Another morning has come and thus is bringing our vacation another day closer to the end.
It has been great being able to sleep in and not worry about alarm clocks or deadlines to get some place. However, for most of the last week my body has been waking me up between 8 and 9 AM. I have never really been able to sleep much past 9 or 10 AM, unless recovering from a night that were tequila was readily available.
Gina got the latest Harry Potter book and is now sitting in the living room reading it, throwing out the occasional 'Oh man' and 'No way'.
She looked at my itchy torso and told me that it is probably just my 'tan', therefore I think I might have ever the slightest touch of sunburn. Which makes a bit more sense than my white shirt being the culprit, given that she did use the same detergent as I did on the darks. I have the usual forearm and leg below the knee 'farmer's tan', but this year I tried to get some sun of my chest and back, so I am definitely glad I used the SPF 45 and not a 15 or 30 on Friday.
Regardless, the BBQ is tomorrow. I will need to find out what time so that I can try to figure out when to start smoking the brisket. I normally smoke a brisket for at least 8 hours and no more than 14. It depends on the size of the brisket. The first 3 to 4 hours are spent in the smoker with plenty of mesquite loaded on the coals, ensuring that mesquite flavor has a chance to get that good smoke ring you want on a brisket.
The rest of the time is spent wrapped in tinfoil, this helps to keep the brisket from getting dried out while it cooks the rest of the way through. If you have a good broiler pan (think that is what it is called) you can even finish off your brisket (still wrapped in tinfoil) in the oven. I have done that a couple of times and it works out well, because with your oven you can keep a very even temperature and with the broiler pan you can catch the juices that might slip out of the tinfoil while it cooks.
Because, once your brisket (or other meats) are all wrapped in tinfoil and in the smoker, there is no need to keep adding mesquite (or other hardwoods like oak, hickory, etc) you just add charcoal to keep the temperature up. Meaning that the smoker is basically just an outdoor oven at that point.
Sometime today Gina and I will need to run to Meijer, pick up some Chicken breasts, Pabst Blue Ribbon and maybe see if there is any good looking sausage.
I am going to read some more of my book now. And bug Gina to see if she knows if Snape is friend or foe.
Laterz
