The church I attend, the Dayton Vineyard, has grown over the past 12 or so years I’ve been there. It’s gone from about 300 people back then to well over 2500 people on a given weekend. On top of that growth, the church was recently given a new location just north of downtown Dayton, Ohio.

The new spot started having services last fall, and it’s gone from about 30 people to 150 or more. I’d heard people talking about doing something to kick off the new location, and I thought it would be great to have a real barbecue there.

Keep in mind a couple of things about the Dayton Vineyard. The first is that we used to have block parties in different areas in Dayton called BBQ Dayton. The second is that our tagline is ‘A Pretty Good Church’, implying that we’re not perfect, but we try to be at least pretty good. So I combined the two into my idea and called it ‘A Pretty Good BBQ’.

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We’re just past Memorial Day weekend. I have to say that I’m a bit saddened that Memorial Day isn’t really observed for what it’s meant to honor, which is fallen U.S. soldiers. I don’t go out of my way to do a lot for the day, but I do think about the sacrifices made by others. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of other celebrations going on, too, that had nothing to do with that; people are just confused, I guess.

On Saturday, Pat of Patrick’s BBQ held his annual customer appreciation event by cooking anything that he could fit in his smoker (which is a whole lot). While there, I noticed a field of wildflowers, and I had to wander down to get a better look.

It is a long weekend, and it unofficially denotes the start of summer. We had incredible weather for Saturday and Sunday, with Monday not too awful. On Sunday, my dad and stepmother were in Ohio, and they spent the afternoon and evening with us, which was all the excuse I needed to put the XL Big Green Egg through it’s paces, just to see how it did with a variety of tasks.

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We had some really nice weather last week, ending with a gorgeous May Saturday, highs around 70, lots of sun, so it was a perfect time to try out my new toy.

A lot of you reading this will know what a Big Green Egg is, though a lot of you may not. It’s pretty simple; a Big Green Egg is a green ceramic cooker. I can’t call it a grill or a smoker because it’s great at doing both.

Well, I finally have one! There are multiple sizes, from a tabletop ‘mini’, to the original and most popular ‘large’, to what I got, the ‘XL’. Though carefully engineereed, the unit itself is simple; ceramic shell that’s very well insulated, firebox, firering, fire grate, cooking grate, lid and exhaust. What’s so great about that? The cermic allows great insulation, meaning I don’t have to worry much about weather affecting my cooking, the cooker can go for hours and hours and hours with very little interaction, and it can also grill at about 800 degrees F when opened up.

Most will recommend a ‘large’ size, but I wanted the XL for the quantity of food it can hold. The cooking grate is 24″ in diameter, versus 18″ on the large. That’s 452 square inches vs. 254 square inches!

For Mother’s Day, I wanted to do my first cook, and I am a proponent of using smoker’s capacity when I do cook, so I planned on 2 brisket flats, 2 Boston butts and 2 pork tenderloins.

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I had grandiose plans to cook 3 briskets, 3 Boston butts and some ribs over the weekend. Instead, Friday brought us snow, and that snow continued well into Saturday. We got snow from about 8 am Friday with few breaks until 5 pm Saturday, bringing our snow up to about a foot. That’s a lot of snow for southwestern Ohio in March! Fortunately, we have a great neighbor that plowed us out so we had no trouble on Monday morning.

Being snowed in isn’t all bad, when you have a great wife like I do, and a couple of cats that are fun, especially a 4 1/2 month old kitten that’s already well over 6 lbs!

Last weekend, I smoked a couple of chickens, along with some beef…
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The weather was good this past weekend, and I had a little (very little) time, so I figured it was time to actually put some food on the smoker for a change!

For those of you that have never used a smoker, it’s one of those things that can be almost therapeutic. When I first think about it, I almost don’t want to get started, but, once I do, I’m glad I’m in the process. Depending on what I’m cooking, it can take a couple of hours up to 15 or more hours to finish something on a smoker. The hard part, as with many things, is just getting started.

I only had a few hours, but I needed to cook something I could take for a dinner on Friday night. While I was doing that, I figured I might as well also cook a couple of beer can chickens. I call them “any can chickens” because I don’t use beer cans. This is for two reasons:

1. I have found that not much flavor is really imparted by the liquid; it’s about moisture, not flavor. I can add flavor by seasoning the inside of the chicken much better than putting it in the liquid in the can.
2. I don’t drink much beer that’s in a can.

With that said, here’s the concept of beer can chicken…

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I’ve got to say that I think I officially have the February blahs this year. Unfortunately, there’s no shot for that, though I probably wouldn’t get it because I avoid needles every chance I get.

So instead of doing much cooking, I mostly don’t cook anything. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, which included the loss of my mom’s lab, Wings. I brought Wings home when Woody, the Best Dog in the World, was about 2 1/2, and Wings was 2. The first day, she sniffed everywhere and wanted nothing to do with Woody, but the changed overnight when she greeted him coming downstairs from my apartment, tail wagging (hers, not mine). They got along great from then on, but, more importantly, she fell in love with my mom, who in turn fell in love with Wings. Wings would have been 16 in April, and it’s hard to say goodbye to her.

On the flip side of pet stuff, Bucky McKatt is growing like mad. He’s probably about 6 lbs now (he was 5 lbs 10 ounces 9 days ago, on his 4th birthday). He’s got Hobbit paws… big and lots of hair on them. I’m assuming he’ll stop growing at some point, but he’s expected to by over 4 times his current size when it’s all said and done.

One thing I have been doing is starting to plan for a barbecue event in May. Mark and I will be teaching our 4th barbecue class on May 19th, at Cooks’ Wares in Springboro, OH. If you’re interested, you can sign up online here.

The two days prior to that, my church, the Dayton Vineyard, will be host to several barbecue teams from the area and surrounding states. The event is called “A pretty good barbecue”, and the guidelines are simple… Teams show up, with meat and either a smoker or planned use of a smoker that’s already there, and they start cooking on Saturday. When the Sunday church service lets out, people will come by, and we’ll give them the food we cooked. That’s right, give it to them. No vending, no sales… we’re just giving it away to show people that God loves them, even in little things. If you’re interested in helping out, email me and let me know.

I’m going to be doing some more bread baking soon, along with more smoking of traditional and, hopefully, new things.

Okay, first things first. I do happen to know the Superbowl is over. And I apologize for not posting any foods prior to the Superbowl, for those looking for ideas.

But I did fix some stuff, and I had some thoughts on Superbowl foods. Here are my thoughts:

Food should never be fixed for the Superbowl if someome could categorize it as ‘gourmet’. That’s it. Everything else is fair game.

‘Gourmet’ foods don’t mix with the NFL. Fatties and pulled pork and wings and ribs fit pretty well. I can’t imagine a bunch of people sitting around watching the game while eating foie gras with blackberry balsamic glaze, or fish eggs on toast (sorry, caviar on toast points, forgive me!). Football food is meant to be stuff that you can chomp on and enjoy without having to pay too much attention to etiquette. Fancy foods have their time and place; half time at the Superbowl isn’t one of them!

So I kept it simple… Smofried wings and ABTs.

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I’m like just about anyone else… Grey winter days make me crave comfort foods. Yesterday could have been colder (I think it hit well over 60 for the day), but it was drizzly and grey all day long, so it seems like a comfort food would fit just right for the day.

January in Ohio can be almost depressing. I almost wish we got the snow they get in the Cleveland area; having just grey, miserable days can really get to a person. Comfort foods are a great way to fight that grey-day-feeling, though. I think comfort foods lift our spirits on their own, bringing back memories of our moms taking care of us on those days when we have to stay inside, or reminding us of the smell of Grandma’s kitchen when she was making our favorite dinner.

One of those comfort foods for me is post roast. Reading the title of this entry was a pretty good give-away, huh? Being who I am, though, I have to try to change it up just a bit from what I’d consider ordinary.
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The third weekend of October seems to usually be the best weekend for fall color in Ohio. Saturday, my wife and I decided to drive to south-central Ohio to see some color, as the Cincinnati area is kind of dull this year due to drought. We got in the convertible and drove east to Wilmington, Ohio, then continue east from there, staying on country roads and avoiding divided highways.

After about an hour and a half, we ended up in the Chillicothe area. Chillicothe isn’t a big town and it’s not on an interstate highway. It does carry the disctinction of being the first state capitol of Ohio. As we got near town, we saw signs for the Adena House, and, having no set plans, followed the signs to see what the Adena House is. It turns out it was the home/estate of Thomas Worthington, called the father of Ohio’s statehood and the sixth governor of Ohio.

It was a gorgeous day, starting off in the low 50’s and getting up to about 73 during the day. The sky had nice, fluffy clouds in the morning, clearing to brilliant blue later. The grounds at Adena included the mansion, which we toured, along with a barn with a covered wagon in it, a tenant farmer’s home and the spring house for the grounds. The home had extensive gardens, and I’d like to go back when things are in bloom, as it looks like the gardens are pretty well kept.

It was one of those days where it’s just comfortable to be outside. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at Adena, then found an ad for a barbecue restaurant in town and decided to go in and see how it was.
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For those of us that live and breathe barbecue, what could be better than a pig a day?

For 2008, it can happen! The “A Pig A Day Calendar - Icons of Barbecue” is now on sale!

The calendar features logos and signs from barbecuers of all types: competition teams, restaurants, caterers, etc. And Bucky McOinkum’s Barbecue was selected as one of the teams represented. Not only that, but we’re April 26/27 (a weekend), and April 26th is my anniversary, so it’s a great choice!

The calendars are only $12.99 and can purchased on the website or via Amazon.