MOPanfisher

I am feeling even more blessed today, no leftovers hanging around. thanks to fewer folks here to fix for, choice of ham for work dinner, and steaks for thanksgiving and mostly thanks to a 19 year old college student of a son, who happily takes anything edible back with him. I do miss the ritual.of cooking down the turkey carcass to make turkey bone soup, like it better than turkey.

The Herbs de Provence I did know, well sort of, I have some and use it occasionally anyway. now that you explain the mire poix I recognize it as well, the pronunciation and the spelling didnt come together in my head until you spelled it out, the "trinity", I have heard it called also.

I am not sure what to call it either, heck I am not even sure what some of the things you listed for ingredients are, but it sounds pretty tasty. though the scoops of mashed sweet and regular taters are different, I like them as a little potato cake and fried in a skillet.

Nice mahogany color, I can almost smell the smoke.

David, that is what part of the problem was with the old gas smoker, in order to get it hot enough to make smoke I had to be very careful not to overcook the sausages and make them dry as a popcorn fart. I would usually end up "lighting" the bowl of shavings and hickory pieces to get the smoke going. Think it has been decided anyway for me, my wife texted me she is ordering the electric one for Christmas. Guess I will find out how well it works.

Dadgum Mitch those look great.

Agreed, many many things to be thankful for. Enjoy your families and all of nature today.

I may have altered my plan some. Checking out the local store, and they have a Standing Rib Roast that simply screams Prime Rib. If still there tonight it will be the main guest at my table tomorrow. And maybe a pouch of potatoes and onions on the grill. Few folks gives you lots more freedom to choose. So not being a big turkey fan, I will take the prime rib or steaks where possible.

Back when my smower quit me I had most of a 40 lb. pig ready to smoke. it went into the oven with some water, coca cola and liquid smoke, covered in foil and everyone loved the "smoked" pork.

If it's meat and not raw or charred black I am pretry much in. even a few that are raw (sushi) or black (burnt ends) I am in.

I am not much of a bbq snob or anything close. I have eaten food from about every kind of smoker imaginable and I like them all, some cuts of meat are better suited to a low slow method others do just fine on hot and fast. I like them all, but I am leaning more and more toward the larger electric unit so I can fill it with summer sausage. other things like an entire deer hind quarter I can do in almost any kind of smoker and it will be tasty.

They are delicious, there is a place we go every Sept 1st after the dive opener to clen doves and use the carcasses to bait dad traps. then a big pot with zatarins, taters, corn on the cob, polish sausage chunks just about anything, boil tI'll taters are done then throw in some shrimo, frog legs, and the dads, when they turn bright red it's done. Big dipper to remove them and put on usually a rolled out trash bag and eat your self silly.

My old stick burner was some what that way, you had to rotate the pieces of meat around to keep them from overcooking, also had a big pan of water I kept closest to the heat.

Hell if cheaper was the goal I would have to have a whole new set of hobbies.

But with he gas smoker I can take 30 minutes to change the oil in my truck, or weld up a broken brush hog, or take a shot nap, etc. without fear of the temp spiking up to 400 or so. Besides I like Mrs. Pauls too.

No doubt the old stick smoker I had was the most "fun", but also required you to pretty much commit your day to it, getting it adjusted for draft etc. but for large pieces of meat it was awesome. Flysmallie, agree that a good pitas term will make delicious eats out of an old refrigerator and a hot plate. actually had a friend do that.

Chief, you do realize that your requirements for wood product and high heat source covers nearly all smokers, including gas. I have used moly hickory sawdust in my old gas one along with a few bigger chunks of hickory. a sided benefit of living in the country in MO. I have even considered a Big Green Egg tyoe, but the price is a deal breaker to me. if I can only smoke one item in my smoker I want it wide enough to smoke my summer sausage logs in.

My wife is headed off to visit her mom along with my daughter and grandson. so since it will be just myself, mom and my college son I am thinking Steak. A trip to the new store and pick out 3 of the nicest steaks they have.

Not worried about moving it around, it will be more or less permanantly placed. The gas one was always a pain in that I always seemed to have to make a propane run to use it. of course if I were better about keeping at least one of my bottles full it would help. and if I run out of kilowatts I probably have bigger issues than my smoker. my specific issue with the smaller smokers is that most don't have room to put full sticks of summer sausage in them. I use long casings then cut them.in half after smoking to vacuum seal them.

What brand do you have Dutch?

It's a master built I believe that they are putting on sale.

Sitting in my wife's stand this morning, thinking about a new smoker. I started out many years ago with a cheap charcoal kettle smoker, make a lot of good food in it, moved up to a big charcoal/wood smoker a buddy had given me, one with the big pipe main body and attached fire box and made a ton of stuff with it, finally instead of building a new firebox for it I gave it to another friend and bought a rope smoker. was perfect for most of my smoking, briskets, pork, turkeys and of course summer sausage. last year or so it filly gave up when the whole gas supply system from the regulator to the burner quit. I have decided I must have a smoker again, now whether to buy parts and fix up he old gas one or buy new is the question. Bass Pro and Academy both have a nice 40 inch electric on sale for black Friday, but have never owned an electric one. reviews on them ranged from Awesome to piece of junk. thoughts, opinions, reccomendations on smokers?

RPS, sounds good but I don't believe I have ever eaten a quiche, (real men don't eat quiche ya know) . Lunch recipe for today, 1 flour tortilla, 3 tablespoons of marinara sauce, 6 pepperoni slices, and a handfull of mozzarella cheese. few minutes in a skillet, serve with a side of dill pickles. Grandson approved .

Wow finally got it cleans up, didnt know there were that many places to the sauce to go. now for the funnier part. I was trying to do the ole "skillet flip" with the asparagus, since I can often do it well and it amuses the grandson. Tonight I tried it, Spears of asparagus made their brake for freedom all across the stove. well crap, then I hear a small voice behind "Uh oh papa". turned around as he left the kitchen, the dog was still there, she looked at me as if to say, wow! then turned an walked out too. was too funny.

Tonight's episode of "what's on sale is what's for supper". I found a large salmon fillet on clearance. Add a box of quicky scalloped potatoes, and a handfull of asparagus. I did a little knife work on the big beautiful salmon fillet, removing the skin, and shortening it to fit in the pan. melted a stick of butter, squeezed a freshape lemon into it and added dill and garlic, mmm almost good enough to drink. painted the mix onto the salmon, shook a little sat and pepper on it, then braved the cold wind to go out to the garden to grab a handful of fresh dill sprigs to lay on top of the fillets. That is about the last thing that went right. Had the quick taters on the stove and when they saw me go out to put the fillet on the grill they made their move with about half of the sauce escaping onto the stove top. and apparently it does wipe up easily, so there is a chore for later. the asparagus was nice and tender on the tips but from about half way down very tough. The salmon fillet came off just barely done or to me perfect. a shake of s and p and was delicious. Grandson inhaled it and the tender ends of the asparagus like he was starving. Papa prepared and grandson approved meal.