Today I had the day off work to rest from the MS Brissie to Bay 25km ride I did yesterday. I wasn't planning to do a cook today, it's just I was home, it was nice day and I was hungry. So, I went looking through the fridge to see what I could cook up. All the big meats were frozen, but I found a bunch of veggies ... and bacon !

As always, I waited til the grill got hot, so I could then give it a rub down with the BBQ scrubber I have and would you believe it ... the bloody thing feel apart. Cheap crap from Lokkii, I won't be buying any of their products anymore.

Anyway, at 12:50pm, the veggies went on to the pit with indirect. The pit was running quite hot (350F to 400F) due to the wind. Whilst doing the cook, I tuned into iTunes Radio, which wasn't that bad, just an ad every 5-6 songs like Spotify -- though apparently Apple only released this service in the USA and Australia.

At 1:42pm, the veggies were nicely cooked in their rosemary, butter and garlic wraps, so then the bacon went on the direct heat. At 2pm, it was time to eat my late lunch :) and boy, it was a feast.

After smoking chicken wings in Cook 27, this time I decided to try them out direct heat style. I marinated them the night before with Stubb's Chicken Rub and for this cook I thought I'd also try using wood chips directly on the coals. I'd bought this box of Samba Wood Chips a month or so back and thought this would be a good test of them.

At 4:40pm, after having soaked the chips in water for 30 minutes, I put them on top of the beads. The rangehood temperature was sitting at 300F.

I knew this was going to happen, with the wood chips being directly on the coals, that the smoke would be bellowing out of my Smokey Joe. I just don't think my wife was prepared for it, who was worried the washing would get smoked. However, the smoke was intense, so much so that I needed to wear my sunnies so I could see the food, otherwise my eyes would be watering.

At 4:54pm, the wings were looking real good, just another 10 minutes or so. I pulled them off and we let them rest for about 5-10 minutes and then hooked in. My wife said there was 1-2 pieces that weren't completely cooked all the way through. I guess that's the danger of not having a temp probe and smoking for hours. I was honestly worried I'd burn them.

How did they taste ? Great. The hickory chips gave a rather mild smoke -- I think I still like pellets better.