September 17th, Half-assed NJ fest

polrbehr

OK boys and girls, for those interested I just finished up my little shopping trip, and returned with a nice armful of porcine goodness. Tomorrow they will get lots of love and spend a few hours bathed in smoke and heat, after which the little piggies will be all wrapped up and ready for their trip to Uncle Johns house.

Yes, it's a sickness.

cfrizz

Pics...NOW!

polrbehr

cfrizz wrote: »

Pics...NOW!

Ask, and ye shall receive. (OK so it's a day later, you didn't want pix of raw ribs,
did you?)
Left tray has about 7 lbs of pork tenderloin with a Tennessee whiskey glaze. And the stuff that looks like bacon stretched across the top? Take a guess. I borrowed the idea from John to do them in foil, the resulting liquid surrounding the loin makes for unbelievable sauce if you can save it.
Right tray has about 6 lbs of St Louis ribs, extreme left side of that tray has another 3 lb tenderloin from the original 10 pounder I bought. This one has a simple Bourbon Brown Sugar rub, some pieces of this one will end up with the tray of beans that will be in the oven soon.
I hope I can make it down there with all of this intact... LOL

Jstas

Wait until the briskets get put on in the morning.

Jstas

It's 8 am, shhhhhh!

Don't wake the babies!

txcoastal1

I see a long winters nap in someones future, great looking grub guys...*green with envy*

Enjoy

Jstas

Pork tenderloin ready for the smoker

Jstas

Got about 3 more hours

Paradoxex

I'm jealous for sure. Great weather to boot. Have fun.

jeremymarcinko

I think I can smell it from here! Looking good, enjoy!

heiney9

Yum! Wish I lived closer to the east coast.

H9

mdaudioguy

Thanks John!!! As well as to Harry and Phil and anyone else who provided grub. Back in MD with a very happy belly. Great to put some faces with forum names. Had a great time meeting and chatting with all!

vmaxer

We need some pics.

polrbehr

Can't speak for other people, but for myself I didn't take many pics; I did get an off-axis shot of the KEF speakers Phil brought over (no sub needed), but I guess I was just in a "been there, done that" state of mind. Either that or a chronic state of beef and pork induced euphoria?

To reiterate what's been said for several years now, major kudos go out to John for hosting this, and for serving up a fantastic array of smoky goodness. How he managed to raise the bar again defies explanation, but a couple of pix certainly don't do that brisket justice. On the audio/demo side of the equation, he also had his new in-walls fully broken in and ratcheted up, and people who think Polk can't make a good subwoofer would be in for a treat.

But honestly, all that aside, John deserves high marks for continuing to promote a good feeling of community spirit by hosting these things, especially in a year when things just never materialized for a HQ-sponsored event. It made this one even more memorable, as someone not only stepped up, they hit it out of the park.

Mikey081057

Looks AWESOME... Obviously not a Vegan event...

Now I am HONGRAY!!!!!!!

devani

John,
I want to say thank you for such a great host. it's wonderful to see old faces again..
here are some pics I took. Food was fantastic and the basement setup was great for kids. Polk sub sounded great and really felt like watching at a movie theater...
Polk in-wall speakers looked and sounded great.
you can see that John changed the location of the in-walls at last minute. Can't wait to see when the rack gets built and hope to see Starwars episode 7 without hiccup.

Ginger ale really helped me on the way home.

BlueMDPicker

World class chow! Looks like it was a great time. Congrats, John!

shadowlight

John,

Thanks for hosting. It was great to meet up with some of the folks on the forum. Your inwall setup sounded great.

Jstas

Yeah, I didn't really take any pictures either.

The way I see it, being there is way better than looking at pictures online.

We ended up with a bunch of leftovers again 'cause we ended up with about 18-20 people coming but, by Saturday morning, we were down to 11-12 hence the reason for all the leftovers. Nobody ever takes anything home with them either so I end up with piles of stuff that either has to get eaten by just me, frozen or wasted and that's really annoying.

But thanks to everyone who brought something. I still can't fit anything in the beer fridge or the kitchen fridge for that matter. Special thanks to Phil and Ed for the flatbreads (amazingly good for how simple they are) and the sweaty chocolate balls (these were the only thing people were willing to take home along with the pickles, next time, the whole menu is pickles, flatbreads and sweaty chocolate balls).

The menu included:
John's mom's pickle recipe
Phil's flatbreads (3 or 4 different kinds)
Harry's ribs (2 different rubs IIRC)
Harry's pork loin (3 different ways)
Harry's pasta salad which he forgot about but trust me, it's really good
Harry's baked beans
John's brisket
John's pork tenderloin
Macaroni salad
Cole slaw
Corn on the cob
Ed's sweaty chocolate balls

I think that was everything. If I missed anything, I'm sorry.

Also, thanks to cnh for filling out the rest of bar stock. Fully stocked bar and nobody wanted a drink.

At least we broke open the Metaxa he brought in honor of George.

Really missed George this time around.

It was a fun time, thanks to those who came.

Also, yes devani, I changed the location of the stereo pair when my friend Brian came over to help me pull wires. I needed a strong stud finder for the right side to see where the studs were and found I was able to move them out at the same distance from either side to the next wall space. So I did. Made a difference in sound stage presentation, I think. The left to right and right left movement of sound is very pronounced and the front sound stage, while centered, is very wide. Worked out good.

Jstas

Also, Phil, the lager got bottle on Sunday. Final Gravity was a hair under 7% ABV. Expecting to pick up a full point with bottle conditioning.

polrbehr

@devani, thanks a lot for that extreme close-up of the brisket.
I had just started feeling better about not taking any of that home with me

I was remiss in my earlier post, I forgot to thank the other people who brought goodies for us.

gurot1

Food looks great! The pics are making me hungry

pearsall001

Jstas wrote: »

Also, Phil, the lager got bottle on Sunday. Final Gravity was a hair under 7% ABV. Expecting to pick up a full point with bottle conditioning.

Let me know when she's finished fermenting & good & cold...I'll be over to critique!!!

I would like to offer another round of Kudos to John for hosting another grand time for us grungy misfits. Between John & Harry handling the pork & beef agenda, our bellies were well taken care of. It's a lot of planning & work to pull an event like that off & John does it without breaking a sweat!

Just a great day of shooting the breeze & BSsssssssing. The day went too fast & it was hard to believe that a whole year had almost past since the last one, sheesh time sure does fly. Oh & let's not forget to thank Ed's wife for those luscious balls of his...LOL! You had to be there to appreciate it. And a big thank you to Devani for the pics, otherwise they would have been non-existent. Maybe next year again fellers ????

mdaudioguy

Ha! You guys had my wife cracking up when I read a few of those quotes to her! Fair to say that a good time was had by all! Yes, I got hungry again just looking at those pics... Later, dudes.

mdaudioguy

Oh, and if that was half-assed, I'm even more depressed that I missed the full-assed version...

cnh

Many thanks to John for hosting. The food? Phenomenal! I'm still digesting all that pork, lol Those who said they would show and did not? Shame on you! Polk Audio, Polkfest June? Black Hole, anyone? Seriously, you boys need to get your Hipster Acts together! Nice Ad on the new series in Sound and Vision though! So, at least someone is working!

But, seriously, the great thing about these meets are the people, regardless of creed or ideology they ALWAYS recognise and treat each other as members of a community when they meet face to face. No posturing, no educating, no monkey shines, no ego, just a deep respect and abiding friendship! And, of course, they love laughing, music, drinking and eating. Now, if only they could learn to DANCE, they would fully embody the Zorba life that revels in "appearances" and by doing so gives birth to their "essences" (Kazantzakis).

That one is for you, George, wherever you are!

scubalab

Wow - the food and beverages looked amazing. Would love to get out to one of your get-togethers John! Sounds like it was a great time.