Every now and then, I am impressed to the point of some real commitment to action. This is what happened recently when Mrs. Carlos Butler (the director) asked my wife if I might be interested in joining the cast of "Motown and Mo." I begged off and said I could not find the time to make the rehearsals. One thing lead to another and somehow I said I believed in what they were doing so much I would provide the cast a dinner part on me, Smokin' Jim. So, when they completed the last show at Wadsworth Elementary School, they all came over to the classroom at Freda Zamba, where I hold my outdoor cooking classes for Adult Education, and we had a mighty feast. I am going to share that menu and provide some tips about the preparation of each item. The menu consists of smoked turkey, lightly smoked salmon, twice smoked beef brisket, hickory smoked pork ribs, stir-grilled marinated vegetables, hot crusty Italian Parmesan-garlic bread, homemade ice cream and finger cookies.

The turkey was prepared by first brushing it all over with King's Taste Barbecue Sauce, which is a mustard-based sauce, allowing you to apply before cooking (will not burn like tomato-based sauces). Secondly, I rubbed on plenty of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasonings, and finally, I smoked it slowly in my Japanese Kamado (commonly called The Big Green Egg) for four hours with hickory wood and charcoal.

The salmon was farm-raised and purchased from Sam's. It is always boneless and skinless. I like to get it there because you can always count on it being fresh. It is always about $4.97 a pound. The preparation was an overnight setup in a mild curing solution made of kosher salt, brown sugar, onion powder and balsamic vinegar. The salmon was then fan-air-dried and smoked in my Rib-it™ (Patent Number 5,711,209) at no more than 140 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until I saw the "milk" (This was the oil coming to the surface.) I used electricity with a smoker pan of bay leaves or bay wood. (Grows commonly here in the county.)

The brisket was cooked to death. In that is was bathed in minced garlic and black pepper and smoked in my multipurpose unit with hickory wood for eight hours at very low temperatures. Then, brought back out that morning and cooked in a barbecue sauce (King's Taste mixed with a small amount of Cattleman's), wrapped tightly in aluminum foil for another four hours at 200 degrees.

The Smokin' Jim rib is to die for, some people say. A lot of time goes into the preparation of my ribs. First, I try to find the best rib - North Carolina Pride (Harris Grocery in Bunnell); IBP (Sam's) and Smithfield Lean (the ones I served that night, which I got at Wal-Mart). They were set up overnight with a dry rub of Tony's. They were then brought to room temperature and hung up in my multipurpose-smoker for four or five hours in hickory smoke. While they were smoking, they were sprayed with apple cider vinegar at regular intervals. Once smoked, they were brushed with King's Taste Barbecue Sauce and Cattleman's Barbecue Sauce, and the rubbed with brown sugar by hand. Finally, running them into the broiler or a very hot grill for about five minutes or so finished them off.

Stir-Grill

This is a great dinner party recipe in that it includes all types of veggies and also takes the place of a salad. The stir-grill is a takeoff of the stir-fry. The big difference is the stir-grill is done in a stainless steel basket in my Rib-it™ over a hot propane gas fire. It is done quickly, no more than 12 to 15 minutes and served hot and crunchy. The stir-grill is made up of bite sized pieces of bell pepper (all colors), celery, white and red onions, cauliflower, broccoli, white and purple cabbage, Napa cabbage (if in season), boc choy (if in season), zucchini and any other green veggie your heart desires. These are prepared the night before and marinated in a large plastic container with granulated garlic, dry Italian seasonings and olive oil. Salt pepper to taste. This is refrigerated overnight. Just one hour before the dinner party, I started the Rib-it™ gas united and brought it to 300 degrees. Once there, I poured all the vegetables in the basket and closed the top for eight minutes or so. I then opened the top and stirred the mixture around good and let it go again for another five to eight minutes and then served it!My wife has a simple NO COOK recipe for making very smooth homemade ice cream, so she pitched in and provided some for our dinner party. The cookies were purchased from one of our many supermarkets here. All in all, it was a truly great dinner party.