My name is Brett. I've been here in Tucson for about 10 years now. I've been grilling for quite a while and started bbq'ing a few years back. After some sub-standard ribs, I finally broke down and bought a WSM maybe 3 years ago. Whenever it was, it was when I joined the site.
I've recently gotten a little ill, so I have had to take time off from work and have been spending more of my time online and cooking. Not just bbq, but baking and using the pressure cooker and so forth. I am slightly more active over at tvwbb.com. I don't really have any interest in competition, however, I noticed that there is one here local this weekend, so I am thinking of going.
Unfortunately, the medications that I am on leave me pretty tired, so I will probably only come for an hour or two, but am looking forward to it. Pretty tough when you are only 42, oh, well.
I've done a number of things on the smoker, some well, some not so well. Part of the problem is that I am pretty lazy, so I will just throw a brisket on there and not check it for 12 hours or so. Two of them have had kind of burnt bottoms, but the rest turns out pretty well. I mostly do the bbq for myself and share with friends and family.
Each Thanksgiving I do a turkey and each year I've done it differently. I've done them whole, deboned and stuff, and spatchcocked. All of them turned out well, I like the spatchcocked ones the best. I also like how quickly they cook.
I really like beef ribs, full sized ones. For a little, friendly competition on tvwbb, I did
this. For Sunday I did 4 racks of baby backs and 2 racks of St Louis style spares. I also really like meatloaf on the smoker. So good.
The most that I ever did was for a party, which I didn't take any pictures, where I did 4 pork butts & a brisket and after those were finished and foiled and stored, I put on 6 racks of spares and 4 racks of beef ribs. I think that I did corn on the cob and ranch beans for sides and whatever guest choose to bring. It was a lot of food for 30. I haven't really tackled that again.
I haven't really been too impressed with bbq & steak restaurants here, it is always a disappointment when I feel that I could have made it better at home. My favorite is the Original Mr. K's, but that is probably because they have beef ribs. I like Rudy's up in Phoenix, too, but I hate to drive up there.
Here are some beef ribs that I did as my second cook on my birthday a couple of years ago. Watch out for the giant moth.
And for those of you who think that Tucson is desert, July 4th, 2012 we had some rain (this was pork butts).
Anyway, looking forward to Saturday and some generic rambling about me.
Brett
PS - If you are curious, I am ill with
Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis, a rare autoimmune disease. I am currently undergoing chemotherapy, although it isn't as intense as what is needed for cancer patients. I should have played the lottery, it is a 3 in 100,000 person disease.
