Hooray! Hooray! The first of May!

Here's one for Beef hindquarter cuts: http://www.askthemeatman.com/hind_qt_cuts.htm

And for Beef forequarter cuts: http://www.askthemeatman.com/front_qt_cuts.htm

also, anybody have any good veggie ideas for the grill? my standbys are corn still the husk, soaked for an hour or so in cold water, and asparagus or eggplant marinated in a little oil and garlic + kosher salt... nice and easy but getting a little dull.

If you like mushrooms, grilled portobello caps with a brush of olive oil + salt & pepper are great.

I think beets, rutabagas, and parsnips would grill up nicely, though they would take longer than asparagus.

Green beans work nicely -- you need to build little rafts with bamboo skewers to keep 'em from falling in, but the results are good. Peppers are a standby at our house -- get them nice and burned on each side, skin them, make a yummy salad. Tomatoes are nice as well -- slice them in half, put the cut side on the grill first, then flip them and season the open side with oil and garlic (and parmesan, maybe).

I did my first beer-can chicken of the year on Saturday -- it's the closest thing to fool-proof that I know in grilling. Rub bird, shove half-filled beercan up bird, place in smokey barbeque for an hour and a half. Gorgeous. We've got a good supply of plum wood, which is nice -- heavier smoke flavor than most fruit trees, but lighter than hickory.

I started the hot side of the grill on high for about 10 minutes, with the smoker pan on it, until things started smelling of smoking hickory goodness. Then, I turned the heat down and put the meat and drip pan in place, and used a wad of foil to block the hot-side lid vent. After 20 minutes, I added some damp shavings to the smoker pan, just to keep things going. I figure I'll check every 20-30 minutes for a few hours. It's smelling pretty amazing at the moment.

http://static.flickr.com/59/170936092_b96f2857a8.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/63/170936098_f8a3e884d8.jpg

I never wait 'til May anyway, but did less winter bbqing this year than usual (nothing after Christmas, when I did my smoked bacon and egg bagel sammiches) because of health and master's thesis issues. But beautiful weather today, and it was time, so: had a bunch of char (freshwater fish similar to trout but a little finer in flavor and bigger as well) and stuffed them with chopped up bacon that I had fried with the Scarborough Fair herbs (in a 3-3-1-1 ratio), some Old Bay and butter; coated them with the herby butter and bacon grease mixture, and smoked them with a mixture of oak and plum wood at 250F for a little over a half hour (basting with the herb buttergrease once at the halfway point). Oh man. Ohmanohmanohman. Will do this again, especially as I erred on the side of caution and took the fish off maybe 5 minutes too early (better than 5 minutes too late!)