After dinner report: yummy St. Louis ribs & pork tenderloin

Hi, kids!

Well I must say that the ribs and pork tenderloin turned out awesome! After my dad and I got the grill all heated up and smokey (we aimed to keep the temperature at around 225 degrees Fahrenheit) I got ready to put the pork ribs on. I made up another Memphis-style rub to put on the St. Louis cut ribs.

We had all afternoon to play in the backyard, run around with friends from the neighborhood, and watch the barbecue work its magic. Dad kept an eye on the meat and listened to his favorite music like last time (some more Johnny Cash, Mumford and Sons, and The Digital Age). We counted on six hours that the ribs needed to be smoked. About halfway through the six hours I pulled the pork tenderloins out of the 'fridge. Here's a photo of them in the bowl of salty-water brine that I put them in the day before.

I put the same Memphis-style rub on the two pork tenderloins, and got the ready for the grill, putting them next to the pork ribs already cooking nicely!

We kept adding some mesquite wood chips to the charcoal, to give the pork a nice smokey and sweet flavor. After about six hours we were ready to eat! I pulled off the meat and doesn't it look great?

My mom made up some mashed potatoes (one of my favorites) and brownies for a special-treat dessert (another favorite, especially if they come with vanilla ice cream!). To top the day off we got to eat our supper in the family room watching a movie: Escape from Planet Earth. That was funny -- it was about creatures from outer space who got stuck on Earth and had to escape to get back home and to their families.

It's Sunday now and that means church, flag football, and friends. This morning my brother Andrew got a new Bible. He's a third-grader for Sunday School, and that's the year our church gives the kids Bibles. Very cool. Then we came home and mom made lunch. Guess what she made? An omelette, and it was actually pretty good. Better than the one my dad tried to make last weekend when Mom was away at her church Pilgrimage retreat.

I was supposed to play flag football this afternoon. But we got a rain-out! Can you believe it? It actually rained pretty hard last night. I heard at church we got about 2 and a half inches of rain during the night. All here in Texas! So the football field is like a mud bowl, so the leaders decided it would be better for us to not slip and slide and maybe get hurt.

We're chilaxing here at home now. I have the afternoon to play with friends, my brother, and hang out. My dad is thinking of making a special fish soup for supper, and Mom's doing laundry. Pretty good day!

See you soon, my friends!

--James

All Pro Dad's kick-off

Hi, kids!

This morning we launched our first All Pro Dad's event for the year. What a great time it was! If you can join us later, we'll have another event in late October and one in early December. Y'all are welcome!

It was an early morning -- I got up with my dad and brother at 6:30 am to leave for church and help make the pancakes and bacon. I was co-in charge of the bacon while my dad was in charge of the pancakes. They all turned out great -- crispy bacon (my favorite) and fluffy flapjacks!

Then our friends turned up about 8 am. We had a great speaker, Brett Rodgers who leads up the University of Texas Young Life Program. He gave us some strong words of encouragement like being thankful for what we receive all the time.

Next we went outside to play some games. Here's a picture of our inaugural group:

Pastor Ted showed us how to make a home-made slingshot to be used to launch water balloons. We went out to the field to launch water balloons at some of the dad's. I was the first kid to hit a parent (sorry Mr. McLatcher!) -- woo-hoo!

Then we played an all-time favorite: kick-ball. I love that game.

Now we're at home, relaxing, playing, watching my favorite TV show: Duck Dynasty. Today's show had an alligator who found its way into their shed. That's like the time a rattle snake showed up on our drive-way. It was sunning itself and we didn't know how we were going to get rid of it. I sure didn't want to ride over it with my bike! Mom called the police and get them to use their snake trap to move it somewhere else, but before the police arrived the snake started to slither. Yikes! So my dad pounced on it with a garden rake and whacked it a couple of times behind its head to kill it. Here you can see how long it was. That's my brother Andrew giving it a close look!

We're fixing some great bbq for supper tonight. We're going to have pork ribs again, and some pork tenderloin. I helped my dad start on the pork tenderloin last night. We put them in a bowl of brine (salty water with some herbs and spices) to let the meat get all tender and marinated. Then today so far we made up the rub to put on the meat. Pretty soon we'll light the charcoal, get some hickory wood going on the grill, and get the smoke breezing!

Ok my friends, I'll check in again later and let you know how the bbq turned out! Come and Take it!

Your friend,

--James

Longhorn Caverns & Inks Lake

Hi, kids!

How was your weekend? Mine was a blast. Would you believe we finally got rain in Texas? We got a deluge all Friday long. And what it did was clean up the air and cool things down. It's like a bit of fall weather now -- I'm so glad!

Mom had a great time at her church Pilgrimage retreat at a place called Camp Buckner, in the Texas Hill country near Marble Falls. We went there Saturday afternoon to surprise her, joining some other families and friends to tell all the parents how great they are!

Along the way we decided to explore a bit of the Hill country. So my dad, my brother Andrew and I piled in the car and off we went. First we stopped at Longhorn Cavern State Park. Here you can see me and Andrew on top of the sign at the entrance to the park. 

You can see how blue the sky was! We had a great picnic -- some leftover pizza that my dad grilled on our bbq for Friday night's supper. Dad picked up some of the best chips ever: Zapp's Voodoo chips all the way from Louisiana. Kids, if you haven't tried those yet, go get them!

While we were having our picnic, my brother Andrew went off exploring. Guess what he found? An observation tower built in 1935! It was built under a government program called the Civilian Conservation Corps, and they built all sorts of neat places like parks that we can explore.

We climbed up to the top of the observation tower and we could see forever! The sky was so blue and the trees so green! All the rain the day before made it magical.

Behind me and Andrew on the horizon is Inks Lake. Behind my right shoulder in the clearing of trees is Camp Buckner where Mom spent the weekend. On the horizon behind Andrew's left shoulder is a castle -- would you believe we have a castle in Texas?

We climbed down the tower and then hiked around the woods. I found a neat bench made of Cedar trees.

Then we discovered a pretty thicket of oak woods -- Hook 'em Horns (a shout-out to all our University of Texas fans)!

Finally we scampered down to the cave, which the park is named after. It was really cool to climb down several sets of stairs that led us under the ground.

We climbed back up from the cave and decided to drive next to Inks Lake State Park. We love exploring Texas state parks, and we had never been to Inks Lake. It was awesome! They have some great camping sites right next to the lake! We'll definitely have to camp there soon! We hiked around a little bit, and here I am on top of a granite rock cropping overlooking the lake.

What a great Saturday it was! We met Mom at Camp Buckner and sang her and the other grown-ups some songs. We got to explore the cool pond and creek they had, and we even did a little fishing for bass they had.

We drove home at sunset, and it was really beautiful, all green and with views to the horizon. We were talking about how you could describe the Texas Hill Country as God's Country!

Ok my friends I hope you have a great week at school! It's going to be another really fun week & weekend for me. In addition to school (you know I have to say how fun school is), I have scouts, a neighborhood party to look forward to on Friday, our first All Pro Dad's breakfast get-together on Saturday (my dad will be cooking pancakes and bacon!), church and flag football. I'm not sure what we're going to bbq yet, but I know it'll be great!

See you again soon!

Your friend,

--James



 

Come and Take It weekend bbq plans

Hi, kids!

You can now follow me on twitter @TexasKidBbq. I'm way ahead of my parents on social media -- how about you?

Today was a lot of fun -- but a lot of hard work too! School was good, but then I came home and had some tough homework to get through. I love to read, and can spend hours doing so. But my homework instructions were a bit complicated and I ended up spending 2 hours on homework, and it's only 4th grade!

I was able to steal away from my homework and go to my Scouts den meeting. We received a bunch of summertime activity awards, and we made plans for a fall camping trip to a park near Gonzales, Texas -- the site of the start of the Texas revolution. That's where Come and Take It comes from -- it's about a battle for freedom, and there was a fight for an artillery cannon. What a great way to see some real historic sites and learn our state history!

I do love to camp, and my family goes camping a bit often. Here's a picture of me in a nice park in Stratford, Canada on our summertime vacation

 

This weekend is going to be fun. Me, my brother and my dad are thinking about what to barbecue this weekend. Mom is going away to a church Pilgrimage retreat -- we're all happy and proud that she's getting a chance to experience a time of church fellowship and renewal. While she's away we'll play around the neighborhood, bbq, go to church, and play flag football again.

For bbq we're thinking maybe pizza on the grill -- we tried that a couple of weeks ago and it turned out great! It's like you're going to one of those fancy pizza restaurants where they have a stove that burns wood.

I hope your week at school is going good, and good luck with the homework. Let me know how that's going for you too!

Your friend,

--James

St. Louis style ribs: Come and Take It!

Hi, kids!

It's been a really fun weekend so far! It sure is nice when school lets out for the weekend! Last night some neighbor friends came over and we played kickball while my dad grilled hot dogs and sausages. Grilling was a lot of fun and we played with our neighbors until the stars came out, but I really wanted to try barbecuing again. Among my favorites: ribs. So we made plans to barbeque ribs for Saturday night.

We had a full day so far. I had to get some new running shoes in the morning for my flag football season that starts up tomorrow. Then we met friends from church for brunch -- yummy! Then a friend from Scouts had a birthday party at Jumpoline. Finally we went shopping for ribs!

I found a Memphis-style rub recipe to go along with the pork ribs we bought. You can see me picking out all the spices

and getting my hands messy getting the ribs all ready!

My dad got the charcoal and oak wood ready while I put the rub together. Once the temperature was ready at about 225 degrees Fahrenheit I was ready to put the ribs on!

My dad helped me move the ribs around, and while the ribs were smoking I played some more with my neighbors. My dad and I threw the football around so I could practice up for my flag football season starting tomorrow. After a couple of hours I put some corn on the cob on the grill, and we put the ribs in some tin foil with juice inside, so that we could keep the ribs really tender and not dried out.
 
The ribs turned out great! I put some barbeque sauce on one rack of the ribs for some extra flavor. Now for the best part: we have leftovers! I'm hoping we'll have that for supper tomorrow after we get home from our flag football game. I love playing football -- this will be my second year, and fourth season as we play each fall, winter and spring. My dad is my coach, and I have a few friends from Scouts and school on my team, so I can't wait to get back on the field! My dad was asking me what positions I like to play, and I think I like them all. My dad gets me to play them all too -- quarterback, running back, safety -- so I can try out all sorts of plays and options.

Ok friends, I hope you enjoy ribs as much as I do: Come and Take It!

Your friend,

--James

After bbq report: Mmm good

Hi, kids:

I spent the later afternoon and evening swimming, playing, barbecuing and eating! What's better than that? We first went to the neighborhood swimming pool to cool off from our 90+ degree heat here in Austin. Then we got home and my dad and I lit the charcoal. Dad had some oak wood ready to add to the charcoal as well.

I longingly call what I have a pit, but to a real pitmaster that's stretching the truth. It's a teensy-weensy grill but I am able to fit enough meat for our family. If you my new friends Come and Take It, I really need to hurry up and get a new & bigger pit!

I put the caribbean jerk rub on the chicken first, then placed it on the grill, away from the heat of the charcoal. I let it stay there a good couple of hours. Towards the end I put the corn, keeping it in its husk, on the grill and over the heat. Last came the Red Snapper -- also rubbed down with the spicy rub I made up this afternoon.

While all that was grilling and smoking I hung out with my neighborhood of friends. It looked like we were going to get a storm -- there was some good thunder and a few lightning bolts. We climbed our backyard tree and hoped to miss any lightning coming our way!

It was kinda hard keeping track of my friends and my bbq all at the same time! Luckily I had my dad to help. He was content watching and listening to Johnny Cash.

I pulled off the chicken, fish, and corn after about 2 & a half hours. My dad made up the mashed potatoes, and spiced them up in a few spoonfuls of the Caribbean rub I put on the meat. That tasted good!

I have some leftover chicken -- sorry we had to eat all the fish on you. So y'all are welcome to Come & Take It!

See you at my pit again soon.

--James

BBQ -- Come and Take It!

Hi, kids!

My names is James and I'm a 9 year old fourth-grader in Austin, Texas. Here I am in front of my official Texas flag that I received for my birthday. It was flown over the Texas State Capitol. My brother and neighbors are my bbq deputies!

I have been watching and helping my dad with barbecue at home. Now I want to be the pitmaster!

I love to grill steak, and eat ribs and brisket and all sorts of food you put on the bbq pit. I am learning the difference between grilling and barbecuing. In some parts of the country I might call putting a steak over the flame barbecuing. But here in Texas that is called grilling! Barbecuing means getting the grill out and putting the meat on for a long time. It is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!

Today I helped my dad prepare chicken and Red Snapper fish that we will put on the pit for supper. I made a Caribbean jerk rub that I'll put on the chicken and fish. I think we'll have some fresh corn and mashed potatoes.

I'll let you know how the bbq chicken and fish turn out! Come and Take It -- my bbq!

--James