Bass is one of my favorite. Since moving to IL I have also started drinking a local brew called Goose Island Pale Ale and IPA. Both very tasty when I don't have any home brew around.

Ribs are great and easy to cook if you can control your temp. The hardest part is preparing them by taking off the membrane that is on the inside. I use a pair of catfish pliers and pull like hell. After that use a good dry rub and smoke 6-8 hours at 200 degrees. They fall right off the bone!

Dam my mouth is watering again.

I was wondering how it could be a great weekend in Illinois with the way the Cubbies are playing. Then saw you moved there. I don't know if my stomach will take anything spicy this weekend after yesterday's debacle against the Braves. Enjoy the weather at least!! Guy (Former Illinoisan, Always Cubby Fan)

It was my nephew's birthday today, so I was at my brother's place in Iowa City...just got home. We ate brats & burger's which were pretty good, but had to settle for Coors Light for beer.

Sounds like a BYOB party to me

Coors is not a beer,its P water

Yeah, agree with you guys on the Coors/Bud issue. Like tomtuttle said in the beer thread, that's why you've got to serve those beers cold, so you can distinguish them from urine.

Going over to friends' house later today. They will have burgers and brats, BYOB. I'll be taking some Guinness, Sam Adams, and Newcastle. Maybe some Zima and Mike's Hard Lemonade for dessert. Ha.

IMHO, a foofy drink must have some sort of milk product in it.

Now you can all prove me wrong.

I like apple martini's as well as lemon drops

[anchorman voice] I LOVE SCOTCH. SCOTCH. SCOTCH. SCOTCH. [/anchorman voice]

I don't worry about looking cool.

On a hot day, I can guzzle Zimas and wine coolers like they're Kool Aid... which they almost are. I'm still buzzed as much as if I had two mixed drinks.

Of course, the disclaimer is that I usually am by myself!

i used to love mikes lemonade until one day it gave me heartburn that almost dropped me to my knees

Mary, I take it then that you're not impressed with the commercial where the guy is sitting with a Coor's Light and his girlfriend and begins to make loving comments; she's joyous thinking that he's proposing and then flees in tears when she finds that he's talking about his beer.

That's exactly what usually happens to me! I can't drink more than a couple without gerring heartburn.

If I could figure out how to keep the charcoal lit, I would probably grill more. The GF just went out to pick up some steak. The briquets will probably burn all the way through and burn out before we can turn the meat from red to pink, then we'll stick it in the microwave to finish it off.

You make me cry for those poor steaks. Sounds like you might not be using enough charcoal, or your steaks are too far away from the heat. Shouldn't take more than 5-7 minutes a side for 'em!

Me, I'm doing ribs and artichokes. Messy!

We're trying match light today, putting on some rib eye. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Good luck!

We'll see if I can avoid carbonizing my ribs. Or having them raw. See, I'm not all that good at this, either...

The match light burns very quick and can leave a lighter fluid taste in your food.

Stick with high quality charcoal it really does work better. Royal Oak and regular Kingsford works well.

Use a chimney and news paper to light the charcoal quickly without any lighter fluid.

Celebrating my brother-in-law's birthday today. Up at the parent's house and we're going with good old fashioned burgers.

Looks like the cat's opting for lizard. Yuck.

That's an impressive cat, taking down rabbits. I wish I could get my outside ones to take down possums and raccoons, but I'm just not seeing that.

I'll pass along the compliment to her! She is a calico and thus perfectly camoflaged for our heavily wooded subdivision.

We get the bigger game (possums and raccoons) as well, and I'm glad she steers clear of them. Once the wife and I had to shoo a possum out of our garage. He thought he would come in and have a buffet of deer corn and cat food! You should have seen Mrs. medic8r stamping her feet on the driveway, yelling at the top of her lungs for the varmint to never come back!

Friday Night: 2" (about 4cm for our Canadians) ribeyes, baked taters, grilled green bean
Saturday Noon: 3 Racks Spare Ribs for 6 hours, BBQ Beans, tater salad.
Sunday Noon: Seared then smoked a 6LB (a bit under 3kg?)pork loin, done at 5, mashed taters, grilled asparagus and zucchini. Made a mango/pineapple glaze that turned out pretty damn good.
Sunday 8PM: started 3 9lb (4kg) briskets smoking @ 175F. Raise temp slowly until the last 2 hours are at 225F at 4PM Monday afternoon. On white bread with choice of sauce or plain. A whole mess of other stuff around to stuff down your gullet as well.

Daytime Monday: Brats and such for lunch for those who came early. Enough beer consumed by 4 that we had to call a late arriver to pick up some more on his way in.

How did he get it to not fall through the grill?

Must have put it on a shish-kebab, perpendicularly

Heehee. It was a giant mutated green bean. Actually guests provided many of the side dishes; I was only referring to what I made.

Although we grill and "Q" year-round Memorial day is the official start of the "Q" season for my buddies and I. We have an extravaganza every year. It just happened to be at my house this year.

Speaking of grilling, does anyone grill over a wood fire? We barbecue 6 nights a week (sometimes 7, actually) and Ian is starting to debate whether charcoal or wood would provide a better flavour.

I grill over hardwood "lump" charcoal most of the time. It gives off very high heat and the flavor is unparalleled. I use briquets mixed with soaked hickory chunks for food that requires somewhat slower grilling, like butterflied whole chickens. For smoking, it's a mix of hickory and fruit hardwood logs like apple or cherry all the way.

I have used oak, and pecan quite a bit. If you are grilling it is fine to let the wood burn down a bit prior to adding your meat. If you are smoking meats for long periods of time, you must first burn the wood down to hot coals in a separate fire box. Then add the hot coals to the smoker. Otherwise your food will be way too smoky and bitter.

Let me know how it turns out!