The Smoky Mountain

Another successful samoke! No ribs this time... those can add up pretty quickly. Instead, I smoked five pounds of pork tenderloin, three large stuffed fatties, and 28 mice. Everything was perfect! I shredded the tenderloin and added the liquid it had braised in for its last hour of tempering. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth goodness!

I found a great finger food: the stuffed fatty. It's pretty simple really. I flatten out a roll of Jimmy Dean Hot sausage (this will go a whole lot easier if done on a sheet of waxed paper), add a bead of cream cheese the length of the fatty, then top it with various things, like mozzarella, cheddar, peppers, onions, sauces, bacon, pepperoni... just whatever sounds good together. My boss had given me a large jar of home pickled peppers! (Best I've ever had) So I laid those out over the cream cheese, added some large sauteed onions, cheddar and mozzarella. Then I rolled those up, sealed the outer sausage up real good, and set them in the smoker until they reached 170 (approx 3-4 hours, if you can keep the cooking temp around 225-260). Then let them set for a little while, and slice them up. Aaaahhhhhhh.... droooooooool. The only problem with them is that they go almost as fast as the smoked mice.

Put all these together with a side of baked mac and cheese, corn, a salad, and some bread, and you've got yourself a pretty good meal.

Now, what to do with those leftovers...

(Special thanks in advance to Paula Deen for the inpiration)
In a sauce pan, heat a can of drained black beans, a can of drained red beans, a small (or large, or medium) can of green chilies, a half a can of stewed tomatoes, kosher salt and pepper (not kosher). Simmer until all the fluid is gone, then smash them all together into a paste. (If I had a food processor, I would see if I could do it in that.)

On a tostada shell (which I made using my brand new... and now often used... deep fryer), spread a scoop of beans, then pulled pork, tomatoes, sour cream, and maybe cheese. We didn't have any lettuce or guaco, or we would have added those, as well. (I'll bet those pickled peppers would have been good. Too bad I used the last of them on my stuffed fatty.)

Flavorful pile of smoked goodness, I dub thee:
"The Smoky Mountain".

Enjoy! And remember: if you still smell clean by dinner time... you probably bought it at a rib joint!