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Memorial Day Weekend...

"For love of country they accepted death...  ~James A. Garfield"

I know I am posting this late but I have been busy, so I hope you will overlook my tardiness. I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial day weekend with family and friends. I know I did. I got to use my Char-Broil American Gourmet Charcoal Smoker for the very first time and it turned out wonderfully, considering I had never used it before!

The Menu started with home made Salsa, along with the our home made renowned Devil Eggs! Followed by Smoked Lemon Chicken, Smoked Mesquite Ribs, combined with our new favorite home made Red Beans and Rice!

Of course we had to have desert lol....so I made Chocolate Ice Box Pie, a current favorite in our household and although I am not fond of Chocolate when it comes to pies/cakes, if I say so myself, this pie was delicious and so simple!

If you have read my previous post you will also note that I do favor the odd tipple, usually a nice chilled glass of Bailey's, or a nice cold glass of Riesling. However, in keeping with the general theme of the weekend, Margaritas served us better. I give credit to that special someone for making bad ass Margaritas, with the help of Tarantella Tequila! 

I am fond of Silver Patron however I will say that I love Tarantella Tequila, it is so smooth yet definitely has an after kick lol, especially the Blue Tarantella Tequila. So if your found of the odd Mexican libation, try this one out, you won't be disappointed. Just be careful if your doing shots! I could tell you a story or two about doing Blue Tarantella Tequila shots, ah but that would be telling!!!!

So I bought a rack of baby back ribs and a whole chicken and put a rub on them both and left them in fridge overnight. Then started up the smoker and put them both on there and just made sure to keep the temp between 220-300 and the beauty of the smoker was that I didn't have to stay out there roasting alive all day. I could see the temp gage through the window, and would just check on it every so often. Check out the recipe here Smoked Ribs and Chicken! 

*As I had inadvertantly forgotton to charge my camera, I used my iphone, the pictures were not always the greatest. So this is the closest I could find that actally looked like my Smoked Chicken.

When all was cooked and ready, we had Salsa - Spicy! and Deviled Eggs - House Special!  for starters if you will. For the main course we had the Smoked Baby Back Ribs and Chicken, with a side of Red Beans and Rice! Yes we where little piggies but the beauty of all of this, was that there was plenty of leftovers for the following day. And of course lets not forget the Chocolate Ice Boxed Pie! 

As always, good food needs a good drink! So some nice home made cold unsweetened Ice Tea, along with a tall cold glass of Salted Margaretta (or two) on the Rocks was a must with this Southern banquet!

So again, I hope the weekend was awesome for you all. I also hope you try some of my recipes, just click on the links for full details.



"And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood"








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