If done right I love smoked meat!! As a kid the only thing I can remember smoked was salmon which may still be my favorite. Today we had two briskets that needed to be smoked and a whole turkey that I wanted to try. I have to say they both turned out wonderful! The brisket and turkey were smoked for hours after having thawed overnight. In the turkey I put a whole onion and about 6 cloves of garlic covered it with bacon. The brisket I covered in a cajun/steak seasoning rub. While the smoking process was going using sassafras wood (fruit wood works well too) Mtn Man would slather them with a vinegar/water/butter mix every so often.  Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson All Photographs Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson

Mtn Man decided to smoke some lamb today. We have had some bad experience with mutton in the past but today that has changed our minds about lamb. It is a really rich meat but was so tasty! This leg piece and lamb chops were smoked for about 7 hrs. Really nice crust and moist meat! Served it with a sweet potato and spring mix salad! Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson All Photographs Copyright © 2014 M.E. Masterson

Both of us ended up with a head cold. Doggonnit anyhow! Hubs caught it first and I thought maybe I was gonna have to take a trip with him to the Doc. Under much protest we waited one more day and he seems a ton better today! He is really prone to pneumonia and I was afraid it was droppin into that zone from all the hacking I was hearing everyday! Then yesterday it hit me like a ton of bricks, so today we are taking it a bit easy. My throat last night felt like a sheet of sandpaper but it is much better today. Hopefully, we are on the mend. And hope FIL don't catch it! FIL returned this morning as it would have been really late last night and our road is not nice when it's been rainin. 8 miles of mud and muck. Most people around here don't like our road on a good day! When he gets here it is always a whirlwind of excitement. He always brings lots of goodies for us and this time was no different. While he was home he had smoked a pork shoulder and guess what's for sup...

I drive by this tree coming out our 8 mile driveway. As I gaze upon it, leaves me wondering if some little girl had a swing on the lower branch? If maybe this tree had a family sit under it to eat their lunch? If this tree could talk what stories it would have to tell! The antelope have moved in for the winter. They are a bit scared but they sure are pretty, maybe I will get the privilege to see their babies when they are born. I have this old pair of boots that did their job for me. I couldn't just throw them out so like my granny used to do I decided to make fence post ornaments out of them. Granny used to take grandpa's corked logging boots and make planters out of them and they would sit up on the fence posts for all to see. She had lots in the yard! Today I thought we would smoke some deer meat that I had thawed out....we slather it in vinegar/butter mix that gives it that golden look and keeps the meat moist on the inside! It should be yummy! Looks like th...