Learning from our mistakes

Kelly Keefe

Well, after a week of 100°+ air temps, 115°+ "feels like" temps and 30%+ humidity it was "We're cookin' out this weekend!" weather. (My condolences to you in St. Louis) Started out Saturday night with your basic "Better Homes & Gardens" recipe stuffed cabbage rolls. Sort of half a$$ed cleaned the Egg, decided there was lump enough and fired him up. Grill, inverted plate setter and a couple of fire brick splits in Humpty. Got the temp up and stabilized at 350° and loaded pan of cabbage rolls in. Had a hard time keeping temps up. Too much ash, not enough lump I reckon. Thought the splits would raise the pan off the plate setter to allow for better air circulation. Hour and 1/4 later I pulled it off. It was done, just. Going to revisit that one again later. It was OK, but the tomato "sauce" (Can of soup, brown sugar and lemon juice) too sweet for my tastes I guess. The wife and I will disagree over that because she likes it sweet and I want savory. Oh well, price of being married...[p]Sunday I knew I could do better. Had a flat iron stake marinading in Lea & Perrins, soy sauce and slivered garlic all day. REALLY cleaned the Egg out this time with a full load of fresh lump. Cooking directed, temp stable at 350° again. Ready for the meat. Thought to myself: "Self, you got a load of fresh lump. Be careful opening the lid." Burped the Egg. Carefully open lid. Karumpf! Thermometer leaps to 450°! Lid down. Rain cap on. Temp dropped like a stone back to 350°. 5 minutes passes... Burp Egg. Lid up. KARUMPF! Oh well, you didn't really need all that hair on your right arm. Good thing the kiddie pool was close by. Lid down. Rain cap on. Temps drop. Another 5 minutes passess... Burp Egg. Lid up. KARUMPF!! again. Oh well, still got some hair and you just pushed your barbar visit back a week. Lid down. Rain cap on. Temps drop again. Yet another 5 minutes go by... Burp Egg. Lid up. KARUMPF!!! Love the smell of burning hair at twilight, push barbar trip back another week. Everything back down, dwell time. 5 more minutes pass. Time to get steak off. This time, no karumpf. A good thing, I was running our of hair. Let rest, thinly slice. Pile on a hoagy roll with sauteed onions, mushrooms and swiss cheese. As they say: "Heaven on a bun."[p]You cook and you learn... Hope ya'll had a great weekend, too.[p]Kelly
Jeff City, MO

mad max beyond eggdome

Kelly Keefe,
its like i always say. . "if it were all great ... it would all be average" ... ;-)[p]makes the great cooks that much more memorable....

RRP

Kelly Keefe,
F U N N Y . . .[p]