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Throwing this out there in case someone has advice …..

I got a smoker this summer and have been having a great time cooking new (large) meals. But my kids are back at college and I can’t depend on my ex. How do you find people to eat your meals?

It’s a weird situation where it’s a huge pellet grill and smoking tends to focus on large pieces of meat, but not everything freezes well. I want to go gangbusters with feasts, just when I no longer have anyone to appreciate it. Anyone know if there is such a thing as cooking clubs, or something? How do you find one or how do you break into one as a single guy?

Fwiw

• kids are back from college today, ex is coming over and ex-FiL
• smoked duck with orange maple glaze
• chicken for those not willing to try duck
• rice pilaf
• arugula salad with toasted pine nuts
• I plan to throw chocolate chip cookie dough in a cast iron skillet for brownies and top with ice cream

I just got back from a 1,200+ mile road trip and Superchargers, especially with the trip planning, made it easy!

However non-Tesla chargers seem to be more common in Connecticut. I went to try one and discovered I don’t have as complete a set of adapters as I thought. What if I need to charge at a CCS charger?

I looked online and the price range is huge. I see a $64 and one close to $300, and several in between. Do you know what the difference is or what I should be looking for? Is there one you’d recommend? Is it even worth it, since Superchargers are everywhere, plus I charge at home, and CCS is likely to go away in a couple years?

I just got back from my first real road trip in an EV: over 1,200 miles in nine days! I stayed with my brother most of it, but did not even ask to plug-in. I saw many destination chargers, but filtered them out.

I charged only at Tesla superchargers. There was always one close to on my way, and I never felt too delayed. My first charging stop was at the Meadowlands, which is apparently a huge mall when they’re not playing football. It was a huge surprise to see the pop up to continue the trip before we were able to find the food court. I did follow the pattern from trip planning, to charge up frequently for short periods of 10-20 minutes, rather than wait for a full charge, and it worked very well. Basically each stop was to grab a soda, maybe use the bathroom, and go, and I always had a couple hundred miles of charge available

There was only one spot where I was worried. After sitting in traffic over an hour with the AC running, I was getting worried about reaching the planned supercharger. I exited to try a different brand, but discovered I didn’t have that adapter. Oops. However in the end, we did make the planned stop with a decent amount of charge left, despite the traffic delay and a couple detours

The final leg of the trip was 350 miles through mostly rural are with fewer super chargers. Trip planner recommended 2 quick charging stops, but by the time we ate lunch, the first stop was more than sufficient. Even in this rural area, supercharging wasn’t inconvenient!

No more range anxiety here it, it worked very well …… although admittedly in urban areas in the northeast where superchargers are fairly common. Still, destination chargers were common and I could have plugged in at my brothers.

Anyone else forget how to use a regular grill? Apparently I can no longer control my heat, and toasting buns are beyond me. Back to the Traeger, I guess

Do you have any amusing stories where you messed up?

I tried Paprika chicken! The jalapeños were the thing: I could smell them from the neighbors house!

Huge hit, very forgiving, and fast, but more of a grill item than a smoker item. My Traeger made it easy and almost foolproof, with the wireless meat thermometer. The recipe has a huge hit with my family! Love that salsa, but if you don’t have much spice tolerance, beware.

This was actually the first time I’ve cooked dark meat chicken with skin on since I was a kid, my teenagers’ first introduction to that, believe it or not. That’s where the recipe falls down. The cooking temperature was perfect for the meat, but there’s no way you’re getting crispy, browned skin with that.

I did set the grill to 365° instead of 350° but that wasn’t enough to make a difference. Granted, I haven’t checked the accuracy of the temperature setting, but it cooks food in the expected time at the intended temperature, and I have confirmed the meat thermometer matches. Next time I use this, I’ll try the last 10 minutes at max temp to see if that helps

Has anyone gotten a good crispy skin from their Traeger? What time and temp? My propane grill gets much hotter, but I really don’t want to use both for one food

Finally an all around success! Helps to be a bit less ambitious and pick something that uses less time.

• https://www.traeger.com/recipes/prosciutto-chicken-breasts

Oink and cluck. I’ve done bacon wrapped stuff before but really like this prosciutto better!

• https://www.traeger.com/recipes/vegetable-salsa-verde

I did have to have help making the salsa, and the sweet potatoes needed a lot more time than the other veggies. I’d never had salsa like that but it was perfect to liven up plain root veggies.

• https://www.traeger.com/recipes/grilled-peaches-cinnamon-mascarpone

Outstanding dessert and easy to put together.

Continuing the learning experience …..

• https://www.traeger.com/recipes/salmon-smoked-avocado-salsa
• on stovetop: https://spicysouthernkitchen.com/pecan-rice-pilaf/
• made this morning: Pineapple Gazpacho
• sourdough loaf (did not make)

Absolutely fan-effing-tastic

But, things to learn…

• I planned ahead and bought ahead! Yay!
• recipe manager generated a shopping list. Yay!
• great recipes, but a lot of work to bring them all together
• but missed one bunch of cilantro
• saved by the meat thermometer! — the import to my recipe manager somehow lost “step 3, increase temperature to 450°”

It really pays to be flexible, and I had compromised and bought pre-made loaves of sourdough. When things were looking late, I served the gazpacho and bread as an appetizer.

The pecan pilaf was not only outstanding, but it was not at all affected by sitting in the pot 40 minutes waiting for salmon! This is a lot of work for rice but I highly recommend!

Salmon was really good (not dried out) especially with that avocado salsa, despite cooking over an hour (30 min at 165°, 15+ min getting up to temp, 20 or so at 450°, 5-10 min oh shit I didn’t allow notifications for the meat thermometer ). Kudos to salmon for being so forgiving!

I found a two year old thread on great smoker recipes on that other site. Where do you get yours and what is your favorite?

Let’s add some resources to the sidebar - I’m not going to blindly add from that other site but will be happy to add anything you find useful, even if just copy-paste from there

The big grill claims to fit 7 racks of ribs…. But three St Louis fills it pretty good. I may need to make the corn bread inside.

This time I planned slightly better, thanks to a recipe app, and generated shopping lists, but …… didn’t get to the store until morning, got a late start, endured massive crowds and got a really late start

This is not the recipe I wanted to follow but it’s the one I have time for: https://www.traeger.com/recipes/all-american-spareribs

Traeger has some great recipes and videos at their website - definitely my first place to look as I learn the ropes (no, not affiliated with them, nor profit in any way. Just a fan).

However when I tried to somehow group or save multiple recipes, I couldn’t make them convenient for a meal - lots of clicking back and forth, too much searching yet again for the same recipe

• trying to print or share - they only send the link, which is not useful.
• “Saving” only worked for one item
• You couldn’t effectively create a meal plan with multiple recipes - no way to assign tasks, combine shopping lists, coordinate steos

Anyone have tips on how to use them more effectively?

I don’t know if my neighbors ar going to love me or hate me - tiny yards all close together so they’re going to smell what’s cooking…..

I have no idea what I’m doing but go big or go home: here’s two big ass pieces of meat (14# pork butt came apart)

First obstacle: how do you pick up a 14# hunk of hot meat? I don’t think any of my cooking utensils can handle that. I didn’t leave room for the tray of Mac and cheese I wanted to add, plus it will eventually be cooked

So, no posts, no comments, not even a description on the community. Are we doing this or what?

Without a description, what should we even post here? Maybe something like “TRACKING INFO WAS JUST UPDATED. MY TRAEGER IS COMING SOON!!!!!”