God Morning, minus 15.5 C today

Isabelle at the Missouri State Highway Patrol

Taking a written test in order to het her driving permit.

Isabelles birthday cake

Happy 15th

The day after the surgery

I'm feeling pretty good actually, I have some pain but it's not to
bad. However I'm eating a couple of different pain killers and I also
got some penicillin for an infection. Apart from that I also need to
rinse my mouth 5-6 times a day with a saltwater rinse and an
antibacterial rinse twice a day. My biggest concern is to keep the
wounds clean and not develop a dry socket anywhere.

I must say that beeing under sedation under the procedure was very
nice, the last thing I remember before waking up in a small room was
that I could smell and taste some of the sedation. The whole procedure
took about 30 minutes and acording to Dr. Tanner it went very well.

All I need now is a few more days to recover and get off the pain
medication.

Out of surgey

Everything seems to have gone well. I'm out of surgery and in my car
going home. Sandra has just stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some
medicine. The surgery took about 30 minutes and I have no recollection
of anything. My whole mouth is still sedated and it feels very
strange. Once the sedation let's go I giess I will be more in pain bit
right now it feels ok.

Time for surgery

After been having ache in a wisdom tooth all weekend I went to the dentist on Monday and they said that I need to remove it, so I'm scheduled for surgery in a couple of hours.

They have told me that I will be sedated during the procedure and that they will remove all four wisdom teeth at the same time. In a way it will be good to remove all of them, that way another wisdom tooth will not bother me in the future but on the other hand it feels like a much larger procedure than just removing the tooth that is aching.

I'll be updating the blog once I have recovered

HD Theater are showing the Speedway race from Ullevi, cool :)

This is what's left of the two ribs and chicken

Half time

Time to turn the meat over.

The chicken has gotten a good sprinkle of the rub (not the same as the ribs)

I'll let it rest for 30 minutes before putting it on the cooker.

Ribs rolled up

And ready to go on to the cooker

Ready to cook, perfect temperature

After about 20 minutes the lit coal....

...was dumped into the ring and I then added a second chimney of unlit
coal on top of the lit. I'll leave that for about 30-40 minutes then
I'll add the smoke wood and assemble the cooker.

And now they are lit. Time to wait 15 min.

The coals are put in the chimney

I'm going to use a chimney starter.

You fill the chimney with coal and the light news paper in the bottom
and wait for about 15 minutes.

It's time to fire up the smoker

The meat should sit for about two hours with the rub on before you
start to cook so it is time to light the charcoal.

Here are the ribs with a good "dust" of rubs

The Spices are mixed

Foiling the water pan

To help with cleanup I foiled the water pan on the outside, hopefully
the cleaning will be much easier then.

The smoke wood

Unfortunately I don't have big chunks as the recipie calls for so I
was forced to put wood chips in a foil package. The three to the left
have Apple wood and the one to the right has Hickory. I'll place these
on the coal one it is lit.

Here are the slabs after trimming

The difference between them is that the one to the left (rib cage up)
had more fat to trim off, while the one to the right (meat side up)
had very little excess fat to trim.

The Super Bowl Cook has begun

Here are the two ribs, I bought one fresh over the meat counter and
one that was vacuum packed.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Oops it's not my birthday yet is it!! Well now I'll have time to test smoke a few times before my birthday party on the 13th. I wouldn't want to serve something that I don't know how it tastes.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the smoker that arrived today (very quick delivery ordered on Monday and it came today)

It is very easy to put together, the 3 legs are held together by 6 bolts and nuts and the 4 grill straps inside the middle section are held by 8 bolts and nuts, and finally the plastic handle on top of the lid is put together with just one screw, that's it.

The one thing that I noticed was how heavy the smoker was, all the parts are made in a very thick gauge steel. It felt much heavier than a normal charcoal grill, even one from Weber.

The weather is not the best right now but I Hope that it will clear up by Sunday so that I can put this baby to the test.

Below are pictures of the different parts.

The charcoal bowl with the charcoal chamber and grate. Under the bowl is the heat shield and you also see one of three dampers.

Middle section with the water pan at the bottom right above the charcoal ring. The pan rest on the bottom part of the 4 grill straps. The new pan for 2010 hold 7.5 liters. The reason of the water pan is to ensure an even temperature during a cook. You could say that it acts like thermostat and prevents the cooker to overheat. Some people are using sand instead of water but i think that I'll start off with water.

Above the water pan is the bottom cooking grate that also rest on the lower part of the grill straps. In the lower right side of the picture is the door to attend the charcoal and water during a cook.

here is a better picture of the middle section with the door open. you also see the top cooking grate. This is the only grate that I will use on Sunday since I only have one rack of ribs and one chicken, therefore i don't need to use the bottom grate.

Fully assembled it measures 105 cm in height and 47 cm in diameter. The total cooking area approximately 3 000 square centimeters.

Side view with the door closed.

The lid thermometer, note that the ideal temperature range is between 100-135 degrees C. That is why the cooking time is several hours instead of minutes on a normal grill. remember the barbecue motto "Slow and Low"

I guess it could also be used as a "normal" charcoal grill if you put the top cooking grate directly above the charcoal chamber. The grill is very low at this point but it could be done.

Add the lid and you have a 47 cm One Touch Silver grill ;o)

On Sunday the real challenge begins and I'll keep you posted on the progress. I just took out the ribs and chicken from the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw out. I expect to light the coals at around 9 am on Sunday morning and the meat will go on the smoker at around 11 am that way the ribs will be done at around 3-4 pm.

Stay tuned.

The Smoker have arrived!!!!

Fedex just dropped off the Smoker at home, yeahaa.

I'll post an update later.

Panorama over Snow Creek

Skiing in Snow Creek, Weston, Mo

Not exactly as Ramundberget but not too bad.

Ordered my birthday present the other day!

I had a couple of choices of gifts for my upcoming birthday. One was to go out to Kansas Speedway and drive Nascar, one of the packages that Sandra had looked into was to drive around the track for 8 laps, since each lap is 1.5 miles the total distance would be 12 miles or 19 km. Considering that you drive at 150 mph (240 km/h) it only lasts for a few minutes and then all you have left is the memory.

So instead I choose to get a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. It is not a regular grill but a smoker that cook the meat with much lower temperature for several hours. Usually you cook the meat around 225-250 F (110-120 C) for a several hours. Ribs will take about 4-5 hours to cook and a chicken takes about 3 1/2-4 hours. If you want to smoke a brisket then you need to cook it for 10 hours or more.

The principle is that you put the charcoal in the bottom of the smoker and add chunks of wood on the lit charcoal. Right above the charcoal is a large pan that you fill with water. The water helps to keep an even temperature inside the smoker and prevent overheating. Then you have the first cooking grate above the water pan and on top of the smokers middle section is a second grate. At the very top is a lid that seals the whole thing.

I thought that this is a present that I can enjoy for a long time and the rest of the family will enjoy it as well.

So on this Super Bowl Sunday I'll make my first baby back ribs and beer can chicken, provided that I have received the smoker. I know it's on its way and should arrive tomorrow or Friday.

Earlier today I went to the store and bough a rack of baby back ribs and a whole chicken. What I have understood is that real barbecue is done in smokers, and the barbecue slogan is "slow and low" meaning cooking the meat very slowly over low heat.

And by adding rubs to the meat before cooking and basting it with barbecue sauce or glaze during and after cooking is what makes it taste fantastic. If the meat turns out nice then this is what I will serve on my birthday party.

I'll update the blog once I have received the smoker and write about the cooking process as well. Unfortunately they are talking about snow the following days but that should not effect the result, the only enemy to a smoker is wind.