Perfect Texas Birthday


 

J Hasselberger

TVWBB Pro
Today I am full geezer. Seventy. It's only a number, and that's true.

Gorgeous day for a birthday in Central Texas, which is best enjoyed in the outdoors. For starters, we packed up the arsenal and headed to Lone Star Gun Range, which is just outside of Lockhart and fired off 500-or-so celebration rounds. Janis did very well today. Bad guys, beware.

I had a good deal of fun with the Henry lever-action.

Rifle1 by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

After a quick wash-up, it was down the road to Lockhart, making that difficult decision along the way -- Black's, Kreuz, or Smitty's. We have been to Black's a lot in the last few months, so Kreuz got the call. Thursday late lunch isn't the busiest time of the week, so there was a short wait. We filled our butcher paper boat with some fatty brisket, ribs and regular and jalapeno sausage. Adding some slaw, pickles, bread and Mexican Coke made the birthday boy very happy.

Kreuz1 by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

The brisket was typical Kreuz -- light smoke, perfect consistency, nicely rendered fat -- a thoroughly professional job. My opinion of the Kreuz sausage is that it's so-so. We got a link of the regular and a jalapeno link. Go straight for the jalapeno. It's several degrees more better than the regular. The ribs were outstanding. I don't think I've ever had a moister rib in my life. It literally dripped juicy goodness when you bit into it. It was also perfectly cooked. The ribs were the first cuts off a new rack, which may have had something to do with the juiciness.

We watched some 9-12 year-old girls at the next table make sandwiches with their order, piling on a little of this and a little of that with some pickles and slaw. We copied them. Oh boy! At Kreuz, it's "no sauce, no forks" so I usually just rip into the meat with my hands. But putting it in a sammy is the way to go. Thanks, girls!

The first half of the day was pretty perfect. (Hope I can remember it as well as where I left my car keys.) Home-cooked Italian and a 2013 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico for dinner. It's great to be 70 in Texas.

Kreuz2 by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr

Jeff

P.S. The sausage came home for quesadillas tomorrow.
 
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Happy Birthday Jeff!
You don't look a day over.................
I'll be your age in about 4 months, and I don't look a day over.................
 
Happy birthday Jeff. Looks like you had wonderful birthday. 2 1/2 yrs and I will be there. Old guys RULE. The beauty of it is we are all still going strong in spite of the aches and pain.
 
Happy birthday Jeff. Busting caps and eating Q, sounds like a party to me. Love me some lever action!
 
Now that sir is the perfect way to celebrate ! Shoot first then some great bbq. Can't think of anything better. Well maybe some smoked spam. Happy birthday.
 
Happy B'day Jeff I'm coming up right behind you on that 70 thing. Like the way you celebrated. Those Henrys are great little guns, I had one but my grandson liked it so much I gave it to him.
 
Happy birthday, man! I'm hoping to skip geezer and jump straight to curmudgeon. When I get there, that is!! :p
 
Happy Birthday Jeff! Now the trick is to be able to enjoy the same things on your 90th.....!
 
Appreciate the birthday greetings from my Barbecue Brothers. Thank y'all. Think I'm gonna fire up the WSM and start the celebration all over again! Yee Haw!

The lovely Janis got me one of those Yeti beer koozies. It holds a can or a bottle (even a Red Stripe) and works as promised. The last sip is as cold as the first. Highly recommended.

Jeff
 

 

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