KismetKamado

So for the challenge this month, I figured I should pay homage to my beloved Cowboys. No, not the Dallas ones….the University of Wyoming Cowboys. So Cowboy Beans it is…. Started off cooking some turkey bacon to have for later. Sautéed extra lean ground turkey, hatch chiles, serranos and onions. Added in the turkey bacon. Then the beans and brown sugar, mustard and BBQ sauce. Let it simmer. Added some chile flake to bring it up a bit. And some Meat Church Holy Voodoo. Thickened up nicely. Simply dished up. Not sure the Cowboys would approve of my turkey substitution, but this was quite tasty.

@Golf Griller - I love the direction you went with the college team match-up! That was an excellent way to go about doing your challenge cook! Everything looks wonderful! Team GG really knocked it out of the park with this cook! Excellent entry!

Looks mighty good to me - I wouldn’t be crying about that. Excellent job with those - and healthy to boot! Nice “kick off” for the challenge entries!

What a fantastic celebration story! Looks like that crash course before she left really paid off. Such a peaceful cooking spot, too. The meal looks amazing. Outstanding entry!

I joked earlier this month in the challenge discussion thread that I would have to quit my job in order to have something to celebrate, or the time to celebrate it for that matter. I guess if I can’t celebrate quitting my job, I can celebrate still having it here 18 years later from when I started - surviving several major downturns along the way - and last years shop shut down as well. Had a simple, but very late night cook on Saturday night before an 8 hour trek on Sunday to spend this week working from North Dakota. Figured it was do or die time if I was going to get a cook in. Nothing wrong with eating at 10 pm, right? Fired up the Big Joe since we are in summer season and hang out on the lower patio. Some simple roasted potatoes going on. Added some green beans once they started getting closer to being done. Then a couple of steaks going on. The husbands plate. I wasn’t really thinking and didn’t snap a picture of mine. Figured I would let the Big Joe burn off overnight so I could thoroughly clean it in the morning before heading out. Underestimated the amount of coal and vent settings and throttled it back too much. It was still cruising around 250 when I got up. Oh well, at least I’ll have a project to do when I get home this weekend.

Wow! That story is sad and happy all at once. Your celebration cook looks amazing and I am glad you got back up and running. Excellent entry!

Those tacos are definitely a labor of love. Never attempted to make them myself, but do occasionally enjoy them from a local restaurant that only makes them on Saturday’s. Great entry!

Can’t think of a better reason to have a delayed Father's Day meal! She’s beautiful! The meal looks pretty great too! I really like the idea of that cream sauce.

Sorry for the late reply. I probably would have wrapped. Hope it all turned out ok.

Great story and great looking pork. “cat about to give birth mode”…. Lol.

Oh man - that looks so good!

Amazing! Stunning! Wow! Double Wow!

You’re going to have to keep us posted @Scott Roberts! I was thinking about firing up my 360 today and putting some smoking wood on just to have the aroma in the air. Did kabobs on it last night. Love that thing! I’m still so happy for you that you scored that beauty for such a great price!

@ChadBrown504 Personally I wouldn’t give much, if anything, for that unless I already had a BGE and needed the parts. You will spend a lot to get it operational and not have any warranty.

Lol - I think you have cracked the code. Just find a way to label every future purchase as an accessory. Pizzas look picture perfect! Would never know it was the first attempt.

Welcome @Omie! I’m not sure what it is, but you may want to do some searches for Imperial kamados which may answer some of your questions. You do have to be careful with these older kamados to keep your temps lower and in the smoking range. They can’t handle higher heat.

Welcome @Wardy! Glad to have you here with us.

What’s the deal with the cardboard, @CentralTexBBQ?

I almost always use a drip tray (think round stainless steel serving tray with a small lip on it) on my deflectors to catch grease, but lots of people don’t do that. I wrap mine in foil so cleanup is easy. Also, if you put a slight gap between the drip tray and deflector, the drippings won’t burn. Many people use small copper pipe elbows laid on their side for this. Or you can simply just roll into a ball and smash some small pieces of aluminum foil to make the spacers to set the drip tray on to make the gap. Seeing @GrillnBrew’s post reminds me that I also have a metal table near each of my kamado’s as well that I occasionally use for this purpose too if it isn’t tied up with other stuff.

Welcome @Pauliner Please stop by the introduction thread and tell us a little bit about yourself and your interest in outdoor cooking.

Welcome @amieon! I have a large square paver brick on the ground next to each of my kamado’s that I use to set my hot grates or stones on. Probably not a good option if you have young kids or inquisitive pets though.

Happy Birthday, @BURGER MEISTER! That’s a wonderful gift.

Welcome @KevinR! The slow roller was specifically designed for the KJ and part of their sales pitch was the engineering that went into it. Don’t know if it would fit, but given the bowl geometry is almost certainly different, not sure you would see optimal performance if it did (if the engineered design is really as key as they promoted).

Good luck, @GotMeat! You got this! Getting signed up on the Guru is a “grate” way to get started. Lot of great people and information here.

Having never committed this atrocity, I wouldn’t know……. Hopefully someone has some input for you. Would the question be not how long, but even “if” it would be good to use? I got some charcoal once that was just absolutely worthless and tried multiple times over many months to use it and it never would get hot. I got it for a steal I think because the vendor had too much for too long. I saw some at another vendor in town sitting outside on pallets, and it wasn’t a common charcoal around here. Anyway, I wondered in the back of my mind if it hadn’t gotten wet at some point because I had never experienced that prior and haven’t since.