Party, Party, Party

Is there a prettier site in the whole world??? New smoker demands a party... Taxed Delila (yes, my smoker has a name, but the former owner named her, and part of the deal was that I had to keep the name) to her limits (about 30 pounds of meat), and need to learn her quarks, but what a great day!

Fired up the smoker over the weekend. Party of 7 friends and the wife's co-workers... 6 racks of ribs, 5 pound pork loin, 6 pounds of sausage, 5 pounds of potatoes, dozen mushrooms, another 2 dozen peppers later; if my guests went away hungry...it sure wasn't my fault!

Overall, I was very pleased with the results. New smoker, I have to learn the best way to cook on it, learned a few things, and will do better next time (isn't that true anytime I cook). New recipes, some worked great and some need to be tweeked (and one needs to be tossed out).

Had a Fun guest list. Sadly, the temps were in the 90's, so we had to move into the air conditioning, but it was a very comfortable night. The good looking blond woman in brown on the right is my wife. Obviously, she married me for my cooking. Clockwise, lady with her back to the camera is my wife's bosses (not really, boss, but an easy term...My wife is a paralegal, Tris is one of the attorneys in the office) wife, Sharon. In the red T-shirt is the boss, Tris. World traveler, born in South Africa, the perfect guest to start/keep a conversation going. Next, in the pink is another attorney, Kim. And finally, the couple at the top are Lucia and Tom...Good friends and neighbors. Tom is a competitive smoker, so always a challenge to come up with something new and terrific when he is coming.

I am going to blog recipes during this week. Will fill you in on what worked and what didn't. BUT, it was a great night (drinking on the deck til 1 AM)