Cocktail Confessions

Well, anyone up for another foodie review?  Good.  This past weekend I had the pleasure of getting out of the house with my buddy Jon, and we decided to head just slightly out of our geographical comfort zone and head up to the city of Orange.  There’s a lot of interesting restaurants of all ethnic varieties scattered throughout Orange and some really interesting digs in Old Town Orange.

Well, I had a hankering for some BBQ this summer evening, so I suggested to Jon that we open the sunroof up on my Ford Edge, crank up the tunes, drive up HWY 241 and head into Orange the back way and mosey into old Johnny Rebs’.  I’ve been to Johnny Reb’s a handful of times now and it is an interesting place to say the least, and I’d suggest it to anyone who wants a little something different in the barbeque experience.

There are 4 Johnny Rebs’ locations in CA and you can visit their main page and click on the ‘locations’ link to see them all in case you ever make it out to the Golden State.  Personally, I think the one located in Orange is the nicest looking of the bunch.  It has a very unique street facade, that while looking slightly out of place in a somewhat modern city, brings a down south charm to the neighborhood.  It often reminds me of a themed ride you may find at Knott’s Berry Farm or some other Californian ghost town like Bodie.

Red Trolley Ale served here.

Rebs’ was established in 1984 and tries to bring in the influences of Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina to the forefront in it’s aesthetic style, food choice, and hospitality.  According to their own website, it was Zagat rated as the Best BBQ Restaurants in Southern California (2004), although its not clear which location.  To be blunt and honest though, a lot of BBQ joint have sprung up in the last few years and I daresay I think I’ve had some better BBQ in 2010 such as Bad to the Bone in San Juan Capistrano, CA amongst a few others as well.

Speaking of hospitality though, Johnny Rebs’ does excel.  Everyone there is extremely nice and helpful and I find the staff generally chatty and pleasant, often coming around the table more than a few times to check on your meal, your satisfaction, or if you need anything else.

Johnny Reb's, Orange

The place itself is a site to behold, both inside and out.  As I mentioned earlier, it has a really nice ‘rustic’ vibe, both inside and out, and the setting and decor itself transports your mind back in time.  I think older folks and kids alike will enjoy the ‘log-cabin’ feeling on the inside, the swamp inspired waiting area outside, and of course the covered patio room located on one side of the building.  It was packed this particular night with a waiting list outside.  They also cater to parties as well and we witnessed the ritual “pig-kissing” and dancing for some old coot’s birthday that the whole place gets involved in as well.

There’s a small bar located centrally within the restaurant, which allows standing or seating for a good 6-8 people and they serve various beers on tap, some common and some uncommon ones as well.  This day, Jon and I both had a large schooner of Red Trolley Ale and it just seemed perfect for the setting.  While the beers are nice and cold and the staff friendly, I was discouraged to hear that the lemonade was actually from concentrate.  WTF?  Concentrated lemonade at a BBQ joint?  That just seems sacrilege and wrong and not an area a fine BBQ joint should be cutting corners on.

There’s tons of peanuts on the floor as well.  It’s one of those places you can get your own roasted peanuts, shell ‘em, and then toss them on the floor.  It’s fun and adds to the charm as well.  But the one bone I have to pick here is that the peanuts aren’t always fresh.  Sorry, but I’ve seen them toss new peanuts on top of the older ones in the barrels there, meaning the older ones never get rotated enough and thus just get older.  Not just this time, but other times my party has commented that we’ve always gotten more than a few stale peanuts, and there just really isn’t an excuse for that either.

For openers, Rebs’ has a really nice lineup of down south appetizers.  I’m not going to list them all here, but you can’t go wrong with their cornmeal dipped fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, sweet potato french fries, fried okra, or my personal favorite: fried dill pickles.  Yup, everyone looks at me sideways at least twice when I order them, but I think I have converted quite a few.  These dill pickles are sliced like a quarter, then breaded in cornmeal, deep fried, and served with a side of ranch dressing.  Yum!  Oh, and I may as well mention here they make their own biscuits and cornbread as well.

Between us, we split an order of the fried dill pickles and an order of sausage.  The pickles were as ever good as I recall, and ths sausage was moist and peppery.  Although when I think BBQ sausage, I think we were expecting more of a traditional hand made sausage, and this was more like a kielbasa link served with BBQ sauce.

Okay, so now onto the main fare: Like most BBQ joints you won’t be surprised to find both beef and pork ribs, fried or BBQ chicken, tri-tip and brisket in various forms, and catfish.  They also have pork chops & gravy, Cajun sausage, and blackened prime rib or sirloin steak.  Now since we are going to a BBQ joint, we are going for the ribs.  But give the menu a good looking over, there are plenty of bbq inspired sandwiches, a few salads and fish dishes as well.  Prices are average to slightly below average from what you’d expect in a BBQ joint.  Expect a dinner meal for two with drinks and appetizers to run about $65, and of course it’d be less for the smaller dishes or lunch.  They also serve a pretty exciting country breakfast as well.

I had a 1/2 rack of St. Louis ribs along with a side of mac-n-cheese, Cajun rice, and biscuit.  Jon had a 2 meat sampler of sausage and ribs along with mashed potatoes, biscuit, and something else I can’t recall right now, maybe baked beans.  The one thing you need to know about the sides is that you can request a second helping of any of your ordered sides, at no additional cost when your server comes back on by to check on you.  For me, I had a second helping of mac-n-cheese, although it wasn’t the best mac I’ve ever had.  Many places make gourmet mac with a combination of 2-3 cheeses, or a creamier texture by adding Velveeta.  Personally, Rebs’ came up a bit short in my book as their mac-n-cheese only uses one type, cheddar, and it was a little one-note and dry.  Same for my Cajun rice….it was a bit dry and bland and not what I was expecting or hoped for.  I did enjoy my ribs however, eating every last one and was happy with the amount of meat and taste I got for St’ Louis style (I usually get baby back pork).

Jon didn’t finish his whole meal, opting to take a portion home, but he seemed to enjoy it none-the-less.

At this point we were pretty full from our meal, opting not to have any desert, but here’s the quick rundown on the sweets: drop biscuit peach or chocolate cobbler, southern pecan pie, key lime pie, fried Mississippi mud pie, apple pie and vanilla ice cream.  I did note one special addition I hadn’t seen on the menu: a banana and nilla wafer pudding parfait I imagine was served in a mason jar that I would have liked to have tried but skipped out on it.

This place was tougher than I thought it was going to be to score.  There are some pretty definitive pro’s, yet a few things that after thinking about it a bit more make me want to hold back.  Overall: 3.

Ambiance: 4 – The nostalgic decor, peanuts in the floor, rustic look, and picnic style seating make for a fun and cozy atmosphere for most.  Bathroom could use a little extra love.

Hospitality: 4 – Very friendly and attentive staff who seem to be cheerful and chatty with the customers.  Something you’d expect from the South.

Food: 3 – Decent prices.  Great appetizers and desserts really open and close the show nice.  Main fare was ‘okay’, missing a bit of that smokey element one looks for in BBQ.  Some of the sides were one note and sub standard in some cases, but at least you can get an extra helping if need be.

Freshness: 2.5 – Rice was dry, mac-n-cheese a bit dry, lemonade from concentrate (?), stale peanuts, and ribs missing that ‘it’ factor kinda bummed me out.

Value: 3 – Extensive menu, extra sides, prices are good for the portion size you get

Ahhhh….two of my favorite things are coming together this October 3rd at the Fiesta Gardens just outside Austin, Texas.  The marriage of good ole smokey Texas style BBQ and the sounds of fidgeting pocket protectors of all us techno weenies who are proponets of Google technologies, namely the Android OS.  Unfortunately, and to my utter dismay I will not be attending.

I didn’t want to doctor up their own advertisment too much, so here’s the cut and paste promotion from the dudes over at Android and Me:

This October marks the two year release of the G1, the first Android device many of us came to know and love. Soon, it will also mark one of the largest, wildest, most beef-fueled, community-organized gatherings of Android fans ever attempted. The Big TX Android BBQ will be thrown on October 3rd, at the Fiesta Gardens in Austin, Tx. The event is being hosted by the likes of Android Swag, Android Guys, @thedroidguy, @bigkeivan, and of course, Android and Me. 

For a measly $25 (until Aug 15) you get all-you-can-eat BBQ, a totally rad free tee (designed by our own Angie Strickland), all the Android fellowship you can handle, and maybe some special guests. Aaron from Android Swag has been wheeling and dealing trying to land solid entertainment and guests for the BBQ but so far has been keeping his surprises close to his chest. 

To make it as easy as possible to attend, Aaron even lined up a discount code for those flying Continental. Using the code ZJE9896123 will get you a cool 10% off flights and we are still working on lining up some hotel (or even some camping) discounts for people who want to spend a few days here in Austin.

For more attendance info, go ahead and check out the offical site here.

If any of you do attend, I’d love to see some pics.  Feel free to send them to me here: cocktails1@hotmail.com and I’ll post them and give you credit as well (.jpg format please).

Oh, and by the way, there is official rumor that the long awaited Adobe Flash 10.1 will be available sometime today (Aug. 24th) for Android based smart phones.  You may have to do a search over at the Android Market Place for “Flash 10.1″, but it seems our wait is just about over.  But don’t yell at me if it is delayed a day or two,…they’ve done it before, but this time looks like it is legit.

*Santa Fe burger courtesy of FoodTV

So I realize I’ve been a little light on the recipe’s this summer. Not much of a cocktail and grilling blog if you don’t have the content to back it up once in a while. I’m still working on some “how-to” video’s for smoking a brisket…it takes a lot longer than you think, but I made some good headway this past week and I should have the first one posted soon.

Anyway, the kids should be headed back to school soon (if they haven’t already) and summer is starting to wind down, so I think this recipe will fit in nicely. It’s relatively easy, yet looks and tastes like it may have taken some real time and effort, and could be the star of the last summer hoorah.

I give credit to my wife for finding the basis of this recipe from her own online searches. It’s basically a Bobby Flay inspired recipe that stands out great on its own, but like most things, I like to make my own adjustments and spins on discovered recipes and try and make it my own.

This cheeseburger has it’s flavors rooted in the Southwest, a favorite of mine. The queso sauce is rich and spicy and replaces the traditional ‘processed slice’ we’re usually accustomed to, and allows a platform for the roasted pablano chili’s to cling to. Some blue corn chips give the burger an unexpected textural surprise along with their salty crunch.

Ingredients

Burgers

• 1 large poblano chile
• 2 1/2 TBS canola oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1.5 LBS ground chuck (80% lean) or sub 90% lean ground turkey for healthier alternative.
• 4 large gourmet burger buns, split & toasted. (Check local bakery for fresh goods like a nice ciabatta or potato bun.  Try and avoid the generic burger buns)
• Handful of blue or yellow corn tortilla chips

Queso (cheese) Sauce:

• 1 TBS unsalted butter
• 1 TBS all-purpose flour
• 1.5 cups whole milk. (*sub 1/2 cup milk with heavy cream if available for a richer, creamier taste)
• 8 ounces Pepper Jack cheese, coarsely grated (about 2 cups).  (*Sub Monterrey Jack for a slightly milder, not as spicy alternative if desired).
• Dash of dried chipotle powder for earthy, smokey flavor (*optional)
• Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Directions

1. Coat pablano chili with 1 TBS of canola oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place on grill, medium heat, and turn every few minutes until skin begins to char and bubble on all sides.  Remove chili and place in paper bag or bowl covered in plastic wrap and allow to steam for 15 minutes.  Peel, stem and seed chili at this point, then coarsely chop and set aside for now.
2. To make queso sauce, melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Add milk/cream, increase heat, whisk constantly until slightly thickened (approx 4-5 minutes).  Remove from heat and then whisk in cheese, a little at a time, until melted.  Season with salt, pepper, chipotle powder.  Keep warm.
3. Divide meat into 4 equal portions.  Form into 3/4″ thick patties and make small depression in the middle of each with thumb.  Season both sides with salt and pepper.  Using remaining oil (or cooking spray), coat grill and cook burgers over medium flame until desired doneness.
4. Place burgers on toasted bun bottoms, top with a few tablespoons of cheese sauce, a few chips, some of the pablano, then of course, toasted bun tops.

So now the beer pairing:  Personally, I really enjoy Mexican lagers with my Southwestern food.  For me, Negro Modelo is a no-brainer.  Maybe even Modelo Especial or Dos Equis.  Make sure you have plenty of sliced limes nearby.  If Mexican beer isn’t your thing, how about other domestic lagers or an ale?  These pair very well with summer beef dishes.  Try a Fat Tire amber ale, or maybe even Land Shark or Long Board lagers.  They all have a crisp and clean taste in my opinion.  And you can’t go wrong with any of the seasonal summer crafts from Sam Adams.

Well, for right now I’m holding off on getting a new Droid phone.  As much as I would like to get the Droid X, my current Motorola Droid (gen 1) is only 9 months old and I can’t justify in my mind spending the money on a new flavor just to say I have the latest and greatest.  I’d personally feel more grateful internally if I can last a whole year before I actually upgrade, and I may even get lucky and get the Droid X at a slightly cheaper price anyway.

But as these things go, I suppose as soon as I get the Droid X, a new Android phone will be announced that will even be better.  On the bright side, the long awaited update, Froyo (aka 2.2), is supposed to drop OTC this week which mean Flash is just around the corner.

And despite all those people that have the iPhone, a report was issued today stating that in North America, out of all the smart phones, that the Android OS is the most widely distributed.

Doesn’t Lady Gaga look like Marilyn Manson?  I don’t know why, but in this pick I can’t help but think that she does.  I don’t think she’s all that great looking, but she has a new spread in Vanity Fair this month, and it’s the best I’ve ever seen her (BTW: this isn’t one of the pics).  Me thinks she had plastic surgery in the past…..in the nose region.

Had a wonderful smoked brisket this weekend.  It was a lot of work, but my friends seemed to enjoy it pretty well and gave me accolades for my efforts.  It’s definitely a social thing though, and would benefit a group of guys hanging around sharing a case of beer and stories all day than doing it solo.  I took plenty of video’s and pictures of the process, and I hope to have those up soon here and on YouTube.

Speaking of which, my friend Brian made an excellent potato salad with blue cheese, chipotle, and smoked paprika amongst other ingredients and it was delicious.  He said he’d give me the recipe and I’ll post here in the future as well.

Er, why does Lindsay Lohan get released after 14 days of her 90 day sentence?  If it were any Joe Blow or Jane Doe, we’d serve the full time.  Pisses me off, this double-standard crap that so-called spoiled celebrities get to take advantage of.  It’s crap on all levels.

Worked on a HO structure model this Sunday during my personal down time.  I love my hobby of model building for trains.  It’s fun and relaxing, although it can be a long and arduous process.  Wish I had a bit more money so I could start my benchwork for my layout.

Started a new book: “The Art of Racing in the Rain”.  It’s a novel whose story is told through the eyes and soul of a 13 year old yellow Labrador.  Very touching and moving.  Dare I say I’ve already been moved to tears after the opening chapter?  I’ve been reading more books lately based on animals and have been enjoying them immensely.  I just finished ‘Dog Town’, based on true account of the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah.

Finally, I really need to start my diet as of yesterday.  I have approx 2.5 months to drop close to 15 lbs for a wedding in which I am the best man.  I had an excellent meal and beer fest this past Saturday, so the last two days I’m just drinking water, coffee, and ice tea.

If you’re a Star Wars nerd like me, you’ll get that reference.

Anyway, apologies for the lack of posts lately.  I actually have a review of El Cid of Los Angeles already written along with pictures and video clips, it’s just a matter of me uploading everything and doing some final edits.

In brief, here are a couple things in the meantime:

1. Work has been extremely slow as of late.  I’ve actually been watching paint dry and counting air molecules to pass the time.
2. Been enjoying new Bud Select 55, the low calorie beer, although I can’t seem to get a buzz from it.
3. Watching a lot of Netflix lately.  Love the streaming feature.  Watching Sparticus (Season 1) and Weeds (Season 3).  Tried watching Jack Black’s and Michale Cera’s “Year One”, but it is soooo bad.  Also started watching the first season of True Blood.
4. Gonna try and smoke a brisket this weekend with my new smoker.  Never did one before, but we all gotta start somewhere, so I’m thinking I may buy a brisket after work today and cook/smoke it for saturday.  I may buy a 6lb brisket from El Toro Meats to start with.  It’s $6.99 a pound, so a 5lb brisket is upwards of $35!
5. I know I’m lacking in the Big Brother updates.  I’m about 4 episodes behind as of this writing.  I’ve watched them all so far, so I need to do a brief synopsis later in a combined entry (maybe later today if I’m bored).

Check out this really cool ’steampunk’ USB drive (pictured left).  It’s 8GB in size and it’s creator says the design was inspired by an old country sign….Er…okay…I don’t see it, but I love the end result anyway.  I just love this Jules Verne looking stuff.  It’s so much more interesting than all the other streamlined tech out there these days.  It’s a piece of art in my book.

The creator gives it an esitimated worth of $300, which for an original piece of alternate Americana technology, it’s tempting (if I had the extra money). *Image courtesy of ChipChick.

Lastly, although I’m really enjoying my new Kodak Playsport, it seems Panasonic just announced their own shoot-and-share handheld HD flash camcorder.  The TA1 currently has a pre-order (release date is tentatively Aug 17) price listing of $169, which is in line with all the others in this category, but has few things really stand out for me: 1) It’s Panasonic, and they make great stuff.  I think their plasma televisons, DVD players, and old school VCR’s are top notch, especially for their price, so I doubt you be assured the hardware is strong.  2) The stand alone camera is 8MP whereas all the otehrs in this category are 5MP.  3) It’s Skype enabled (how sweet is that?)  4)  And finally, someone has added a front facing LED ‘light’ used to help illuminate recording in low light conditions (double sweet!!).  Hopefully this additional features will prove to be worthy enough to be included in future incarnation by the other developers for the next generation of these hand held devices.  If so, I can see myself upgrading in about a year from now.

This morning when I first got up I decided I was going to be somewhat proactive today and do some ‘Jayson’ chores about the house.  In addition to do some laundry, watering plants, sweeping the garage, taking the car in for an oil change, I decided I’d take the time to build the free smoker my wife graciously gave me as her 10 year work anniversary present.

Armed with a bloody Mary in one hand, screw driver in the other, and a mix CD of dance trax pumping from my garage stereo, I finally broke out the ’smoker’ box that has been sitting in my garage for the last few weeks and decided to assemble it.  It turns out that the time we got was in-fact NOT the Brinkmann Gourmet Smoker we thought was listed in the catalog, but the lower-end Brinkmann 810-5301-6 Smoke ‘N Grill charcoal smoker.  It actually retails for about $69 and is made in China, which is quite apparent when you start your initial assembly.  The issue straight out if the box is that you can tell that quality control is a low priority with Brinkmann, or at least this model.  But then again, it was free to us, so it all depends on how much you really want to complain.

Straight out of the box, here are some of the issues I came across:

1. Main kettle drum was slightly damaged on bottom rim.  Not a deal breaker, but a minor dent was disheartening for a brand new grill.
2. Top kettle paint job was badly scuffed.  Yeah, right out of the box there was some major scuff and scratch marks to the black enamel paint job.
3. Weld points on the actual chrome-plated grill surface were loose.  On one of the 2 enclosed grill surfaces, I noticed that a few weld points were in fact not secured properly.
4. Drill holes were off-kilter.  On some, (not all), of the pre drilled holes where the handles are to be attached, the holes were not aligned properly.  After some minor bending of the handles, I was able to secure the handles as instructed, but they should not have been as difficult as they were.
5. Kettle was not perfectly round.  This is an issue if you want the top kettle drum to fit on body correctly.  Since the body was ’slightly’ oval instead of round, (as it should have been), it took some additional bending and compression my end to get it to the proper shape.
6. Finally, the sheet metal door that allows access to the front of smoker to add additional charcoal was also bent.  Thankfully, it is thin enough where I could bend this back into shape by hand, but overall, very dissapointing construction for an out of the box product. 

All these items could be fixed easily and shouldn’t affect the overall process of grilling and smoking, but that’s not really the point.  Free or not, when I buy a factory sealed product, I expect it to be as close to 100% mint as possible.  In this case, this ‘freebie’ felt as if it were perhaps a clearance item and no wonder it was given away free to my wife.  I’d say it was closer to 75%-80% condition out of box.

Assembly was fairly easy, even with the re-bending of some of the sheet metal I had to do.  The few other issues I noted are as such: A) The legs are a bit short.  I wish they were slightly sturdier and longer.  B) Thermometer is a very cheap model that indicates ‘warm, ideal, hot’ as opposed to actual degrees.  When cooking a brisket, pork, or chicken, you may definitely want to invest in a separate meat thermometer as the included one will be hard for anyone to tell what the actual maintained temperature is.  C) The included charcoal and water basin plates could fit a tad better as well.  They are exactly the same parts used internally, but how they rest on the internal clips is a little shaky.  A handy person with a drill and some engineering or shop experience may want to employ a little additional efforts and modifications to help secure these items prior to use as this may be a recipe for errors down the line.

Speaking of modification, I came across the following website in which this gentleman vastly improves his own Brinkmann smoker.  Using just a few of his ideas may vastly improve your own cooking experience, and over time I think I will introduce his mods on a more accurate thermometer, gasket, and internal grills surface security.  Check it out here.

So my initial score would be a 2.5 on a scale of 5.  Could be much better, could be much worse, so I guess I gave it a half point for being ‘free’ in my case, otherwise the construction seems a bit subpar for a $70 product…and that’s Amazon’s price mind you.  It may actually be more at BBQ shops or other online grill stores, so this is for sure a ‘budget’ item.  There are higher qulaity smokers out there, but of course expect to start shelling out $100+ at that point.

So once completed, according to the instructions, you should initially cure your smoker to help burn off any excess factory paint inside and help resist and prevent future rusting.  I did this by removing the internal charcoal pan and grill grates and spraying the inside with PAM grill spray.  After a liberal coating inside, I began to start a few pounds of regular Kingsford charcoal in a standard chimney starter.  You can find generic versions of these as low as $10 bucks at most hardware stores.  Anything more than $17 maybe a rip off and I don’t think the higher end ones are all that much better than the $10 ones.

Once I had the charcoal started, I let it burn for approx 15-20 minutes within the starter before pouring it directly into the smokers charcoal pan.  Allowing the 15-20 minute burn allows for any fuel on the charcoal to dissipate for an overall cleaner tastes in your food (no gas taste).  Also, it allows for all the charcoal to get started evenly and reach a more consistent temperature.  When the charcoal turns from black to an ash gray, its ready.

Now that the charcoal is in the smoker, go ahead and put the lid on top.  Within 5 – 7 minutes or so, you should see the thermometer reach  the ‘ideal’ reading.  Go ahead and let the smoker cure for a minimum of two hours.  If you note that the dial begins to dip in the first 45 minutes to an hour, go ahead, open the door, and add some more charcoal briquettes.  But after 1.5 hours, no need to add anything else.  Let it burn through as is and make sure it cools q100% before removing spent charcoal.  At this point your initial curing should be complete and your ready to start your real first smoked effort.

During the curing stage, I went to Lowe’s and bought myself a bag of hardwood hickory charcoal.  It’s not that expensive, about $7.50 for a regular size bag.  Just remember that it takes less hardwood charcoal than standard coal briquettes to maintain the same temperature and they also burn longer.  Follow instructions on the bag and you should be able to make it last longer than standard OTC charcoal everyone else uses at their beach BBQ’s.   Not to mention you’re getting these because the idea is that you actually want to ’smoke’ your meat.  Smoking is all about low temperatures, maintaining that temperature, and long times.  We aren’t grilling hamburgers of chicken breasts here.  No we are smoking for generally 8 or more hours depending on the cut of meat.  A 10 lb brisket will smoke easily for 10-12 hours, so we’re in it for the long haul.

I’m about two weeks late in posting this entry (as I also happen to be behind in a lot of entries I have stored up in my head) but I’d like to share with you my experience with the 34th annual Huck Finn’s Jubilee just outside of Victorville, CA.

I first read about the festival in Westways’s magazine provided by the Auto Club of Southern California.  A small little blurb in the “getaways” section in the back referenced this festival to be chock full of bluegrass & country music, a banjo championship, period games and life demonstrations of yesteryear, arts & crafts, and of course country vittles.  The idea of eating smoked bbq ribs and roasted corn on the cob while listening to old school Americana in a picnic like setting sounded very fun and intriguing.

It’s been a while since both Monica and I have been able to get out of Orange County, or do something a bit more exciting than sitting about the house on the weekends doing various chores.  I kinda made a commitment to myself that we would try to get out and do more things this summer.  They needn’t be expensive, lavish, or far away, but I wanted to take advantage of more sunny weekends by ourselves or with friends rather than to look back at yet another summer come and gone with nothing to show for it or talk about.

Granted, Monica doesn’t really care for bluegrass music, but I know my friend Brian Liles does.  So I invited Brian and his fiancee Shea to go with us.  Luckily, Victorville is just about 85 miles from my house and we couldn’t have had better weather.  It’s been a tad cooler than usual for this time of year, and the same went for the desert where we drove to as well.

The Jubilee was held at the Mojave Narrow’s Campground, just outside Victorville at 18000 Yates Road.  Mojave Narrow’s is a very nice and impressive campground.  It’s tucked just outside a residential area and only a few miles from actual downtown Victorville, if you need to go into town for supplies.  It’s basically an open oasis of trees and rolling meadows along the side of the Mojave River.  In addition to a huge campground suited for both tents and RV’s, they have nice covered picnic patio areas, restroom facilities, along with areas for both fishing and hiking.  They also boast a good size playground with water park like attractions for the kids, and you can even rent horses by the hour for horseback riding.  I was very impressed by this place and if I ever were to go camping in the future with family or friends, I’d highly recommend this place.  It doesn’t hurt that it’s not that far from our home either.  As a personal bonus to me, there is a large railway nearby in which train enthusiasts can watch large shipping convoys roll through a few times a day.

Once we parked our vehichle and slapped on a little sunscreen, we made our way to the Jubilee entrance walking through an endless sea of organized camper trailers.  As soon as we walked in you can’t miss the large steel and aluminum outdoor concert stage set up to the right.  Here, various musical acts play throughout the Jubilee’s three day festival and people bring their own blankets and lawn chairs to set up.  There are a few areas with trees that provide shade, but the majority is uncovered so make sure you have your hat and sunscreen.  Luckily there was an on-again, off-again breeze that day so it was quite pleasant.

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On this particular day we had a chance to watch the banjo championships at around noon, but later that night The Oak Ridge Boys and various other acts would be playing.  Just west of the main stage was the vendor and craft fair where small mom and pop businesses sell various country wares, clothing, jewelry, camping gadgets, packaged foods/condiments/spices, etc.  Think of it as a small ‘county swap meet’.  Monica was able to purchase various Father’s Day gifts in the form of garlic stuffed olives and green beans from Gilroy, CA.  We tasted regional jams, mustard’s, spices and more.  There were a few people actually selling puppies as well, but as a dog lover myself, I did feel a little uneasy at this practice….who knows what the health of these puppies were, or if these were ‘puppy-mill’ owners who are not responsible breeders.  The dogs sure were cute, but with no paperwork and no guarantees of health and proper vaccinations, it seems odd to be selling animals at a campground and fair.

The one thing we did notice early on and take great umbridge too was that there were no beer vendors to be found.  This may be because this is a public campground and insurance costs or permits may be unfeasible for the jubilee, but we were all very dissapointed with this discovery.  If we would have known there was no alcohol to be sold, we most assuredly would have brought our own cooler.  At this point, I knew in the back of my head we weren’t going to be here all day long.  It was nice enough my wife agreed to come out with me, but with no adult beverages to wet her whistle, I was clearly pushing my luck.  And I don’t blame her, I think we were all hoping to have a nice craft beer, or two, or three while listening to the music.

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Speaking of beverages, I may as well discuss the food as well. In an earlier post, I reviewed Ptrains BBQ efforts on their wings and smoked pizza, but there were other vendors as well.  In addition to the roasted corn on the cob, baked beans, there was another bbq rib tent, a place that sold hot dogs, corn dogs, and brats, a few drink vendors (basically soda, lemonade’s, bottled water), and of course ice cream as well.  Some of the smells were definitely enticing.  However, that being said, I was a bit let down by the overall size and somewhat limited choices actually present.  The website for the Jubilee, while not incorrect, at least led you to believe that the ‘Vittle Village’ would be bigger than it actually was.  I was really hoping for multiple BBQ tents and a larger variety of regional foods that Mark Twain would have enjoyed, but it just wasn’t present.  Most places only took cash, which was to be expected I suppose, but maybe the website could have let you know roughly how much cash a family should bring just in case they weren’t camping and bringing their own food.

More to come in Part 2….

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Huck Finn Jubilee out at Mojave Narrow’s Campground in Victorville, CA.  It was myself, my wife, my good friend Brian and his fiancee, Shea.  I plan on posting some future installments here about the jubilee itself, but there was one small thing I wanted to get out of the way first, the food at Vittle Village.

Now to our overall disapointment, there was absolutely no beer to be found at any of the vendor booths.  That makes one heck of a long day to be sitting out at a beautiful campground, listening to various bands based on early Americana bluegrass and country, with the smell of BBQ in the air with no way to purchase any beer.  There seems to be a lack of verifiable information on whether it was sold or not in the past.  Depending on who I spoke to in my desperate search for amber nectar, I was was pretty much told down the middle there was/wasn’t any beer the year before.

In the hopes of having some really good country inspired food, I had failed to eat breakfast that morning running on only about three cups of coffee until we made our way to the ‘foodie’ area of the fair at around 1pm.  Sadly to say the options were a tad limited.  If I can recall correctly there was on corndog/hotdog stand, one funnel cake vendor, one bratwurst/sausage kiosk, a tent that sold roasted corn on the cob, and another tent that had some plates of BBQ chicken and ribs.  The one that caught my eye was Ptrains BBQ which emphasized hot wings and a wood smoked BBQ chicken pizza.  Each vendor sold cans of soda or bottled water although there were two specialty drink places: one that sold either fresh lemonade or strawberry lemonade, and the other  homemade craft soda’s such as rootbeer and cream soda among some of their offerings.

I gravitated towards Ptrains because of the very large custom made BBQ pit shaped like an 1850’s era style steam train engine, and of course the smell of the wood laden fire.  In addition to my fondness of BBQ and cooking, I also enjoy model railroading, so the chance to learn more about this epic one-of-a-kind custom train pit and the sampling of some good ‘ole BBQ seemed perfect for me.

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Ptrains is a family run business based out of Rancho Cucamonga, CA.  You can go to their site and read the family story about Ptrains all there.  By looking at their schedule, it appears they travel to various events all over the place with pit in tow.  I can tell you that the whole family seemed very genuine and nice.  I had a chance to talk to one of the daughters who was overseeing the wings being cooked and she was very pleasant and was happy to share with me the story of the train.  The train itself happens to be a relatively new addition, being only a few months old and was custom built by a gentlemen in Houston, TX.   The man who built it (name escapes me right now) has built other well known grills including the famous Six-Gun Grill, and took so much pride in this train creation decided to drive it out himself to deliver it to the client only a few weeks back.  The Ptrain pit cost roughly $50K and duplicates steam era sound effects as well.

I’m not exactly sure what they offer to grill on the circuit, but on the menu today was only the pizza and chicken wings.  I hope in the future if I run into Ptrains again, they may offer up some brisket, ribs, or pork items.

Anyway, my buddy Brian had the wings and offered me one, but I declined.  I’m sorry that I did in retrospect because I would have liked to have included that experience here as well, but I can tell you Brian said he enjoyed his and they had a pleasant glaze and wasn’t too spicy.

I myself decided to try the wood fired bbq chicken pizza.  I can tell you it had a lot of potential, but just wasn’t there.  It wasn’t the taste per-se because Ptrains ketchup based bbq sauce is indeed mighty tasty (although not too spicy), but the execution of the actual pizza was a tad off.  First, even though the wood smoking induces a mouth watering aroma to the pizza, the crust itself wasn’t completely done.  It wasn’t as crisp as I would have liked it to be and a tad doughy in parts, as if it wasn’t cooked all the way through.  It probably could have stood a few more minutes on the grill to firm up a bit more.  Secondly, it was a bit over-sauced in the BBQ department.  I’m not exactly sure if they were trying to highlight the chicken or the sauce, but it came across as little heavy on the sauce.  Maybe because it was their first time here and it was a busy part of the day or they are still working the kinks out in the recipes, but I could have used a bit less sauce and a bit more chicken.  That being said, it wasn’t bad, but definetly room for improvement.

So I received a few requests for some of my Father’s Day 2010 recipe’s I made this past weekend, so I thought I’d share one of them with you today.  Now most people aren’t necessarily crazy about zucchini, not unless it’s fried and drowning in ranch dressing, and they are even more skeptical if you tell them its grilled. 

Well, this easily prepared dish I can tell you was met with rave reviews, even from my own mother, daughter, and nephew who are rarely ever seen even eating anything resembling close to a green cooked vegetable.  My daughter even ate two and I have often seen her ditch vegetables on her plate to the garbage can when she thinks no one is looking.

I guess the secret is in the bacon gremolata.  Hell, I wasn’t quite sure myself what ‘gremolata’ even meant until I looked the definition up to satisfy my own curiosity.  Basically gremolata is defined as a ‘chopped’ herb condiment usually consisting of garlic, parsley, and lemon zest and is Italian in origin.  But then again, everything is better with bacon, in that there is no doubt so you can’t really go wrong in the first place.

Anyway, it’s a great way I figure to introduce grilled vegetables to kids, and it looks very impressive and pretty when presented on the plate.  It appears to be much more involved than it really is and is sure to wow your guests when they think you spent quite a bit on time on it.

Ingredients:

• 4 medium-large zucchini (approx. 6 oz each)
• 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (save the lemon peel for the gremolata)
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
• Bacon gremolata (recipe follows)

Directions (makes 8 servings):

1. Cut zucchini’s in half, lengthwise.  Using a melon baller or spoon, scoop out center to form 1/4 – 1/2″ shells.  Set aside.
2. In small bowl, combine lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt, pepper.  Brush zucchini shells with lemon mixture.  Place shells, cut side down, on grilling tray.
3. Grill shells over medium flame, 5-7 minutes or until cut sides begin to brown.  Turn shells over at this point (cut sides up) and grill 1 minute more.  Remove from grill.
4. Spoon bacon gremolata into shells, evenly, then return to grill.  Cover and grill 2-4 more minutes until cheese begins to melt.

Bacon Gremolata:

In a bowl combine a whole pack of crisp cooked bacon slices, drained, and finely crumbled (you can sub 1 cup finely chopped Canadian-bacon as well), 1 cup finely grated Parmesan and/or Romano cheese, 1/4 cup fresh basil (julienned), 1/4 cup fresh diced jalapeno pepper OR pepperoncini (I actually use a bit of both), 4 Tsp shredded lemon peel (use zester tool), 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 Tsp ground black pepper.  Mix well and spoon into shells.

Many congratulations to my wife, who just celebrated her ten year milestone at her place of employment.  I actually believe she’s been there a bit longer as she started off as a temporary employee before the company officially hired her as a full time employee.

The last few years have been a mental struggle for her, as I imagine it would be for anyone after ten years.  It’s hard to be continually challenged and motivated after so many years, especially when there are a lot of changes to the corporate structure every few months or so.  At times it can be very stressful for her as she will come home and tell me about some new bombshell that drops unexpectedly and a whole new management team is coming in.  It’s actually happened quite a few times with more and more frequency the last couple of years where they have had at least four different CEO’s within that time frame.  As you imagine, with each regime change, there is always new people coming in, old people leaving (not necessarily by choice), and shake-ups as to who is now reporting to who.

With all that being said, however, she has a decent job.  She works less than ten minutes from our house, every day is casual day, and her hours are somewhat flexible.  For as much heartache as it gives her, it could be a lot worse.

Needless to say, for her ten years of effort the parent company gave her an eight page catalog in which she can select a gift.  She brought the catalog home last night to show me and I honestly have to say, what a fricken’ joke.  I don’t know who at that company is in charge of employee relations or morale, but I cannot help but imagine some old little bitty who knits tea cozies is at the head of this thing.  All the gifts are so cheap looking, tacky, useless, or just plain outdated.

I had to laugh at the artwork section.  After ten years of service, who in the hell in their right mind is going to choose a piece of artwork by some unknown artist that you can easily pick up at a swap meet and look right at home in a dental office?  I mean really…a picture of a lion? An eagle soaring?  A barn in the middle of nowhere USA? Pathetic.

How about the ladies pastel pink checkered golf bag from 1970?  The brushed nickel analog clock paper weight?  How about the sterling silver ring some inlaid polished rock you’ve never heard of?  If those don’t catch your fancy, how about the glass bowl party snack holder?  The fluted vase?  The leather luggage tags?  Are you kidding me?  Ten years of service and you can have leather luggage tags.

Absolutely embarrassing and sad.  It’s not even my award and I feel insulted for her.  Why not just give her a healthy bonus check?  They think that picking some stupid flea market ‘Big Lots’ clearance reject is some lofty gesture on their part to show gratitude and appreciation for all those years of dedication.  I know, how about give her an extra week of vacation, or why not the catalog that the CEO gets to pick from.  Do you think for a minute that the CEO (if one ever lasts that long) is going to choose the simulated mahogany 5×7” picture frame?  He’d throw the catalog back across the desk, take his family out for a 5-star meal and charge it back as a business expense and laugh the whole way home.  I know I would.

My wife decided to look up many of these gifts to see their value on the Internet.  As you would expect, the majority fell along the lines of $59-$79 dollars, with the majority landing on the lower end of that spectrum.

With that being said there was one item in the catalog that may actually have some value to our family, and not necessarily for her, but more for me.  My wife was gracious enough to extend her gift to me instead and made the suggestion that we pick this particular item: a charcoal smoker.  Despite the fact that at Lowe’s it actually does retail for $59 (probably cheaper during July 4^th weekend or end of summer sale), my wife is sacrificing her earned gift to me which is a very generous and appreciated gesture.  So, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to her and let her know I love her.

Now, once we get it, perhaps in her honor we can do a really nice smoked brisket and invite some of her close coworkers to our house later this summer for a celebratory BBQ.  It’ll give me a great excuse to try a new recipe and buy some nice apple or hickory wood and a stove-pipe charcoal starter with real ‘wood’ briquettes.  I’ll do a review of it once we try it out down the line.