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.

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.

The weather is beginning to turn cooler and my appetite is running toward heartier foods. A couple of nights ago while driving home from work I decided I wanted some gumbo. I didn’t have a recipe so while I was sitting in traffic I made one up. It turned out pretty good and it was simple to make. Here’s the recipe:

• 1lb. Ground Beef
• 1 medium white onion chopped
• 2 stalks of celery thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1Tbs olive oil
• 1 can Okra undrained
• 1 can diced tomatoes undrained
• 1 can Navy beans undrained
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp oregeno
• 1 (or more)tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1tsp salt

Brown the ground beef and drain.

In a 2qt. sauce pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil until it shimmers then add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until tender. Add in the drained ground beef, okra, tomatoes and navy beans and stir.

Heat until bubbling, add the cumin, oregeno, cayenne pepper and salt and stir.
Reduce heat and cover. Let it simmer for about fifteen minutes stirring occassionally.

This ought to serve six people but if you are as hungry as I was when I finished it will only serve four. It was just as good the next day as my lunch.