Tips For The Perfect 4th of July Barbeque

BBQ ON THE FOURTH OF JULYWith the 4th of July only a day away, I know some of you folks are chomping at the bit to get out there and BBQ with your friends and family.  With the Fourth of July falling on Friday this year, most folks will be off of work and likely be either BBQing on Friday or getting it all prep’d & ready for a big Saturday BBQ-fest!

Whatever your plans, use the tips below to throw the Perfect 4th of July Barbeque.  If you have some tips of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments area.

Tips For The Perfect 4th of July BBQ

Be sure to plan ahead for your 4th of July BBQ.

It might seem like an easy thing to throw together a backyard BBQ, and in some cases that is true.  However, if you want to throw the “Perfect” 4th of July BBQ - throwing something together last minute is not the “cool” thing to do.  If you are inviting folks over and wanting everything to go smoothly, you should already have decided what foods you are going to cook, what drinks will be served, appetizers… you know - the whole she-bang. 

If you are going to be having a full day of stuff, you will want to have some games lined up, music and anything else to try and entertain people while the food is being Q’d to perfection.

See what I mean about planning?

And you were just going to throw some burgers on the grill and half ass the rest of it?  **shakes head**  Don’t invite me to your little “BBQ”.

Sharpen your skills, not just your knives.

The last thing you want to do is plan everything to the “T” and everyone get there only to serve them mediocre food.  It is a shame when people get excited to share in fellowship and great food and then leave with a feeling of emptiness and disbelief.  They go home and cry themselves to sleep, and spend the next week wondering why… I mean WHY things went down the way they did.

Eventually they will find new friends, friends that actually deliver when it comes to BBQ.  So do you want to be that guy/gal that doesn’t deliver or the one that comes through and has everyone talking about how KICKASS your BBQ was?  That is what I thought. 

Be sure you do your signature foods, don’t try new stuff when you have to be on point, it could end up killing you in the end.  If you do not feel like bringing your “A” game, see the next tip, it is just for you - we will call it a special super intraweb spectacular BBQ tip of the day… just for you.

**Special Super Intraweb Spectacular BBQ Tip of the Day**

Keep everyone as drunk as possible (if possible).

I know not everyone drinks alcohol - and I won’t hold that against you.  But if the truth of the matter is that you are not up on your game when it comes to the actual BBQ of the foods… then you need to be sure you keep your patrons as drunk as possible. haha  This will make everything taste good… great even.  By the time the party is over, you will be the baddest dude on the block and be known for your killer BBQs and how great your food is.

Smart eh?  That is why I’m the expert and you’re reading this blog post wondering how to throw the best BBQ in the world.  Don’t be sad… it is just how it works.

Dust off your old records & 8-tracks for some good tune’age.

Tired of the new songs on the radio these days?  So is everyone else.  If you pull out some old music, everyone will be hi-5′ing you by the third song.  Everyone loves old music… not SUPER old music, but the hits… from any genre.  Seriously.  Throw on some Eagles and see if everyone in the room isn’t mouthing the words by the end of the chorus.  Crank up some Hank Williams Jr. or Journey and watch the party turn up a few notches. 

Music makes anything better - accept taxes.  Taxes would still suck with a live symphony playing in the background.  But when you are throwing a BBQ - a killer BBQ, you have to have some good music to listen to.  Be sure to stock up and burn a few CDs before everyone shows up.  Or if you have satellite radio - then get it ready to go.

If you don’t know what music to grab for your special occasion - go hit up MusicGoat and find something you like.  With new podcasts all the time, you are bound to find something you like.  Tell ‘em Double D sent ya, he will take care of the rest.

Don’t invite that guy that makes an ass of himself anymore.

No one wants to watch someone throw up on themselves while they are eating ribs.  And along the same lines, no one wants to end up fighting someone at the end of the night because he/she “looked at his girl”.  We all know and have a few of those friends that take it to the edge and then some… or maybe could start fights with a few shots of liquor in them.  Why do you want to jeopardize your entire BBQ & rep by invited this d-bag? 

DON’T DO IT.

Save face before you even half to and let them make other plans… be known for your fantastic ribs, not your a-hole of a “friend” that tried to make out with your wife and ended up getting the cops called.

Be safe & have fun for heaven’s sake.

The whole point of a perfect 4th of July BBQ is to celebrate and have an awesome time.  Sometimes you get to caught up with the whole thing and want it to be perfect… and honestly, even though this goes against my title and some of the tips… perfect sometimes is imperfect.  That’s right, let a few things slide.  Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Having fun is the most important thing - so as long as you are not compromising that rule… you should be ok.  Keep the other tips in mind, but don’t lay it down like the law.  Step outside the box a little and be sure you are safe in doing so.

Drink responsibly and have a killer BBQ this 4th of July.  Oh yeah…

KEEP THE FIREWORKS AWAY FROM YOUR BBQ PIT.  Geeez.  **shakes head**

P.S. - If you are looking for our KILLER BBQ Ribs How-To… look no further…

How to smoke pork ribs for your 4th of July BBQ

Coolest BBQ Shirt EVER!! (Evolution of BBQ)

Saw this shirt on Shirt.Woot.com today - had to share with my fellow BBQ buddies.  If you are a BBQ fan, you will love this Evolution of BBQ shirt…

Buy This Shirt (Evolution of BBQ)

This shirt is too sweet, and I just picked me one up.  But just like everything on Woot… it won’t be around for long at 10$, so if you want it, better get to it!  (hat tip: @zealotonastick)

Spruce Up Your Alley w/ Sunflowers

Our AlleyAround these parts, we have these things called an alley.  Some places we go, people say… A WHAT?  They don’t get it, we try to explain… and it just doesn’t translate.  So we will explain, but forgive us if you have alleys where you are from and we go all third grade on you.

An alley is a road that splits a block of houses in half long ways - so that the garbage man can drive his big garbage truck and pick up the dumpsters of trash.  There are several big dumpsters on each block and you take your trash out to those dumpsters as needed and they are picked up twice a week.  Just imagine (if you don’t have an alley) that instead of putting your trash in trash cans by the street on trash day - you can throw them in a big community dumpster on your block and the trashman takes that instead.

[Read more →]

Eating In: BBQ Ribs, Beans, Potatoes, Salad & Cornbread (Day 6)

Ok… so if you saw our last post, and thought we must be some Southern food junkies, your right.  This one probably tops it even more-so in southern-icity.  I just made that word up.  Thanks.

BBQ Ribs Pictures

This meal is meant to replace a big meal at an eating joint.  Eating joint?  Did I just revert back to the 50’s or something.  Not sure where that came from.  We are suckers for going out to eat (that is why we are doing an intervention on ourselves) on the weekends.  We work hard all week and because of marketing in our lovely USA… we think that the reward is going out to eat to spend that hard earned money on FOOD!  They totally brainwashed us at some point in our lives.  So we knew the weekends were going to be the hardest and so we planned a big meal for the weekend.  It just so happened to be BBQ pork ribs. (go figure, since this is a gardening and BBQ blog).

We also put on some Opa’s sausage (jalapeno & cheese) & armadillo eggs (you seriously haven’t seen our recipe/how-to?) since we had the fire going.  We actually thew some Opa’s on the grill for lunch, wrapped them in wheat tortillas and had a few armadillo eggs as well.  Nice 3$ lunch.

Opa Sausage Fredrickburg (pictures)

Shala had put on a pot of beans when I put on the pork ribs (view the walk-through), I’m not a bean person - but Shala loves them and they will last a few meals this next week for her.  SUPER CHEAP of course.  Anyone who is familar with this merky water will know what’s in the picture below…

Pot of Beans Pictures

And what good is a pot of beans without some cornbread eh?  Nothing… apparently.  Like I said, not a bean guy - so I wouldn’t have a clue how to eat them.  Everyone around here (Texas) eats them on top of cornbread crumbled up.  We love cornbread and for some reason we didn’t really make it all that often - but we have changed that recently.  Cornbread is cheap and with some butter… oh man.

Cornbread pictures

Since we are an equal opportunity lender, Shala got beans… I get a side to make it even - potatoes.  I love fried potatoes, with onions, garlic - bacon… cheese.  Yeah, I eat it mostly because it is so healthy.  I’m all about health.  Fried health.  Speaking of health, we picked a fresh salad from the Aerogarden - once again, the aerogarden is kicking butt and the salads are awesome.

Salad Greens from Aerogarden Pro200

Tomorrow will put us at 1 week without the monster we call eating out (or fast food).  We planned out our week while eating dinner tonight.  We have so many leftover ribs - so that will be peppered in throughout the menu.  $12.30 for the ribs (13 ribs on the rack - so $1 each is fine).  We ate a total of 3 ribs, so $3 in ribs, 1 potato ($.20), beans ($1 - but probably two more meals out of it), salad (free), sausage ($2.99 - we actually ate it at lunch and saved the ones from dinner for lunches… so we aren’t going to count it in this total), armadillo eggs - $2.  So our total… $6.20

Not bad.  Considering if we went to Outback or something like that locally - it would have set us back $50 easily.  One week almost done with… bring it on!

Double Danger Barbeque (BBQ) Tips: Chill Out

Back in January we spent our weekend in a small town, with some family, some cold weather and some good food.  A perfect storm.  I volunteer’d my BBQ services since we were already going to be there and honestly, is there a more economical way to feed a ton of people?  No way. Well… maybe sandwiches.  But still.

We are in a recession people.  What a perfect time to BBQ!

BBQ WHEN IT IS COLD!  WHY NOT!

Anyhow, I extracted a very good tip to share with everyone, but yet I forgot to pass it on…  Until now.  And it is one you would never think of. 

Some of the best BBQ can be done in cold temperatures.

It’s true!

In the Summer sometimes you sit around and fight the fire all day - trying to keep it from getting super hot.  Winter or early spring provides you with cooler temps and honestly - it makes for some good cooking.  I’m not saying you don’t fight the fire still - but it seems like your temp stays down easier and what is better than gathering around a fire when its cold?!?

Gathered around a fire with some cold beer of course. 

When you dont’ even have to have ice… sign me up.  Seriously though, don’t pack away the pit too tight come winter.  You will be pleasantly surprised.