Disaster Avoided

Another weekend has almost passed without much incident. This was however a little different than most because we had most of the kids here. Lee had joined us a little over a week ago when we took a midnight ride to the U.P. to pick him up. Friday afternoon little j, mom and dad showed up for Easter. The only two missing were Amy(we actually thought at one time last week she was going to be here) and big J (not sure where she is since I haven't heard from her in a coon's age.

They arrived here without much trouble. They ran into a late Wisconsin snow storm for the last 60 miles of their trip. Thank goodness most of the snow stayed to the south of us because Milwaukee got 13" of the damned white stuff. We ended up with about 2" of snow which turned out to set a new record for snowfall in this area.

They brought their usual stuff with them, mom her Corona beer and lime wedges. Dad had to stop in the U.P. and get his smoked fish. Normally dad would stop in Moran at the fish market because he thinks that is the best smoked fish he has ever had but I had told him about another place, The Cut River Store, I thought was even better. That is where he picked up the smoked fish this time. Little j brought, well I am not sure what he brought.

Once they were settle in and checked out the house I suggested we go eat because after all it is Friday night in Wisconsin and these Wisconsin people love their Friday night fish fries. We headed for a place call Three Guys and a Grill located out in the back woods of Wisconsin. You always have to be careful when you take dad out for fish because he is the biggest critic I know when it comes to cooking and eating fish. He still makes the best deep fried fish I have ever had and he really does know the difference between good fish and bad fish. Since Wisconsin is known for their Friday night fish fries myself and the wife have been to quite a few in the area over the last few months so we could find one that would be good enough to take him to. Our favorite has been Three Guys and a Grill. They lightly bread their fish and more importantly they do not over cook their fish. On Friday nights they serve perch, bluegill and walleye. I have never had the walleye but the perch and the bluegill are real good with bluegill being my favorite.



Mom, dad and little j got the combination plate of perch and bluegill while I ordered bluegill only. The wife got bbq ribs (she didn't think she could eat fish after the last time she ordered it a couple of weeks ago) and Lee ordered the shrimp and steak combo. It was a good meal and everybody was satisfied with their food. (If anybody wants a ranking it would be 4.5 forks out of 5 because it is hard to find a place that has good fish. Most places, at least to me, are a big disappointment when it comes to cooking fish Three Guys and a Grill does it right.)



Since Saturday was going to be our Easter meal the wife and I wanted to do something a little different. We had just bought a ham a couple of weeks ago and really didn't want to have ham again even though it is a traditional Easter feast. Turkey was out since most of us had our fill of it during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. What I would like to do is a rib roast but since little sis did one for Christmas for mom and dad I didn't think that was right. (I will tell you this though, the next time we have company over here I am going to do one out on the smoker, assuming the weather is right. I need company because a rib roast is to much meat for just me and the wife.) We had finally decided on pork tenderloin but when I got to the meat market all they had were small tenderloins. Sitting next to the pork tenderloins however was center cut pork roast. The center cut pork roast is the center portion of the pork chop only it is a long chunk of meat. (It would be the equivalent of the rib roast from the beef family and about 1/2 the price, woot as little sister would say.) After I brought this 5.25 pound chunk of meat home on Friday I unwrapped it and immediately applied a rub. The rub consisted of sweet Hungarian paprika, brown sugar, dried mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. I then wrapped up the pork roast and threw it in the refrigerator for Saturday.

On Saturday morning little j helped me haul our garbage to the dump (that's right folks no garbage pick up here.) Later in the morning I took little j and dad for a ride where they got to see where toilets are made. The excitement never stops. Mom and the wife went down to the cheese factory where mom proceeded to purchase $50 worth of cheese. Anybody reading this and within driving distance of mom should get over to their house because she has real string cheese, cheese curds and mozzarella cheese. You probably won't get the mozzarella cheese from her but she will probably give you some string cheese and cheese curds. Believe me they alone are worth the drive over there.

When it came time to cook the pork roast there was only one way to cook it, the smoker. When I cook meat, if the weather is cooperating, I prefer to cook it either on the grille or in the smoker. If you have read my post before you know I prefer using charcoal to cook with, not that wimping gas or the real lazy way with a smoker, electric. Nope, charcoal and wood, the only way to cook and smoke. We fired up the smoker, got it up to the required 225 to 250 degrees cooking/smoking temperature and slapped the chunk of pork in there for the three to four hours it would take to produce a tasty piece of meat you can only get from charcoal and wood. My biggest mistake of the day was letting the internal temperature of the pork roast get to 149 degrees before I took it off the smoker. The perfect temperature, with my digital thermometer anyway, is 147 degrees. I know what everybody is thinking, what is two degrees? Two degrees is everything with a pork roast that doesn't have hardly any fat on it for self basting. It is the difference between succulently moist pork to pork that is just a bit dry. It isn't bad but if allowed to go much further than the two degrees over my ending temperature it starts to dry out real fast. It was still good and combined with garlic mashed potatoes and cauliflower we all had a great meal for Easter.

Last night we watched the Michigan State basketball team defeat Pittsburgh. I know big whoops and for once I agree but mom likes her MSU basketball. I think she knows all the player names and possibly even the cheerleaders names.

This morning I got up early to make everybody breakfast before they left. Little j wanted me to make banana stuffed french toast but since he didn't tell us this before someone went to the store he had to settle for pancakes, eggs, and apple smoked bacon. If anybody ever comes here and reminds us before we go to the store they would like banana stuffed french toast I will make it. It is a real treat for breakfast. When Amy comes over here she will call ahead of time and tell us she is expecting us to make it for her. Anyway I don't think mom and dad will have to eat for the rest of the day, now the boys might be a different story (Lee went back to Michigan with them.) Lee did say before he left he gained 5 pounds while he was here.

Dad wanted to make one stop on their way home and that was at the Cut River Store to pick up some more smoked fish. After he ate some of their smoked fish he now has a new favorite place to buy it from. Mom has her cheese and little j probably has some future post material to share. By the way mom also has some of my homemade bbq sauce with her. I need people to try it and let me know what it is missing. It needs something I am not sure what. All reviews will be appreciated whether good or bad.

All in all a pretty darn good weekend. Sometimes you never know how some of these things are going to turn out. We had good food, good conversations, and relived some old memories. We can't wait for the next time we have company for a weekend.