Edward Terry

COUSIN DAVE’S CHOCOLATE CHILI RIBS

This was an easy but super tasty recipe for baby back pork ribs. The “rub” was actually a type of paste that had ingredients such as chipotle peppers, ancho chile powder, cilantro, and an once of semisweet chocolate. That’s right ladies, I said it. Chocolate on your baby back pork ribs. All this was thrown into my little chopper along with onion garlic, lime zest, course salt and brown sugar to make a rub/marinade that I wanted to eat with tortilla chips as soon as I made it. It was like some freaky salsa someone might have entered in the Austin Salsa Festival.

Ribs marinated overnight and then went on to a 350 degree grill. They sat on the indirect side for just over an hour, bone side down. Then, I rotated them around for about 15 minutes. The last 5 minutes I flipped them meat side down to sear the sugar, and make a nice candy coating on the outside of the meat.

This recipe was fun and kind of a novelty with the chocolate in there. I don’t think I would change much about how I did them. The meat had the right consistency and the flavors in the paste really came on when grilled . I did go for high quality rib cuts and I believe it made the difference. I can’t wait to do this one again.

The ROT Rally came around quick this year but we were prepared for it..almost. The whole truck/RV thing was iffy there for a while. The truck had been having transmission problems, breaking down south of San Antonio a few weeks before. The RV was residing at my step brother’s house after it had been “jettisoned” at a convenience store in Elemendorf, Texas when the trans blew.  I was able to pull it all together though, picking up the RV and making it back to Austin late at night before check-in day.

Check in and set up went fairly smoothly except for being boxed in by a huge bus, forcing me to back the RV up through swarms of bikes and people to get to a clear path to our spot.

Wednesday and Thursday were smooth as silk except for the massive storm that rolled through Central Texas Thursday night. We wound up covering up the bikes and evacuating to the Expo center itself for fear of tornadoes and hail and so on.  I’m not going to compare our situation to any Katrina events but it was a taste of what it could have been like. Plus the real bummer was that the Robert Earl Keen concert got canceled. Next time then.

Friday, I actually rode the motorcycle out to a place called “Cindy’s Gone Hog Wild” out in Bastrop, TX with Abraham. It was biker joint out there but it was surprisingly clean and the folks were friendly. We were served by Cindy herself at the bar for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that my bike wasn’t kicked over in the parking lot (i kid i kid!) when we headed out.

That night Linda and I met my family downtown for the dinner and biker parade. We were able to get a good table at Hickory Street Bar where we could see the festivities and the parade coming down Congress. After the parade we walked down to Casino El Camino for a damn good burger. I was aware the Robbie Knievel jumped some Budweiser trucks in front of the capitol building earlier that evening but I was eating ma burger! Here it is.

Saturday consisted of trying to stay cool while out at the Expo center and hanging out with Abraham’s riding group. We saw some vendors but no bikes as they had the inside areas closed off for cage fighting. We cooked up some fajitas and drank some new Mesquite Smoke beers from Shiner. I stayed in the RV that night, and offered the RV’s couch to a VMAX rider from Houston that had no place to go. We sat out for a good while that night drinking suds and trying loop bead strings onto various parts of trailers, 4wheelers, and people.

Sunday is pack up day, and we loaded up and headed out. All in all a great time again and can’t wait til next year.

Smoked Brisket Number one

For Memorial Day I wanted to do something that would make our service men and women proud, so I decided to smoke my first brisket on my new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker that Linda gave me for my birthday.

The rub was a simple course salt and cracked pepper rub. I wanted to try and replicate the Kreuz Market rub in Lockhart because it seemed simple enough and was always good. I did not use a mop sauce or anything like that while smoking the meat. The water pan had simple hot water in it, but I can use beer wine, cola, juice etc. to do some fancy flavors later on.

I smoked it unwrapped for 6 hours with the fat side down, making coals twice, and using water soaked hickory wood chips.

Overall I think it came out great for my first true smoked brisket. I had good beef flavor, some smoke flavor but not too much, and a nice smoke ring through out the cut. Lessons for next time include taking its temperature a little earlier for a more rare flavor, and cooking fat side up for a more juicy cut. The meat wasn’t dry but it wasn’t greasy as hell either. A mop sauce may be fun to try as well.

Edward hanging with Tom Merrit, Natali Del Conte, of - CNET

I am a regular listener of CNET.com’s “podcast of indeterminate length” - Buzz Out Loud   and was excited to get to sit in on a taping of it at sxsw-interactive this year. When I finally found the room in which the podcast was supposed to be taped I walked into the room with only the “cast” of the podcast hanging out. I was a little confused thinking I had missed it or something else weird had happened, and indeed the taping got pushed back an hour or so. So I got to hang out with some my “internet heros” for a good while and talk one-on-one with them which was very cool. I’ve linked the episode that they wound up recording, which I attended, and their personal blogs and other podcasts if you are interested in anything tech.

Buzz Out Loud 930: Live from SXSW–day two

Tom Merrit, Natali Del Conte, Jason Howell - CNET

• Tom Merrit
• Natali Del Conte
• Jason Howell

L & E Pumpkin Pie

Linda and I don’t go out on “Amateur Night” as my sister calls it. We go out the night before. I got flowers at work, she got flowers delivered to her home. We went to a swank little joint called  “Wink” on Lamar. She baked me this pie. We win.

Merry Christmas Mother F***er!

Christmas 2008 yall. I know it’s late but its totally worth it.

Me and my brother did the trip across Texas thing in which we visit the folks out in Bourne and then trek our butts down to the valley. Everything was cool at Dads house and we were able see our new little half-nice.
As the travel situation unfolded we decided that we had to take two cars down to the Valley as Phil was staying a little later then I was because he wanted to hang until the new year which was cool. I tossed my walkie talkies in the car and we rolled it like a convoy down to the valley ,passing trucker talk that i hadn’t used since high school off like i was some sort of long hauler. “Hey baby bro we got a black and white taking polarid pictures of working folks in the hammer lane, better back it down 10 and let him get a good shot of these chrome rims spinning legal, cmon….” lol

We made it down to the valley without a hitch and the fun began. My folks had set up the 5th wheel travel trailer for all us kids to stay in during the weekend which was great. We didn’t blow any fuses and we didn’t need any cans of fake snow in case you were wondering. Christmas at our house consists of three things. Food, fireworks, and guns. All of which were used enmasse with pride. I think Jesus would have done the same thing at a birthday party if he was from around here.

Phil and I did another Beef tenderloin on the grill with a custom baste. We got crazy again and put it on early and got the sugar burn, but that’s not to say that there were any leftovers or anything. Everyone always likes the food that we throw down for the holidays and this was no exception. My mom aunts and sister and cousins cooked up everything else and we ate till we got teary eyed. (we like to drink wine and tell stories too ) Uncle Ron had an early flight to D.C. that morning and we toasted him. Aunt Anita busted out an awesome prayer form her convent days which I thought was awesome and it was all good.

My family loves fireworks and lots of them. Cousin Mike had some”special” fireworks from another country that were so loud I thought Poncho Villa was back. We shot fireworks and drank beers until we ran out. Friends came over from across the resaca and we had a good time.

A cooking pot after feeling the wrath of fireworks.

We rounded out the holiday with a trip to Mexico for the afternoon and even got some contraband Rum confiscated at he border! Even though it was made in Mexico it had the words “Cuba” on it so it went bye-bye.

Hope your holiday was as loud, deliciuos, and as fun as mine was.