Looks more like cheese soup.....

That being said ---- you got me to craving some 'proper' Wisconsin beer cheese soup..... I haven't had any in forever.

It still looks damned good, though! I'd attack that with a soup spoon!

Cheese soup!

I didn't say that I didn't eat it. It was tasty. I just probably need to eat less dinner.

What I wanted.


The (tasty) mess I ended up with.

would still eat

Trust me we did eat, and leftovers for tomorrow.

Love fork spit holder!

Steak au Poivre Baked Penne

So.... my neighbors daughter was back in town this week -- I called him up last night and offered to smoke some chicken for them - unfortunately, she had a flight out this morning... but my neighbor was all for a whole smoked bird. Looked at the forecast for today - saying rain coming in this afternoon.... damn..... could have done it..... BUT --- I was going thru my fridge and I found a half bottle of Lawry's sesame ginger marinade (thats been in there WAY too long)..... Looked at the pineapple I just picked up sitting on the counter.... Yeah ---- it was meant to be!!!! Neighbor stopped bye with the two chickens at ~9:30 this morning after dropping his daughter off at the airport. Got the pineapple cut down.... I took the core and threw it in the blender (god - I haven't used my blender FOREVER) and pureed the hell out of it - added a couple of more chunks for good measure - poured in the sesame ginger marinade - added some OJ and ~1.5 T of fresh grated ginger just for the hell of it..... Damn tasty marinade! Chickens in separate bags - ~1 3/4 cups of marinade in each - into the fridge until ~9:00 tomorrow night with occasional mixings - drain and rub and dry in the fridge for smoking on Friday. Its the closest I've gotten to wet brining yet. I was debating about saving ~1/2 cup of the marinade for basting/finishing.... but realized what a pain it would be to brush two chickens at the end...

Should be really close to a nice/real huli huli chicken! The best part ---- I had the pile of pineapple rinds sitting on the counter.... kinda pissed at how much flesh/meat had to be taken off to get the eyes out.... smelled great.... LITE BULB!!!! I put the rinds in a bag and put it in the fridge..... I'm gonna cut up the rinds and put them inside the chicken while its smoking!!!! I feel like I'm 'channeling' my mom --- use everything and don't waste good flavor!

More to come Friday night!

Sounds good JMB!

I just grilled up a Flank Steak on the Weber, some Flank Steak wraps coming up shortly.

chuck made it too. used mozzarella cheese, it was good but lacking something. maybe I should have used some orange zest in the mix

I pulled the chickens out of the bags this morning ~7am - 44 hours of marinade/wet brine - if that doesn't get flavor into the meat - I don't think anything will.... Drained the marinade off and put some rub on them - stuffed them with the pineapple rinds - on a rack and drying in the fridge. If these taste even 1/10 as good as they smell ---- they are going to be fantastic!!! I was debating whether to put rub on or not --- was worried about too much saltiness - I'll find out if I made the right call later.... Still trying to decide whether I should glaze them..... probably will since I have some SBR Hawaiian bbq sauce that should go great with the pineapple/sesame ginger marinade....

Planning on some plum and pecan chunks for smoking...

Well..... cooking that chicken last night ended in a pretty big disappointment.

Everything went well as far as I could see.... smoker ran well - took a bit longer than I thought.... but I was not expecting what happened at the end..... Cooked it as usual - planned on popping it in the oven to crisp up the skin - pulled the chickens off the smoker and they were literally falling apart - after broiling for ~10 minutes, I pulled the pan out of the oven and noticed that the skin had disintegrated!!! Let it cool - went to pull a leg and the whole bird just fell apart --- lifted up the breasts and the backbone just fell apart - it didn't even move off the bottom of the pan..... Meat was 'flavorful', but incredibly mushy.... Boy --- did I fuck up.

Thinking about it last night --- the only thing I could come up with is all the acid in the pineapple juice and OJ 'ceviched' the meat during the 40 hour marinade...... Googling around this morning and sure as shit, I find "The acids and enzymes in the marinade break down tough fibers and tenderize the meat, which makes it soft and melty after it's cooked. But if you keep it in the marinade for too long, it over-tenderizes the meat so that it has no texture and falls apart when cooking." Fuuuuuck..... what a rookie mistake.....

So.... I learned something out of this experience..... Just stick with rubs when smoking --- and if you feel like you HAVE to marinade, no more than 24 hours.

I owe my neighbor a new chicken.

The meat is still edible - and as it cooled, it seemed to firm up. I'm thinking I'm gonna make a batch of chicken enchiladas and some chicken salad with whats left of mine.

Oh yeah . . . pineapple will do that, it will disintegrate meat.