Final score Pirates 4, Oak Park 0

Great job ladies!!!

3-0 for the Pirates at half time, Go Pirates!!!!

2-0 for the Pirates in their second game

But there is one half left.

The result after almost 5 hours

Adding the ribs

Ribs in their rib rack.

Perfect temperature 250F

Adding the hot coals

Fireing up the smoker

Today I'll be using the "Minion" method to start the smoker. This
method was created by Jim Minion a competition barbecue cook. He found
that adding a small amount of lit coal on top of a full chamber of
unlit coal gave many more hours of cooking with consistent
temperature, part of the method is also to add the meat right away
when you assemble the cooker that way you are starting to cook in
about 20 minutes rather than 1 hour. As you see in the picture I have
added wood chips between the layers of coal. He last couple of cooks I
have added foil balls filled with chips, let's see if this method is
better. Ideally one should use wood chunks but I have not been able to
find chunks of oak, so therefore I'm using apple and hickory today 3
parts apple and 1 part hickory.

New method for the water bowl

Instead of adding water to the bowl I'm adding a clay saucer on the
top to catch the dripping from the meat. If I allow the drippings
straight into the waterbowl without any water all the drippings would
burn by the heat underneath the bowl. With the clay saucer I'll have
enough space between the hot bowl and the saucer. The aluminum foil is
just to make the clean up much easier.

Sunday dinner

On today's menu we have ribs (St. Louis style) and chicken drum
sticks. The small piece on the right is a left over piece from the
ribs that I thought I'll throw on the smoker as well.

My first modification to the WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain)

Added a third grate to the smoker so now there is more room for food.
See the modification on below link:

http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8680069052/m/834101894

I also bough 12 chicken legs today and St. Louis Style Ribs, if the weather is nice this weekend I'll sure fire up the Bullet ;o)

Next item to get is a wireless thermometer that measure both the meat and the temperature in the smoker, you don't want the temperature in the smoker to be too high or too low, it has to stay between 200-250 F. I have been looking at a Maverick RediChek Remote Wireless Smoker Thermometer.

http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-RediChek-Remote-Wireless-Thermometer/dp/B0007ZPO7M/ref=pd_sim_k_25

Let's see what I can get ;o)

Evacuation at work

A battery in the IT department burned up during the weekend causing a
toxic smoke throughout the entire office. We were therefore forced to
evacuate the building.

What the he'll happened to spring???

Happy St. Patricks Day!