What's that you're eating?

Smithhammer said:
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You were doing good right up till the healthy waffles
 
Went out and got myself a smoker last month.
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After I’d gotten it out of my truck, the wife walked by giving me the stink-eye – “What’s up with that?”

Told her I’d decided to go into business as a travelling barbecue. She stared at me for 30 seconds or so, shook her head, and wandered off while muttering about “my being unclear on the concept.” I dunno, makes perfect sense to me – throw a jackery power bank, a couple ice chests, and a bucket of pellets in the bucket, fire it up, throw something on, then head off to the BBQ. By the time I get there it’ll probably be cooked (can’t go too fast with that much weight hanging out in front of the bucket – turtle mode only, don’t even think about driving it in squirrel mode).

Took me several days from this point until I had time to move the smoker up onto the deck and get most everything assembled and in order.
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So I’ve got this thing, wife’s still giving me attitude, I told myself, “I need a big win on the first thing I do here…”

For the first cook, I decided I’d try some beef jerky. A great opportunity to experiment with the smoker, sort of a no harm, no foul decision – If it’s good, the wife loves jerky. If it’s not so good, the dogs get great treats. And if it’s terrible, just throw it in the dumpster and deny all knowledge.

So, here’s the setup:
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This is shortly after I put it on. The method I was following said “up to 10 hours to finish”. Glad I didn’t wait 10 hours to look at it. I managed to leave the smoker undisturbed (other than checking the settings every three minutes or so) for about 4 hours. When I finally checked it, some of the smallest pieces were ready to come off.

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This was about 5 hours in.

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This was about 6 hours in. I’d already done 2 pulls, at 4 hours and 5 hours, and above was what was left. I experimented with a honey-water glaze on a few of the pieces, I’d just basted them in the above picture and left it for another hour.

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Above is the final pull. Wife ate the first two pulls before this even came off. The pieces on top, slightly shiny, are the ones I basted with honey-water. Not sure the juice was worth the squeeze on that – they were okay, but not noticeably better than the uncoated version.

Anyway, I’ll call it a win. Wife likes jerky more than I do, apparently, because she’d polished off about half of the above in a couple days (would have been all, probably, but I hid half in the freezer for later). Okay, I’ll admit, I had a few pieces, too. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. And just to confirm, the dogs lined up in an orderly fashion for their treats (like hell, they swarmed me when I offered some).

Seems the wife has a little better attitude toward the smoker now. Gotta figure out something else to prepare, jerky will only work for so long!
 
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Last second decision to cook at home tonight

Chicken breast with 2 new sauces to try out

Butcher chicken feta brats

Butcher beer brat, hot Italian sausage and fresh local corn

Was too much for me and the wife to tackle in one sitting

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runscott said:
That sounds like the perfect breakfast. I've never been able to screw up steelhead!
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Same! The steelhead that I buy here is farmed just up the Pacific coast in Canada. It seems more fatty than wild salmon, with a more forgiving cooking window. This was cooked uncovered for 25min at 320F. Came out nice and moist. This one had a little red wine, olive oil, coarse mustard, balsamic glaze, capers, dill, lemon juice, lemon pepper, and Johnny’s salt. I mostly snacked it on toast with cream cheese. 😋
 
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