tackled 2 simple recipes (sorry, no pix today)

[addicted-to-smoke]

I drove 9 hrs to see family and deliver my dad's Performer in a box (!), after having disassembled it Friday. So I'm in another town and my nephew's having a birthday party and oh by the way they're grilling today.

O really?? Count me in.

I intended to do Mr. Wolfe's wings, http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/other-recipes/orange-marmalad-sriracha-wings/ but substituted Maggi chili sauce, because I knew this crowd wasn't into hot food, http://www.maggi.com.my/products/Pages/product.aspx/47/MAGGI_Thai_Chilli_Sauce

They got compliments, the chicken was cooked well and was juicy but overall, it was too sweet for me. Took over an hour. No clue what the temp was. The chicken wings were huge! Why? I mean, they were BIG, not turkey-wing big, but bigger by far compared to restaurant wings or even frozen-package wings.

Later in the day I then did these bacon-wrapped tater tots, http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/other-recipes/bacon-wrapped-tater-tots/ I bought but skipped the cheese, and when got home couldn't FIND the jalapeños I'd bought. My sis had ONE, and we swapped in some sweet peppers instead.

I delegated the creation of the tots to various others ... we added cream cheese.

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My brother-in-law used his Genesis to cook hamburgers, bratwurst, whole sweet (small) peppers ... while I used his like-new EI (1997) OTG for the wings and later, tater tots. I bought a new Weber chimney; he had none. I bought Weber wax cubes ... I brought Frontier lump with me ... lit a full chimney, which didn't seem enough. I added some extra after a while. Somewhere in there I added come cherry smoke wood chips.

Later, for "dinner" the earlier lump was still going (I didn't completely shut it down) and I added more, up to the top of the grate on one side ... and tossed into the mix TWO more wax cubes, one of which lit instantly (LOL) the other had to be lit by flame. Soon I had a decent fire going on one side, and finally cooked the bacon-wrapped tater tots.

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It was the first time I'd attempted either cook, really ... I have this BAD habit of trying new things before I really understand how to do something previously done ... I used tips from each recipe and swapped in a few things on the fly. My takeaway from the Frontier lump is different than some other (forgotten) brand of lump I'd tried last year ... yeah I got some sparks but overall this took longer to "catch" and wasn't nearly as hot. Yes, I waited until all the lump was white on the edges before dumping the chimney over. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but neither cook I did today seemed to get as hot as I expected, with all vents fully open bottom and top. Both were indirect cooks, etc, with top vent on opposite side from where coals were.