My Niece, Jacquelyn Kaye

My niece, Jacquelyn Kaye was born today:


Vital Stats:

• Time of Arrival: 3:20PM 12/14/2007
• Weight: 6lbs 9oz
• Length: 20in

And yes, that's her real hair -- no wig, no extensions. Jacquelyn and Jessica are doing very well (so is Matt). Labor and delivery went very well and very quickly -- something like 2.5 hours. Maybe Jacquelyn will be a sprinter.

Smokin Recipes!

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to the house last weekend. Since there's been a lot of interest in the BBQ Beans and Kailua Pork, I thought I'd post the recipes:

The BBQU.net site has a ton of great recipes, including the one I use for BBQ Beans. If you want to "watch and learn," the chef has a show on the KAET "Create!" channel that shows just how easy smoking and grilling is. I follow the BBQ beans recipe closely except that I use 1/4lb of bacon where the recipe calls for a pound. If you cook the beans in the oven, I recommend some liquid smoke. I can also vouch for the Macaroni and Cheese and Tennessee Pork Loin recipes. I think you can get away with making and using only about 1/4 of the rub the pork loin recipe calls for. However, the rub is nice to keep around -- I actually used some tonight.

For the pork, I consulted Google's first three results for "kailua pork" and came up with this:

• Boneless Country Style Short Ribs aka Boston Butt
  
• Sea Salt and Black Pepper, to taste
  
• Chicken Stock / Broth
• Liquid Smoke (optional if smoking -- I used a little)

1. Combine above in a foil lasagna pan. The broth is there to keep the pork moist and to add a bit of salt. The broth doesn't need to completely cover the pork, but it should cover at least 3/4 of it.
2. Smoke / roast for ~5 hours. Add a beer (mmm...Fat Tire) around 3 hours or so and half of another one at 4 hours. The tenderness makes huge progress starting at about 4 hours -- I was kinda concerned 3 and a half hours into it because it wasn't as tender as I thought it should be, but everything turned out great.
4. I used mesquite chips for the smoke. Interestingly, there are a lot of mesquite trees in Hawaii which is why I used the mesquite instead of hickory, though I can't imagine mesquite trees are native to Hawaii.

I do all my grilling and smoking in a New Braunfels smoker I've had for 6 years.