Smokin’ Pork Snails

I know this has nothing to do with illustration or art but, artists gotta eat…right?

So, I agreed to join in with a group of friends, every so often to get together and drink beer and eat meat and talk, I suppose. They call the group “The Cut and Parry of Prolonged, Fierce, Masculine Argument” which sounds like a lot of bullshit to me but what the hell. If  everybody starts beating their chests and comparing beard sizes and screaming about politics, I’ll retreat into my beer. I got plenty of that in the Marine Corps, believe you me. Not beer…well, yes beer but also all of that other macho shit.

So, tonight I’m thinking RIBS. Gotta start early with the smoker so, I actually thought of it last night. I figure the grill at Mike’s will be pretty full so I’m not gonna screw with that. I went out and got a couple racks of spareribs (pork, brother!) , took ‘em home, removed the membrane from the back, bony side and rubbed ‘em down with some Cold Mountain Rub. Look it up. Steve Raichlen is the smoker/grill god in this family.

Rubbed!

Now it’s into the smoker. I got this Brinkman’s Gourmet Electric Smoker as a hand-me-down from my fabulously wealthy brother Dave when he upgraded to a new Weber the size of my garage that does everything. I love the thing, it’s the easiest smoker I’ve ever used and keeps a constant temperature without having to screw around with it. I’ve got it figured out, you see..there are two little holes on the top of the thing and in one, sits the thermometer an in the other, I stuff a small piece of the wood I’m using to keep the heat in. If I don’t do that, it gets just a teensy bit cooler than I want it.

Anyway, once you’ve got it preheated, you add water to a basin that sits over the coals and place your meat on the two grates that sit above it. This is where the Bob Powell’s Patented Pork Snail Method comes in handy. you curl the rib rack around itself and secure it with bamboo skewers, therefore allowing you to fit more ribs in and also to stand them up and let the smoke and heat hit them evenly.

I like to use cherry with ribs. I buy a bag from the local grocery store and let them soak for a bit before tossing in a handful. More smoke early on, tapering off towards the end.

Cherry Chips

Smokin’ Hot!

Now, we’re cooking with smoke!
I got some of the best barbeque sauce on the planet as a gift from my Mother in-law, bless her heart. Everett and Jones has been a Bay Area legend for years and just recently made their sauce available to the public. This is not a sauce that you baste while cooking but rather, one that you pour over the meat when its done. I’m using the “hot” stuff tonight because, this thing is supposed to be all manly, right? 

The Bomb

I’m going to try a new beer tonight. I have no idea what Rolle Bolle means but what the hell, it’s beer. It can’t be all that bad.

Arrow is a guy… Probably badder than all of us put together (he eats COUCHES!) but he can’t go because hes a bad dog. Bad! Stay!
Farewell friends! Have a great Saturday night!

My OTHER Blog

So, I’ve been spending more time writing than drawing these days. In addition to Dixie Drive and the occasional new shirt design for Gill McFinn’s, I’ve had the added task of creating posts for the  Gill McFinn’s Blog.

It’s really quite a bit of fun… you basically follow Gill and his crew on their latest adventure. They’re a motley crew  full of characters capable of getting into some real trouble. Each post is populated by sketches and photos that I’ve created as well. As we travel the globe and discover new creatures, they’ll eventually be available on shirts!

Sound Good? CHECK IT OUT!!

And one more thing,for this week only(feb 25- Mar 1st), enter the code mar20off and get 20% off of our killer shirts!!!

Rich

Looking towards the Brightside

We had a new venture appear in town recently. My good friends Mary Murkin and Amy Barney got together and opened up the Brightside Gallery here in Asheboro. Located in the historic Ross house on Worth Street, Mary completely renovated the place and now it’s a warm, and inviting place to get some art, gifts, lessons, supplies. you name it.

Both Frankie and I are showing some of our paintings there and I hope to get some of my Dixie Drive themed shirts in there when I get a chance. I’ll let you know when they become available there. In the meantime here are some shots from the Gallery:

I guess they were in the paper the day I stopped by!

Logo designed by me and Amy.

Frankie’s painting “Twins” is sitting above Laurie Abela’s soaps

You can spot a couple of mine in this shot. They’re the ones that look out of place.

Frankie’s Sun is in the corner.

There’s an Upstairs!

My Buddy, Robert Crutchfield has some of his hand-knapped knives and jewelry there. Nice!

I really like this quilt by Dr. Scott Murkin

..and I hadn’t seen Debra Spinks’ leaves yet. I like ‘em!

This place was my first stop on Valentine’s Day . Frankie really likes Robert’s jewelry (made me look good, pal!). If you get a chance. visit the Brightside Gallery Facebook Page and give them a “Like”!

That’s all for now, back to shirts and cartoons!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is For The Boids!

I recently was asked to do a bird character for an on-line thing (all hush-hush, don’t you know!). My initial gut feeling was to go for a very simple “Symbol graphic” type of thing. The Bird is supposed to be yelling, getting the word out….something like that.

It seems to me, that when I ever work for a committee of two people or more, the end result is going to be much worse than the beginning. It never fails. Here’s the progression of characters from top to bottom as I received art direction. The color versions were created when they’d “Decided” on a character. The decision has yet to be made and I’ll probably be creating more ideas but to give YOU an idea, here’s the way it slowly degenerates! (By the way, I mean no ill-will towards these guys, it’s just the way these type of jobs go usually!)

At Last!! Open for Business!!!

You can finally head on over to Gill McFinn’s and get some great shirts! They’ve done an excellent job of printing these babies, they pop right off the shirt and flop on the floor! Check it out!!

It’s Raining Rednecks!

Had a great time last night playing trivia with my pals down at Lumina and we stomped some useless-knowledge butt! I was basking in the sheer glory of having my beers paid for by my 14.00 in winnings when I arrived home to find a pickup truck in my front yard. I live on a dead-end (that’s cul de sac for you hoity-toity types) and apparently this guy saw a magic road continuing on into the woods, because he followed it. Good thing my dogwood tree reminded him that the pavement ended about 15 yards ago.

Anyway, there was nobody there so I ran into the house to ask Frankie if she was okay and what had happened. Apparently she hadn’t heard a thing and had just noticed some lights in the road.  Well, I called the cops and as I was waiting for them to show up, a small hatchback appeared and started trying to tow the truck out off of my rock wall. I went out and told them to please stop digging the rear tires deeper into my lawn or I’d have to beat them to death with the remnants of my dogwood tree, to which they graciously complied.

The cops showed up and gave the poor, frightened kid a breathalyzer, etc. While I talked to his uncle (the driver of the hatchback). The kid was probably on the damned phone when he reached the end of the road and kept going. He was shook up, the uncle was very apologetic. Promises were made to repair the damage and all was cool. Kind words and patience pay off in small town life. They’ll be by today to remove the truck and patch things up.

The cops were fans of my cartoon “Dixie Drive” and we had some laughs about “new material” showing up at my front door. *sigh*

Bragging On My Kid

Last weekend, Frankie, Bailey, Matt and I made the trip to Barton College to attend the Scholastic Awards ceremonies where Bailey would collect her Nine Gold Key Awards and her American Visions Nomination!! We were, to say the least, very excited. Superbowl Sunday? What’s that? She wasn’t alone. There were FIVE young ladies from the NC School of the Arts getting awards that day. Badasses

Anyway, it was a big crowd. They had ice cream and a slideshow going as we entered and found our seats. There were a lot of proud parents and teachers there. This one teacher was hard to miss. His head shone like a beacon and attracted all the beautiful, talented art-chicks to him immediately.

Will and the Ladies

Will Taylor is an awesome teacher by the way (as are Pam Griffin and Darrell Tousley too). I could tell Will was proud of the girls. It’s too bad Pam and Darrell couldn’t make it.

Things got a little weird when the speaker showed up. I guess the guy is an artist and teacher somewhere but all he wanted to do was talk about his career as a skateboarder. You can see the photos of his “work” on the screen here:

Matt seemed puzzled by the whole thing but stuck it out, like the he-man boyfriend that he is.

Afterwards, the kids lined up and got their awards and then it was off to the gallery to see the work. Our first stop was to see the other 4 American Visions nominees that Bailey was up against. As a proud father who is completely unbiased, I would most confidently state that Bailey is going to take it!

Bailey and “Self Respect”, her American Visions nominated painting

The following are some shots of other works of note by Bailey,  Rachel and Chelsea. The place was so packed I hardly could squeeze around. Everyone was  trying to get a photo of their kid standing next to their piece  I didn’t get to shoot all of OUR ladies work. But…BRAVO LADIES!!

Rachel’s “Lady in Red”

Rachel’s Steampunk Bee (it’s teeeeeny!)

Chelsea and Chelsea

Bailey’s “Norma”

Bailey’s “Erik” and “Matt”