We are waiting on our Tommy’s Pizza while we ride the merry-go-round.

Katie Beth is having a blast.

The weather is wonderful!

Tonight, we will try out our pirate costumes for our up coming Disney cruise.

Katie Beth and I are hanging out waiting for our Bandito Burrito dinner.

We are having a blast and enjoying the chips with salsa while we wait.

Karen is relaxing while I cook dinner. She is enjoying a chocolate sauce with apples, marshmallows, apricots, ginger snaps, and pretzel sticks for dipping. The Verdi Imperial Stout doesn’t hurt either.

Dinner is coming along nicely, too.

We are smoking a bone-in pork loin for today’s dinner.

We are using the first of my rubs that I received for Christmas, which is a Grill Mates Applewood Rub by McCormick.

The black-eye peas are simmering on the stove.

Happy New Years!

I have just thrown the goat burgers on the Big Green Egg. We have freezing rain and the temperature is presently 30°F.

Life is good for the moment.

For those that haven’t had goat burgers, you haven’t lived.

You know that you are dedicated when you are firing up the smoker at these temperatures.

Yes, you are seeing snow fall and accumulate on the car as I am waiting for the lump charcoal to get to temperature.

I have some apple wood soaking. We are smoking lemon pepper seasoned chickens. Mmmm!

I made my first Hollandaise sauce and Egg Benedict this morning.

The sauce was very easy, but many people think that it is too much work. As you can see, I didn’t use white pepper in the sause. I just didn’t want to change the pepper out in the grinder.

Karen thought it was very good, too.

It is a wonderful day to be firing up the smoker for cooking our turkey for Thanksgiving Day.

Normally, we do something more bold like duck, turducken, or the like. But, we are keeping it simple this year and just smoking a turkey on our Big Green Egg cooker.

It is not often that I am up at 6:00 AM and cooking on a grill.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

My first beer pairing dinner was very enjoyable this weekend. Karen helped out so much.

Here are the trout after being just put on the Big Green Egg cooker to be smoked. They turned out very tasty, but I wish they had been 100% bone free.

The Rotisserie Chicken Salad was very flavorful, but I made too much. Karen and I really loved the vinaigrette that I made for the salad.

The raspberry crisp was awesome. I am looking forward to making more of them especially with all of the apples around the here.

We are seeing all sort of things here today. We have seen butterflies everywhere throughout the garden.

We watered Katie Beth’s tree.

We went into the butterfly house, which didn’t have as many butterflies as the area outside the house.

We are now walking through the garden looking at all the scare crows on trails.

We stayed so long that we got locked in the garden. No one was left in the office, the doors were locked, and the parking lot was empty.