Tis the Season

Had a great day today.  Have been contemplating adding a new service to the Douglas Environmental Solutions offerings and took today to network.  I discussed the idea with some colleagues and had a few "coffee meetings" to get some feedback.  I often get so caught up in something like this that grabs my attention that it really helps to have an impartial 3rd party to bounce the ideas off of.

Today started with the Chamber of Commerce's weekly Breakfast Network.  This week's installment was the last meeting for the year, so I wanted to make sure I could be there to say all my "Merry Christmas's" to everyone - this late in the month, I'm unlikely to see these friends and colleagues again until 2010.  I bumped into a few people who I was specifically interested in talking to as they've been through the startup phases of product launches before and I wanted to see if they were thinking along the same lines I was.

Seems I'm not too far off the mark with this, and confirmed it with a "coffee meeting" with Mark Meincke, a local realtor with Remax.  We intended to have a 20 minute chat about it, but instead talked for about two hours about all the potential ways this new spin-off for Douglas Environmental could go.

As our coffee meeting ended up a lot closer to noon than I anticipated, Mark and I headed over to Fusedlogic for their Christmas/Anniversary Open House - it was a good mixer, as well as giving the chance to listen to Walter Schwabe, their CEO, give a primer on Social Media "2.0" - a great interactive discussion about ways to leverage the Internet to build relationships, versus just using it for blatant marketing purposes.

Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Blogging, Twitter and numerous other technologies were discussed.  It was a very captivating discussion as Walter used examples from the crowd - picking out their websites, discussing strategies relevant to each attendee's specific field.  All-in-all, a great afternoon (even better with snacks, coffees and Christmas Spirits being served!)

Got back to the office in time to catch up on emails and correspondance.  Found out we picked up a $300 vet bill and potentially $2000 more coming in a month or two...  Pets are great! :(  I guess that's it - we'll call that a day.  Tomorrow is Friday, I have the morning to finish up paperwork, get back to a few clients and end the day testing water for a colleague I have now bumped into 3 out of 4 days this week!

EnviroLink: What's this Build Up??

EnviroLink: What's this Build Up??

Pounding the Pavement

It was an interesting afternoon. I went around with some other politically-inclined people and knocked on doors with and on behalf of our MLA, Dave Quest. With all the controversy going on right now, I really wasn't sure what to expect. I guess going into it without expectations was good. There were a few of us that hadn't been before, so we were paired up with people that had done the "door knocking ritual" before.

It absolutely was worthwhile doing this. I must say, it definitely took a lot of people by surprise - politicians knocking on doors when there's no election on. Overall, the feedback was generally positive. We ran into a few nurses that had a lot to say, and given the timing, that's definitely not a surprise. They have a hard and usually under-thanked (if that's a word) job and the last thing they want to hear about is anything that could potentially make things more challenging or less-rewarding...

There were a lot of comments about Ed Stelmach. Some positive, some not so positive, but it was nice to see that there are actually some people out there paying attention. We did get one door slammed in our face - I am a bit puzzled by that... I don't quite understand the reaction. If you're upset about something, and someone is there wanting to hear about it, why shut them off? I would have at least expected a good "vent session" (which we were privileged enough to catch twice today....)

At any rate, it was a beautiful day, the weather cooperated and the people out there paying attention to their community and the goings-on of the government really made it worthwhile. Of course there were a lot of people that had no clue about anything going on, but you have to expect that - its not like this is top of mind for everyone out there. Its just nice to see that at least for some, it is.

Working my way thru new books

For Christmas this year, Chris & Irene got me a gift card for books. I'm pretty finicky when it comes to my reading material, and depending on my mood at the time I go shopping, it could be a business book that strikes my fancy, or something frivolous. Gift cards are safe...

Anyway, I've been fascinated by the concept of smoking meats lately - Carri and Miller bought me an offset smoker for my Fathers Day gift this year and its getting a great workout this summer.

One thing I've struggled with in the past was ribs. They never seemed quite as good at home as at the restaurants and I couldn't figure out why. I have tried all kinds of techniques from boiling and steaming (which I really don't like - you end up with pork-tasting broth, so you KNOW flavour has been lost from the meat!,) direct grilling them over hot coals (excellent flavour, but not always very tender,) baking them, but until recently I never had a lot of success. Now, it seems the mystery has been solved - Steven Raichlen, host of PBS's "BBQ University" has a number of books out that happened to catch my eye.

I'm working my way through them (good thing for the cleansing program or I'd need new clothes again!) and have had a lot of new great flavours and fantastic results! My favourite book so far is his Ribs Ribs Ribs! book. Starting on the first page and working my way through we've yet to come across a bad recipe. He takes you step by step thru the technique and makes it easy. If you've been struggling with ribs, this is your easy ticket to success!

I've posted a link from Amazon.ca below directly to the book. The book is almost free, and the techniques and recipes are priceless - check it out!

1st Run on the New Smoker

Wow - what a new concept. I remember my dad had a purple box-like metal thing that we used as a kid, that's my only experience with charcoal. While I do remember going outside to toast marshmallows over the still-hot coals for dessert, as well as making "banana boats" in that unit, I was WAY to young to figure out how it worked and it was a charcoal grill, not a smoker with an offset firebox...

I preloaded the firebox with about 60 pieces of lump charcoal (as opposed to briquettes) and then fired up my Weber chimney with another 30 or so. Once a grey ash formed on the coals in the chimney, the hot coals were placed on top of the fresh coals in the firebox - apparently this is called the "Minion Method." To me, that lets me add enough coals to get the smoker going for a good 4-5 hours without doing much else to it.

The first project? Carri brought home something she wanted to try for "beef on a bun" - a 3-pack of AAA Sirloin Tip roasts from Costco. Good stuff, but not the "already tender" kind of meat you'd normally have if you were to just cook it normally for a medium rare roast.

I wanted to get my hands on some apple wood to try that flavour for smoking the meat. Searching Google, I came across an ad on Kijiji for "free apple wood" - couldn't resist contacting them, and sure enough, they had just hired a company to cut down a 30 year old apple tree in their yard and figured they'd try to get rid of it themselves rather than paying the company to haul it away. I swung by on Thursday and grabbed as much as I could fit in the back of the Avalanche (ok, some in the cab as well...)

Carri sliced me up some chunks out of a smaller piece of the trunk - she made me 6 pieces that would be roughly 3 inches in diameter and about 3 inches long. I ended up using them all over the course of the 6 hour cook. The roast turned out VERY tender, but in all honesty - a bit "too smokey" for my liking. I think I'll try one or two chunks next time, but for my first attempt with the new rig, it turned out to be a success!



Pulled it off the smoker at 4pm and let it sit for 75 minutes wrapped in foil. Carving it showed me the most-amazing smoke rings I'd ever seen. A deep "purpley" ring went around the entire roast - almost a centimeter deep. We'll be trying this again, but with a little less smoke. I may go a little longer.

The average cook time at 225F is 1.5 hours per pound, so for 6 pounds of roast, that should have taken 9 hours. Due to the fact there is WAY more surface area and WAY less depth to 3 small roasts than 1 large one, I assumed it would take less time. I think it still could have gone a little longer - the internal temp got up to 150F, and it stayed there the entire time it sat foiled on the counter.

That would indicate the meat was still on the "plateau" -this is the temperature at which the meat remains while all the connective tissues are rendered and broken down. At this phase, even though heat is being added in the smoker, the temperature of the meat remains constant and all that energy goes to breaking down that connective tissue. I've heard meat can actually stay at that level for up to 4-5 hours!

Anyone that's ever had a pulled pork sandwich is familiar with the OH SO TENDER meat that results. Next time, I think we'll do a pork shoulder or maybe a pork "picnic" roast, a little more time and a little less wood. All in all, what a great way to spend a relaxing day off!!!

Almost there! Cleansing and Fat Burning System Worked!

After only a few short months, I find myself within 2 pounds of reaching my goals. In late 2008 when I started, it seemed like a pipe dream, that I could shed that much weight and do it in such a short time period... I wanted to be back to 190 by my birthday, which is now just ten days away.

Even a month ago, I was skeptical I could reach it, but looking at the progress, it was a steady and progressive reduction in weight, inches and body fat percentage. The Isagenix system, (referred to as the "Accelerated Program") was designed for me by my coach Barbilee Hemmings. I met her almost 3 years ago now at a networking function. I only wish I'd paid more attention then, so I could have had a better last 3 years.

I'm coming off the accelerated program and moving to a 'standard' program next week, and from there, we'll see what happens. Now that I'm in the right weight range, I'll be more in-tune to looking at myself in the mirror, judging how clothing fits and deciding when I've actually reached my goals. the scale isn't moving all that quickly now, especially since I've added weight training back into the mix. Now that I'm adding muscle, my body composition is changing, I'm just not "losing weight" -which is completely fine with me!

I'm feeling great, have more energy and looking forward to playing ball again this year!

Almost crawling....

Miller is doing so well lately - he's finally over a cold he picked up when he last visited a local playgroup. This weekend, we're enjoying a visit from Auntie Jodes. When she heard that my parents weren't coming up this weekend for a visit, she jumped at the chance to hang out with Miller one-on-one (and Carri was happy for the "break" that provided - as a matter of fact, she's out and about in town right now... something that is much easier to do without a 20 pound "assistant" tagging along.)

After we had Shane and Brielle over for dinner two weeks back, Carri has been bugging me to get something smoked on the bbq for her. Last time, we had a AAA Top Sirloin roast that I dry-rubbed and smoked for about 4 hours using a mesquite smoking pellet kit my parents got me for Christmas. This thing was amazing - SOOO tender, wonderful smokey flavour - the meat just melted in our mouth.

Today's challenge is a bit different - Carri couldn't find spare ribs I was wanting to do the other day, so she picked up pork short ribs instead. Beef short ribs are traditionally done on the smoker, but pork short ribs are a different animal. We're going to give it a go and whip up a homemade bbq sauce to accompany them. They've been sitting in the rub for about 2 hours now, I should be getting them into the smoker around 2:00 and we'll see how they turn out. I figure a little beer basting probably will help keep them nice and moist.

I'm going to adapt a technique from the BBQ Pit Boys - if you haven't heard of these guys, just google them, or even better - search youtube for them. They have a recipe for every kind of meat (even soups) you could possibly try to smoke. (For the uninitiated, "smoking" refers to a bbq technique that cooks food "Low 'n Slow" for long periods of time.) We did some pork back ribs the other day that were on the grill for 10 hours, even chicken takes this long. A lot of people assume cooking for that long would dry out the meat, but simply the opposite is true.

Now that I've got the pellet smoker, I can infuse apple wood, hickory, mesquite or even a Jack Daniels flavour into the meats. I can't wait until summer comes and this can be done a little more leisurely outside. For now, I have to just be satisfied running in and out of the house to our snow-surrounded BBQ.