Joining me on my quest to prematurely clog the arteries  and double my cholesterol were good friends Bobby Burdette (@bobbyburdette) and Derek Kalinosky (@dkalinosky). My main goal was to see what the masses would make of the Pittsburgh Penetrator. Bobby and Derek cared less about that and more about all out BaconComa^©. Having put myself on a diet after the Grill Around the Globe… I managed some measure of self-control and didn’t over eat.

What did you eat, Greg?

Excellent question. The Harris Grill, which serves bacon every Tuesday night FOR FREE, set up a nice little buffet area for all the wonderful dishes available to sample. Lets go to the lineup:

• Country Fried Bacon
• Bacon Perogies
• Bacon wrapped Shrimp
• Bacon Sushi
• and for desert… a Bacon Cupcake.

First up, the Country Fried Bacon. Now its probably not fair for me to judge this dish since I have such an unfavoring love for the Six Penn Tempura Bacon. Still, I found the breading a little heavy which prevents the bacon from really getting the kind of crisp you’d expect. It tasted good – but also very, very unhealthy. I could almost feel it coat the inside of my heart with a thin layer of slick grease. Definitely couldn’t manage more than one slice.

The Bacon Perogies were very nice. The bacon shared the spotlight with perfectly cooked onions. I believe there was bacon both in the onions and inside the perogie. Very understated presence but definitely there. The Bacon Wrapped Shrimp were outstanding. Seafood that sits in a chaffing dish can run the risk of ending up overcooked and tough but no chance here. Probably due to the shrimp not spending much time resting. They were gone in a flash. The Bacon Sushi, as I understand it, came in two varieties. I only had a chance to sample the Philadelphia – which had a nice cream cheese element that played really well with the bacon. It was by far the most… interesting dish I tried. And I’ll leave it at that.

The Bacon Cupcake was, in a word… redonkulous. Plain and simple. Candied bacon chip on top of what I think was a maple cream cheese frosting. I didn’t eat the actual cake so i can’t say much there. I can only assume it was good based on how quickly the cupcakes were flying off the serving trays.

There was beer too, right?

Local home-brewers club, Three Rivers Underground Brewers, were on hand with several styles. Three on tap included a nice Pale Ale, a curious Applewood Cider brew and the star of the day – an incredible Maple E.S.B. which is so good I have to believe someone somewhere is going to get rich off it. It was that good. Poured a somewhat cloudy tan with a slight head. Perhaps due to a combination of the portable tap system and the tiny little plastic cup they provided.

The aroma bore a strong scent of maple yet didn’t invade the taste of a tastefully hopped beer. At first I was a little confused by the mouthfeel. The typical crispness of a bitter was gone and in its place was a well-balanced, pitch-perfect beer. Bobby’s best guess is that the sweetness of the maple tipped the scales to even. The tiny little plastic cup wasn’t the only reason I went back for thirds, fourths, AND fifths. It was that damn good.

So what’s this about a Pittsburgh Penetrator?

One of my big goals for the day was to introduce my variation of the world famous Bacon Explosion – The Pittsburgh Penetrator. The premise is simple one. Add a little Pittsburgh flavor to what is already a fantastic dish. Construction is easy. Its a Bacon Explosion wrapped around a fresh kielbasa, the casing removed to allow smoke to penetrate fully. No pun intended. Ok. I lie… it was intentional.

I need to make sure I give credit where credit is due… the idea came from my boss. Several months ago he attended a party in Upstate New York and wanted to bring something special. Being an avid sport shooter, he described to me a type of ammunition known as a penetration round. The general idea is that the core contains a solid rod designed to punch through… things. Here we punch through your taste buds.

I was very happy with the overall reception. However, there seemed to be a bit of confusion around what it was exactly. I read one account in a blog that thought it was a pork tenderloin, which I totally don’t understand. I think some folks didn’t realize that it wasn’t a standard BE.

I didn’t get around to taking many photos when I made the Pittsburgh Penetrator but here are just a few. Also only snapped a few pictures from the event. My hands were too full of beer and bacon.

I can’t remember exactly when this happened so for the sake of argument….

Years ago, there was a lovely radio station here in Pittsburgh called ” The Zone”… which I believe was short for The Man Zone (or at least I think it was). I can’t recall clearly and since that time the station has been replaced by several formats in the last few years. It was supposed to be a man-oriented all-talk radio format. I liked it. Opie and Anthony in the morning drive. The studio where the radio station broadcast from happened to be in the same industrial park I worked at during this time. Not that it matters…

The point of this back story is this: I listened to this station on my drive home every night from work. It was hosted by Scott Paulsen who I grew up listening to on the perennial Pittsburgh favorite WDVE.

One of my favorite features of the show occurred every day at 5 o’clock. Scott would give away a case of beer “minus One”… which he would drink on air and talk about it. Well, eventually CBS caught wind of this and quickly put a stop to this practice. Well, the day Scott announced this – I was immediately struck with an idea… so i called up the station and offered to come across the street at 5 each day to drink the beer for him until the issue was resolved. Well…

What the hell is THAT?!

So if you know… leave your answer in the comments below. I’ll figure out the contest details later.

So tonight I wanted to have something a little … ambitious.  500°

A long time ago I recall watching an episode of Top Chef which featured a cut if meat I had never seen before. To say it was huge would be an understatement. But there was more to it than just size. There was something special… there was – a handle!

525… got to get the meat. and a nice little marinade Nicole likes quite a bit. The Firewalker. This is where the name comes in… this marinade has some serious heat. What better way to bring the big heat is with a big hunk of beef.

BAM meats on and everything is cooking. Remaining marinade is cooking down nice and safe. Though I doubt we’ll use much. I remember it to be quite hot. Now we’ve reaching in and given the meat a nice qaurter turn. Love to get those diamonds… maybe I can grab a quick Twitpic of it when I flip the meat here in a minute. The grill is holding steady at 550° so the meat is staying an even color throughout the surface. Fingers crossed… steak went over nice. Got the pic I wanted. waiting for it to upload. The meat looks good. Temp trying to recover; so I juice it back up all the way. Full power captain.

And no more untrue words could have been written. I ran out of propane and had to run to the garage to get the spare. Hooked it up and pulled the steak to the side while the grill heats back up. Whew! That was a close one. It would have been a crying shame to have this beautiful piece of beef ruined by a lack of propane.

And we’re basting the steak while it rests. Boiled off the bad meat juju and we’re slapping on a very spicy baste. I’ve moved the meat back over the fire and I’m giving it 10 minutes. That’s it. Off to wash my hands.

Ok about done here. Opened a 2005 Rudi Schultz Syrah from South Africa. Nicole is really liking it… both the steak and the wine. It was surprising how much the complection of the wine changed with the meat in play. Here are a few more pictures:

Just this past Tuesday, I spoke to the founder of ExoticMeats.com, Russ McCurdy. He was very friendly on the phone when we first spoke. He seemed to be intrigued by the theme of this year’s party. He offered a very generous package deal with all the meats I was ordering. We settled up and off went my package to get packed up. I can only assume the package was being assembled right away because it arrived so quickly. No time to waste.

Time to open this baby up! The box is surprisingly tight when I first open it. There isn’t really anything to see at first. After I get it open more do I see any meat. First thing I noticed were the four to five tightly packed bundles in the box. Very nice. Here are a few Blackberry photos I took of the menu for Grill Around the Globe party, this Saturday. My thanks again to the fine folks at ExoticMeats.com – Everything arrived quite chilled and/or frozen. I was even a little concerned about the wild boar shoulder’s thawing out in time.

Kangaroo

South American Caiman

Alligator

AntelopeAntelope

Elk

Llama

greg samples one of his test runs

In 2006, we celebrated fire with Firewalker steaks.

In 2007, it was Chickenfest…

and 2008 was Porkapoloza… so what can we do to top THAT?!

This year, we are going native! 100% exotic meats from every corner of the globe… we present to you:

The Grill Around the Globe

Saturday, August 8th from 4:00pm til ??

This year we will be featuring a special tasting menu from all around the world, including meat from every continent on the planet (except Antarctica – I mean c’mon… you ever try to catch a penguin?) So we’ll be starting right at 4PM… don’t be late or you’ll miss out on one or more of the exotic offerings.

Highlights include:

• North American Alligator
• North American Elk
  
• South American Llama
• European Wild Boar
• Australian Kangaroo
• African Antelope
• Asian Yak
• and a special appearance of the one and only… BACON EXPLOSION!

Join us for this once in a lifetime opportunity to sample exotic flavors. Of course, there will be plenty of the usual tasty dishes like Nicole’s Baked Beans, her awesome salsa, the potato salad extraordinaire, and as always – smoked corn!

And yes! There will of course be BEER. I’m thinking a nice Summer Ale this year. But I’m open to suggestions if you get them to me quick!!

* Please RSVP to gregory.givan@gmail.com or call Greg by August 1st. This party is going to be a lot smaller than years past due to the special nature of the menu.

** Seriously, please let us know if you (and a guest) can make it.

Greg.

The result? Well, you just read it. I still have to dig around but so far so good.

I remembered early Saturday morning that I had bacon in the freezer. And sausage too… *lightbulb* A-HA! I can still smoke something and not monopolize the dinner. Lets do a Bacon Explosion and see if we can shot for shot with the originators of the Bacon Explosion™ the BBQ Addicts who were kind enough to allow me to link to their images. All images on the right are from BBQAddicts.com and my own are shown on the left.

I am a big fan of Stubbs BBQ products so its no surprise here that I’m loading up with the Stubby’s…

Now, around the 2 hour mark – I began to glaze the fatty with a mixture of Stubb’s Mild, Stubb’s Honey Pecan and a heavy dash of Dave’s Insanity Roasted Red Pepper sauce. I wanted to really get a gooey, baked-on sauce that would stick to the fatty.

However, I know just enough to remind myself to be patient. Watching my digital thermometer climb every so slowly up to 190 isn’t going to make the pork cook any slower.  I’ve had plenty of time today to reflect on how I got to this point. Both as it relates to today and the past few months as well. oh wait… 188!

15 hours ago – I set a huge slab of pig on the grate of my Weber Smokey Mountain cooker. I woke up at 3 AM in order to put fire to my charcoal chimney and light what would become the longest fire I’ve maintained to date. it wasn’t easy keeping the temperature right where I wanted it. The first 7 hours were uneventful. I slept for half of them. The addition of more Royal Oak charcoal was a first for me. I’ll have to go back and review what I could do better to prevent the temperature from spiking to almost 300° at one point. I suspect it may have been due to an overabundance of hickory and mesquite chunks. Lesson learned. 189!!

But as I wait for that last degree – I find myself feeling a lot of gratitude to some very fine folks. Chief amoung them – Curt McAdams who took time out of his day and his life to speak to a complete stranger on the phone (for almost 45 minutes) about what kind of smoker might is best for someone new to the BBQ game.

I’ve been grilling for ten years and consider myself quite accomplished when it comes to “Propane and propane accesories.” This was different. Spending $300 doesn’t always come easy for me and Curt did a tremendous service by offering to speak to me about why I should reconsider my original pick and instead choose a Weber Smokey Mountain, or WSM.

I met Curt (@cmcadams) through Twitter. In fact – I’ve met a lot of great BBQ folks on Twitter. I’ve even had the opportunity to help some of them the only way I can – on their websites. And I hope to continue to repay them for the information, recipes, the wisdom of their experiences… but I have to go now, my butt is 190° and I have to foil up!

I’ll come back later and post some pictures. Right now, I’ve got 4 pounds of pork to shred and a hungry man to feed. So I’ll leave it like this…

Thank you to all the BBQ folks out there who are all too eager to help another learn.

After 15 1/2 hours.	Pulled and ready to go!	Up close with Mr. Brown
So happy… *sniff*	Waited so long…	Where's mine, dammit?

Walking a long windy country road with my wife afforded me the opportunity to realize I know what love is.

Let me explain with a story… As we strolled along — a soft lavender butterfly flitted by. We walked more — and it became apparent that this little guy wasn’t going anymore. He (and I am making some huge assumptions here) appeared content to circle Nicole as we continued to follow the gravel path unwinding before us. Forward and more, Nicole began to comment on the lasting persistence of our purple phriend. It began to seem very much like this little butterfly was indeed following Nicole. He would disappear only to reappear just as you thought to yourself ‘Ok, he must be gone” — but at that very moment there he is! Flitting along, tracing the most random of guidelines.

Then something indescribable hit me. Struck is probably a more accurate term. A thought. A single thought — pushing others aside to remain completely alone. Weird in its singularity.

Aren't we cute…

I blurt it out. Without really thinking…

“You know — that’s how I know.”

Hold for dramatic beat.

“cause when I see you — after you’ve been gone — it happens every time.”

I let her in this time…

“what does?” she asks, not really sure where this is all leading… but I do. And all I can think is… aha. gotcha!

“I see ‘em. Butterflies. rainbows and shit. behind you. All that shit. Now I know. I finally have my answer. I know what love is… Its all butterflies and shit.”

I let her take it all in… her perception the budding flower I was so eloquently fertilizing. Let’s be honest here; it may sound like a load of steamy, fluffy crap and it is… But it is really the best kind. The kind where the unspoken exists.

That is what, exactly? Glad you asked. Its a certain place where she thinks to herself…  ‘I know he is slinging it deep but he seems sincere. That’s cute. I’ll keep him.’

I see it the though flash across her eyes, she doesn’t want me to know… but I do. And that’s when I know. I know I got her… but more importantly – I know what love is.