Welcome!

Thanks for coming to my site and poking around a little. I start this blog by being as transparent as possible. I'm not a chef or championship barbecuer. I wasn't born into a family of barbecuers, nor did I grow up in an area where seared meat cooked outdoors over charcoal or gas was an every-Sunday event. My father grew up in Kansas City and its environs and always loved to eat barbecue, but I don't remember cooking out much as a kid.

Growing up, my family had a red charcoal grill, I remember, with a little window on the front which immediately smoked over, rendering it completely useless. I'm guessing it came from a 1970s-era Montgomery Wards or Sears. It spent most of it's life in our little aluminum shed until it was replaced sometime in the 90s by a George Foreman Grill. So to say that I'm not from a strong barbecuing tradition would be an understatement.


Even I, getting into the world of smoked and sauce meats late in life compared to some others, can still make good barbecue. And I'm not from Tennessee, the Carolinas, Texas, Kansas City or any of the other meccas of barbecue. I live in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., in a 70s-era home, on a postage-stamp sized lot. So I'm not coming at this with a lot in my favor. But I have been able to do a bunch of online research, eat a lot of different barbecues all over the country for the past couple of decades, build a great little smoker, modify it myself without doing any irreparable damage to my body, and even make some pretty dang good barbecue despite my various historical, cultural and geographic challenges. This blog is to celebrate the rest of us guys who'd like to do it well, but are more than a little intimidated by everything there is to learn and do.

Here's what I've learned: with some effort, a lot of research, a good amount of patience, and about $400, you too can put out some good food.

Here's my first: