Remember the whole slowing down thing?
It's August 1st, summer's going so fast I can't believe it.
My mother in law is visiting, so I'm entertaining - yet in a relaxing manner.
I hadn't bought one before, but the July issue of SAVEUR magazine has a giant picture of a grilled ribeye and the caption, "The Texas Issue".
It's maybe the greatest issue of any food mag I've ever seen.
Everything I love is in here.
Including a step by step page on how to cook a slow-smoked Texas brisket.
I'll put that at the bottom, but first we should talk about the Cubs.
What up with leaving Wrigley and forgetting the bats?
I'd just worked myself all the way up to the tiniest molecule of offense-confidence after the Houston series.
And that was a long time building, friends.
Ah well, maybe tonight the Cubs prove it ain't a continuing trend.
Rich Harden seems to be getting his mojo going, which is gigantic.
Jake Fox in the line-up seems like... Lou's just gotta figure out how to make that happen more.
And Carlos Marmol, he's just a guy I can't get frustrated with.
He's a genius.
And geniuses are eccentric, odd, and in this case erratic.
So he blows one once in awhile, I'm not gonna freak out.
The new Pirate looked pretty good.
The Fish had 7 hits and so did the Cubs, but it ends up 2-5 Fish.
I have no comment on the side splitting and hilarious goat thing the original thinkers in Marlin marketing came up with.
Okay, back to brisket, and this is paraphrased directly out of SAVEUR, which I admit to not even knowing how to pronounce.
Maybe you'll do this tonight, cause you gotta go buy a 5 pound flat cut beef brisket with a layer of fat left on one side, and you gotta dry rub that overnight first.
The next morning about 11, you start a fire on one side of your grill and soak 3 big chunks of mesquite (you can buy that in the grocery) in water.
Let the coals burn to the white ash covering, put a foil "boat" of water on the other side of the grill (your brisket will indirectly cook over the water), put the soaked mesquite in with the coals and close the lid.
After about a half hour, check with an oven thermometer and make sure the temp's 225 - 250.
Put the meat down fat side up, and cover.
You're now gonna let it slow cook for about 4-5 hours, and you'll put in some new coals every hour or so to maintain the 225 - 250 temp.
When the meat reaches 160 degrees, pull it off and lay it on a big sheet of heavy duty foil.
Pour most of a beer on top, and wrap it all up.
Put it back on and grill about 2 hours more, when the meat's reached 190 degrees.
Then you slice it against the grain in 1/8" slices.
I haven't thought about how we're gonna eat it after I do that.
Probably with a little bbq sauce on the side and some white bread on a flimsy paper plate.
Maybe some slaw?
Don't really know, but I have all day to figure it out.
Go Cubs.
This is what I was doing in my back yard earlier today:
