Just hamming it up with my Meat P0rn

Smoked chicken with homemade cheesy cornbread. Had a mixed vegetables to go with it.

My eye of the round roast inject with a mix of Pa’s Black Bull and imitation bacon seasoning, then vacuum sealed and marinated for a couple of hours. Sous vided it to 125 degrees and then sprinkled on some Grill In Grill Out seasoning and seared it on the CharBroil to 135 degrees.

Pulled my bacon from the smoker, now cooling a bit before hitting the fridge. The belly on the left is Maple Bacon and the one on the right is Pastrami Bacon. Both were brined for 12 days and smoked cold for seven hours and hot for two hours to get my temps. Will post the sliced pictures after they cool overnight.

Somedays you just have to do something besides meat or dinner. I had a couple of over ripe banana’s sitting on the counter plus some in the freezer that were begging to be taken care of. Decided to make banana bread in two varieties, one standard with walnuts from my tree and a tropical version with macadamia nuts, coconut, pineapple and candied orange pieces. Sampled the original version for quality control purposes since it was mom’s recipe. I sure she is looking down and pleased with the results as I am.

Made my version of Texas hot links with pork and beef. Smoke them up, just pulled them from the smoker and waiting for them to cool so that I can get them in the vacuum bags.

Processed my chicken sausage today, just small batches to see how they turn out, 3 lbs. apiece. Going to test the results tonight for dinner, the trays are hitting the freezer to firm for vacuum sealing.

Rib-eye steaks, cauliflower, and fresh greens beans. What more could one want except desert. There ice cream in the freezer, might have to indulge in some of that later tonight.

Chicken pot pie night. Had a couple of chicken carcasses left in the fridge, one smoked, one rotisserie. Decided I better take care of them, so what better thing to have on a cooler overcast day.

Sous vided a pork loin tonight injected with a blend of rosemary, sage, savory, toasted onion powder, garlic powder, dried basil, paprika, salt and pepper, then covered with the leftover juice. Seared on the CharBroil to 145 degrees. I served it up with some homemade Mac and Cheese and deep fried brussels sprouts with a reduced balsamic glaze.

Thanks everyone for your condolences on our loss of Haley, she was only 4 years old. It was a shock to find her. She hadn’t been down long and I began lifesaving attempts with her along with my son. I believe she had some sort of heart issue or stroke and it took her life right away since I found her right next to her ball that she had been playing with. Her brother has been visiting with her knowing she passed until we can get her to the vets office when they open and have her cremated. Thanks again to all of you in this community for being here, I certainly appreciate it.

I use the gravel to keep the soil from the drain hole along with the landscape fabric over the gravel. It give a place for the water to sit below the soil and the ability to drain without taking a whole lot of soil with it. It only take a couple of inches.

Not so good today folks, one of our dogs just died suddenly. I found her un-responsive in the back yard after she had been upstairs with her ball. She was only almost 4 years old. I am feeling pretty low right now and my wife is in tears. Had to find someplace to vent.

cdavis Got the tomatoes and pepper plants in today. Got surprised with some sun and warmth, but we have had some black clouds hanging around all day. I know as soon as I start planting green beans it will dump on me.

cdavis We have had our share the last month, the snow pack went from 80% of normal to over 125% of normal now. Good to have that in the mountains for electricity for hydro power and irrigation. Hard to get anything done when it downpours here, we are use to light rains and working in them.

kyle Know how that can be, our last chance of frost is mid May even being 100 miles from the Pacific coast, but they are still getting snow in the mountains right now. I think we might be safe planting this coming week, going to try if the rain lets up for a day or two. The beds are all done.

Grimpuppy Texas Hot Links
3 lbs. Beef Brisket trim works well, but any ground will work 70-80 percent lean
2 lbs. Pork
2 TBSP Kosher salt
2 TBSP Black Pepper (not fine cut) if you like more pepper use more and coarse
1/2 TSBP Granulated Garlic
1/2 TSBP Garlic Powder
1/2 TBSP Granulated Onion
1/2 TBSP Onion Powder
1/2 TBSP Red Pepper Flakes ( More if you want more heat)
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (more for more heat)
2 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Mustard Powder
1 tsp Thyme
34 grams Sure Gel or 1/2 Cup of Dry non-fat milk powder (your choice, I use sure gel)
5.7 grams Sure Cure (pink salt) I use since I smoke my product, if fresh omit
8 ounces water if you use Sure Gel or
1 1/2 cups water if you use Dry non-fat milk powder
You can add cheese, jalapeño’s, green chilies or change the meat bill to all beef.
It all works pretty well. I don’t like a lot of heat this the lack of red pepper powders and like black pepper. I use smoked black peeper and coarse ground in mine. Enjoy and play.
John

Dave in AZ Texas sausage is all over the board depending on who is making it and how and what you enjoy in it. They all call it Texas Hot Link. It’s started out as a German farm sausage and has evolved from there with the addition of ingredients to suit the tastes of the customers. Lockhart’s and Hill Country are the more traditional since they are actually where the German community settled (around the New Braunfels area). You need to remember what was available to those butchers when they first came to the area when formulating your recipe, then making the changes to suit your tastes. I’ll post the recipe that I used last, the meat bill is different than I would usually use since I used what I had and wanted to use up. I prefer having more beef than pork.

gus4416 3 lbs. pork to 2 lbs. ground beef. actually could use more beef, but I used what I had. Next time I’ll add either my brisket or rib eye trim ground. The better ratio would be 3 lbs. beef, 2 lbs. pork.

zbigjeff I’ve tried it, but I can’t drink a lot of hard liquor or alcohol. They make a good product. Living south of Seattle and rural, we have local distilleries that have some pretty darn good product. I go for their free samples.