Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day, Carl!

Carl's birthday was earlier in June, and Father's Day is coming up... a few weeks ago, we were in Costco (in Utah), and there was a Traeger promotion going on that we listened to... on impulse, we purchased a Traeger Scout pellet smoker. Carl had mentioned a few times that "one day" he would like to get a smoker again, and it appeared to be a good size for transporting in the basement of Gracie -- so I suggested that we get it for his birthday and Father's Day present (from Miss Kitty, of course!).

As is true with many impulse purchases, we had not done research, and after we purchased, when Carl did research, he found that there were a number of negative reviews on the Scout, specifically that it would not keep the temperature consistently. He found that the next model up, Ranger, had much better reviews, was the same size, though heavier (65 pounds rather than 45 pounds), and available on Amazon. We decided to order the Ranger and it was delivered while we were in Wells, Nevada. We had also purchased meat at the Costco in Utah with the plan to smoke it while we were in Wells after the rally... well... we didn't end up staying after the rally in Wells, so... we've had two chickens and two pork loin roasts in our freezer for almost a month now, and Carl had not yet gotten to try out his birthday/Father's Day present!

Thursday was the day to get the Traeger set up:

Still in the box as it came from Amazon to Wells, NV

Out of the box - what's inside?

More packing material...

... some assembly required...

The Leatherman works, but it might be easier with a screwdriver...

Let's read a few directions...

"Oh! They provide a screwdriver! How about that?!?!?"

After set up, the first thing required before doing any cooking to do is to "burn off" oils that are on the smoker from the manufacturing process -- so need to put some pellets in it. We had gotten Cherry wood pellets at the Costco with the original Scout (the Scout was returned to Costco in Illinois a couple of weeks ago).

Pouring in the pellets

Ready to plug in to start the burn-off process

During the initial burn off process (not that you can tell that!).

By the time it was all set up and the burn off process was complete, it was too late to start smoking anything, so, on Friday... Carl took one of the thawed chickens, "splatchcocked" it (butterfly cut) so it would lay flat on the grill, put in the probe that would monitor the meat temperature, and set it going. What wonderful smells coming from the smoker! (We often talk about, when we're out and about in a campground, that even if we've just eaten and enjoyed our meal, the smells from the campsites of other folks are so tantalizing... now *Carl* is the guy who is making other folks envious! We had a couple come by and stop to find out what was creating that wonderful smell!)

Finished product

Yum! It was so good!

We were talking with another couple here at the campground, and I asked the question of whether giving a smoker to a guy (so he is doing the major cooking for some meals) is kind of like giving a woman a vacuum cleaner -- everyone agreed that it is not, or, at least for Carl, it is not. He is really happy with his new smoker! Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day, Carl!