DanD

Thanks guys; I enjoy doing this kind of cooking; wife doesn't have any import and I do as I please. I think I may be in trouble though after this batch; she likes the beacon? LOL It was maple chips that I used; not to strong in flavor and a lot of smoke to satisfy the nose. . Dan.

Beacon after 7 days cure. After cure, rinsed off and a soak for 2 hours in fresh cold water. In the smoker. Fresh out of the smoker after 10 hours, with an internal temp of the belly at 140 degrees. After slicing one of the slabs. After frying up a few pieces and not to brag but it tasted great. Even though the house smelled of smoke meat that the wife doesn't like; she thought it had a great taste and that's a first for her to admit not all smoked meats are bad. LOL Dan.

I know of two people who started riding those electrics bikes; because they lost their license due to impaired charges. I wonder how many more are out there, half pissed riding these bikes; it's had to tell because none of them seem to follow any form of road rules? Dan.

Same thing here this morning; halfway through making a left turn; this woman on a bike, riding on the sidewalk came out of nowhere. She was all in dark colours, no light or reflectors on the bike. I had more then enough time to avoid hitting her; but I get the finger from her??? OK lets count the number of things you did wrong lady! Dan.

The metal scrappers must be starting their Xmas fund. Lead is going for .55 cents a pound. Batteries whole are .32 cents. They'll break the batteries down and just take in the lead plates. http://www.premierrecycling.ca/contact/premier-recycling-mississauga-ltd/pricing/ Dan.

Just be careful with the pink salt for that small amount of pork. I wouldn't put anymore then a 1/4 tea spoon in. Some people don't like using cure 1 salt because it's has 6.25% sodium nitrite in, with the remainder being table salt. Sodium nitrite is toxic and will make you sick (or worse) if to much is ingested; but for curing meats (used properly); it kills and stops bacteria from forming and it is also what keeps the pink colour of the meat. Your chose let the bacteria kill you or the sodium nitrite; for me its an extra precaution using it (properly) not to get us sick from eating home preserved meats. I still have some smoked beacon in the freezer; but I needed an excuse to use this bad boy, I just bought off of Kijiji. Its an older Hobart commercial slicer; it took two of us to carry the thing. LOL Dan

Speaking of beacon. 10Lbs of pork belly, fresh form the abattoir. Cut into smaller slabs giving more surface area for the cure to absorb. The Cure. 1 cup of kosher salt 2 cups brown sugar 4 table spoons of course ground black pepper 4 table spoon of dried crushed red pepper 4 table spoons of dried onion flakes 4 table spoons crushed garlic 2 tea spoons of thyme 2 tea spoons of crushed bay leaves 2 tea spoons of pink salt (Cure 1) Mix cure and rub into pork blelly. Cover in air tight container and place in fridge. Once a day remove from fridge and flip pork over, recover with the now moist cure in bottom of container. Place back in fridge. After 36 hrs the moister has really started coming out of the meat. After 7 days the pork belly will be cured and ready to be rinsed off and then soaked in cold water for a couple of hours to draw out some of the salt. After that it's ready to be sliced and pan fried or it can go into the smoker to give it that great smoked flavor that my wife doesn't like. LOL This batch is going to be 50/50 of just cured and cured and smoked. I'll post again when to curing is done. Dan.

Have a look at this for a good poached egg; I've done it this way for years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpsK6lKtnqI Dan

For ease of peeling do not use fresh (one week or less) eggs. Fresh eggs are almost impossible to peel without destroying them. When buying eggs for boiling, look for some that are around a week or so before the best before date. No difference in taste for a boiled egg; fresh eggs are what we all want and the best for frying or mixing into recipes. The rule of thumb for eggs being "OK" is 5 weeks in a fridge; that's if it didn't already have salmonella from the chicken that laid it. Cooking/boiling usually kills it so there not much worry; in the small amount that my be there. Salmonella in the egg's shell cannot grow in the fridge; but eggs do dry out if kept to long. An easy test if the egg is still good; is to fill a large bowl with water, drop the raw egg in. If it sinks it's good; if you get a floater throw it out. Dan.

It was staged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc5HUS8dLN0 Dan.

Chili freezes well. It's so easy to cook to much in one of those electric cookers. I'm surprised (by the looks of the pic) that you stopped putting stuff in the mix, at half a pan full. LOL Dan.

About 10 or 12 years ago while driving out of our trailer park; my son and I saw a bobcat in the woods on the side of the driveway. We stopped the truck and sat there for at least 10 minutes; the whole time the cat didn't move, it was like staring at a statue. Then it crouched the slightest bit and then jumped out of the small clearing and was gone. The park is just outside of Normandale (down by Turkey Point), which is about 15klm South of Delhi. So yea these cats are around and after my ten minute encounter, I can understand why and how they are not spotted very often; It just disappeared not making a sound. Dan.

We've had one of those electric roasters for a number of years; works great when you're cooking for large groups. We take it every year on our fishing trips up to the Montreal river. My sister makes killer cabbage rolls and she fills the roaster oven with them for us. We'd turn it on, on its lowest setting in the morning; add a couple cups of tomato juice for added moister and let them slowly heat up. By supper time they're steaming hot waiting for us to dive in. Mind you all that cabbage and 6 -8 guys isn't the best of ideas; but we suffer through it Dan.

Do like 90% of my customers do try and get them on RIGHT AFTER the first weather watch is announced; just like today!!!!!!!!!!! My phone here hasn't stopped ringing; Dan I need my snows on, can I come in now. Sorry you'll need to take a number, we're working on #30 now and the last person to book is #80; I'll call you. So if the shop that you deal with has time, get them on anytime after Thanksgiving and avoid the rush. The amount of tire you're going to wear off would be un-measurable. It's a crap shoot; put them on to early and you wear a little bit of tire; to later you're kicking yourself; so throw the dice? Dan. P.S. Give the shop you deal with some slack when it comes to putting the snows on; we're working our ass off trying to accommodate.

On a calm sunny day, with temperatures around -10° to -15° most any portable will be fine. It's when there's a strong wind and cold temps, is where the lower quality of some of these huts will let you down. Last year setting up my 6 man Rapala Pro on a windy day, I was quit surprised and happy it stayed intact. There were 3 of us there; one being my niece that weighs maybe 100lbs. I told her whatever you do don't let go of the hut; not until I get it staked down. I set the first 2 pegs and all of a sudden a big gust of wind grabs the hut and the base is like 5 feet in the air; with some of the walls collapsed in. I think you little bugger (my niece) you let go. I look up and she hadn't; but her feet were at least 3 feet off the ground, dangling in the wind. We laughed so hard that we all let go and the hut tumbled to the end of the 2 tether straps in a tangled mess of poles, canvas and tether straps. We finally did get set up and there wasn't any broken poles or rips; so I was happy and still laughing at my flying niece. Not the same day but one taken a week or so later. Dan.

Let the wives chuckle all they want. I've been able to come up with some great meals due to this thread; keep the pics and recipes coming!!!!!! Dan.

We've been graced with Prime Minister Harper this morning here in London. He's actually right across the street from my shop, visiting a small business called Heritage Coffee???? Why Dan.

There were around a 100 - 120 guests at the reception. What a great mix of people they were; many of which had never been to a BBQ like this and were fascinated with it. The best question i got was; how big was the cow to get such a long piece of boneless meat. She was a quite young thing, so I didn't laugh at her; no dear there are 5 different roasts on there. LOL Dan.

The Thanksgiving wedding reception went really well. We started the burn barrel around 7:30am and got the spit up to around 200° and put the 120lbs of sirloin tip roasts on by 9am. The people that I was cooking this for were not into spices; so that took out the guessing as to whether they would like the cayenne based rub I made up? It didn't go on. They didn't mind the idea of a beef broth mop that I would spray on the meat every so often. The picture below was taken around 2:30 when the internal temp of the roasts were just starting to hit the 140° mark. That's when we pulled the meat off the spit, wrapped it with tin foil and a blanket. I let it strand for about an hour be fore carving. Didn't get any pictures of that but the meat was done perfectly with just a hint of blood in the very center of the roasts. Me and my nephew just before we started carving; that's also when the battery died in my phone. Dan.

Would you be allowed to put up one of those portable canopies/carport? Crappy tire has one for $230.00. http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/shelterlogic-10x20-ft-canopy-1-3-8-in-8-leg-frame-white-c-0372150p.html#.VhfQSvlVhBc Princess Auto has a 10X10X8 portable shelter for $112.00 http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/10-x-10-x-8-ft-portable-shelter/A-p8193658e Dan.

That's why I suggested those low temp welding rods. This is a question not a contradiction; would the 700° working temp of these rods change the composition of the aluminum that melts at a little better then 1200°? It's not like a tig where your melting the parent metal and adding filler? Like I said this stuff works like solder. The first demo I saw on these rods; a guy punched a hole through the bottom of a pop can. Warmed the can until the rod would melt when it touched the can without the flame. In less then 10 seconds the hole was filled and there was no discoloration of the can's bottom. Dan.

Buck as many of the loose rivets as you can find. If there are cracks; drill stop them (drill small hole at end of crack) and then weld the hole and crack with aluminum brazing rod. Princess auto sells the rods under the name "PowerWeld". http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/powerweld-1-8-x-18-in-self-fluxing-aluminum-brazing-rods/A-p8471088e You use a plumber's torch as your heat source and you apply it like solder. The only hard part is making sure the aluminum is 100% clean of dirt and oxidation; after that the stuff sticks like baby crap to a blanket. Dan.

Sorry about Ralphie condition; but he's a young dog and he'll learn how to deal with his new life. I found this article and it seems to have a number of good tips, on how to re-train a dog and help them learn new ways. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2085&aid=3620 No cottage memories; my Dad was a tobacco farmer and from April to October, we were in the fields. It wasn't all work though, every chance Dad had or I should say the crop allowed; he'd take us 5 kids and Mom on day trips. I can't count the number of times we went to Niagara Falls for the day. That was when (mid 60's) the parks commission still had all those charcoal BBQs set up in the parks and free for all to use. We'd take all our favorite foods for the BBQ; stop along the way up the QWE at the different fruit stands and pick up the best tasting fresh fruit I ever had. Mom, Dad and my eldest brother John are gone now; but when my 2 sisters and brother get together we have a good laugh and a cry remembering those summer trips. Dan.

X2!!! We go one step further (especially on aluminum wheels); we clean the mating surfaces of the wheel and the hub with a wire wheel on a hand grinder. You have to get that corrosion off, or it'll powder and the wheel will become loose. Started doing this a number of years ago, when a customer came back after driving at least 200 miles; thinking he had a bad wheel bearing. No the wheel was loose and I had no excuse because I watched my tech zip the wheels up with his gun and then went over them with a torque wrench. It's a sickening feeling, the thought that I/we could have hurt or killed him. Every vehicle no matter how busy we are gets this treatment; knock on wood; I haven't known of another coming loose on us. Dan.

Have you guys ever used a high torque cordless impact gun? After 10 or 15 seconds, they'll snap a 1/2 inch bolt; as if was made out of soft lead. It doesn't really matter though, if they want your stuff bad enough; it's theirs. All we can do is make the thieves work harder to get it. Dan