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the above are great for any time of year too, as is this:

My only alteration to this recipe is I use cheddar because I like some color in my mac and cheese.


The manicotti and mac and cheese are long standbyes, the lasagna was added this year. Also, I have made all three in the past week. So next week's leftovers are gonna be nice
 
Mmmmmm, bacony. . . . Only modifications to this recipe are as follows:

1. Cook the pasta last
2. Cook the parmesan, cream, half cup of pasta water separately

Other than that, delicious. . . .

 
The Corned Beef was soooooo tender.

BIG hit at the Legion.

Some of my best work.

That method and recipe I created will be an annual tradition going forward.

10 hours in the crockpot on low definitely works.

Placing a bed of aromatics in first and the bigger roast shape corn beef I got directly from the slaughterhouse laid on top was great.

Thick cut onions, carrots, celery and garlic plus whole shallots and small chipotle onions with the green cabbage cut in wedges of 1/8th of the cabbage is the way to go.

I used pickling spices and high end black pepper.

Finally my liquid base was home made beef bone broth plus a can of Guinness.

I was barely able to thing out the two corned beef roasts out of the crock pot without them falling apart to let them rest before slicing.

I set them aside and scooped out the veggies.

I took all of the liquid and boiled it separately whisking in corn starch to thicken it before straining it and pouring it over the veggies.

I then placed the sliced corn beef on top.

Very visually appealing.
 
For the longest time I had a live wood fire smoker. Finally broke down and bought an electric smoker awhile back. My son and I have smoked all sorts of meats in that thing.

I have a small electric mini-fridge looking smoker that I use my own little branches of pear and apple.

I have thought of getting a proper big ass smoker like I had when I was a single parent raising 3 hungry children however my Father died at the age of 63 of a stroke so I make all efforts to reduce my sodium intake these days.

I use No Salt (a potassium substitute) but it is NOT the same and to smoke meat properly you need to use salt to get the moisture to surface.

As such, I only use my electric smoker 4-5 times a year during the Bills season.
 
With the all of the rain coming and my body aching from the outdoor work and most likely oncoming cold, I just put a 16 pint pot on the stove filled with filtered water plus half a large soup chicken, 4 lbs of beef bones, 1 large sweet onion, 2 big ass carrots, 4 celery stalks, cilantro (only because I had no fresh parsley), beef and chicken soup cubs and a couple dozen green peppercorns.

It will simmer overnight and I will strain it in the morning and eat soup for the weekend with little pasta or rice or barley or whatever.

The 3 mutts get the chicken and beef bones for dinner.

Win-win.
 
In the process of negotiating the price of a whole fresh little goat of 18 - 20 lbs for pick up early of the week of Easter to marinate in Argentinian Chimichhurri Sauce for 6 days and then BBQ'd on the Big Green Egg for Easter Dinner along with the innards and sweetbreads.

 
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My ingredients, my artwork (lol if that what I call it)

This is a label of my rub I use, and sometimes offer it as gifts. I made baby backs yesterday on the Weber Kettle. I'm old school, I agree that the pellet smokers are like the Easy Bake Oven of BBQ. I manually control the vents to maintain a temp of 225 -250 in a charcoal grill with apple wood chunks. I sporadically mist with a apple juice/bourbon mix, and let cook for about 2 & 1/2 hrs, then do the "texas crutch" for another hour.

For the sauce, no special recipe. I use Stubb's original.

Fall off the bone MMM MM gooood!
 
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My ingredients, my artwork (lol if that what I call it)

This is a label of my rub I use, and sometimes offer it as gifts. I made baby backs yesterday on the Weber Kettle. I'm old school, I agree that the pellet smokers are like the Easy Bake Oven of BBQ. I manually control the vents to maintain a temp of 225 -250 in a charcoal grill with apple wood chunks. I sporadically mist with a apple juice/bourbon mix, and let cook for about 2 & 1/2 hrs, then do the "texas crutch" for another hour.

For the sauce, no special recipe. I use Stubb's original.

Fall off the bone MMM MM gooood!
Sounds good. Have you ever used the snake method in the kettle?
 
I have almost 20 lbs of young goat marinating in Chimichhurri Sauce sauce since Tuesday morning in the fridge with the flip over every morning.

Scored two whole ducks on Wednesday morning, butterflied them and have them marinating in olive oil and non-salt herbs/spices in the fridge since then.

Going to fire up the Big Green Egg on Easter Morning with hardwood charcoal from Quebec, CANADA.

I hope I can keep the fire low enough.
 
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