My Husband Likes To Smoke.

Behold, Nick's pride and joy. No, this is not just a pile of pots in our neglected backyard. This is a true blue, gen-u-wine, hand built smoker (in our neglected backyard). Since we have moved to Jacksonville, Nick has taken an interest in barbecue. He has made in own dry rubs and sauce. He has bought special charcoal and wood chips. He loves to spend his free evenings stoking coals in his 2 ft high portable grill we bought to use in case of power loss after a hurricane. After watching an episode of "Good Eats" on the Food Network where Alton Brown instructs how to construct your own meat smoker, Nick was inspired.

This last Thanksgiving I was sick with the flu. I felt nauseated, I had a sore throat and headache, and my whole body felt awful. I had already planned Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us, bought the turkey, etc. and had even prepped a few items the day before. I felt obligated with guilt to make dinner. (Back story: One Thanksgiving I was working as a pastry assistant in Miami and had to work. I was working nonstop around the holidays and had no time to cook. We had one car. I later asked Nick what he had done for Thanksgiving dinner. He told me he rode his bike to Wendy's. Hence, Thanksgiving guilt.) Nick was home from work, so clearly he had three options:

A: Help his poor ailing wife by finishing Thanksgiving dinner and sending her to bed.

B: Help his poor ailing wife by caring for their 4 month old baby so she could finish cooking and go to bed.

C: Spend all day building a meat smoker.

I think in Nick's mind there was never more than one option and when he came in at 6 pm boasting of his beautiful smoked pork shoulder and found that I was not quite as thrilled as he was, he couldn't understand why. Needless to say, I haven't had the warmest feelings towards this pile of pots in our neglected backyard. However, Nick smoked another pork shoulder last weekend on a day that I felt fine and did not spend all day making a holiday meal, and I have to admit, it was pretty good.