The weather today was just perfect and so I decided it was time to smoke the first meats of the season. I went yesterday and bought two racks of ribs, a piece of brisket and some Boars Head Hot Dogs. The brisket was ground into meat for the burgers, the ribs were given a simple rub of just smoked sea salt and fresh ground pepper. The ribs were put on the smoker at about 10 am this morning and left to smoke for the next 6 hours, they were perfect and came out juicy, tender and the meat had no need to be masked with BBQ sauce. I have to say that I never ate ribs before I got this smoker 2 years ago,I tried, they were always tough and tasted of nothing but the BBQ sauce that everyone usually drowns them in, I do eat and like pork but every time I would try ribs I was sadly disappointed, hubby on the other hand loves ribs anyway he can get them. Since I got this smoker however I have become a ribs fiend! I can’t get enough of them! I also regularly smoke whole brined chickens, whole briskets and sausages, I’ve also done vegetables and just about anything I have tried has come out wonderful. I also love the fact that I really don’t have to stand over a hot grill with a bottle of water to stop flare ups all day in the summer heat down here, loading the lower side of the smoker with lump charcoal and then some pecan wood provides some mighty nice low heat to just about do all the cooking without me hovering over it all day. We also had some potato salad and sliced tomatoes as sides with the meats and Matt came over and enjoyed some after work, he also took some home to his place to enjoy later, and hubby will take some for lunch at work tomorrow. With winter coming to a close it’s time for everyone to get outside and get those smokers fired up and enjoy some great food with little fuss. Even hubby didn’t drown his food with any BBQ sauce today, he said meat prepared this well sure didn’t need it!