Smoked Brisket! Pastrami!

As you may recall, one of the first things I'd planned to do post meat hiatus was test out my stove-top smoker with a pork butt or brisket. And true to my word, the first chance I got, I picked up brisket to get started. Unfortunately, that first chance I got was late night at the end of  a long round trip drive to Motown immediately following from a weeklong conference. I was tired. I was a little surprised to discover the next morning that I had picked up a corned beef brisket.

Oops.

Then it occurred to me: When you smoke corned beef, you get pastrami. I can work with pastrami.

Smoked Shrimp

After my first experiment with my stovetop smoker was successful, I've been searching for new and exciting things to use it with for the duration of my meat hiatus (1 week left, for those who are counting). As it turns out, people have tried to smoke pretty much everything. As it also turns out, shrimp work pretty well. I wouldn't have expected this - shrimp cook quickly, and smoking is a famously  "slow and low" cooking method. But after doing a little digging, I found an interesting looking preparation apparently used by the Taco Sisters of Lafayette, LA. After giving this a shot, I'll be sure to drop in next time I find myself by Lafayette.