Pierogi and RIb Day

Also known as Summer In February...it's an annual gathering of family to have a big summer style indoor picnic in the middle of February. It's been going on awhile. It started as a get together in a summer camp once the camp had an oven that could heat it up in the winter and evolved into more of a winter festival. Looking back, I have posts from:

2010 this post says the tradition is already 5 years strong. it's also nice to see not much has changed making it an actual tradition.

2011 only a brief mention here, but the quest to find Ron the Wet Saw was ongoing way back then and the post included some sketched of the oven that bare no resemblance to the actual oven.


2012 made the sausage myself and tried some SPAM in the pit

2013 looking back at this post, I seem to have already written the first paragraph of this post.

2014 Summer in February was technically Summer in March in 2014.

2015 We definitely had it in 2015, but apparently I was too full to write about it.

2016 Back at it again.

I suppose I could write about "Rib and Pierogie Day breaking up winter" again. Only real change this year was abandoning the pit. The blocks are pretty broken up and tending the fire is much easier when the ground isn't frozen. The frost thaws and the freed up water is constantly putting the fire out. Gave fancy pants sous vide ribs a shot (ribs were sealed in vacuum bags and submerged in 165 degree water for 12 hours). They came out pretty good with basically no effort so the day was much more relaxed for me.

Absurd amounts of food were eaten, weight was gained, and once again it was a fun day.

And now, pictures of food (a couple shots were taken by my sister-in-law).

 

Summer in February 2016

Every winter, we have a Summer in February party where we make a lot of summer/picnic style food and eat too much. Deviled eggs, potato salad, 7 layer dip…the works. The small family winter festival also goes by the name Rib and Pierogi Day. If ever there was a weekend to pretend it was summer, this Presidents Day weekend was it.

The low temperature at my in-law’s house Saturday night was -18. I watched the temperature rise pretty quickly Sunday morning and knew I’d be OK working the BBQ pit. I think it was pushing 8 degrees when I got going. And getting the pit going became much easier when we started filling the pit with coals taken from the wood stove in the garage.  Little side note in case you want to do this yourself: in the summer the coals can go directly on the ground. In the winter, the frozen ground thaws and then puts out the coals. In winter, I have this old cast Iron grate that keeps the coals off the ground. Around 11, armed with a pit full of coals and a burn going for future coals, the ribs went in.

Around 2, I moved the ribs to the side and some sausage went in. At 3, everything got wrapped in foil and went for a rest in a cooler. Also at about 3, Aunt Carol began to work her magic frying up a lot of pierogi.

 

A little after 4, we ate, and ate. Here’s a rack of ribs and half (that’s right half) of the pierogi.

It was a good time. This year it wasn’t as desperately needed as in past years, but a Summer in February party really does help to break up the winter.

Summer in February - Mid March Edition

Usually around Valentine's Day or school's winter break, we get together at my in-laws for Summer in February (also known as Rib and Pierogi Day). The day is essentially a summer barbecue to help break up the middle of winter. Due to a number of scheduling conflicts and a seriously cold winter, the annual celebration was pushed back to this past Sunday.

Sadly, I haven't fired up this barbecue pit since last February. Which is too bad because it is fun cooking food over coals. Have I mentioned propane sucks lately? This is just a square of old concrete blocks that have slowly started to crumble but can hold it together enough to support and old commercial oven grate. I rearranged some of the blocks Sunday morning and I was one course off. So I took a few similarly sized logs and put them around the top. A piece of stainless steel sheet metal goes on top of the logs as a lid. The burn barrel in back is used to burn wood down to coals.

I had three racks of ribs in there and about three pounds of sausage at the end. The came out pretty well. I should have trusted my instincts instead of the clock and pulled the ribs a little sooner. I think I have mentioned this before, the coals go on the ground in a pit like this. Not a problem in the summer, but in the winter the ground thaws and puts out the coals (ask me how I know). Buried under the coals is an old cast iron grate to keep the coals off the ground.

Here's Aunt Carol hard at work getting the pierogi cooked.
 

She brings her own frying station and sets up in the garage. It is actually a pretty slick setup. She's got two electric fryers and an electric warming tray. I believe it only tripped the circuit twice.

After a handful of appetizers - taco dip, a warm spinach/artichoke dip, shrimp cocktail and some killer stuffed mushrooms (these were my downfall - I ate a lot of those), dinner was ready.

There were ribs and pierogi, sausage, salad, deviled eggs and potato salad (my mother-in-law makes a superior tater salad).

For dessert, there was an apple square and a few flavors of ice cream. If you went home hungry, it was your own damn fault. It's been two days, I don't think I've fully recovered yet.

Summer in February

Winters can seem to drag on and seem endless. To get through it, we have an annual Summer in February picnic. It's a summer family barbecue in the middle of winter. Groundhog's Day has nothing on this. You ever have a Thanksgiving style food induced coma on Groundhog's Day? Didn't think so.

The tradition started a few years ago when we gathered at a camp on the Sacandaga for a pot-luck picnic and a bunch of outdoor winter fun. The food kept getting better and the event quickly picked up an alias, Pierogie and Rib Day.

Other than a little of the coordination, my contributions to the meal are the ribs and sausage. I've got a burn barrel for making charcoal. At some point in this barrels history, it was a 55 gallon drum of tomato paste. With a few modifications, this thing has been generating charcoal for barbecue for over 10 years. You cut a small door towards the bottom. This is where you shovel out the coals and control how much air the fire gets. You drill holes so you can make a grate of rebar above the door. My grate is by the lower barrel rib. The grate supports the burning logs and allows coal sized pieces to fall to the bottom. Once you're done cutting and drilling, you basically have a giant charcoal chimney.

Start a fire an you are off to the races. With the door at the bottom open, you can turn this into a jet engine. With is closed, you have a more controlled, slow burn. Although this year, I got smart and used a bunch of coals from the wood stove to heat the pit. Usually, I have to make two fires.

The pit is just a stack of old concrete blocks. In the summer, I just put the colas on the ground. You can't do that in the winter. The coals thaw the frozen ground then water comes out of the once frozen ground and puts out your fire. Ask me how I know. The work around is some bricks and an old cast iron grate just above the ground.

 I cooked two rack of ribs and a few pounds of sausage in there. Instead of the usual rub, I went with one recommended by Mr. Dave. Here's a link to the recipe. As to be expected from a Mr. Dave recommendation, the rub is great. My wife's uncle took the extra rub I had home with him.

Off to one side of the pit was a slope my father-in-law set up for the kids. They had fun with it. Here's my nephew on a sledding run.

Once the food started, it never seemed to stop. There was a big taco dip with chips. On paper, I shouldn't like taco dip, but I love it.

I threw together a Buffalo cheese dip. Not bad. It's one of those things that isn't fantastic but for some reason you can't stop eating it.

 Aunt Carol fried up a ton of pierogi. There are only 9 in the pan...she fried up a lot more than 9.

My mother-in-law makes some seriously good deviled eggs. Her potato salad is great too.

Now that's a lot of pierogi. The ribs came out tender and the combination of smoke with the rub wa delicious.

Here's Round 1 for me.

Hope you left room for dessert. In addition to ice cream, there were lots of cookies - some gluten free thin mints that really tasted a lot like the real thing, chocolate cherry cookies and kissing hands. Plus an apple square and a chocolate rum cake.

After the kids went to bed, there was a loud, highly contested six-handed pinochle game that went until 1 AM. Just like in the summer.

Summer in February Featuring SPAM

A family tradition to break up winter has been the Summer in February picnic. The idea is to have all of the fun foods you would have at a July picnic in the dead of winter. This has also been called Rib and Pierogi Day. No matter what you call it, the day is a lot of fun and there is always way too much really good food. My responibilities for the meal are the ribs and sausage. This year I added a little bit of Spam. I saw it over at the Cowgirls Country Life a few times and decided to give it a whirl.

I've made sweet Italian sausage and posted about it a bunch of times. On Saturday afternoon, I made about 3 pounds of it. I also made a new to me fresh sausage. Not sure if anyone else has made it before, but it has been on my radar awhile: Srirachia sausage.

Started with some pork butt. It was a little lean so I added some fatback.

Salt and pepper were added at the same ratios used for Italian sausage. Then I added sriracha sauce until it looked wet. Probably around a quarter cup.

Ground it up and cased it. Then I made the rib rub...

Once the ribs were going in the pit on Sunday, I broke out the can of Spam (currently on sale at Price Chopper). I can not remember ever having had Spam before.  It was everywhere in Hawaii. We have hot dogs on treadmills in our quickie marts, they have warmed spam sushi under heat lamps in theirs.

I cut a criss-cross  pattern in the Spam and filled the cracks with brown sugar. As I was doing it, I couldn't help but smile because I was putting organic brown cane sugar on Spam. Slightly opposing sides of the food spectrum there. I drizzled on a little Jim Beam too.

Duke is no dummy. He knows something good is cooking...

 Here's what he was sniffing out

Aunt Carol's pierogi frying station ready to go

As it cooked, the Spam kind of opened up.

Carol's hard at work frying...

My mother in law makes some seriously kick-ass deviled eggs. Her potato salad is top notch too.

Sausage getting plated. Sweet Italian is on the plate. The sriracha sausage is on the right.

Spamity Spam

There were two, delicious trays of these bad boys.

I'd say the pierogi and sausage stole the main course show. The sweet Italian sausage came out great and the sriracha sausage had a nice little heat to it but the spice didn't overwhelm the other flavors of the hot sauce. This is definitely one to make again. I could eat those pierogi all day. The Spam was decent. My father-in-law didn't care for the Spam. He said it was too used to it just fried. Uncle Lou liked it. He said it didn't taste like Spam anymore, it just tasted like a baked ham. Having nothing to compare it against, I thought it was OK. If I make it again, I will make the cuts deeper. I only went halfway through the block of Spam. I'd go as far as I thought I could go without breaking the block next time. I think I'd skip the bourbon too. All in all a beautiful February day.