My wife is a certified red seal Chef. ( and yes, we know that red seals are a protected species ) So she does a lot of the cooking. I do a lot more now that I am retired and its about 50/50 Her/Me during the week. I get to clean up all the time. Heck she still works and I'm retired so that's fair.
On the weekends it
was entirely different, Me not being allowed near the food. We usually have a backyard party almost every weekend.
Party noshes were her exclusive domain. I was not allowed to enter any of my contributions.
The reason for this strange behavior is that her family will not eat anything anyone outside the family cooks. Too fancy! They are meat and potatoes people, none of them will go for Chinese and most of them will not even eat Pizza, you know foreign food. I know how dumb that sounds but that's my in-laws. They will eat any kind of wild game you can name including snakes, possum, racoons, lion, moose, elk, deer , bear, even skunk. ( Its quite tasty )
Then I started my smoking addiction. ON one fateful weekend we had the In laws over for a back yard BBQ. She planned hot dogs and burgers and the usual stuff. She told me that I could do the hot dogs on the bbq,
"but don't screw them up."
Now once in a while in the past I had been allowed to do the hot dogs.
I got a rush of blood to my head and decided that this time I'll do them my way. ( The Good Lord hates a coward )
My way is to score them in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Put them in the hickory smoker at 230f for an hour and a half. Because there is far more surface area when they are prepared like that so more of the fat drips out of them plus you get better penetration of the smoke. After the hour and a half, I take them out of the smoker, brush on my BBQ sauce mixed with a little mustard. I then sear the sauce to the point of caramelization over a bed of hot charcoal.
Trust me they are worth the extra effort done this way. Well the in-laws absolutly loved them . In fact they clamored for more. They decided right then and there that Maybe I was family after all.
Next Friday My little parsnip flower told me that the family was coming over on Saturday and could I do the dogs they liked so much.
I said "Of course My little pumpkin seed ". ( She hates it when I address her that way, which is why I do it ) The next BBQ I did the dogs same as last weekend. But I suprised everyone with some pulled pork, slow cooked ribs, and some smoked corn on the cob. I also had a bin of Dutches beans ready to go.
With all this going for me I served it up to them. At first all you could hear was the herd at the trough, the gnashing of teeth and the odd snort, but as soon as some of them finally came up for air they universally declared that I should be the BBQ chef every weekend. And that my friends is how Gnubee took back His Manhood and the coveted title
Designated backyard BBQ Chef. Can I get a Hoorah??