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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. Oreo and Reese's PBC are 50/50 for me. I've tried the Cookie Jar, the Royal flavors, etc. Too much. Oreo and Reese's are just the right blend of mixins and ice cream. I think the flavor of the month in March is the Mint Oreo. Also finominole.
  2. These murders occurred several years before I arrived on the 40 acres, and I vaguely remember it being in the news when Springsteen was arrested, but I never really paid much attention to it. That being said, I picked up "Who Killed These Girls?" by Beverly Lowry last summer. Great read. The book does a solid job of conveying the thought processes and influences of all involved parties including the suspects, the family members, the police, the DA. So many different factors that went into the decisions, but the takeaways I got were how shoddy the police work was, how much forensics and crime scene investigations are now compared to then, and how influential the media and the desire to find ANYONE guilty was on the investigation and subsequent trial.
  3. This is so true. There are a number of legitimate restaurants that cringe playing the delivery game because of the hit on quality that they see when food sits. It affects their reviews and customer satisfaction, and they don't have any way to impact it or improve it. When a customer picks up food from the restaurant, they see that it's hot and fresh. So, if it gets cold or soggy on their 30 min drive home, they seem to understand that's on them. But, when they're paying UberEats to make that 30 min drive, they somehow expect the food to be perfectly fresh and piping hot and take it out on the restaurant when it doesn't hit those marks.
  4. It's hard to give it an exact number since we rolled it in to the initial build. I own a construction company, so I did it myself (no GC fee), and a lot of the work was done by my employees (masonry, countertops). All the stone work went into the masonry budget. Same with electrical and plumbing. I spent $8K on appliances (refrigerator, griddle, burner, charcoal grill) plus stainless cabinet fronts. I'd say the outdoor kitchen was $20-25K give or take, excluding patio cover but including associated masonry work, fire pit, etc. Like I said, you can get a pretty nice setup, including foundation and cover for $35-40K. They do tend to collect dirt and insects. But, I still think it's worth it. I keep knives, platters, etc out there and I like not having to go back inside to wash them.
  5. It's just regular 2-1/4" patio stone (limestone). I had my mason cut it to random sizes. We used a colored mortar (Eldridge Buff from AHI) on both the patio stone and the stone veneer.
  6. Good point on the dishwasher. Same as the garbage disposal. If you're tied in to your sewer line, do it. It's a pain the in ass hand-washing and/or dragging everything inside to clean.
  7. From the perspective of what to get, go with what you know / use from a cooking standpoint. For me, I bypassed the gas grill and went with a built-in charcoal grill. Get an outdoor rated fridge. They're expensive, but if you go with a cheap one that's not rated for outdoors, you may be replacing it every few years. A sink is a must. Small electric on-demand water heater as well. If you have the flexibility to tie in to the house's sewer line, consider adding a garbage disposal. Run plenty of power, too. I added a griddle and a big power burner. Get plenty of under-cabinet storage if you have the room. TV / surround sound goes without saying. That's a healthy budget, and you should be able to get something pretty kick ass. From a brand perspective, there's lots to choose from. Lynx is popular, but expensive. We went with Bull and have been very happy. Bought everything from Four Seasons Outdoors in Driftwood. The owner Will is a good dude and can really help with product selection. I think they do design and even turnkey construction as well now. We had a warranty issue on one of the burners of the griddle, and they took care of it including pro-actively replacing the other two burners that would have eventually failed. Regarding construction, make sure it's either CMU or metal studs. DON'T let anyone use framing (even pressure treated). Consider finishing out the interior of the cabinets if they're not self-contained units. I regret not doing that. The inside of my cabinets are just raw masonry. Not visible to others, but stuff gets dusty when stored in there. I went with galvanized countertops to save money and to match our aesthetics. It goes without saying, but make sure your countertops are durable and won't get too hot (avoid dark colors) in the sun.
  8. Rocha's El Catan Bar & Grill in Laredo serves it. Pretty damn good. Only restaurant I've every seen serve it on the menu.
  9. Also, when we kayak the Devils River, we bring space bags. Wine-in-a-box without the box. Tie a length of paracord to it when we stop for the night and drop it in the river to cool off. Cab in a bag tastes amazing out of a coffee cup.
  10. Captain Morgan and Sprite. Tastes just like cream soda.
  11. I had a 94 YJ. 4-cylinder. Mowed eleventy billion yards between the ages of 12 and 16 and paid cash money for it brand new before my 16th birthday. I wish I could have pulled off keeping it as a second vehicle. First sign I was going to sell it was showing up to my scholarship interview my senior year of HS covered in sweat from sitting in Houston traffic with no AC. Second sign was taking my girlfriend (who's now my wife) on a date that summer and getting caught with the top down during a torrential thunderstorm with both of us soaking wet. Final straw was orientation at UT and getting my ass whipped by the headwinds and hills on 290 headed to Austin. Paid $14K for it. Put nice tires and wheels on it. Sold it three years and 24,000 miles later for $18K.
  12. I'm sitting this year out. Putting in a pool and guest house, so my backyard is a wreck and my water is shut off to the garden. I haz a sad. On the plus side, I'm going to go ahead and go full underground irrigation in the garden when we re-do the lawn and landscape irrigation in the back. So, I got that going for me. Which is nice.
  13. He's messed up like a snake in a lawnmower That boy could screw up a wet dream I'd bang her like a screen door on a shrimp boat in a hurricane
  14. Agree 100%. We did this with our two kids two years ago and it was awesome. Split a great house with friends and avoided the long lines. We were at Breck, so it was still somewhat crowded, but way less than our previous trip there.
  15. I can't argue with that statement at all, and perhaps it's true, but every time I've seen her she's been stone cold sober and loving some Jesus.
  16. Do you remember the welder's name? If he's from Joaquin, there's a >50% chance he's related to my wife.
  17. I had to re-watch this a few times. Looks exactly like my wife's cousin. However, she's strict East Texas teetotalling bible-thumper, so the odds were slim it was her. And, yes. Wheelhouse.
  18. We damn near went this route. My parrillero buddy had one already built with legs and whatnot. When the guest list grew (except for @deadshank whose invite got lost in the mail, evidently) and we added the second cabrito and the chickens, I went with the parrilla style. Just means I need to find another reason to try this alternative method. Please do give it a spin once that fire pit is ready and report back on your pending cabrito iron cross success.
  19. Yep. We did just over two hours on the belly side. Then, flipped them and did a little less than an hour on the back side.
  20. Yeah. Pretty much. Same as a deer. Only difference being it was broken down after it was cooked. I worked on the shoulders and hams and kind of broke those down further into bite sized chunks. My buddy carved up the ribs. I didn't get a pic of the tray with the shoulder meat, but it looked a little like pulled pork.
  21. I mentioned this in the "I'm cooking for a lot of people" thread, but figured it may justify it's own home. We hosted a pachanga at our house this weekend for my 40th. Ended up with about 90 people. Probably 60-30 between adults and kids. I did four briskets. We grilled a dozen chickens. We also roasted two cabritos. They were the star of the show. I'm a gringo, but I had help from an Argentine buddy. It turned out damn good. Will do it again for sure. Here's what we did: First, I got a goat. Two actually. Picked them up Friday from Johnny G's off Manchaca. These guys were a little over 17 lb each. They were still kinda frozen but fit nicely in a 120 qt cooler. Stacked ice on em for the day. Saturday morning, I hung em up in the garage and let them thaw a bit. We built a little half wall with some stone I had laying around and rounded up some red oak from my back hillside. Got the fire going mid morning. The weather was glorious. The beer was cold. I built two parrillas. I thought my design was great. It actually sucked. I made the legs collapsable with bolts and pins for easier storage. The pins sheared when we tried to level the parrillas with a sledgehammer. Hence the vice clamps. Oops. Also, I already know that I suck at welding, so let the fabrication criticism commence. But, hobby welding's like golf and sex. Even if you're no good at it, it's still pretty damn fun. We started with a bunch of spatchcocked chickens to figure out the heat. My aggy Argentine parrillero buddy. He's awesome. For aggy. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He's also a damn fine cook. His in-laws own a catering business and he's good and efficient and knows what he's doing. Time to prep the cabrito. Salt. Pepper. Some olive oil. On to the parrillas. I learned a lot here. Coals under the hams. Coals under the shoulders. Not much under the ribs. Murphy the dog approves. We were thinking about two hours. Ended up being closer to three. That meant we pulled them off after dark, so I didn't get any good money shots prior to cutting them up. Also, I got pretty drunk and forgot to take more pictures of the finished product. I think my wife took a bunch, but I'm too lazy to go ask. Lots of folks kind of gathered around while we were butchering them and ate pieces as they came off. The mini-tomahawks with rib meat and backstrap / tenderloin was awesome. Kidneys were pretty good too. But, the shoulders and hams were legit. Put some homemade chimichurri sauce on them over a fresh corn tortilla, a bit of diced onion and some cilantro. Cabrito heaven. Brisket did not suck either. We had way too many leftovers and sent everyone home with meat for days. I got the meat sweats. Ate leftovers all day Sunday too. The end.
  22. This right here. If you're in a hurry, get a green chile burrito from any Blake's for breakfast.
  23. Our chickens free range during the day unless we're out of town. I usually let them out before I leave for work at 5:30. They are fairly easy to put up in the evening. One of the kids usually just has to go out there and shut the door. They tend to put themselves in the coop when dusk falls. We occasionally have to entice them into the coop with dried meal worms. We had been over two years without any predator related casualties until October. We lost three in one week to what I think ended up being a fox. We're out on a few acres in Dripping Springs.
  24. I hear ya. We finally pulled the trigger in 2018 on some land. Just a few hundred acres, and not my ideal setup, but it's a blast. Split it with my pops. However, I still take advantage of friends with property for activities (like the above noted duck hunt) that we can't do on our place. But, ours is great for shooting a few deer, hunting pen-raised quail, and generally screwing around outdoors. To your point, my kids are at the ideal age to actually enjoy that stuff. And, hopefully, I can go against my own advice and add a boat to the mix in the next few years.
  25. Ranches are like boats. The only thing better than owning one is having a good friend that owns one.
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