Author: /u/ThornGodOfPricks

I’m really not sure I can remember a time in my Houston sports fandom life when I felt as gloomy about the future of the general outlook of sports in the city as I do now. I was 6 when the Oilers moved out (f**k Bud Adams) so I’m sure that was a similar feeling, especially with the end of the Rockets’ run coinciding with that too, so I’m going to guess that’s the most recent time of just “what the f**k is even happening” this city has gone through on this scale.

In other news, my plans to do a brisket this weekend have vanished as rapidly as our playoff hopes this season. My wife’s grandfather was diagnosed with COVID (and doing surprisingly well for a 94 year old man who had lung cancer earlier this year) and her father, sister and brother in law are all on quarantine. So, considering our early outdoors Thanksgiving idea was with that group, it got scrapped and so did my brisket making dreams.

But, there is good news. My local butcher got pork belly in for the first time in months, and I swung over there and picked up a 4.5 pound slab as quick as I could. Going to treat it kind of like pork butt, get that fat nice and rendered then toss it in foil to break down further. Things are looking up, at least on my smoker.

Morning y’all!

So I settled on smoking some turkey breast earlier this week when I was at the grocery store and it was on sale. That guy my wife’s mind working, and now we are having a full early Thanksgiving spread. She’s baking some rolls from a recipe she’s been wanting to try, and we are going to have corn and mashed potatoes and greens, the whole works. I’m pretty excited for our early Thanksgiving meal (and one of the only real Thanksgivings I’ll have because or the virus).

I was, and still plan to, going to smoke brisket next weekend for what was going to be a Thanksgiving celebration with my wife’s dad’s side of the family, but now half of that party is in quarantine and we aren’t going. I might still smoke said brisket…. we will see…

Also I think this one is ours today. The Browns aren’t scary by any means, and a second straight win today would just feel so nice.

Edit 1: well I’m late getting the turkey on because it is fucking WINDY out here today. I spent 6 years in Lubbock so I know all about the wind, but god lighting and keeping a fire right now is a bitch. I finally have a good burn starting, so hopefully I’ll have the turkey on in about 30 minutes.

So obviously, don’t actually throw meat onto a garbage fire… I recommend a good oak or hickory wood instead.

Yeah, once again seems like a depressing day in the Houston sports universe, but that’s kind of what these threads are for anyway! So, with that in mind, I still haven’t settled on what I’m smoking on Sunday. I’m torn between doing turkey breast or spatchcocking some chickens and doing those. In two weeks I’m doing my second brisket and very much excited for that, but this Sunday snuck up on me and I still can’t decide what way to go.

Good morning y’all!

First, my apologies for not making the What to smoke Wednesday thread. I was distracted by… you know, all the politics s**t.

Today I’m doing kind of a throwback/money saving smoke. I still had a package of turkey legs from when I smoked those a couple of weeks back and I’ve got a giant bag of wings I’m still going through that was in my freezer, so I’m order to save a little cash I’m I’m gonna have a turkey leg and wing bonanza!

It’s also probably the last nice day of the year here in central Illinois. I’ve lived in the midwest for about 6 years now and usually first week of November is in the 50s/40s, but the last week has been in the 70s and I’m just soaking up the sunshine while I can before we get a cold front early this week.

Good morning y’all, who is ready to not lose today?!?

Since its the bye week I’m mixing it up a little today and doing some smoked trout filets. Had them in a brine for about 4 hours last night and now they’ve been sitting out getting a nice film for about 14 hours in the fridge. I’ll be using some apple and pecan for the smoke, itll be a little weird trying to maintain the temp at like 180-200 but I’ve done it before so I’ll manage.

Any plans for the off day cooking-wise? What games are you excited about today? How was your Halloween?

Well this has been a lovely couple of days, huh? Totally getting dismantled by the Packers, Cardinals and D-Hop (and Kingsbury for my fellow Red Raiders) just going off and playing great, Dodgers winning the series thus everyone s**t-talking the Astros and now we have COVID on our bye week. Just… it’s a lot.

So, I’m just gonna plow ahead with my meat smoking journey! Mixing it up this weekend and doing some smoked trout, only the second time I’ve done smoked fish and the first time I’m going to do a full filet. Last time I just did salmon fillet pieces, and they turned out great, but I want to do the whole filet like I want to smoke a whole brisket. Obviously smoking fish is a little different, I’m not exactly excited about maintaining such a low temp but we will see how it turns out.

And I reverted back to calling this “What to smoke Wednesday” because I think we could all use a toke right now too. I currently am smoking through a quarter of “Afternoon Delight”, an indica-heavy hybrid with a super high potency (this one is about 31 percent THC).

Morning y’all!

The fire is starting up, coffee is brewing, just about to trim the ribs and get them slathered and rubbed. Its gonna be a good day, I can feel it in my bones. And I’m so happy to be back at the smoker!

Edit 1: Just tossed these bad boys on about 10 minutes ago. Really simple rub, salt and pepper base with garlic powder, onion powder and ancho chili powder.

https://imgur.com/gh0PZlL

Edit 2: About an hour into the smoke now. Temperature has been playing a bit more ping pong than I like it to, not sure if its because its 42 degrees this morning in Illinois or because I was away for 2 weeks and my smoker missed me, so she wants more attention.

Either way, think I’ve got it rolling consistently between 270-285 like I like it, so should hopefully be smooth sailing from here.

Hey everyone! Yesterday was crazy at work and I just totally forgot to make the cooking/smoking thread. I’m so GOD DAMN excited that I get to smoke something for gameday again this weekend after two weeks without being at home.

Going to smoke a couple racks of pork spare ribs Sunday, first time I’ve done ribs since the inaugural smoke on this new smoker way back in late July (which was like 12 years ago, right?) I understand so much more about both my smoker and my personal smoking technique than I did then, so I’m really excited to get the fire going early on Sunday.

Also, I feel like the Texans are on the cusp of a nice run. Watson legit looks free now with BoB gone, the offense has been great the last two weeks. We really just need the defense to be average, and not bad like it has been kind of all season. Oh well, this year is a wash to me anyway so I’m just happy to see the team playing with some passion.

What are you planning to cook for the game Sunday? What are your thoughts on the team right now/any other things going on in the Houston sports world? I’m here for all kinds of discussions today!

What I personally find so frustrating about the NFL overtime rules is just how easy it is to fix them.

Keep it the same format (10 minutes, game tied at the end then it’s a tie) but both teams get one guaranteed possession. If the score is tied after that, next score wins, essentially like what a field goal is now in OT.

That’s it. Solved. You still have high potential for a “walk-off” play, and now the coin flip at the start of OT doesn’t hold so damn much weight.

Also, sorry for no cooking/smoking thread today. I’ve been on the road since 8:45 mountain time heading back home.

On day 3 of my vacation here in Colorado. Had a great time so far, especially since this is my first real vacation I’ve been able to take this year (three others called off by the pandemic). Went on a hike around Garden of the Gods yesterday in Colorado Springs, doing another today, just having a great, socially-distanced time outdoors.

While having dinner with the family friends we are staying with for the first couple nights, I found myself bringing up meat smoking a lot, to the point my wife goes, “You’re really itching to smoke something, huh?” And, she’s so very right. It’s only been a week and a half since I last had some meat on the smoker, but God it feels like forever!

With that in mind, satiate me by talking about your gameday food plans for Sunday! I’ll be on the road heading back to Illinois on Sunday so nothing for me, but I’m definitely doing some ribs in two weeks.

Also… how are you as a team going to play the victim when your actions caused the entire league schedule to be thrown into flux? At least the entire NFL now joins us in the “f**k the Titans” sentiment.