10 on 10: September

late late late... oh well.  These photos are technically nothing fancy, but were taken one day while visiting Dallas which makes them a great memory to hold on to.

Our trip was kind of a last minute plan.  Tickets were dirt cheap and I needed some home time.  I abducted Jonathan for a almost full week.  It is not something we can usually get away with, but somehow it was pulled off seamlessly.

Most of you know how much Jonathan and I LOVE food... we are self-proclaimed foodies.   When we visit Dallas (or any other city) we usually go food crazy.  I had been raving about the restaurant in Dallas called SMOKE for nearly a year and FINALLY, this trip I was able to take Jonathan there for dinner.  He loved it and even bought the book written by the owner.

Well... after lots of gawking and page-turning in that book, Jonathan got the grand idea to dig his own bbq pit (yes, you read that correctly... I wrote DIG and throw a dinner party for my family.  We decided the dinner party should be at my parents house because it was more centrally located than at Jonathan's parents barn in Commerce, but the issue at my parents house was where on earth would be a good spot for digging a bbq pit.  It just so happened that my parents back deck is kind of under construction and there was a nice big patch of dirt right near the back of the house.  This was perfect so that Jonathan could come and go from the house without leaving the fire unattended for too long.

My parents, Noah and I left for Austin on Saturday for my nephew's birthday party, but Jonathan and his parents stayed behind and started the big pit project.  It was a 3 foot deep hole in the ground, lined with fire bricks.  The pit was lined with Maguey leaves, a giant cast iron pot and then topped off with a cast iron lid.

Jonathan woke up at 7:30am to start the actual bbq, but he was up late late late the night before preparing all of the spices, meat and fixings.  He was seriously on cloud nine.  Jonathan loves a good ol big project, but even more than that he loves a good ol big project surrounding cooking so this was a perfect activity for him.  My aunts, uncles, in-laws, grandparents and a few friends and cousins came for the big dinner.  Everyone pitched in a hand to make sure that all the rest of the food made its way on to the table so that Jonathan could keep his attention focused on the pit so it was really a family affair... hopefully we will get to play around with the pit some more when we visit for the Holidays.  

walking towards "the pit"

what looks like a small camp fire is actually a deep pit filled with 15lbs of meat and a giant cauldron full of juices and spices.  

Jonathan spent most of this day keeping the fire going.

my brother, Jason, came by early to lay his eyes upon "the pit"

Chain saws and axes were involved in keeping that fire going.  I think Jonathan will think twice about this type of food project next time after all of this hard labor.    

The unveiling.   

Notice in the next series of photos how NONE of the men are wearing the appropriate gear to deal with fire.  Jonathan is wearing Birkenstocks and leather gloves, my uncles are wearing Sperries and Crocs.  It was actually amazing that no one was injured during this time. 

Pulling the meat from the pit.  It was in the hole for 8ish hours and still ended up needing to be finished in the oven.  Jonathan decided that next time he would probably cook it for 10 or more hours to get the meat texture he was actually going for.

Here comes the hot cauldron with spices and such.

Here is a mid-dinner shot.  We were all stuffed to the gills and pretty happy to get to take part in one of Jonathan's projects with minimal effort.