Day Before: Thaw any meat that’s on the menu.

Day Of: 9:25 a.m. Trek into the woods to locate a green hickory tree.

9:38 Cut down the tree and drag it to the house with a truck and a chain. We didn’t cut down THIS tree, but it sure looks good! Now is also a good time to load the chimney starter.

9:45 Apply the rub to the pork (beef?) and the single rack of ribs. This session will be our first time to use the Rib Rack. Purchased on line, this invention allows the grill-master to stand the ribs and cook five or six racks at a time.

9:57 Take a break and think BBQ thoughts. We decided NOT to BBQ any bacon this time. BBQ’d (is that a word?) bacon is its own journey into delicious piggy-packed flavor. And, yes, we use the same rub on all the meat. Don’t ask what brand of rub. My husband makes it from scratch and he and Jesus are the only two who know what’s in it.

10:05 Add more spice (heat) to the ribs since the wife (me) won’t be eating them. I am just not a fan of ribs. They are too much work for too little return. Getting all that grease and … whatever under my manicured nails has zero appeal.

10:10 Put the meat on the grill. The smoke comes from the side and wafts through the grill chamber; caressing and flavoring the meat like nothing else.

Charles uses lump charcoal just to get the fire going. He builds a “pyramid” with seasoned hickory left over from the last time he made BBQ. The pyramid reminds me of the way we used to stack Lincoln Logs. {I’m telling my age.} The burning charcoal gets dumped in the middle and the smoking begins. This is why we trek into the woods to get a GREEN hickory tree; green wood smokes.

The meat gets situated on the grill and now we wait. Good BBQ is low and slow. Grilling is fast and hot. That is the difference. One of my pet peeves is to hear someone say they will be doing some “BBQ” when what they are actually doing is throwing raw meat on a hot grill and it’s done in minutes. True BBQ takes hours of attentive work.

11:00 Put the hot Italian sausage on the grill. Mr. K will be having sausage for lunch. Mrs. K, that’s me, will have a toasted ham and cheese on rye.

11:30 The pork is done, but not tender. The meat is placed in small throw-away metal pans, slathered in bacon grease, covered in foil and back on the grill. When using meat as lean as this; the bacon grease will keep it from drying out.

12:25 The rack of foil-wrapped ribs go into the oven to rest at 180 degrees. You know, I can remember a time when my typing keys had that little floating circle that is/was used to indicate degrees. It’s vanished; along with parking meters and penny candy.

1:36 Clean and soak the rib rack. It will never be shiny again.

2:36 Next time, soak the rib rack and then RUN IT THROUGH THE DISHWASHER!! That was nuts trying to clean that thing.

3:00 The meat comes inside, gets chopped and ready to eat. We ended up with one pork and one beef. (sigh)

3:10 Cut the ribs apart and place in a pan to keep warm.

We ended up with a pork loin AND a beef. Note to self: do a better job with labels on the meat going into the freezer. The beef is good, but it will never replace pork BBQ in my humble opinion.

Until next time; it’ll be my job to figure out why the words under the photos are not centered correctly. They look fine when I edit, but then change in the preview. This thing called blogging is its OWN journey. Send me some feedback and let me hear how you do BBQ.