It's a Boy..er...Girl...uh..Its a Baby Stumps!!!

Oh happy day!  There's a new arrival in the family...

Just off the Truck!

Uncrating, the Red is Awesome!!!

There she is in all her glory!

 

 

 

 

Eggtable - Round 2

Okay, I've worked on the table over the previous few days. I've been meaning to get some pics up and I am finally getting around to doing just that, enjoy!

Just cut the pieces for the top. I did the last cutting for the top and bottom last Friday, and the rest of the stuff today.








The top and bottom pieces have been cut, test fitting the 18"X18" tile into place.







Just finished attaching the top and botton pieces to the frame. I ran out of screws during this step and had to run to Home Depot for another box of screws.






Attached the wheels and tires to the frame. I'm really hoping these work out, I found these at Harbor Freight for about 6 bucks each.

I think they give the table a real off road kind of look...hehe If Drew sees this he'll be wanting to put a lift kit on the eggtable.



And here's the table's current state. After Sanding the top and bottom shelves, I pretreated then stained. I had already stained the frame, the bottom and top shelves, and in between the slats for the shelves. I have to wait at least 24 hours before finishing with the the Helmsman Spar treatment, so I probably won't get to do anymore until after Thanksgiving. I'm also thinking about giving it one more coat of stain before the final protector coat with the Helmsman Spar stuff.

I also added 1/4 inch plywood backers to the tile, just for a little extra strength and to lift them up closer to the same level of the top and bottom shelves.

More to come after Thanksgiving!!!

Building a Table for my Egg! - Round 1

Well, I finally got around to starting this project. I've been wanting to build a table for the Egg since I brought it home back in April. I used the The Naked Whiz's plans that he's created and are available as a download from his site. I had it all planned out really good as far as lumber and how much I'd need and all, then when I got to Home Depot I had to buy 8ft boards for my 1x4's instead of the 10ft boards I had done all my planning. Oh well, I guess we'll see how many trips to Home Depot I'll have to make to finish it...hehe.

Oh, did I mention that what I really needed to do was build a Mailbox for my house? Yeah, never got around to that I have priorities...hehe

Here's the first round of pics, I got the major part of the frame built today, I need to finish the top for the upper and lower shelves next. I hope I can work on this some this week, but we'll see.

Just arrived home with all the wood. Well at least I hope this is all I need, I had to guesstimate at the last moment, and I'm not good at math.

The thing in the white box is the mailbox I should be working on...hehe



Here's the wood all cut for the frame of the table. I used the measure twice and cut once method for sure! Of course, with my limited woodworking skilz I went ahead and measured more like 3 or 4 times. Did I mention that I'm bad at math?





Here's the Frame for the upper shelf. I screwed up when building this piece, I should have built the inner square to the right in the picture first and then installed it before putting the right side board on. I will know better for next time.





Here's the Frame for the Lower shelf. After my experience with the upper shelf I was much smarter building the inner framing first and then adding to the frame. I did have one little problem, I accidentally drilled my thumb at one part during the lower shelf construction...DOH!

Oh well, good thing I have lots of FSA money to go buy more bandaids...hehe.

Adding the four posts to the lower frame. There may be a better way of doing this, not sure, I never took shop class. I took accounting and business machines for my high school electives...ugh, I wish I had taken shop class so I would know what I'm doing...hehe




And here's the top frame added to the posts. All in all it went together pretty well.

I'm using all white pine for the majority of the construction. I really considered using red oak or cedar, but I wasn't confident enough in my wood working skilz to risk the more expensive wood. I figure I can always build another table down the road if I really want something else, I'm sure I can find someone who needs an egg table, what? am I crazy?

That's pretty much it for tonight, it got dark way earlier than I was expecting. I guess I'll have to wait until Friday to install my mailbox...hehe

Smokin!
The Alfster

Am I Mad ?!?!

Pumpkin Pie? Hell Yeah! After the brisket cooked we brought the temp up on the egg to 375 degrees and in a little more than an hour had a hot fresh pumpkin pie to eat for dessert! How awesome is that?

Top that bad boy with a little cool whip and we are good to go!

Smokin',

The Alfster

Brisket to go!

Wow. That's all I have to say. I've had trouble getting brisket right for some time. It's either on or off it seems. But this last weekend Cousin Alan and I cooked one using a fast method that Skee and I have been kicking around, and all I have to say is...Wow. It turned out great. This is by far the best brisket I've made to date. It was moist, juicy, tender and oh so good. I'm super pleased with the results. Here's the rundown of the cook prep and process we used.

I bought a USDA Choice packer brisket from Sam's. That's basically the flat and the point all in once piece with very little trimming, pretty much like you've seen on here before. I trimmed some of the fat off the brisket and then prepared a rub using kosher salt, black pepper, and white pepper, with basically 2/3 black to 1/3 white peppercorns. I ground the peppercorns in my spice grinder to a slightly course consistency. I used a little worschester sauce on the brisket to moisten it and then added the spices. That was pretty much it.

We got the egg up to temperature, 225 degrees, added some smoking chunks, the plate setter and then set the brisket down on the grid to begin cooking. We cooked the brisket like this until it reached a temperature of 165 degrees. We then wrapped the brisket in heavy duty aluminum foil and added the juice from one jar of pepperocini peppers, with a few peppers sprinkled on top (we figured it couldn't hurt...hehe) We then brought the temp of the egg up to 350 degrees, yeah that's hot! We then tested the brisket about every hour to hour and a half for doneness, we were looking for the temp probe to just slide in to the meat with very little resistance. After a few hours we pulled the brisket and then let it sit in a cooler to rest.

After about 2 hours we sliced the flat away from the point and proceded to slice up the flat. OMG...it was awesome! Definately the best I have done to date. We slopped a little of Cuz's special bbq sauce he got from Rudy's and we ate until we could hardly move. It was goodness. I can't wait to try this again. I'd cook one for Thanksgiving if I thought I could get away with it...hehe

Wow, it only took about 7 hours for this bad boy to cook! Another couple hours for a rest and it was fast compared to other brisket cooks I've done. Good stuff!

Smokin'!!!
The Alfster

You know why?....Chicken Thigh!

Yep, thought I've give some chicken thighs a try today. Oh man are they cheap, and they turned out really good. I couldn't believe the flavor on these babies, and they were so moist and juicy. I know, I know, chicken is chicken, and I do believe that, but I really liked these. I need to work on crisping the skins, but they still tasted good.

I did brine these the night before, I should have taken a pic, but forgot. May have been the cigar smoke...hehe

I used two different rubs, one of my own concoctions and then an Italian herb rub that I just had sitting around in my spice cabinet. I also left two of the thighs plain w/o any rub, I was just wanting to see the differences. I cooked them about four hours total, the last hour I brought the Egg temp up to 350 to help the skins crisp up. I also glazed them at finishing with some Dan T's Raspberry Chipolte sauce that I thinned a little with some apple juice. I should have eaten them straight away, but I was working on cleaning out the garage still (okay I was smoking a stogie) and I couldn't get to them right away. I have enough for lunch tomorrow...hehe!

Smokin',

The Alfster

Ribs Second Attempt

Here's my second attempt at the ribs. They turned out much better than the first attempt. I just lightly seasoned these. I smoke these for 3 hours, then foiled for an hour, and then brought up egg to grilling temps for about another hour.

They aren't perfect, but I'm still practicing. They were pretty good tho, just didn't look as good as I was hoping.

Here they are, I trimmed the ribs Saint Louis style and then rubbed each one lightly. One I did with only salt and pepper, the other one I did with a little rub I made up.

Here they are on the egg, notice I had to roll them and pin them with a skewer. I think a rib rack is in my immediate future. Although this worked pretty well. I was worried that they may be all funky when I foiled them, but they straightened out just fine. Those other pieces of meat are some of the trimmings from the ribs. You have to work at them a little bit, but there is some decent meat in there.

Here's the finished product, not the best looking, but they tasted pretty good. I've still got a lot of work to do before I get the style ribs I'm looking for. As for the meat they were really tender, maybe a bit too tender, the bones were just falling off of them when I had them on the grill.

Oh well, practice makes perfect, and I at least can eat my mistakes..hehe

Chase cleaned up the bones that dropped on the ground, he's good to have around for just such emergencies...hehe

Smokin',

The Alfster