Good morning Fam!

Recently Jeremy and I were talking about the outdoor kitchen and in doing so I realized I have never worked the smoker from start to finish. I have helped Jeremy with adding coals and turning the food/checking on it but that was the extent of my working with the smoker. Well with the Holidays coming up, we always smoke the meat we work with because it free’s up the oven so I can make all of the sides. I wanted to learn how to smoke from start to finish so I can also use this to cook us some dinners as well.

So off we went and Jeremy taught me how to work the smoker. Now this is the fun part. Back in October, we went to PA and visited some friends. Emily and Andy were such sweethearts that they raised some pigs for us to be able to put into the freezer. Genuinely this was such a big act of love and I can’t thank them enough. We have been using the roasts lately in making some delicious food. To start we made nachos. I was craving something different with meat on our beloved nacho night and this was the perfect replacement.

Then we recently harvested some collards from our garden and needed to use them up asap! So I used the meal idea our neighbor taught me and smoked some ham hock so we could slow cook the ham hock and collard greens. These kids ate that up so fast. There was a small amount of left overs and both were asking for those leftovers the next day. Im realizing that was a must keep meal for them. But I loved the added flavour smoking brought to the dish.

Now here is the issue…. I am addicted now! To the point I may try to fight Jeremy to smoke the Turkey this year for Thanksgiving. But I am trying to be nice and not fight him on that. He likes to take care of that for me so I need to not and just let him handle it. I have all the sides and desserts that I can work on. Maybe I need to stay in my lane.

So I have decided the best idea is to make a list of things I want to smoke and I will just chip away at that list and also come up with some amazing ideas for meals. The first thing I want to do is take some big roasts from the pig and just smoke them. Then I will use them to stock the freezer for us and have a few meals for the fridge. I really want some ham and potato soup soon! So may do a mix of freezer and fridge with that one. Then here is what gets me every time I am on social media. Have y’all seen those reels where they are smoking dips???? Yea, I want to do that. I want to spend my morning on the weekend smoking up some dips so the entire family can slowly eat away at this deliciousness. Then we put it in the crockpot to keep it warm. Thats it! A simple list so far but at the same time,I know myself. I will end up making this master list because I am addicted to this new thing. I am actually currently fighting the desire to do just that while writing this blog. I’ll end up doing so when I get off of here.

Watch out fam, She’s smoking!!!