Well our tomatoes are starting to get ripe but they don't seem to be putting any new ones out. I hope they get a new spurt going. As you can see they are turning a little not so sure about the white wonder. How do we tell if its ripe? I guess we will pick when it feel a little soft. The Red and Black Boar is a little small it is supposed to be a salad tomato but it sure is pretty.

Friday tomato update a little late

White Wonder

Black Sea Man

Black and Red Boar

Black Krim

I'm late posting Fridays tomato update had to go to town for shopping and then the air on the car went out and down here one has to have air condition. So we had to run to the shop and have them fix the car. By the time we got home and loaded every thing in the freezer and put away the stuff from the farmers market I plum forgot about the tomato up date. Boy the farmers market is full of some beautiful produce now. We finally have two tomatoes from the Black and Red Boar that is ready to eat. This is a small tomato what they called a salad tomato and it sure is pretty. We took pictures of it and will eat it tomorrow. Hope every one had a good 4th. We had some good food at a friends house. We brought one of my lemon pies, corn on the cob and baked beans. Noel has a smoker and made so lip smacking smoked country ribs. Lisa had some great greens and the best cornbread...... Thanks again for the great meal.