Hilltopper39

It's been a while since I posted anything here and since football (and grilling!) season are now in full swing I figured it's time for a quick update. last weekend was the first weekend of college football with some great games on Saturday so if I figured lets fire up the egg and cook some meat over fire. I didn't really have a particular meat in mind that I wanted to cook but Publix had spare ribs on sale so I bought two racks and gave em a shot! Spare ribs are a little tougher to cook than baby backs but tend to have a little more meat on them and if smoked properly yield excellent texture and flavor which is why spare ribs are more commonly used in most BBQ competitions over baby backs. The racks I bought on sale were not trimmed, so I trimmed them down into a "St. Louis Style" rack before I put them on the egg. This requires a little bit of work but is worth it, a trimmed rack cooks more evenly and has a much nicer presentation. The trimmed off portion still has a ton of meat that I smoked alongside the two racks and munched on throughout the day, it's also great meat to chop up and use to flavor baked beans or whateve (I made a chicken tortilla style soup with all the left overs pork on Monday and it was great). I didn't take too many pictures of the cooking set up because I was busy doing some chores and watching football, but it was a basic indirect heat set up with the plate setter installed feet up and a rack on the feet over the drip pan. I used a combination of hickory chips, apple wood chips, and hickory chunks all soaked in coffee overnight for the smoke. My normal technique for ribs is a 2-1-1 method where I smoke them with heavy smoke uncovered for 2 hours, then tightly wrap them in foil with a little bit of sauce/honey/butter/ mixture for another hour, then remove from the foil and cook another hour uncovered until they are crisp and done. I like to keep the temperature somewhere between 225-250 for the entire cook then raise the temp to around 350 at the end for a few minutes just to crisp the ribs up and give them a little char. Here are some pics! Here is a rack of spare ribs before I trimmed them into the "St. Louis Style" cut. Here is the same rack after I trimmed it. The second rack was bigger and had a lot more meat that was trimmed off but I didn't get any pics of it. Two St Louis Style racks of spare ribs For the Rub I used my normal technique of slathering the ribs and yellow mustard then applying a rub. For one rack I used a John Henry Pecan Rub and for the second rack I used a Bad Byron's Butt Rubb. John Henry Pecan Rub I used on one rack, great stuff! Here is the Bad Byron Butt Rub, a great rub that is really versatile. I use it all the time on fish, chicken, pork, beef, just about anything! Here are the two racks, Bad Byron on the left and John Henry Pecan on the right. Now again I didn't take any picture of the set up, or the cook, but did two hours uncovered, one hour wrapped in foil with a sauce mixture, and another hour uncovered until they were done (about 180 internal temp). Here was the final result! Smoke Smoke Smoke And 4 hours later they are done! John Henry pecan on the left, Bad Byron on the right this time It was hard to photograph the finished ribs but here is a pic of the finished rib, decent smoke ring. Here is a better pic of a thinker rib, good pink smoke ring, had excellent flavor. For whatever reason the little ribs turned out the best! The final results was pretty good, both racks had excellent flavor but I preferred the sweetness of the Pecan rub over the spicier Bad Byron Butt Rubb. Both rack has excellent flavor and texture but the smaller ribs were a little dry, next time I may go less time uncovered in the smoke and more time in the foil packets. I probably prefer baby racks because of how easy they are to cook, but at less than half the price Spare Ribs are with including in the regular rotation. Thanks for reading, sorry far making you hungry! Thank goodness it's football season, I have an excuse to Egg something every weekend! These Ribs were officially approved by Big Red, and go Tops!

I'm still holding out hope that someone will spike Gaston's punch bowl, last I checked a frothy frozen apple juice drink would work pretty well with a multitude of high proof liquors, that's how Gaston would have wanted it anyways.

^That is absolutely unbelievable. I guess we committed secondary violations at every Saturday walk through when the strength staff would bring in not only bagels with multiple topping but cereal with, wait for it, MILK! Oh the humanity, a program provided player with cereal and milk prior to an early morning walk through. At least the NCAA got something right in that article.

I don't think anyone has mentioned it but I wonder if they can replace those harnesses with the soft style restraints like on I305? Seem like it would be an easy "quick fix" if they are the same restraint, which they appear to be.

Excuse me if I missed this in the previous pages of drink debate, but when this project was first announced I was semi-under the impression that they finally would be serving alcohol in the Magic Kingdom in this restaurant? Is this not the case anymore (maybe it never was to begin with)?

I love how both of your examples are from USC haha, just kidding. I would say that there are plenty of "clean" programs left out there but the rules these days on recruiting through social media and off season contact and other things are getting a little ridiculous. I know Kentucky self reported a few secondary violations this year in football and basketball that were insane. Really? Responding to a text from an unknown sender is a secondary violation? One of Kentucky's assistant basketball coaches, Rod Strickland, had to sit our two days of practice last year for this self-reported violation that is clearly fully of malicious intent to gain a competitive advantage...... So a player walks by a coaches office, watches film for a few minutes while waiting to meet with the head coach, the assistant coach verbally "coaches" him, and it's a secondary violation? That used to be called getting better, now it's called a secondary violation. My point is I don't think every team in the country is paying money under the table to players for commitments (who would be dumb enough to get away that kind of thing these days?), but I do think that that there are plenty of teams that are constantly trying to gain a competitive edge whether it is illegal or not. I personally still think that the NCAA will not govern major college basketball and football within my lifetime, but we'll see.

Am I the only one in the world who prefers running on a treadmill to running outside? On the treadmill I can watch football, watch stuff on the ipad, HBO Go or whatever and generally be entertained while doing something I otherwise don't really enjoy. Running outside I just get bored and un-motivated that much quicker. Maybe it's just me.

I dig your style Texas A&M, might not be the most truthful billboard ever (last I checked Vanderbilt was a pretty decent academic institution), but it's the effort that counts!

I didn't fill out the survey because with a newborn on the way I know there is no way I could even consider a trip fro next year but the Midwest/Cedar Point new Hotness trip sounds amazing, I would love to hit those parks with TPR. Hope there are some great Bashes being planned for next year as well, I didn't make it to any this year but had a great time in 2011, and would love to try again in 2013.

I wouldn't bet to much money on Detroit but if San Diego makes a run it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Then again if Aaron Rodgers get a concussion in week 7 and has to sit for 3 games and Cutler starts throwing interceptions like he's in cahoots with the opposing D coordinator it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see Detroit win that division. Megatron is good for about 4 wins all by himself isn't he? And that my friend is why the NFL is the greatest league in pro sports, the difference between last place and first place is never that large. A new QB, new coach, new deep threat, new pass rusher and all the sudden you have the 49ers going from last place to making a run deep into the playoffs.

NFL action kicks off tonight, who does everyone like this season, and bold predictions? Here are my divisional, wild card, and Superbowl predictions. AFC: North- Pittsburgh East- New England South- Tennessee West- San Diego Wild Cards- Kansas City, Baltimore NFC: North- Chicago East- Philadelphia South- Tampa Bay West- Seattle WIld Cards- Green Bay, NY Giants Super Bowl: New England Patriots vs. Chicago Bears I know some of those picks are a bit unconventional this year but just remember that every year someone makes the playoffs out of no where and there is always a team that made the playoff the previous season that misses it this season. I think the NFC West will be a competitive division, and just about anyone except the Cardinals could win. If you remember last year EVERYONE had picked the Rams to walk away with that division before everyone got hurt and they finished 2-14 and San Fran came out of no where to nearly make the NFC title game. I think now with everyone healthy that team will be competitive again. Same thing for the AFC West, I think every team has a legit shot at winning the division but with the uncertainty around Peyton Manning I'm picking San Diego. Everyone likes Houston in the AFC South, but they only beat Tennessee by 1 game last year and I think Tennessee has gotten better in the off season where as Houston lost a couple of key players so that division may be more up for grabs than most people think. I felt like the Bears were really close last year before Forte got hurt, now that he is healthy and the addition of Brandon Marshall I think gives them a slight advantage over the Packers who I have a weird feeling might struggle a bit with Aaron Rodgers potentially missing a few games this year for concussions. If the Packers roll it won't be a surprise but for now I'm picking the Bears.

Yep. I'd toss Michigan in that group as well. Easily three of the biggest perennial underachievers. I mean, seriously. Michigan and Georgia have some of the biggest fanbases in college football, yet somehow find a way to be a doormat for their neighboring conference mates each and every year. How does this happen? Honestly, I'm confused. (Although, admittedly UGA got screwed by the BCS at least once in the last decade) Might as well go ahead and include Florida State and Oklahoma here recently as well. How many years in a row have either of those two teams been ranked in the preseason top 15 only to lose to a Texas Tech, Wake Forest, Virginia or Iowa State or someone like that. Seems like it happens just about every year.

I'm all for a Black Widow meet and greet.

^That certainly seems to be the case in recent years and while I think 6 is a little high for them right now but if Murray can have a consistent season they may stay in the top 10 throughout the season. Both Games this week with A&M and Missouri should be interesting. Florida and Georgia both struggled a bit in their openers to inferior programs and going on the road should be a huge test for both teams. I don't know a thing about Missouri football but I have a feeling that they may struggle a little with Georgia physically up front, but we'll see.

While I'm obviously not the target audience for a Belle meet and greet this whole experience looks pretty amazing. I'd love to see Disney adapt this type of next gen meet n greet attraction to other characters like Captain Jack Sparrow or maybe even some of the Star Wars characters like Darth Vader for the male audience. I could see a similar experience for those characters working really well.

The new 20 Penny circus sounds pretty interesting, I'm a sucker for a good magic show (or a bad magic show) so this will be a welcome addition to the event. As far as houses go the if they use the same concept as Dead Exposure a few years go the Universal House of Horrors house should be one of my favorites. I don't know anything about the Walking Dead but I expect that house to be very well done and one of the best of the event.

I can't argue with that but they did seem to have a little more talent that normal at the skill positions this year. I'm not saying they're gonna win 10 games every year from now on but their days of losing at home to Tulsa may be behind them.

A little bit of both in my opinion. It's a lot easier to prepare for a team like Navy with a whole off season instead of 1 week midsession. Norte Dame seems to be moving in the right direction again as far as their talent and coaching, and Navy's ceiling is only so high to begin with.

I normally would agree with ya on this, and I still think they are a class well below Alabama LSU USC and some others, but I think South Carolina's defense this years puts them slightly ahead of where they normally stand. I mean take away 2 turnovers early last night (first game of the season) and one bad defensive play and South Carolina is winning that game 31-6. National Championship contender? No. SEC East contender and potentially a BCS bowl team? I still think so, but we'll see. They always seem to lose a game to someone they shouldn't every year, and this season may be no different.

Bee hive helmets? no no no, what's next Oregon but like duck feathers on their shoulder pads or something...........

Saw Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket in Charlotte last weekend, amazing show. Both bands were fantastic and played great sets and the Charlotte Uptown Ampitheatre at the North Carolina Music factory was an awesome venue, I would highly recommend seeing a show there sometime.

Pretty good game last night,I thought Vanderbilt played well. South Carolina looked pretty good whenever Shaw was in the game, and other than one terrible play by their safety on the long TD pass the defense looked as good as they've been hyped up to be. Someone needs to tell Shaw he isn't Tim Tebow and if they want to have a chance at the SEC title game.

My fantasy football team this year will The Gronkassity's..... Don't act like your not impressed (with my average photoshop skills).

If that was the only reason for launching it backwards, couldn't they in theory use the momentum the train already had goin into the tunnel to launch it over the top hat? Of course, then it may have too much speed going into the second half of the ride. The backwards then forwards launch in the tunnel may also create a new block that allows them to operate two trains at once maybe? In addition to possibly needing the momentum to complete the forward launch. Should make for a couple of good questions at WCB this year.

I haven't been on Skyrocket or Superman at Discovery Kingdom but from the videos it looks like both of those Premier coasters kind of roll into the launch track (Superman starts from a stand still then after the backwards launch "rolls" into the fastest launch of the circuit to make it over the top hat). I wonder if the reason for the backwards launch section on Full Throttle is that those LIM's are different somehow from the initial launch or they need the system needs the train to be travelling forward at a certain velocity to launch at a speed to successfully make it over the top hat following that launch. Anyone have any insight? I like the idea of a backwards launch in the middle of the ride like this, but it does seem a bit odd. I'm not a LIM expert or a ride engineer by any means but I have a feeling the backwards launch may be more for the purpose of function instead of form.......