Holiday and charity cooking has kept me busy. Just wanted to share some photos

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worktogthr

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Nov 3, 2013
2,928
1,032
Massapequa, NY (Long Island)
Well like everyone around here I'm sure, the holidays are a busy time for cooking and I love every minute of it. Just thought id share some of my cooking experiences from the last few days...

This weekend I cooked an appreciation lunch for about 100 people which included the employees of island harvest (a local food bank) and a Jeep club that was delivering 1000s of pounds of donated food. We cooked burgers, dogs, tri tip, and a bunch of my homemade sausages (hot links, chicken cheddar jalapeño, cheddar kielbasa, brats, Italian cheese and parsley, and hot Italian. And the best part is I got to play with one of the coolest smokers on earth which is a custom made and donated smoker from Shirley Fabrications:


It really was so much fun! And I got some nice compliments about my sausage.

Tomorrow night I am working with that same BBQ group to feed 60 families in need for thanksgiving. Each family receives appetizers, tons of sides, desserts, drinks, and a smoked turkey. I did 30
Pounds of smoked cheese as an app:


I also made 30 pounds of homemade Italian sausage as a side. Loves my blackstone for this! Was able to sauté all the onions and celery and brown all the sausage in about a half hour.


we all get together and sort all the food that we all make and then deliver to the families. We also collect supplies and food gift cards for homeless and at risk vets. So I always make a double batch of the desserts I make for Thanksgiving celebration at my cousins house so I can bring some to share with all the other volunteers. Made some maple bacon bourbon pecan pie bars and fudgy pumpkin chocolate chip bread:


And as another treat for the volunteers I repeated my Thanksgiving Fatty which is Pop's seasoned turkey sausage stuffed with mash potatoes, Italian sausage stuffing, and cranberry cheddar and smoked with some apple wood:



It's been a lot of fun cooking all of this stuff but I am ready to relax and enjoy the holidays. My cousin makes an incredible spread for thanksgiving and for once all the cooking is not up to me. So it will definitely be enjoyable!

One last thing, I encourage everyone to use all the knowledge and enthusiasm they have gained from this site to help others. It's amazing what some home cooked food can do for someone who is having a rough go at it. Every day I try to appreciate all that life has given me. I feel blessed and want others to feel that way even when it's hard to. So get out there and feed people, help people, do whatever you can to make others feel good. Sorry if this getting deep or preachy, it's just something my mom who passed many years back always drilled into my head. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Thanks for looking,

-Chris
 
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Looks great and like alot of fun.

Great job and thanks for sharing.
 
Great pics! That looks like a sweet Smoker and it is a great thing you are doing to help others...JJ 
points.gif
 
Nice job Chris!

Helping others always feels good!

Especially when you get to play with that smoker!

Point!

Al
 
Looks great and like alot of fun.

Great job and thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much! Man I'll tell you if I owned a smoker like that  I would never leave my house and would be feeding the whole neighborhood every day hahaha.  Today that same smoker is going to have about 50 turkeys in it!
 
 
Nice job Chris!

Helping others always feels good!

Especially when you get to play with that smoker!

Point!

Al
Thanks so much Al!  Haha when Paul Shirley from Shirley Fabrications first mentioned that he would make and donate a smoker to our group, I campaigned hard for it to be stored at my house.  haha I have the perfect place for it.  Haha my dream didn't come true but at least I get to play with it every once in a while.
 
Chris that is very nice thing you did.Everything looks great points for caring should be more peeps like you

Richie
 
Great cooking, great living and a true understanding that a great holiday involves the community. What goes around comes around and I am sure you will find joy like all those you help.

Points

Disco
 
Great cooking, great living and a true understanding that a great holiday involves the community. What goes around comes around and I am sure you will find joy like all those you help.

Points

Thanks so much Disconfornthr kind words. It really is awesome to see how many people chipped in to make the Thanksgiving event happy. That same smoker I was playing with last weekend had 50 turkeys in it! It was a beautiful sight to see and I'm sure the families we fed never had such a smoked meal before haha.

Disco
 
points.gif
WOW.   Great job and always good to help out the community.     Bet you will be ordering one of them smokers soon.    LOL
 
Wow from me, too! Once again you've humbled us with your great food and caring attitude. Your mom did good!
I was overwhelmed by the Pecan bars and the pumpkin chocolate chip bread when the fatties sent me over the edge...
Keep doing what you do, Chris.

Dan
 
:points: WOW.   Great job and always good to help out the community.     Bet you will be ordering one of them smokers soon.    LOL

Thank you sir! I would love to have a Shirley. That thing is a tank! I think that one is a little out of my price range. Amazing thing is, Paul and Tyler Shirley donated it to our organization as a thank you for all the charity events we do. I had the good fortune to meet Paul and his wif when the driver half way across the country and delivered it and cooked along side us for 1000+ navy members and veterans on Fleet Week and he is about the nicest guy I ever met.
 
Wow,way to take care of others and have some fun!

Thanks so much! I am lucky enough to live in an area where the founder of another BBQ forum (which will remain nameless out of respect to this great forum) lives and does all these outreach events. Great group of guys that inspire me to do my part!
 
Wow from me, too! Once again you've humbled us with your great food and caring attitude. Your mom did good!
I was overwhelmed by the Pecan bars and the pumpkin chocolate chip bread when the fatties sent me over the edge...
Keep doing what you do, Chris.

Dan

Thanks so much! The Pecan Pie bars are one of those recipes that I actually created myself by combining elements of maybe a dozen other pecan pie or bar recipes. I want to share it on this forum but I'm not quite sure if am ready haha. Maybe pass it to my daughter and have my only family secret recipe haha. The bull recipe does come from one of my moms old recipes but she didn't have the bacon and bourbon. The pumpkin bread is from the myrecipes site and it's my go to around this time of year. I really appreciate your kind words and want you guys all to know that this is the place that really solidified my love of all things smoke and took my already obsessive cooking hobby to a whole new level of craziness haha.
 
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