Yep, you read that right. Today’s Excited about Eating post was written by Dora! I gave Ernie the day off. Plus, he doesn’t like to talk about himself, so I’m going to do it for him. 🙂

Since we’re all probably rolling from eating too much over the holidays, I decided on a different type of post for today. You all know how much my guy likes to eat. But did you know Ernie’s a certified Kansas City BBQ judge? Many Saturdays during the season he travels to judge BBQ events. When he exceeds a four-hour radius from our house, we usually make a weekend of it.

But he’s also a backyard smoker. When he cranks up that smoker, I swear our son in DC can smell the ribs. Yum! 

Over the last couple of years, he’s been pining for a new smoker, one that doesn’t require constant babysitting and feeding of wood chips. He finally decided on a pellet smoker. Load it with pellets, turn it on, put your meat in and voila! The smoker does all the work for you. Well, almost. 🙂

So this year Santa bought him a pellet smoker for Christmas. 

This puppy arrived in a semi! 500 pounds of smoker, yet-to-be-installed, a few hundred nuts and bolts, and bags and bags of pellets.

Thankfully, Little Man volunteered to help assemble. 🙂

Little Man even read the directions for Grandpa.

What’s a lot of work with no play?

The assembly process was a family affair. My part involved a camera. 🙂