First effort to blog

I figure that I better start out small with my first post. Ain't that apron a beauty! It's amazing what you'll find in basement storage when you do some long awaited cleaning.

4th of July Pizza

We decided to fore go the standard 4Th of July BBQ tradition of burgers, dogs, (tri-tips). A few days prior to the weekend I received my new pizza peel, so that mandated the pizza cooker be fired up. As I am of the school of thought that one must be able to crawl, before they can walk I cut corners and had the pizza place in town make us prebakes. Once I have mastered the baking part I will expand to making my own dough....The fire was started two hrs before the 1st pizza hit the bricks. That thing can easily maintain 500 degrees with out going gonzo on how much wood you put in it. I was turning out pizzas on the average of 7 1/2 mins a piece. I suppose you could aspire for quicker turn around times, but WTF...we are in WhiteCloud and who the hell is in that big of a hurry. On a serious note, the shit was good.

Great Wall of China Chicken

The past week the fence on the east side of my property, which is next to the orchards and stables, blew down. After 2 of my Arabians got out I knew I had to get that fence up ASAP. With a full day of work ahead of me, I marinated a broiler chicken the night before in a mixture of water, soy sauce, cooking sherry, green onions, garlic and Chinese 5-spice powder. While I busted my a** on the Great Wall of Jones the next day, I put the chicken in the grill, sitting on a can of Mountain Dew, and let it cook for about 2 hours @ 350 deg. The last ten minutes of grill time I brushed on some honey and then removed the bird and let it stand 10 minutes before carving and serving with fresh vegetables. The crispy skin was to die for. I am sorry to say that the chicken wasn't served with a fine micro-brew, but instead a couple of 16 oz. cans of "Contractor's Gatorade." Yes, a few ice-cold tall-boys of Natural Ice, while neither adding nor subtracting flavor from this delicous bird, replenished much needed potassium and nutrients while at the same time rehydrating me from my long-days work in the sun. While "beer-can chicken" or "drunken chicken" is sooo 2 years ago, the slow-roasting method was an easy way to prepare dinner while working away on the Jones estate.