After a long search I found a meatloaf recipe that looked very good to me. Sunday morning I started out by getting the meatloaf ready and assembling the needed ingrediants for a day of cooking and smoking at dad's.
Once I arrived there the first thing I did was get my new charcoal basket set up and fitting. I was told of and found this basket a lowes for a low price of $7.99. I had gone there to get the pieces to make a basket but the metal I needed was not available and this made life easier. This basket only needs the handles bent slightly to get it to fit in a brinkman vertical smoker. Let me tell you that this basket made my life sooooo very much easier I just can't wait to cook with it more. I barely used any fuel and had all the heat I could stand. It does have a non stick coating that I was worried would burn off so I loaded the basket completely full of charcoal and let that burn hot for a few hours.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=194524-47738-cc9571&lpage=none
Here is a picture of it later once it was ready to cook. Barely any fuel in it and my temps were running at 250 easy.
Once I felt the coating was gone and I could cook in it I added the meatloaf. Here it is a bit into cooking.
While that was cooking I made a butter mixture with chili powder, lime zest, lime juice and S&P. I peeled back the leaves from the corn and removed the silk and then soaked the corn for a few minutes while I peeled the rest. I then brushed the butter mixture onto the corn and brought the leaves back up to cover the corn.
Once the corn was in the fridge I got to work on the abt's. I cut the jalapenos in half lenght wise, filled them with sharp cheddar, wrapped it in bacon and rolled the bacon in brown sugar. YUM!
After the race started I put the chile's into the smoker above the meatloaf with the expectation that the bacon grease and sugar would self baste the meatloaf. It worked! You can see here the fat is starting to drip onto the meatloaf.
Once the bacon was cooked, the cheese melted and the chiles soft I removed them from the smoker and it was time for appetizers. This tray lasted all of 5 minutes and was the source of Dad's only complaint about the meal. Make more next time!
While consuming the app. I went to work on some mac n cheese. Par cooked some macaroni, made a roux with seasonings added, stirred in my milk, slowly added the cheese and finally combined it with the noodles in a lasagna dish. This was topped with bread crumbs and a little xtra cheese. This final dish was then put into a 350 degree oven and baked for 30 minutes. At this point I also got the corn into the smoker.
40 minutes later everything was ready to go. I pulled the meatloaf and the corn.
After resting I sliced the meatloaf. A nice smoke ring was there and it was very moist and tasty!!!
The mac n cheese was setup and good to go. Man it smelled good!
Once I arrived there the first thing I did was get my new charcoal basket set up and fitting. I was told of and found this basket a lowes for a low price of $7.99. I had gone there to get the pieces to make a basket but the metal I needed was not available and this made life easier. This basket only needs the handles bent slightly to get it to fit in a brinkman vertical smoker. Let me tell you that this basket made my life sooooo very much easier I just can't wait to cook with it more. I barely used any fuel and had all the heat I could stand. It does have a non stick coating that I was worried would burn off so I loaded the basket completely full of charcoal and let that burn hot for a few hours.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=194524-47738-cc9571&lpage=none
Here is a picture of it later once it was ready to cook. Barely any fuel in it and my temps were running at 250 easy.
Once I felt the coating was gone and I could cook in it I added the meatloaf. Here it is a bit into cooking.
While that was cooking I made a butter mixture with chili powder, lime zest, lime juice and S&P. I peeled back the leaves from the corn and removed the silk and then soaked the corn for a few minutes while I peeled the rest. I then brushed the butter mixture onto the corn and brought the leaves back up to cover the corn.
Once the corn was in the fridge I got to work on the abt's. I cut the jalapenos in half lenght wise, filled them with sharp cheddar, wrapped it in bacon and rolled the bacon in brown sugar. YUM!
After the race started I put the chile's into the smoker above the meatloaf with the expectation that the bacon grease and sugar would self baste the meatloaf. It worked! You can see here the fat is starting to drip onto the meatloaf.
Once the bacon was cooked, the cheese melted and the chiles soft I removed them from the smoker and it was time for appetizers. This tray lasted all of 5 minutes and was the source of Dad's only complaint about the meal. Make more next time!
While consuming the app. I went to work on some mac n cheese. Par cooked some macaroni, made a roux with seasonings added, stirred in my milk, slowly added the cheese and finally combined it with the noodles in a lasagna dish. This was topped with bread crumbs and a little xtra cheese. This final dish was then put into a 350 degree oven and baked for 30 minutes. At this point I also got the corn into the smoker.
40 minutes later everything was ready to go. I pulled the meatloaf and the corn.
After resting I sliced the meatloaf. A nice smoke ring was there and it was very moist and tasty!!!
The mac n cheese was setup and good to go. Man it smelled good!