Smoking the in-laws...

During our vacation last week, my lovely wife and I spent several days at her parents' home in Sleepy Eye, MN.  Of course my father in-law had a sample of my first smoking attempts and thought it would be a good idea to bring the smoker with me, so I did.

I picked up 2 racks of Hormel St Louis Style ribs and a 3lb pork shoulder with the bone.

To prep the pork shoulder, I used the new injection syringe I purchased to infuse flavor in the meat.  I mixed apple cider vinegar with my own meat rub.  I also generously rubbed the outside with my meat rub.  For smoking this shoulder, I used tips left by Joe of Grilling Addiction on one of my previous posts.  I applied the rub and injection about 1 hour before I put the shoulder in the smoker.  For a bit of extra moisture in the smoker, I put 1 cup of the apple cider vinegar in the liquid pan in the bottom of the smoker. I hit the shoulder hard with smoke for about 4.5 hours at 205F. After that time I wrapped the butt in aluminum foil and a poured a tad apple cider vinegar in the foil pack.

To prep the ribs, I applied my rub about 2 hours before I intended to put them in the smoker.  After I wrapped the shoulder in foil, I put the ribs in the smoker.  I did them for about 4 hours as before.  With about 30 minutes to go, I basted the ribs with my own BBQ sauce.

Slicing the ribs

Pork Shoulder right out of the smoker

Ribs fresh out of the smoker

Shredding the shoulder

Look at all the DELICIOUS ribs still in the pan.

 






























The results were good.

The shoulder shredded just how I wanted, (thanks Joe at Grilling Addiction for the tips). It had a nice flavor and a little "bark" on the outside. Next time I am going to go for more of a "smoke ring" in the meat.  I already have some ideas in mind to accomplish that.  My parents are coming early next week for a visit and I have a shoulder waiting in the fridge.  So my next guinea pigs are selected.

The ribs were better than last time. They did not have as much smoke flavor as last time, but had a nicer overall flavor. I am sure I ate half of them all by myself.

Iowa, not just for corn anymore

My lovely wife and I were on vacation the last week or so, that is why I have been lacking for posts, but I will catch up this week.

We had enough hotel reward points for some free nights so we decided to go to Des Moines, IA, for a couple of days.  My wife attends a conference there for work once a year and she always raves about the scallops at a restaurant.....she was right to rave.

The restaurant she raved about is Ohana's Steak House in West Des Moines.  According to their website, Ohana is Hawaiian for "family."  The style of cooking is Japanese Teppanyaki, many people would call it hibachi style- the chef comes and cooks the food in front of you at a large grill, surrounded by approximately 10 seats.   
My wife and I shared the Tuesday night special of chicken and steak and added an order of their house specialty scallops.  The side dishes we enjoyed were the included soup, salad, shrimp, zucchini with onions, fried rice, and noodles.  We enjoyed our chef, Ken.  He put on an entertaining "show" while cooking.  I was the only one at the table who caught a couple of his jokes, but everyone at the table had a terrific experience.  Our table mates were locals that frequent Ohana's and suggested we try the spicy seasoning on the vegetables.  That was a good choice.

Ohana's Steak House was great! My only regret is we should have ordered more of the scallops. They were DELICIOUS! They have a creamy sweet and savory sauce they use on the scallops. I think I would eat an old shoe if it had that sauce on it.

I will definitely try to get to Ohana's again.

The smoke is in the meat...

Today I fired up the smoker for the second time on my journey to greatness... or at least a step in learning the art of awesome food.  I picked up a pork shoulder roast and some pork country style ribs cut from the shoulder.  I prefer country style ribs cut from the shoulder.  They are meatier and have less gristle than the loin end country style ribs, but both cuts are delicious.  If you are interested, many places do not cut country style ribs this way.  But you could request from a butcher 1 inch thick cut pork steaks and then cut the pork steaks into 2 pieces.  (The pork steaks are the same thing.)

I applied my rub from before to the meat and put in the fridge overnight.

I fired up the smoker to attain 205F and added the country style ribs and pork shoulder roast.

I pulled the ribs after about 3.5 hours and we munched on those.  They turned out well.
I took the roast off after about 5.5 hours.  It was tender and delicious!  I sliced 1/2 of it and chopped the other 1/2.

Overall, I was pleased with today's results.  I was hoping to have the roast "shred" more than chop it, but it was still delicious.

Things I learned:
1.  Mix up my sauce in advance, or at least sometime during cooking.  I ate sandwiches without sauce, but it was still good.
2.  Make sure to line up guinea pigs to sample my meat so as to not have so much left over.