Yep. Grew up in Arlington Heights, IL, and used to deliver pennysaver newspapers to the old Weber-Stephen plant there on Hickory Street. My uncle Frank had one of the first Weber kettles, and my dad used to stand in line when the warehouse would hold annual sales, and buy a bunch o' Smokey Joes for wedding gifts and such. Whenever it would snow (and it snows a LOT in Chicago), our dad would demand that we at least shovel "the driveway, the front walk, and a path on the patio to the grill." MAYBE to the garbage cans, too, but ALWAYS to the grill. I can still picture my dad out there, 10 degrees below zero, with that big furry "Russian" hat on his head, and a Manhattan in one hand and grill tongs in the other.
Been grilling since I was a teenager, but pretty new to smoking, when I asked for a smoker for Father's Day a few years ago and my wife bought me a cheapie vertical rectangular Brinkman at Wal-Mart (which is what I still use). Took some patience on my part, and more than a few mods to get it right, but I was used to modding a grill from the notorious heat problems with my Jenn-Air 720-0063-LP 5-burner gas grill and the tweaks I had to do on that ol' beast (works GREAT now, and where else can you get all 318 stainless for less than $2,000? Mine cost $700!)
So far I've only done ribs -- spares and babybacks -- and a whole picnic once that I made into pulled pork sammiches. Looking forward to trying a brisket one of these days.
Sunny and 85 on Memorial Day when I did my 3 racks of babybacks, trying the "3-2-1" method for the first time (see the pork thread for pics). No snow to worry about here!!!
Pigeye
Been grilling since I was a teenager, but pretty new to smoking, when I asked for a smoker for Father's Day a few years ago and my wife bought me a cheapie vertical rectangular Brinkman at Wal-Mart (which is what I still use). Took some patience on my part, and more than a few mods to get it right, but I was used to modding a grill from the notorious heat problems with my Jenn-Air 720-0063-LP 5-burner gas grill and the tweaks I had to do on that ol' beast (works GREAT now, and where else can you get all 318 stainless for less than $2,000? Mine cost $700!)
So far I've only done ribs -- spares and babybacks -- and a whole picnic once that I made into pulled pork sammiches. Looking forward to trying a brisket one of these days.
Sunny and 85 on Memorial Day when I did my 3 racks of babybacks, trying the "3-2-1" method for the first time (see the pork thread for pics). No snow to worry about here!!!
Pigeye
