My wife’s sister and niece were in town from Maine, and we were wondering what to do. They were only going to be here a couple of days, and the only tourist attraction they had requested was the Phoenix Zoo. We live in Queen Creek, about 35 miles southeast of Phoenix.My wife and I had never been to the Queen Creek Olive Mill and it’s only 5 minutes away, so we figured “What the heck, let’s go!”. What a great decision!

First off, spring the 5 bucks for the Olive Oil 101 Tour. Our tour guide Laurie was funny, friendly and very knowledgeable. It is clear that the staff don’t just memorize a script – they enjoy this stuff and like sharing some pretty darned interesting facts about olives and how they are made into oil. You get to see the trees, the processing equipment and taste lots of samples as well.

A very interesting part of the experience was “olive oil shots”. We were skeptical, but glad we tried. We were able to taste the subtle differences between Meyer Lemon Olive Oil, Chocolate, White Truffle, Blood Orange and Mexican Lime, for example. Of course, Chocolate was a hit, but I’m partial to the lemon and orange flavors.

The Olive Mill also has a full-blown lunch counter as well as a gift shop and a coffee counter operated by the folks from Superstition Coffee. We didn’t eat lunch but the gelato, coffees and prickly pear lemonade were all spot-on. The store really is quite amazing. More types of olive oil than you could ever imagine. Tapenades that will make you drool, stuffed olives of a variety of flavors, olive oil skin care products – you name it.

Seriously, if you’re an Arizonan I encourage you to take a trip to the Olive Mill in the southeast valley. This makes for an awesome family outing, it makes a great day trip for your visiting friends and relatives too. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Finally, if you’re particular about your ingredients and olive oil in particular – consider using the fine products from the Olive Mill. You can shop online and they ship anywhere in the world.

Tummy rumbling now and need some ideas? The Queen Creek Olive Mill offers great free recipes as well!

Well, Labor Day wouldn’t be complete without some smokey goodness! Wanting to do something different, I threw on some pork chops, rubbed heavy with some “Big Ron Is In The House” rub, from Big Ron’s Rubs. Next, I had some big split chicken breasts. I rubbed some of them that morning with GrillMates Applewood Rub from McCormick.The others I coated well with “Yummy Chicken” spice and herb mixture from Knox Spice Company.

Kingsford Competition charcoal is what I had laying around so that’s what I lit and got perking away. I threw a couple of chunks of mesquite on for good measure.

They smoked away for about 3 hours and then I took the pork-chops off. Chicken was coming along but they were thicker so they stayed on longer.

Chicken stayed on another hour or so. Then I added some more charcoal and opened all the vents up. Started basting with BBQ sauce and turning. basting and turning. Finally, the chicken was done too.

WOW! I have more interviews coming. More product reviews. More company profiles of some really neat companies. I have added some more links on the sidebar – please check out the “Friends” and “Partners” categories.

If you make a sauce, a rub, a cooking device or something associated with outdoor cooking – and would like to have a professional, thorough review done – please contact me! Your review will include links, photos, you name it!I even review coffee (now) and do book reviews as well.

If you have friends who like outdoor cooking, smoking, ‘Que – please send along my link to them or have them follow me on Twitter! Lots of cool things coming, not only here but on the Desert Rat Blog as well!

Well, with success comes change. The Skinny Moose network as been acquired by industry leader OutdoorHub.com.

With that came a re-design of my site. I hope you enjoy!

Dry Rubbed Rat

Looking for great rubs and spices? Check out Anthony’s Spices – an honest to goodness, great Arizona company!

Says Anthony on his site:

This whole thing started a couple of weeks before one of my many Super Bowl parties here in the Valley of the Sun. My wife loves jalapeños and wanted a way to get that spicy flavor on my locally renowned smoked chicken wings. After many attempts and several trial and errors, Anthony Spices was born. Each batch of peppers is carefully dehydrated to lock in the heat, finely ground, blended with complimentary herbs and hand mixed to ensure consistency throughout. These spices are truly a one of a kind blend that can be used to enhance the flavor of all kinds of food. Use in place of table pepper to liven up any dish including chicken, beef, fish, pasta, eggs, vegetables or soups. Mix with dressing, barbeque sauce or soy sauce to make a tasty marinade. Be your own spicy food aficionado, get creative and send us an email explaining your unique recipe using Anthony Spices so we can pass it on to all. The many uses of Anthony Spices are only limited by your imagination!

Anthony has also started a new forum and is running a contest for new members!
“It is a forum that is for our followers who appreciate food and all it has to offer. We are called “Foodies”. Although I consider myself more of a Chili Head…..a person who enjoys spicy food and all it has to offer, I hope you are too. If you want to discuss food and food related ideas and opinions from recipes, BBQ’ing or whatever your desire is….this forum is the place to let it all out. It also offers a place to talk about sports, movies reviews, jokes and much more. Remember one thing, whenever I get up to 200 members, I am going to have a drawing for a gift basket worth $100 to one of the lucky 200.”

Sign up at the new forum here: FORUM

I must say that this past Saturday was one of the most fun and interesting days I have had in a long time. Good friend Harold Hamblin had organized a Dutch Oven Cooking Class put on by Susan and Russ Richins of RR Catering. The Richins are chuckwagon cooking experts and this class served as a great showcase for their knowledge.

Class ran 9:00AM – 3:00PM and was full of solid info, fun, and very well-organized. We learned the nuances of different dutch ovens, accessories we needed to buy, how to season them, how to store them, transport them and more.

The class provides everything you need. All of the utensils are handy, ingredients all sorted per team and placed into totes, we even were provided aprons! The class worked in pairs and each pair made a bread and some other dish.

With the class you get a binder that contains all of the class notes, and also the recipes we cooked in class. There was cinnamon rolls, honey wheat bread, faux braid bread, french bread, cheesy sausage potato casserole, corn casserole, a cabbage dish and more.

If you have any interest in outdoor cooking at all, I highly recommend this class. The Richins make the class fun, the length and participation are spot on, and you learn a ton of valuable knowledge. Methinks Dutch Oven cooking will go well with the smoker!

For more info on their class, please visit their website: Dutch Oven Class Info

You can see photos of our class in action here: Class Photos

It’s funny how quickly we grow complacent. I’ve been smoking about a year or so. I’ve never had anything terribly exciting happen. I light the charcoal, it comes right up to 225ish, and perks away.

A couple of Sundays ago, I had a pork shoulder going in and knew it would take a good part of the day, so I got it going before church, and off we went. No, my house didn’t burn down while we were at church. Quite the opposit, the smoker was almost smoked out. I loaded her up again, and got it going. Soon it was at 170 and time to wrap and crank up the heat to finish it off.

I now through some chicken thighs on as well. Normally, I don’t have water in the water pan. Instead I foil it for easy clean-up, and use a clay flower pot which seems to steady the heat, and let it come up to temp quickly. I had forgotten to put it in today. At some point, during the afternoon, I went out on the patio to check the smoker. Lo and behold, it was billowing thick white smoke. “That’s odd”, I thought. 45 seconds later, the smoker was engulfed in flames. I didn’t panic, but hurriedly went and grabbed a bucket of water to douse the charcoal.

I think the chicken fat had dripped down and added to the fat and drippings already in the water pan. Eventually it heated to a point where it burst into flames.

Everything turned out OK, including the meat, but it was a great reminder to not get complacent. Things happen. Lesson learned, for sure.

Well, life caught up with me a bit, and the Dry Rubbed Rat got neglected. I’m in the process of winding down my hunting blog and hope to revive this blog. Look for more interviews, reviews and recipes soon!

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted. Have been waiting to try something different and finally, I have something to report. A week or two before Thanksgiving I had read in a newsletter (courtesy of Jeff from the SmokingMeatForums) about brining bone-in turkey breast and then smoking it. I must say that Jeff’s newsletters are awesome and I recommend subscribing! Here is the online version of the newsletter I mentioned: Newsletter – Smoked Turkey Breast.

So, following Jeff’s directions I brined the breast for approximately 24 hours in a solution based on 1 cup Kosher salt per gallon of water. I added some brown sugar and some Sagebrush Blend from the WildCheff.

After brining for a day I rubbed down with some canola oil and shook in a bag with some rub I had made up. Then it went into the smoker for about 4 hours at 225ish.

Almost done!

This turkey turned out awesome! Very juicy and great flavor. A couple of points – once the breast reached tem (165) I took off, foiled and wrapped it in towels for well over an hour. Also, I used no wood other than the briquettes and some hardwood lump I had here. I didn’t have any orange wood or apple or pecan, and I wanted the flavor to be delicate and I was worried mesquite or hickory might be too much.