Yearly Archives: 2006

Week 2 “Lifestyle Change” Progress

‘m calling what I’m doing a lifestyle change, not a diet. I won’t stick to a diet most likely, and just the term ‘diet’ makes me think of a temporary thing that, once I’m where I want to be, I can go back to eating whatever I want.

Won’t work. I already know that. So why use semantics to get around this? Partly because semantics actually do mean something. Semantics can give positive or negative connotations to things. Understood definitions of terms can imply things. “Lifestyle change” allows me to keep telling myself this isn’t temporary and that I won’t be doing what I did before. “Diet” says, “Lose weight you fat pig, then you can eat again!” Continue reading →

Competition judging preconceptions

16 Aug ā€™06

his weekend, I’m, most likely, going to be judging my first KCBS competition. My wife and I got our certifications in January, and we’ll be using them finally! I thought I’d kind of document what my thoughts are going into the experience, then compare them next week after having done the judging for real.

Just like any new experience, it will be interesting to see how right or wrong my preconceptions are after this weekend! Continue reading →

Blog carnivals

15 Aug ā€™06

I’ve started trying to be more a part of the blogging community lately, and I found these blog carnivals. Just about any topic you can think of is included, but I, or course, focused on recipes (my post from a couple of days ago), and now the Carnival of the Grill!

I’m actually going to host the next Carnival of the Grill, after September 4th, so keep an eye out! The current Carnival of the Grill is hosted by Adam at Men In Aprons, and lists some really great grilled stuff! Take a minute and check it out; you may be insp Continue reading →

Salmon stuff

15 Aug ā€™06

What is it about salmon? I can hate it or love it. I’ve found that the quality varies greatly, and that, to be good, I need to get better salmon. To me, this means to look for 2 things:

1. Wild-caught salmon
2. Scottish salmon

First, Atlantic farmed salmon is listed by the Audobon Society to be avoided, while wild-caught is ‘green’, meaning safe to eat. Second, the flavor is so much better. Scottish salmon has taken some quality hits, mainly in smoked salmon, but the fresh, good quality Scottish salmon is organically raised and very high quality, on par in flavor with the wild-caught salmon.

I also think that salmon takes well to outdoor cooking better than about any other fish. Continue reading →

The week of August 14, 2006

14 Aug ā€™06

This week in blogging… Great start, huh? I thought I’d do a blog preview of the week, to keep me focused and hopefully keep my readers’ interest!

Carnbbq First off, I submitted my tomato pie entry to “Carnival of the Recipes – The BBQ Edition”, and it got included! This is a feature that can be hosted by just about anyone, but pulls together a topic of recipes. The tomato pie is included in the side dish part of the entry. I’ve submitted another entry for an upcoming “Carnival of the Grill”; if it makes it, I’ll post about that, too.

Later this week, I’ll have some info on salmon. I have generally cedar-planked salmon recently, but I hot smoked some really great salmon, and I’ll talk about salmon in general for outdoor cooking.

I’ll also have my next installment of updates on how I’m doing diet-wise. Already, I’m noticing a difference in how my pants are fitting!

And I’m preparing for my first judging experience at a KCBS event. My wife and I will be going to Madison, IN, this Friday to judge Saturday. The only thing that will change that is whether I can leave my dog overnight… Woody’s having some issues, and I have to be comfortable leaving him with a friend that will come over to watch him. We’ll see how he’s doing later in the week before I make up my mind. Continue reading →

ABTs today!

13 Aug ā€™06

BBQ Joe from the BBQ Brethren asked if anyone had pictures of making ABT’s, so I thought I’d do some this weekend and try to do a photo-journal of the making of them.

I started with 3 kinds of peppers: jalapeno, fresno and some sweet peppers. In the photo to the left, there’s the chile grill, some pepper bacon, cream cheese, fresh basil, serano ham. Somewhere, there’s also some chorizo (it’s on the stove browning at the time of this picgure), asiago cheese and some pepper jack cheese. Continue reading →

Week 1 progress

11 Aug ā€™06

t’s not really a full week yet, but I thought I’d do these at the end of the week instead of the beginning. This has been a tough week all around. My dog, Woody, is having some pretty major issues, but we’re praying that things settle down. He’s such a great dog, and I want him to be around a long time still!

With the stress of dealing with Woody, I wasn’t great on my 3 hour plan, but I wasn’t horrible, either. I’m down 2 lbs, which is a good, healthy start, even if 2 lbs to me is like throwing a deck chair off the QE II… But 2 lbs is 2 lbs, and enough weeks of that will put me where I should be. Continue reading →

Our first cooking class!

9 Aug ā€™06

Earlier this year, a local kitchen store contacted me about the possibility of doing a cooking class on barbecue. There are a couple of stores in the group, called Cook’s Wares, in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. Of course, always looking for ways to promote barbecue and outdoor cooking, I said I’d love to do it.

Well, it’s official now! Their course catalog came out for the fall, and we’re in it! Continue reading →

Quick, easy, healthy

8 Aug ā€™06

And if you’re turning your nose up at this now, do yourself a favor… Try it. Stretch yourself and do something new. By pushing yourself a bit here and there, being willing to try something you don’t like to find something you didn’t know you liked, you’ll begin to turn every day meals into meals that compare to any you get when you eat out. Continue reading →