Okay, last night I grilled some chicken breasts on my charcoal grill/smoker. This had a slight twist to it. I washed and coated each breast with olive oil and then added a tad of salt and fresh ground pepper then I sprinkled the chicken with Mrs. Dash. That wasn’t the twist.

While out on my patio I noticed my rosemary shrub needed a little heavier pruning to get one branch out of the way of my path across the patio. I cut the limb off, stripped off some leaves and crushed them then added that to the chicken. The chicken then was covered and placed in the refrigerator for about thirty minutes.

When I placed the chicken on the grill I also placed the rest of that rosemary branch on the back of the grill away from direct heat. The rosemary started smoking and things were smelling good. After taking the chicken off the grill and trying this I’ve decided I’m probably going to have to replace that rosemary shrub before next year.

A Florida tomato grower decided to breed his tomatoes for taste instead of looks. Now he’s having to fight a state marketing committee for the right to sell his tasty but misshappened fruit out of state.

I love tomatoes but I’ve given up eating them between mid-December and March because the ones I get then, while pretty, just have no taste. This marketing committee may explain the reason for that.

I wonder what a letter writing campaign might accomplish?

Last weekend I picked up a Char-Broil Silver Smoker and assembled it. This week I’ve used it twice for grilling. This weekend being Memorial Day weekend I’m going to put it to the test of smoking. My plan is to use it to grill with Saturday and Sunday and then Sunday night start smoking a rack of ribs and a pork roast. Tonight I’ll rub down the meat.

As a grill this smoker has worked suprisingly well. The firebox isn’t large enough to cook a large amount of food but for the three of us it does quite well. Supposedly I can also use charcoal in the smoke chamber for grilling larger amounts of food but I think I’m going to refrain from doing that. I’m much better at smoking and barbequeing than I am at grilling.

Note:This is a reprint from Justin’s Journal October 12, 2002. There appears to be some problems with the old weblog’s PHP script retrieving the archives. Because I’m going to be doing barbeque this weekend I wanted this recipe available.

I’ve got some folks coming over tomorrow afternoon for a barbeque. Just a few minutes ago I finished preparing the pork shoulder roast for smoking in the morning. I mixed up about a cup of my special rub and covered this 4lb. roast with the rub, covered the roast with plastic wrap and put it back in ther refrigerator. I really should have done this about two days ago if I wanted a really superb barbeque roast but this will still be long enough for it to be a pretty doggone good barbeque.

I’ve got a friend who runs “The Deck Chef” website who has some very good rubs for sale but I like my own. If you won’t tell anyone else I’ll share the recipe with you. Shhh, though, remember this is a secret recipe.

• 2 T. Sugar
• 2 T. Brown Sugar
• 2 T. Salt
• 2 T. Ground Cumin
• 4 T. Paprika
• 2 T. Chile Powder
• 1 T. Cayenne Pepper (maybe a little bit more Cayenne Pepper)
• 1 T. Freshly cracked black pepper.

Just throw all these ingredients together in a bowl and then mix until the seem to be mixed about as well as they can be. Put this in a shaker of some sort and sprinkle liberally over your meat. It’s called a rub but there isn’t a need to rub this stuff in, it’ll ball up on you and not completely cover the meat. Just cover the meat with it, wrap it up in butcher paper or plastic wrap and put it back in the refrigerator at least overnight. Two days will make it better.

Sometimes I’ll add a little rubbed sage to the mixture, other times maybe a little rosemary gets added. If you have a favorite herb go ahead and add it to it. The key that I’ve found is, though, not to stray too far from this basic rub when playing around with different ingredients. You can add just about anything you want to give it your own special flavor just as long as one or two things is all that you add.

Tomorrow, around 7a.m. I’ll get up and go fire up the smoker. Around 8:30 I’ll put a cup of wet hickory chips on the charcoal, add water to a pan that will sit between the fire and the meat and then place the meat on the rack. Around 3p.m. the meat will be ready for the finishing sauce and at 3:30 it will be ready to pull from the bone and serve.

Good barbeque requires time… and a few bottles of beer.

I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I allow myself to indulge in a Krispy Kreme doughnut about once a month and about once a year I’ll go crazy and eat a half a dozen in one setting. I was lucky to be raised in a town that had a Krispy Kreme factory back in my youth. I learned the goodness of those doughnuts eaten hot at an early age.

With that being said, I don’t know how to take the news of Krispy Kreme planning a low-sugar doughnut. I mean, what’s the point in this? Supposedly this is to attract dieters and diabetics but even at half the sugar content you still have a high-fat, high-glycemic index food.