Pulled Pork Fumble Converted into a Lumpia Touchdown

I recently replaced the gasket on the Big Green Egg and realigned the lid. I had barbecued some chicken and fish and all was well. But my normal vent settings were not producing the same temperatures for a low and slow smoke. I know this because I set up a pork butt smoke for an overnight cook and two things happened - the temperature was hovering around 300 F when I went to sleep and I actually lost the fire sometime during the night. I woke up early to this fiasco, regrouped and the pork butt was done at 7:30 am. Unfortunately it's excursion above 300 F turned it into a roast instead of the usual sumptuous, "fall apart in your hands" pulled pork goodness. What to do with over 5 pounds of roast pork (when your wife - and sometimes your kids - doesn't like roast pork)... I immediately cubed the meat in preparation for making the next batch of lumpia. I got around to making the lumpia this morning - great save!!! I can say this because La was eating the lumpia up!!! I love this Southern twist on a Filipino favorite! Or it is just Hawaiian? ;)

Plunger Fly

I cannot take credit for this design - I saw a post Vlad over in the Boston area had put up and decided to give it a try. Not the easiest fly to tie - actually it was a pain in the ass. This should get the neighborhood kaku pretty excited. Too bad it's been raining cats and dogs...

A Day up at Haleiwa and Pupukea

We went up to the North Shore today to hangout and checkout a plant sale (at a spectacular garden - for those pictures checkout my other blog - www.compulsivesucculentsandpottery.blogspot.com). We had breakfast at Cafe Haleiwa. Burned some time at the North Shore Marketplace And after the plant sale/garden tour, we had lunch at a Kono's (pulled pork place - it was good, but my smoked pork is better ;) ) And more of the ubiquitous chicken - these guys are the real rulers of the earth (or at least these islands - such is the destiny of any creature that can/will eat a cockroach). Great day up North!!!

Skunked Again!!!

Short hike and fishing trip. Big waves, dropping tide - no bites. Still had a great time!

Earth Day 2017 at the Waikiki Aquarium

Earth Day!!! I love their Tridacna clams!!!!

Cutting Ika for Bait

We ran out of cut squid so it was time to replenish. Now if I can just catch something...

Kauai for the Day

My office was on Kauai for the day for business. There are probably more chickens on Kauai then there are people. This guy wasn't even afraid of me when I was taking pictures - almost the complete opposite like "what the F#^k are you doing on my turf?!?". Got lunch at a saimen place. And at the airport, they were acknowledging that this is the Year of the Monk Seal. I wish I could have stayed longer and had the family out - next time!

More Smoked Salmon

We had several people over for Easter. And that meant making barbecue. And that meant fixing the Big Green Egg (that I have been procrastinating on for quite some time). I ended up fixing the alignment and changing out the gaskets. And this all took a long time (a lot longer than I thought). After all that it was time to smoke some salmon and grill some chicken!!!! I wasn't able to get after shots - everything got eaten before I could shoot. Here are the befores - Happy Easter!!! The Big Green Egg is back in action!!!