Well Summer has been flying by. I turn around and the month of June is gone. I've been keeping busy with my job, my math class, family commitments, and trying to cut into my summer reading list. So far I've been able to read a few of the classics, however, the other day I went into the library and told myself that I wouldn't go looking for more books to read because I already had a stack 6 deep at home. Walking past the new book section I caught the title of a book I have been looking forward to reading so I picked it up, then another and another, all told 8 books total. So that brings my summer reading list up to 20 so far. Not so sure that I'll get through all those before the end of August.
I just finished the book that started the avalanche of new books, entitled
"Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student" by Anonymous M.D. This book deals with how young people in
todays society are fed "politically correct" information regarding sex, personal choices, and prevention that can cost them their health if not their lives. I found this book extremely interesting, horrifying, and sad all at the same time. Since I will soon be in a profession which is contributing to the PC spin I guess I need to start gearing up for battle and this book provided some good ammo to lob the first round in my STD health class.
On to happier topics I've been tackling some daunting grilling projects. Last week I slow cooked some hickory smoked St. Louis spareribs and this Saturday I'm going to tackle a pork shoulder. If your in the area and would like to stop in for dinner around 6 p.m. let me know, their should be enough of this monster to go around. For those of you who can't make it you'll be able to see the step by step process posted here shortly after completion (sorry but I can't figure out how transport samples over the Internet).
Also for those of you who don't know I'm a big geek. To prove this point I paid a trip to the new
superheroes museum here in Indy. Focusing on
Batman and Superman this exhibited only 1/4 of a someones personal collection of
memorabilia. It was complete with a full scale replica of the
batmobile and I left this fun little museum with a poster of the
batmoblie to hang on my new
apartment wall. Yeah for me.
So as promised I have created a step by step illustrated guide of my latest barbecuing endeavor. This weekend I grilled a half-pork shoulder to make pulled pork samwhich North Carolina style (vinegar based barbecue). It took four hours of patience but the end result was well worth it. 
First up is making the rub, washing the meat off, and allowing the rub to sit on the meat. This piece of meat is 8 LBS. After this I started the grill with a chimney starter and started to soak the hickory wood chips that I would need to put on top of the white hot coals. This piece of meat needed low and slow cooking so I used very few coals. You know things are going well when you see smoke poring out the top of the grill. It's also important to set the grill up for indirect heat so that you have an area which isn't directly over the flame (this is where the meat goes). 
The drip pan is also important because it catches the fat and juice that drips off of the roast. One word to the wise, don't drop white hot coals in this pan when stuff is in there or else you have flames 3 feet high, this is from the voice of experience.
