Jason Cooks - Finally!

The Big Green Egg!!!

For those that don't know me that well, I don't cook. Not that I can't, because I can. I am actually as good a cook as you know because the accountant in me ensures that I follow directions to a T... That said, I don't change recipies very often, so my meal is only as good as the recipe! I don't even know why I don't cook more, because when I do it, I kind of like it.

But, then came the Big Green Egg! Now, you might say, "what is a big green egg!?!" Please see the attached website and the pictures below...

http://www.biggreenegg.com/

I have made this my passion. These things are pretty pricey by my standards, but a series of events caused me to make this purchase...

1. Winning Fantasy Football two years in a row (this year was $550).

2. A few of my ffb players had expectations that because I won, I should shower the money on everyone, of which I didn't agree.

3. One of the players said, "hey - why don't you take the money and buy a big green egg and forget throwing everyone a party. You won fair & square and why should you spend your winnings on us" (my thoughts EXACTLY). With his peer pressure, everyone agreed! So, if I bought myself this, I could avoid a $150 - $200 party expense, that sounded pretty good.

4. I LOVE food cooked by my neighbors on their Eggs. It is a staple of just about every group get together... In this neighborhood there is 5 or 6 eggs and thus, plenty of people to compare notes with, get training from, etc. It took the guess work and intimidation out of it!

That said, I got one. And I love it! Even despite the fact that I've yet to grill on it when the outside temp was over 32 degrees (and most of the time it has been under 15 degrees), it is a very easy way to cook.

The only challenge used to be getting the coal started. Back in the old days, this could be time consuming. However, my neighbor has purchased a torch of sorts that can hook up to propane and light coals in 20 seconds flat, effectively removing this downside... Now, you can light your green egg and be cooking within minutes!

The green egg is a grill / smoker and can sear steaks at 750 degrees or you can cook all night slow & low for things like brisket or pulled pork. It's very versitile. To date we've made chicken legs & pizzas, several times each. Britt makes the pizzas, using our vitamix blender to make the dough from scratch, and I brave the elements to cook them. When the temperature warms, we're looking forward to trying new recipies.

A really easy recipe for Chicken wings, drumsticks or breasts that's delicious (green egg or not!)

Put a bunch of brown sugar (like a small bag f

rom the store) and a little salt in a pot, add water. Soak (Brine) the chicken in this for a minimum of a couple hours to as long as over night. I use generic brown sugar / salt. Then, take the chicken out and dry it off. Jewel sells a Carribean Jerk spice that comes in a little pouch, similar to hot chocolate. Take that, empty it into a large freezer bag and proceed to "shake and bake" the chicken. Then grill however you normally woul

d (I recommend the Green Egg, duh). You could pr

obably bake also. I find that the sweetness of the brown sugar and spice of the Carribean Jerk is AWESOME! Give it a try and let me know what yo

u think!

Asleep in the Chair

Have you ever seen a kid sleep through a haircut? I asked that question and was told by the stylist "I've seen kids fall asleep in the chair while getting a haircut, but this is a first."

Kelly hasn't been taking his naps recently, so despite the fact that it was nap time, I decided to take him out for a haircut. Not two minutes down the road, Kelly was asleep in the car... I called Britt and she said, get his hair cut, then if he falls asleep afterwards, bring him home for a nap...

When we got to Sports Clips, there was no wait. So we went in and Kelly didn't wake up while I pulled him out of the car, removed his winter hat and coat, or even when the stylist proceeded to put the cape on, and put him on the booster seat. During all of this, his eyes never even cracked a smidge. So, we began. I held him in the seat and held his head up... We both thought the clippers near his ear, spray bottle in his hair, etc would certainly wake him up! (I had a lollipop ready because I figured he wouldn't be thrilled with what he woke up to).

He didn't wake up at all! The closest he came was when he rubbed his eye as some water from the spray bottle had dripped down his forehead. After his haircut, I put his coat & hat back on, got him in the car seat and drove him home to mama, where he never made a peep. We pulled him out of the car and out of his winter gear, and straight to bed where he proceeded to sleep for 2 more hours. I guess that's the trick to getting him to nap!

Where dem bucks at...

Okay - so daddy's back from the woods, and no deer paid the consequences! Had several opportunities to shoot at deer but decided to "trophy hunt," at the subtle suggestion of Corey's boss, who has a neighboring farm in rural Missouri! Anyways, it was an "ok" trip, that was cursed from the beginning....Thanks Britt!

Corey bought a pop up trailer, which we took to the farm and stayed in for the 3 hunting days... It is really nice, with all the modern conveniences, kinda.

• Heat
• Hot water heater
• Running water in the sink
• Stove
• Refrigerator
  
• king bed & double bed
• lights
• shi&&er, kinda, a porta potty.
• No maid service, FYI.

So the hunting trip had several miscues and it was apparent that the trip was jinxed from the beginning. Let's start with the fact that apparently as soon as I left town, my two children began misbehaving... No sooner than I pulled into STL, Britt called me up upset that I was "on vacation" while she was dealing w/ my bad kids... At this point, I'm positive she put the jinx on the trip, as you'll see...

• The first night we got there, the weather is terrible. Pouring rain and windy as you could imagine. Terrible for hunting. Then, the trailer's 22 gallon water tank drained into a lake for no good reason. It seems the overflow valve had water splash into it while we were driving, it then acted like a siphon to drain the entire 22 gallons, the majority of which was now a lake in Corey's buddy's front yard.... And we had no water!
• Opening day, Corey & I both had shooter bucks & does in front of us, but didn't shoot. Mainly because Corey's boss had a neighboring farm and had spent the night before explaining to us that he would only shoot trophys, essentially. For some reason we thought the guy who we were hunting with would feel the same way, however, apparently, this was not the case. So we passed on the best shot we had at bucks. Great.
• Day 2, Corey & I hadn't seen much. At 10am, a common time to get out of your deer stand, Corey called me to check in. I hadn't seen anything in several hours, so we determined that we'd get out of our stands and go back & have lunch, etc. Well, Corey was in a climbing tree stand, so protocol is that you take a bullet out of the chamber, then lower your gun to the ground on a rope. This is so you are not climbing trees with a loaded weapon. No sooner than his gun hit the ground, a spike buck entered his area of the woods. Now, he couldn't shoot a spike (1 point on each antler, MO requires 4 points or better on one side), so he allowed it to move through, unspooked. Afterward, he called me to explain his delay, as 3 does came into his view. Of course, his gun was still on the ground! So, he raised his gun on the rope, chambered a shell, and they were long gone...
• On that evening (Day 2), I decided I was going to shoot a doe, if the opportunity presented itself. It did.. I had 3 does moving about 150 yards away from me, along a treeline. I was about 20 yards in the woods, overlooking the field they had just entered. I selected my shot carefully, aimed & squeezed the trigger. Immediately, I heard wood crack, which was not good... The deer were 15 yards in front of a timberline, so for the bullet to have hit wood, something had gone wrong. I searched for blood or a body and found neither. Apparently, my bullet had hit a branch on its way out of the woods, and had been deflected. I had effectively missed. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but it generally does not happen to me, as I'm a superior shooter (look out would be thieves!). This was simply a case of terrible luck. I know that MF'in deer shoulda been dead to rights, based on my aiming & careful squeezing of the trigger. Name this quote - "Somebody must have been praying for that fool, cause I swear I aimed right for his (her) head (actually body). " She got away.
• So, now we were on day 3, our final day to hunt. I should mention that Day 3's hunt coincides with Corey & Shana's 7 year anniversary... We were hoping to have bagged deer and been en route to STL by now, but that hasn't worked out... So, now I'm sure Shana's not happy (joining my family). We go out in the AM, Corey doesn't see anything and I only see two "swamp rabbits..." I mean really small does, barely without spots. I may not have a problem popping a deer, but I'm not killing a baby deer! So, I let them go. So, now we have to head back at lunch, pack up the trailer and get ready to take off as soon as the afternoon hunt is over. We were about 3 hours from Corey's house.
• We go out that afternoon and Corey's really giving me the heat about getting back to STL for his anniversary! But, maybe I'm selfish, but I signed up for a 3 day hunt and that's what I want to do! I know, I'm a jerk. So, we go out to a new spot. We have quite an incident in the back of the property, which I won't put to writing, but needless to say it was a typical incident! We see another spike buck, which if legal, we'd have killed. We then sat till dusk without seeing anthing. With just a few minutes of daylight left, we decided to head for the truck. I had officially given up on the hunt. Just as we make a few steps towards the truck, Corey sees a buck! A shooter! I never saw it, so he leveled the gun, aimed & squeezed a shot off. At dusk, I thought we would be gutting a deer. However, after his shot, the deer didn't look injured! We looked & looked and we couldn't see any blood, hair, or a body. What the F. The way the trip had gone up until now, this shouldn't have been a surpise. Britt had been prayin for that fool.

So, here we are, deer-less, and already anxious for next year.

Sorry for the long post

-jason

Our weekend!

This is our first post as well, we were inspired by the Newby's. I know the Tremblay's have been doing it for a while, but they are overseas, out of contact and wanted to share their stories without repeating it to each and every one of us, so it seemed normal. But now that the Newby's are doing it, hell, maybe we all should! I mean no offense, in all honestly, I thought it sounded great. I mean, Britt & I have recently become facebookers and myspacers, so why not one more media to get our name out there!

Okay, about our weekend! With Hurricane Ike, I've been really busy! But when Corey, Shana, Kyle & Jared were in town, my desire was to take off early on Friday... No such luck, I worked till 6pm. We have had a great time though, its great to see Kyle & Kelly interact. Kyle's 9 months older, but they are sooo different. Kyle talks your ear off and has a very active imagination! Kelly, however, doesn't say as much (at least that is in English) but is very skilled with toys! He can put stuff together and "self-play" for hours at a time. Overall, a fun weekend, but with 4 kids and 2 dogs in one modest house, it is a bit stressful. I don't know how the Duggars do it!

That's about it from here, we'll see if this is a trendy fad that falls by the wayside, or if we decide to stick with it! At least we've got a site setup.

Jason, Britt, Kelly, Olivia & Biddle and Abby