Well, I'm not exactly new here and I don't have any problems, but ...

[ArnieM]

... I figured I'd give a little background on how I ended up here.  I've had my OBS for a little less than a month.  I'd appreciate hearing from some of you people with 100's or 1000's of posts how you got here.  I'll try to make this short.

My mother passed when I was nine.  My father had one pot, a knife, fork and spoon.  Then he brought my aunt into the house to "take care of me".  She said "You're too fat.  I'm making tuna with ketchup for your lunch."  Well, I managed to drive her out of the house after a few months (nasty little kid) and read cookbooks; I had to survive.  I made my first Thanksgiving dinner at 12.  Of course, I had to tell my father what to buy - SUCCESS!  Well, it was OK; at least the turkey was cooked.

I found that I really enjoyed cooking.  I used recipes for ideas rather than a rigid game plan; you live and learn here.  I consider myself more of a cook than a chef - I normally don't do any of the fancy stuff.  Presentation on the plate is not one of my strong points.

I got into smoking about five years ago using a Weber Rocky Mountain Smoker (bullet style).  I didn't use it all that much due the constant tending and the requirement for the burns on my arms having to heal.  I did some smoking on my gas grill; you know, soak the chips, put 'em in foil, fire it up.  The problem was, the grill had to be hot to get smoke from the chips and that ruled out slow smoking.  Honestly, though, some of the stuff came out pretty good as long as it was meant to be hot-smoked.

Present time:

My daughter and son-in-law moved into their first house in June.  I got them a charcoal-based hot smoker to go with the house because my son-in-law likes smoked stuff.  They had us for dinner for a smoked butt.  My son-in-law was tending this thing every 20 minutes or so; the temp is down, the temp is up, need more hickory.  He ended up with sliced butt, but the smoke ring was nice.  I figured there must be a better way.

Then, my wife, who buys lots of stuff online, got an email advert from HSN?, QVC?, who knows, for an electric smoker.  Well, that sounded interesting so I checked it out and it had miserable reviews, but the idea was still interesting.  So, I did a search and came up with the BS smoker.  The reviews looked good and I found this forum which also looked good.  So, I got it and the rest is history (a few weeks worth anyway).

I have to tell you, I've watched foodnetwork for years.  Yeah, there's some interesting stuff there.  But, I've found more ideas, techniques and recipes here in the last few weeks than years of foodnetwork!  And, everything here is "my kind of food".

I'd like to thank all of you for your support, answers and encouragement.  As I asked up front, how did YOU get here?

[La Quinta]

Arnie...that's a great story...really great!!! They're are many very talented cooks on here....Glad to have you "in the family"... ;D

[classicrockgriller]

great story

[Hopefull Romantic]

Great Story Arnie.

Any tips on how you got your aunt out of the house?

HR

[classicrockgriller]

drove her?

[Hopefull Romantic]

I lived in the States for 14 years, mainly in Indiana and Florida and was introduced to smoked food in a very funny story. My friend and I were driving back from Chicago to W. Lafayette Indiana one afternoon, when my friend announced that he was famished. We were only about half an hour from destination but he would not wait. So we stopped at this forgotten place by the road which had smoked food. Never had tried it before, I decided to give it a whirl. The food was excellent but the service was so lousy it was pitiful. We had to wait for about half an hour before we were even asked what we wanted to drink. I insisted to pay for the meal and I left the waitress a $10 tip.

The next day, my friend and I went back to the same old place, had a my second smoked meal ever and we were treated as kings. The waitress letterly forgot every one else and focused on us. When it was time to pay, I left her ONE penny for a tip.
As we were getting into the car, a man (who turned out to be the waitress's father since it was a mama and papa place) came running out with the waitress and  complaining about how could I leave $10 tip one day and a penny the next when I was treated well.

I calmly replied: yesterday's $10 were for today's service and today's penny was for yesterday's. They laughed and the waitress said: "was I really that bad". I said worse than you can imagine. The father insisted that we go back for an apple pie on the house. I said that I would only go back in for a pecan pie and was it.

Ever since then, I was hooked. Now I do my own smoking.

HR

[ArnieM]

drove her?

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[OU812]

I found this place wile looking for an answer to what went wrong with my smoke generator. Needless to say the members here and Brian with Bradley got it figured out. The control panel took a crap and Brian got me up and running. Great customer service by the way. Ben checking in every time I have a spare min (at work) sense then. Dont have the web at home cause I live in the middle of no were.

[mikecorn.1]

I smoked some ribs in my webber and i got tired of babysitting the dam thing. I looked online at smoker and the bradley site was the first on there to look at. The rest is history.

[muzzletim]

My grandfather smoked sausage, whitefish and suckers, I loved eating all 3, when he passed away I started to smoke with some charcoal grills ect. but got tired of the constant checking, read about the BS and my sweet wife and kids got me one for christmas about 4 years ago. Now I am addicted and like to think that my grandfather would have been proud of me for carrying on the tradition!!!

[ArnieM]

I'm sure he would have Tim.  Some REAL old timers might not believe in electricity - yet - but the proof is in the tasting.  I have better things to - like sleep - in the middle night rather than tending a smoker.