Once Again - RAM Restaurant & Brewery To Celebrate the 60th Birthday of a High School Friend

To celebrate my high school friend's 60th birthday, my brother, another high school friend and I went to Ram Restaurant & Brewery as we usually do during each of our birthdays every year.  I ordered my usual sandwich: Reuben with Fries along with a Diet Pepsi.  Calorie count for this is 1798 calories.  This is essentially more than I should be having for the entire day while on my diet!  And yes... I took a bite out of the sandwich before I realized that I did not take a photo first!

In the past, I'd order a strawberry or raspberry Ice Tea and put in sugar-free sweeteners.  But since the diet is still on, I just order Diet Pepsi... not that this is any better for the diet!

Fried Calamari, French Fries and Smoked Lake Trout

I decided to fry up some more calamari like I did last time, but this time I added some fries too.  I also decided to smoke one fillet of the Lake Trout that was recently caught out of Lake Michigan on a charter that my students and I took a couple of weeks ago.

The 1.75 lbs of calamari was good, but I found that the panko bread crumbs were frying up a bit too fast, so some were turning a little too brown.  I also didn't let the oil heat up quite enough before putting in the fries, so the fries soaked up the oil a little too much.  Still, both were decent.

The lake trout was the real surprise.  My daughter and I both really liked it.  My wife, not so much.  She thought it still tasted a bit "fishy".  But lake trout is an oilier fish than salmon, so it's not surprising that it would be a bit "fishier" in taste.  However, to my daughter and me, we both thought it was pretty good.  I used "Old Bay" seasoning and smoked the fish at a pit temp of around 259 degrees on the small 14.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker and kept the fish in there until the internal temp of the fish stayed at 159 degrees.

I know some people smoke fish until it's almost like jerky, but I did not want to do that.  While drier than I might typically cook a fish, I decided to pull it way before it would dry out.

To me, the fish was great.  I used pecan wood for the smoke.  I'd definitely smoke lake trout again.  Thanks to my friend Mike Planthaber for suggesting it!

Arby's Classic - Mozzarella Sticks - Curly Fries and a Drink

Not much to say about this... Classic Arby's sandwich with Curly Fries and Mozzarella Sticks and a drink!  Not bad!  Good service too... the guys brought it out to our table.  :)

17.5 lbs Pulled Pork on the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain

Pulled pork once again on the 18.5" WSM. 17.5 lbs worth... boneless pork butt from Costco. Cut in half as usual to speed up the process. Smoking with apple wood and a modified rub from Costco Flavor Connections (added some cayenne pepper). I decided to grind down the rub into a powder using my Blendtec blender to see what that does to the taste and texture. The pit temp is around 230 degrees currently.

The upper rack finished after 4 hours.  The middle rack took 6.5 hours, but that one pulled with ease!

Top Rack

The middle rack meat finally finished after 6.5 hours, but that meat pulled with ease!! Talk about soft and easy! Just goes to show you that even if you put two of the same item in the cooker, the meat will finish at different times. Also, cutting the butts in half is why these things cook so fast. Consider doing that the next time you do pulled pork. You are going to pull it anyway, so it doesn't need to be pretty.  I sprinkled on some additional rub since the middle of the meat usually never gets much seasoning.  The "powdered" version of the rub made it a lot easier to incorporate.

The middle rack meat never went above 197 degrees internal.  It sat there for 2 hours.  I finally gave up and decided to check the meat with a probe of the ThermoWorks Thermapen MkIV and it went in and out of the meat with ease.  I decided it was done.  I guess some meat just don't go higher even if you want it to!  I even moved the meat to the top rack for the last hour and it didn't do anything to raise the internal temp.  197 is the temp needed to break down the collagen, so I guess it really didn't need to go any higher.  It came out much better than the meat that started out on the top rack.

Middle Rack

Lou Malnatti's For Father's Day Dinner

Lou Malnatti's Chicago Classic pizza for Father's Day dinner thanks to my daughter! :)

Back Ribs on the 18.5" WSM

Back ribs on the 18.5" WSM. Going to do 2-1.5-0.5 this time. I'll wrap and put Sweet Baby Ray's sauce on the ribs and then finish it off with another 1/2 hour back on the grate. Pit temp is around 245 degrees. The rub is Costco's Flavor Connections modified with the addition of some Cayenne Pepper.  

I cut the ribs in half. There are three slabs in there. One rack is in the middle grate. I am using some Chinese Cha Siu sauce with hoisin sauce mix on those ribs. It will give it an Asian flare to them.

No wood this time for smoke, just straight charcoal.

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I ended up calling it done after 1.5 hours wrapped and did not do the 0.5 hours unwrapped.  Total cook time ended up at 2 hours unwrapped and 1.5 hours wrapped.  A bit salty as the rubs were put on a bit too much, but overall not too bad.  My wife and I agree that perhaps the Costco Flavor Connections rub is too course.  Perhaps throwing it into a food processor to make it a bit finer would mean not putting as much rub on which would make it less salty.  Also, for pulled pork, I like putting some rub back on the finished product to flavor the meat that was more on the inside.  Unless the Costco rub is ground up more, I don't think I can use it that way for pulled pork.

 The Chinese Version

Sweet Baby Rays

First Over-Night Smoke on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain - 17.5 lbs of Pulled Pork

I am doing my first overnight smoking with my 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain tonight!

My daughter's friend is having an engagement party and so half of the meat is for them and half is for me.  The pork butt is from Costco, so the bone is already removed.  I also removed the fat cap as I don't feel it's that important to have on pulled pork, and I cut each pork section into two.  Costco gives you two pork butts when you buy their meat.

I used the Kick Butt Rib Rub - Chipotle Honey version on the meat for the party and used the Costco Flavor Connections rub for mine.  My rub had been modified with the addition of Cayenne Pepper added to it.  Apple wood was used for the smoke.

I allowed the pit temp to rise to around 205 degrees and added the meat and then went to bed.  Three hours later, I woke up to see that the pit temp was at 225 degrees and the internal meat temp was 157 degrees.  I figured it was probably near the stall, so I went outside to put the meat in aluminum foil pans and added apple juice to each pan.  I wrapped the tops with aluminum foil.

The internal temp of the meat dropped to 153 degrees as I am typing this.  The pit temp went up to 231 degrees but seems to be dropping back into the 225 degree range.  It could be the rain that's dropping that temp but 225 degrees is usually the ideal temp for low and slow pulled pork anyway.  I should note too that the rain is a constant rain, not drizzling.

I'll have photos of the cook later.  Too difficult to take the photos in the dark and in the rain!

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The cook finished after 8-1/2 hours.  The Costco Rub with added Cayenne Pepper seemed to moister (it was on the middle grate) compared to the Kick Butt Rib Rub version, so I gave the party the Costco version.

Overall, the cook finished a lot faster than I thought it would.

Costco Version

Kick Butt Version

Costco Version - Pulled

Fried Squid Rings - Calamari

I fried up 2 lbs of squid rings (Calamari) in my outdoor wok. This is perhaps the easiest thing to cook!

Flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag with squid rings tossed in and shaken. The rings are then taken out and dipped in an egg wash and then coated with Japanese Panko breading. Fry until golden brown. Fast and easy!

The cost of the 2 lbs of squid was $6. Panko was $2. Flour, salt, pepper and two eggs... maybe $0.40. Vegetable oil (don't need much)... maybe $1... total cost... $9.40. I don't think you would get 2 lbs of calamari for $10 at a restaurant!

The photo was taken after we had eaten perhaps half of the plateful, so this photo shows perhaps one pound worth of squid. Light and crunchy! As good as any restaurant, I'd say! 

I didn't eat all two pounds. My wife and daughter and I shared it.

Crab Balls

I went to my sister-in-law's 60th birthday party in Chinatown on Sunday and while we had plenty of dishes to eat, I had to take a photo of this Crab Ball because it's always been one of my favorites!  Yes, it tastes great and looks great too!  Yum!