One nice thing about a bird feeder, it is attracts a lot of wildlife. Besides the squirrels that like to crash the party, we’ve been having a family of Cardinals show up. I managed to get a good shot of one of the males having a nice snack of Safflower seeds. There’s a grey dove on the feeder, too, but he’s a little camera-shy.
We’ve also been seeing some cardinals that seem to be pretty young, as they don’t have all their coloration in quite yet. So somewhere near must be their nest.
One thing that’s fun to have is a smoker. It doesn’t have to be a fancy one or expensive. Just something that will heat up and hold smoke around something. The one I have is a simple electric one. It does pretty good as long as the weather is warm enough. Just plug it in and occasionally toss in some nice aromatic wood chips. One of me current favorites is Applewood.
But part of the fun isn’t just tossing the meat into the smoker and walking away. You need a little something to help add some interesting flavor to the meat, and also to enhance that savory goodness.
Two of my favorite things to marinate a port loin is salt and garlic. Salt helps enhance the flavor of about anything. And garlic? Well, I just love garlic. For this pork loin, I also added some apricot preserves for a little extra sweetness, and some rosemary. Rosemary is a great spice as well, and goes well with smoked meats.
I just placed the pork loin a nice gallon ziplock to marinate, placed in the smoker (about 5 hours), and then it was slice-and-serve for the guests.
