Brisket, bonfires, and the cotton festival

So Beth and I have been pretty busy. I have been working really steadily since we have moved, since August, I haven't spent any consecutive five day period at home, which is a little hairy.
The top picture is my monitor position at the Texas music festival, in houston, Texas.


Beth and I went to the Cotton Festival Jousting Tournament in Ville Platte, LA. We feasted on boudin, tasso, and really great hog's head cheese made with green onions. We arrived in Ville Platte and spent about an hour trying to find the jousting tournament site.

Mistake #1:
We assumed that there would be clear directions to the venue from the main streets of Ville Platte or the web site. This was a totally incorrect assumption and was only rectified by the map application on the trusty iphone, which got us close enough to follow a line of pickup trucks to a totally unmarked site by the national guard armory outside of ville platte, in someone's field.

Mistake #2: We assumed that there would be an ATM on site. After all, most festivals provide an easy way for patrons to give money to vendors on site. Actually, there were only about three vendors at the site, and they were all selling $2 hamburgers, and $2 beer, so we were actually ok with the money that we had brought.
Mistake #3:
We didn't bring our pickup truck. Everyone else brought a pickup truck, which made it easy to park around the jousting track. We parked at the entrance to the track and walked to a clear spot to see the festivities, but we didn't bring our folding chairs, so we pretty much just stood for 3 hours watching the horses whip around the track.

Now we know. We had a lot of fun. Much clapping and shouting ensued when a rider would race past trying to spear a small ring on his lance, and everyone was really nice, even though we were clearly out of towners.


We had Uncle Dan, Grandma, Aunt Ann, Melissa, Ashley, and my father over last night for chili and a bonfire we had made from storm debris. The flames were at least 25 feet high for 15 minutes, and the fire raged for at least 45 minutes. Hopefully Aunt Ann will send me some pictures.

I leave you with a picture of my first brisket, made with Uncle Dan's explicit instructions. Please go out and vote, regardless of your party affiliation. I know who I chose, but I would just like everyone to exercise their right.

More pictures in a picasa web album.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bloch.chris/Brisket?pli=1&gsessionid=C23RXvec7KDKR556A-Ihtw#


12 pound brisket.
I didn't trim the fat, just slathered tony's, garlic powder, and some brown sugar on top and bottom, placed the brisket fat side up on top of aluminum foil support since I don't have a meat rack, sliced an onion on top, and then covered in aluminum foil. I put the brisket in the oven at about 9:30 pm, and Beth took it out at 9 am ish this morning. 300 degrees for 11.5 hours. I let the brisket rest for an hour, then started peeling little chunks off the side to "taste". Goodness.
Hopefully will have some more relatives over soon to help me eat this.