Apple Pie Time

Pie?  On a grill?
Craziest thing you've heard right?  I had read about eggheads baking on the egg and since the pizzas I cooked demanded a temp of 600 degrees, I figured why let all of that heat go to waste.  I let the temp come down to 400 by almost completely closing the vents.
I removed the pizza stone (while wearing an oven mitt of course) and placed the pyrex dish of goodness on the cooking grid.
Fifty minutes later......voila!

In the future I probably wouldn't fire up the egg just to bake a pie but since it was already preheated it made sense.


Man 1 - Grill 0

Pizza Pizza

So I've grilled some wings, pork tenderloin with a cayenne and coffee dry rub (That was awesome!  Will definitely do that again and cover it in this blog.) and I've grilled a whole chicken.  

So the in-laws came over this past weekend and I decided I was going to bake some pizzas.  I had heard that the egg is essentially, with a few eggcessories, a brick oven.  All you need is a place setter and a baking stone.  

Despite the rain I began to fill the egg up with natural lump charcoal until it reached the top of the firebox.  We need this baby to get up to 600 degrees.  After about 7 minutes and the coals are lit, place your place setter, legs up on the fire ring. (the place setter that BGE sells is great for this but there are other ways to create a firewall).  This will provide the barrier you will need for indirect cooking.  Without it, your pizza will resemble the charcoal at the bottom of your grill.  Once the place setter is in place lay the cooking grid on top and then a baking or pizza stone on top of that.

Now close the lid and leave the draft door completely open.  Since we are trying to achieve a high temp there is no need to have the daisy wheel on.  (If you prefer to leave it on, just open it all the way.)

Note that it may take some time for the egg to reach its desired temp with all of this "stuff" in there.  

Since you're waiting to get to 600 degrees this is the perfect time to prep your pizza.

Spare time is not a luxury that I have so we purchased some pre made pizza dough from Whole Foods.  Maybe one day I can make my own :(

I used just a tiny bit of tomato sauce and then some fresh basil, sliced tomatoes and fresh buffalo mozzarella. 

By now you should have a temperature around 600 degrees.  Sprinkle a little corn meal on the pizza stone.  This will help keep the dough from sticking to the stone. and then slide that sucker into the egg.  I picked up a wooden paddle that works great for transferring the pizza to and from the egg) and about 6-8 minutes later it should be done.

It was like magic when I lifted the lid and saw this delicious looking pizza sitting my in my egg.

We all agreed that it was one of the best pizzas we've ever eaten.  No need to order out ever again and now my father-in-law wants an egg.


Man 1 - Grill 0

1st Cook

For my first cook I thought I would do something really simple.  I've never grilled on an egg before and I wanted to get used to controlling the temperature before moving on to something more involved.  I decided to smoke some wings.  No sauce or dry rub.  Just basic salt and pepper.  I chose to use some applewood chips and let these baby's sit for almost an hour.

They were some of the best wings I've ever had.  If this is a glimpse of what is to come, I see this as the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

The Finished Product

And here you have it.  I added a retractable side table with some folding shelf brackets and a leftover piece of Corian.  I also added some hooks for my grilling utensils and a towel bar for those quick clean-ups.
Overall, this was a really fun project.  I probably put around 20 hours of work into this and the price tag came in under $150. 
Time to start cooking!!!

The Corian Countertop

The Corain countertop I bought off of Craigslist is not long enough for the table but luckily there is a shorter separate piece that came with it.  The idea is to JB Weld these two pieces together so that the hole I will route out for the egg will be in the middle of this seam.  The great thing about the countertop is that the front edge is rounded over and it looks great.  

The circular saw and router cut right through the Corian like it was butter.  I would highly recommend wearing a respirator and eye protection while doing this.
It made an ungodly mess but it looks awesome!!!

Table Sections, Unite!

So here it is.  Finally all of the pieces have come together.  While my wife and I were working on rehabbing our house we were using this as a bench.  It's extremely sturdy and I couldn't be any happier with it.  I'm going to use a deck stain from the Depot that you can add paint to.  I'm leaning towards a color with white in it as it will match the Corian countertop I've picked up on Craigslist.  Some guy has remodeled his kitchen and wants it gone.  Great deal for me!  $25 a square foot would end up costing close to $300!!!  Not affordable.

Roll Baby, Roll

What would a big green egg table be without green casters?  I picked four of these up on ebay for a steal.  They should support close to a ton.  That would be one big ass egg!

Big Green Egg Table - Lower Shelf Assembly

The legs turned out nicely so now it's time to move on to the lower shelf that the egg itself will sit on.  The plans call for just 1x4's but I'm gonna over do it and use 2x4's for the frame.  It will help me sleep better at night knowing that I will not be woken up by the sounds of shattering ceramic.  I'm sure the 1x4's are fine for holding up the weight but like I said before.  Over engineering is my thing.
After a few hours I managed to whip this up.

Big Green Egg Table - Leg Assembly

The plans I posted yesterday looked easy enough but the cypress that is typically used in it's construction will lighten my wallet.  So I took a trip to the Home Depot and loaded up on some pine 1x4's and 2x4's.  Luckily I already had all the tools I needed and was able to fairly quickly put the legs together.

Since this will be sitting outside I used galvanized bolts and deck screws.  This should be more than adequate in holding up against the elements.  I tend to "over engineer" my woodworking projects but in the end I can take comfort in knowing that I can drive this thing through a brick wall.


Two legs are better than one as I always say.  Here's the second.

Big Green Egg Table Project

So after some searching I've found these instructions:

I believe these are the plans for the actual green egg table that is sold in stores.  
This should be a good starting point.  Time to take a trip to the local lumber yard and see what prices we are faced with.
Later.

So Now What?

Well that's a good question.
It seems that this egg needs a nest.  Something that will protect it, get it off the ground and keep it warm at night.  I could buy a metal stand for it at the cost of $130 but that doesn't even get me any counter space.  Those wooden side tables would set me back an extra $70.
We're already at $200 so let's look at a table.
Woah!  $450 smackers!
I like the amount of counter space you get with one of these.  Not too sure about a slatted countertop though.  Not ideal for prepping food.  I bet I could make one of these myself and save some cash.
Hmmmm.  Let's see what kind of plans we can find online.
To the internet!

The Greatest Gift of All

Ode to a Christmas Morning

When down in the garage there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the cellar I ran down the stairs,
leapt over the dog and knocked over some chairs.

The fluorescent lights that lit the concrete floor
Made me squint my gaze as I entered the door.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a big green egg, and various grilling gear!