Oh Hail! and BBQ Too

This post will bring you a montage of images. I've gotten a fair amount of work done on the trailer over the past couple of weeks, but haven't had much time to update the blog. I've also been busy with some other things, like the BBQ I made for our families last weekend.

I decided to smoke a brisket, 3 racks of pork spare ribs, a couple of chickens, a couple of pork tenderloins, and a mess of sausage last Sunday. And when I say "I decided" what I mean is that my pregnant wife wanted it, so I made it.

Here is the brisket before going on the fire. Dry rub only, consisting of about 1 part black pepper, 1 part paprika, and 2 parts salt.


Start the fire with charcoal, then a few split oak logs, until the temperature stabilizes around 225:


Here's the brisket after a couple hours of smoke:


Then I prep the ribs, they'll go on the smoke for 3 hours, get pulled off the pit and go into the oven for 2 hours, and then back on the smoke for another 30 minutes up to an hour-- aka the 3-2-1 method.


These are pork spare ribs. I cut the top "steak" part off, and I cut the back flap off, and remove the membrane as well. Then I put a thin glaze of mustard on them, and top off with a dry rub that is 1/2 Montreal Steak Seasoning, and 1/2 Bolner's Fiesta Pork Rub.


Then they look like this:


After being in the smoke fore a couple of hours, they look like this, alongside the brisket of course:


You know they're getting there when the meat pulls back from the bone like that. They come off the fire, and it's time to prep the chickens. They get a similar treatment as the brisket, dry rub with salt, black pepper, and paprika:


They'll spend a couple hours on the pit at 225, as I do not like my chicken medium rare.

For about the last hour or so, I'll throw the sausage on the pit to warm up. It has already been cooked, but still it will pick up some of the smoke flavor from the pit. I'm also testing out the new grilling utensils I picked up at Christmas, they are all stainless steel and they come in a riveted aluminum case, reminds me of something else I think....





Okay, so here is some bad news-- although the food was delicious, I didn't have any time to take pictures after the slicing, since our families arrived and I had to feed them all. I know this was a tease, sorry about that, next time I promise I will deliver on the "after" pictures.

That is some bad news for you, but you can be assured that karma paid me back, because we had some bad news of our own on Wednesday evening. For those who don't know, Central Texas is pretty well-known for some crazy severe weather, especially in the Spring. Severe thunderstorms, impressive and terrifying electrical storms, extreme flash flooding, the occasional tornado, and... HAIL!

I think a sudden hail storm is high on the list of fears for just about every Airstreamer, and knowing the weather here in my hometown, I figured it was just a matter of time before I experienced it first-hand. So, 9 months into my Airstream ownership, I got to see it up close and personal. The storm hit areas of west and then north Austin around rush hour on Wednesday, and caused a lot of damage to mororists who were in route to their home after work, as well as cars already parked. I made it home just before the hailstorm, but did not get a chance to protect my Tahoe, or make any provisions for the Airstream either. Luckily, my wife who was in the convertible, was able to get off the highway and under some shelter, so no harm occurred to her or the car.

But the Tahoe got some pretty good dings on the hood, and the Airstream suffered dent damage to the upper aluminum skins on the street-side. The hail was golfball-sized and some even bigger, and it was coming in sideways at 30-45 mph, so I'm astonished that no windows were broken. The Fantastic Fan's cover was cracked, and the front streetside amber marker light was shattered. The dents in the skin are noticeable, but really not that horrible, so I count myself lucky. A couple of other friends' RVs lost all their skylights, one lost his AC, and they endured some major roof damage. So I feel for them, and feel blessed that the damage to mine was not worse.

Oh, Hail! :


Look close, you can see the crack, through the screen, on the vent cover:


Dents in aluminum:


Shattered marker light:


All in all though, it could have been much worse, and I'm grateful that we got off as easily as we did.