2009 BBQ in review

So it's been about 5 months with my new weber smokey mountain and with the year ending thought I would post the things I have made in it. I wish I had more time to smoke, but silly things like work get in the way :)

Happy New Year and looking forward to another great year of BBQ!



First racks of ribs to break her in


Corned beef


Kalua pig




Beer can chicken and turkey legs




Apple brined turkey




Turkey legs and smoked garlic




Another apple brined turkey and smoked garlic for Christmas




Herb crusted prime rib




Meat loaf


Lookin' forward to smokin' in 2010!

Healthy Week

So for some reason this week I worked out 4 days in a row as opposed to my normal M, W, F routine. Coincidentally, I have been meaning to post my workout up on the web because two friends have recently asked for it, so I already have it in digital format.

My typical workout:

Monday = Shoulders and Arms
Wednesday = Legs and Back (light day)
Friday = Chest and Back (heavy day)

I do back twice a week as I think it's one of the biggest muscles in your body, but most people don't give it any love, because frankly, you can't see it. All the dudes at the gyms are always concerned about their chest or arms, but really the back is a good foundation for everything you do.

I have geared this workout for one sole purpose...to keep up with my kids...and it works for me (try holding a 30 pound wiggling 3 1/2 year old for any extended amount of time...it's tiring).

This week, in addition to the workout days above I tried a crossfit workout (on Thursday)...good lord was that hard. It's the cardio that ended up killing me, so need to up that a bit in my workout.

Crossfit workout details:

800m run
25 air squats
400m run backwards
25 burpees
400m run backwards
25 pull-ups
400m run backwards
25 swings
800m run

I completed this in 24 minutes and then proceeded to keel over and felt like dying :) Fun stuff though and definitely something to improve upon.

Here are the details of my individual workout days...

Monday (Shoulders/Arms):
Shoulders
· Military press on smith machine (mid-delt) press in front of head down to chin: 2 warmup sets (25’s then 35’s) and 8 sets x 8 reps each (45, 55, 60, 65, 70, 60, 60, 55) weight on each side
· Upright rows with barbell (traps): 8 sets (50,60,70,80,90,70,70,60)
· Rear Side arm lifts (rear delt): 3 sets (17.5, 20, 25)
· Seated incline front shoulder raises (front delt): 3 sets (25, 25, 30)
· Seated dumbbell shoulder press (mid-delts): 3 sets (50, 55, 60)
· Shrugs in squat cage with reg 45 pound bar (traps): 5 sets (225, 275, 275, 225, 135) x10 reps
· Military press on smith machine (rear delt) press behind head until elbows form 90 degree angle: 3 sets (45’s on each side)
· Dumbbell shrugs (traps): 3 sets (80, 90, 100 each dumbbell)

Arms (I superset most of the excercises)
· Curls in squat rack with reg 45 pound bar & easy curl bar: 6 sets (bar, 5, 10, 15, 20) and 2 sets easy curl bar (30 and 35 on each side)
· Tricep pull down with V shape bar: 8 sets (50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 70, 70, 60)
· Seated incline curls & d-bar pull down (palm up): 3 sets (25, 30, 35) alternate with 3 sets (50, 60, 70)
· Hammer Strength curling machine: 4 sets (45, 70, 80, 90)
· D-bar tricep pull down (palm down): 3 sets (60, 70, 80)
· Reverse curls with easy curl bar: 3 sets (25, 25, 25) weight on each side
· Standing dumbbell curl & behind the head dumbbell tricep extension: 3 sets (25,30,35) Alternate with 3 sets (40,45,45)
· Concentration curls on incline bench: 3 sets (35, 40, 45)
· Rope Pull downs: 3 sets (100,100,100)
· Across body dumbbell curls: 3 sets (25,25,25)
· Dips: 3 sets (to failure)
· Hammer curls: 3 sets (25, 30, 35)

Abs
I usually do those mixed in near the end of the abs workout, so in total, I get about 15 sets of different ab things.
· Planks
· Kick outs
· Side bends with 70 pound dumbbell

Wednesday (Leg/Back):

1. Squat Rack (8 sets x 8 reps)
2. Pullups (8 sets 10 reps each)
3. Leg Press (4 sets: 12, 10, 8, 6)
4. Pulldowns (3 sets)
5. Hamstring curls (3 sets)
6. Lower back seated pullbacks (3 sets)
7. Calf raises (3 sets)
8. Lower Back Extensions (3 sets)
9. Quad Extensions (3 sets)
10. Close grip vbar pull downs (3 sets)
11. Calf Raises with dumbbells (3 sets)
12. Wide pulldown (3 sets)
13. Ab workout (from above)
14. Run 35 min
15. Stretch and go home
    

Friday (Chest/Back):
1. Bench Press alternate with Pullups
a. Bench: 155, 185, 205, 225, 205, 185, 185, 155
b. Pullups X 10 reps
i. Regular palm front
ii. Regular palm back
iii. Close grip palm front
iv. Wide grip palm front
2. Incline Bench alternate with Pulldowns
a. Bench: 135, 145, 155, 165, 175, 185
b. Pulldown: 135, 150, 165, 180, 195
3. D grip fly alternate with lower back V grip
a. D grip: 40, 40, 40
b. Lower back v grip: 165, 180, 195
4. Regular Bench dumbbells: 60, 70, 80
5. Incline Bench dumbbells: 60, 70, 80
6. Dips X 3 sets of 10
7. Regular Bench Chest Fly’s alternating with lower back extensions
a. Chest fly’s 25, 30, 35 dumbbells
b. Lower back extensions: use 40 pound dumbbell
8. Incline Bench Chest Fly’s alternating with close grip vbar pulldown
a. Incline Bench: 30, 35, 35 dumbbells
b. Close grip vbar: 165, 180, 195
9. Wide grip pulldown: 165, 180, 195
10. Bench Press
a. 1 set X 20 Reps @ 135
b. 1 set X 5 Reps @ 135 slow and controlled, explode at the bottom
c. 1 set X 20 Reps @ 135
d. 1 set X 5 Reps @ 135 slow and controlled, explode at the bottom
e. 1 set X 20 Reps @ 135
11. Stretch and go home

Chili Peppa' Watah

So we just got back from Hawaii and my father in law is a really good cook, one of the really good things he makes is Chili Pepper Water. This is a staple in Hawaii and I have recently got the spicy bug, so figured I would give it a shot on making my own.

The only problem I had was actually getting the Hawaiian Chili Peppers. I smuggled up some seeds from HI, but then read online that you need bee's to actually pollinate the plant to make it have peppers...kinda hard to have bee's when the plan was to grow the thing in inside year round (love WA).

What to do? Substitute with Thai Chili Peppers. These are slightly hotter than Hawaiian Chili Peppers, but figured it would be good to try, so here is the result...



I ended up making two spaghetti bottles worth and being that you use a couple drops at a time, I have like a year supply.

P90X: First Impressions

So yesterday I started the p90x workout even though I already did my normal 5am workout at the gym, sick, but fun! Today was chest and back, which wasn't too hard, but knowing how many reps the people on the videos are doing gives you a good goal to hit. Chest wasn't a problem, but it definately pointed out my current back workout isn't sufficient enough.

Biggest revelation yesterday was, I HAVE NO CORE! After doing the chest and back workout, you are supposed to do Ab Ripper X and there were some excercises that I couldn't do! This was a nice eye-opening experience as I thought my current core plan was decent...boy was I mistaken.

Also, I don't know if it was the two-a-day workout I did yesterday or the difficulty of the p90x workout, but I was tired and went to sleep about 1 hour earlier than I normally do. I actually got 10 hours of sleep which is 4 more than normal. We'll see how this goes...today is Plyometrics (or as my friend described it: lots of jumping that burns your calves).

Here is my p90x setup (pull up bar is in previous post):

Homemade Pull Up Bar

In preparation for the p90x workout my dad and I built and installed a pull up bar in my garage and it came out pretty sick! It took about 3 trips to home depot and a whole morning of labor, but it was woth it.

I have seen various homemade pull up bars across the net, so this is a variation on those.

Parts:

1 - 1" x 48" galvanized steel bar
2- 1" x 18" galvanized steel bar
2 - 90 degree 1" elbows
2 - 1" flanges
4 - 2" bolts for outer flange holes
8 - 4.5" lag screws
2 - 5" lag screws
1 - 2x6 board
Total = ~$60

If building one of these, remember to take into account the added width of the 90 degree elbows for your 2x6, cause I forgot the first time and was off by about 2 inches. Also, since my dad is like Bob Villa, we made sure to hit 4 different joists, so it should be able to hold me for a while.

Prime Rib on the BBQ!

We were lucky enough to get our Prime Rib from Costco this year, so instead of me messing up a $100+ piece of meat, I get the chance to screw up a $70 piece...woohoo!


Basics:

325 degrees
Indirect heat (duh)
12-14 min per pound

Meat Prep:
I removed the meat from the fridge about 1.5 hours before I was going to throw it on the grill.

Cut 4 cloves of garlic into thin slices and crammed them into the meat, near the fat worked the best as I didn't want to puncture the meat and have juices run out while I was cooking it.


Took another 4 cloves of garlic, ran them through the press and then rubbed it on the outside of the Prime Rib along with my father-in-laws famous salt rub.


Grill Prep:
Soaked some wood chips in beer at the same time I took the meat out of the fridge.
Put a pan of water under the grills where I was going to place the meat.
Get that sucker up to 325 degrees.


By my estimates, it should take about 90 minutes to cook the Prime Rib that we bought, but I have a thermometer that I use which monitors the temp throughout, so once it hits 115 degrees its coming out.

It took a little longer than 90 minutes and here it is right when I was taking it out and of course in my excitement/hunger, I forgot to take a picture of it carved.