I highly recommend you use the grilling method of your choice, gas or charcoal. Remember, however, that cooking with a gas grill does impart a taste to your food due to the additives in the propane. To get the best results, use a natural wood grill or smoker and utilize your favorite wood; hickory, apple, oak and pecan all have very different flavors. If you use a charcoal grill use natural charcoal sometimes referred to as “Cowboy Charcoal” because of its size and wood content. Our recipe will use wood chips that have been soaked in water to make it easier for the average grill user. While our directions call for lighting the grill with a charcoal chimney, feel free to use whatever method you prefer.

4 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup Honey
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon dried crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper

1 10-pound bag of charcoal briquettes 6 cups (about) hickory-wood chips, soaked in cold water 30 minutes, drained (Suggestion: place 2/3 wet chips and 1/3 dry chips in aluminum foil and seal in a pouch. Take a fork and pierce the top of the pouch 10-15 times to allow the smoke to escape. Prepare several of these in advance to make adding fresh chips fast & easy!)

2 untrimmed boneless pork shoulder halves (1 Boston butt cut in half; about 7 pounds)
12 hamburger buns, split
Combine first 8 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Simmer over medium heat 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 2 hours.

Prepare you charcoals in a chimney in the usual method and place them on the fire grate when ready. About 30 minutes.

Open bottom grill vent. Using metal spatula, spread charcoal to cover the bottom evenly of rack. Place your foil pouch containing your soaked chips on top of your coals either in the center or over to one side of your coals. Always be careful to use long tongs to remove and replace your foil pouches! You may use 2 pouches at one time if you desire a smokier flavor.

Place top rack on grill. Arrange pork shoulder halves on top rack. Cover grill with lid, positioning top vent directly over pork. Place stem of meat thermometer in top vent with gauge on outside and tip near roast (thermometer should not touch meat or grill rack); leave in place during cooking. Use top and bottom vents to maintain temperature between 250°F and 325°F (lower is better), opening vent wider to increase heat and closing to decrease heat. Leave other vents closed. Check temperature every 20 minutes.

Cook pork 3-4 hours. About once an hour, light more charcoal in chimney set on bricks or cement to replenish charcoal in grill. Add 12 hot ash-tinged briquettes and replace your smoker pouch with fresh drained wood chips when cooking temperature drops below 250°F. Brush with some of sauce. You can baste your meat every 30-40 minutes. Cover and continue cooking pork until your meat thermometer registers 165°F, about 2 1/2 hours longer, adding additional hot briquettes and chips as necessary to maintain temperature and basting at least every 30-40 minutes with sauce.

Transfer pork to cutting board; remove any tough rind. Chop meat into bite-size pieces. Transfer meat to large bowl and add enough sauce to moisten. Arrange bun bottoms on work surface.

Top buns with pork; cover with tops. Serve, passing additional sauce. Makes 12 servings.

Do you have a favorite recipe you'd like to share? Email it to: OSSJournal@ossone.com. If your recipe is chosen you'll receive a Free "Thank You" gift so be sure to include your name and address!

Take Charge. If your child doesn't know where to begin, encourage him or her to make a list of all the things they have to do. Break your workload down into manageable chunks, then prioritize. Remind them to schedule their time realistically.

Review. Review your child's syllabus, reading material and notes with them. Identify the most important topics emphasized and areas still not understood.

Get Involved. Encourage your child to get involved with any reading assignments. You can get involved, too. Read it just as your child reads it and then, pose him or her your own study questions on the assignment. Discuss the material together. You may both end up learning something.

Make it Personal. We remember things that are meaningful to us. As your child is reading, encourage him or her to associate the material with their own personal experience. Suggest your child try to integrate the study material with what he or she already knows. You will be able to remember new material better if you can link it to something that's already meaningful to you.

Test Yourself. Make up questions about key sections in notes or reading. Keep in mind what the teacher has stressed in the course.

Get Organized. Information is recalled better if it is represented in an organized framework that will make retrieval more systematic. There are many techniques that can help your child organize new information, including, highlighting meaningful information, taking notes in separate subject folders and even finding related topics in everyday events and news. For instance, tear-out stories on the global economy for an economics class, read them and file them in a separate file folder or binder.

Recap. After your child has read a section of material ask him or her to try to recall the information contained in it. Have him or her try answering the questions you made up for that section. If your child cannot recall enough, suggest re-reading portions that were hard to remember.

I was very young and impressionable when we first met. She was a sleek beauty with beautiful curves. I would sit quietly and gaze at her, and though she was a little rough around the edges it gave her a special grace that I still hold dear. We would meet nearly every weekend under the large oaks on our farm and spend the day together. I was innocent to her ways and she was always very silent and reserved. However, when she opened up she revealed her innermost beauty. In retrospect she created a love I have never forgotten. I’m speaking about my long love affair with the grill and outdoor cooking.

It is with a great deal of humility that I must admit that I own no less than 9 outdoor grills. Long ago when we had our first smoker custom made I was no less than 10 years of age. I was fascinated at its simplicity and design and was always anxious to see it in use. I would help split and stack the wood because Dad always said the wood must be seasoned and not green. We used our smoker and grill for many years afterwards and I have continued to use them ever since. Nine grills may seem silly to most but to those with a love of cooking outdoors realize that every grill cooks differently and has different capabilities. I have gas grills that cook fast and gas grills that cook slow for rotisserie, and I have a natural wood smoker that is larger than a Honda Civic (yes, I said larger!). One grill is a great smoker for all day cooking but I wouldn’t use it for a steak. Another is so steady and dependable I can cook a pie or biscuits on it and have done so often. Each one has its own personality and flavor. If you haven’t noticed I love to cook, especially outdoors.

I started smoking pork barbecue with my father back in the early 1970’s and have continued a Thanksgiving tradition of smoking turkeys and pork shoulders or butts for over 25 years. The recipe featured in today’s column is a basic version of the “secret” recipe I use for my eastern style barbecue. The barbecue sauce recipe was my father’s recipe and I have added and deleted and modified it over the years to suit my own taste. I also use a dry rub that I have developed over the years. I have recently started experimenting with different flavors by means of injectors. My son has adopted my love of the grill and is working toward becoming a chef. He too has been fascinated with the many tastes and unique qualities of the food when prepared on the grill. The barbecue recipe represented here is an easy way for you to enjoy home cooked barbecue at your house too. It does take time and patience but you will be rewarded with mouth watering, tender and tasty “Q” that you will long remember. Barbecue is something than can be very personal because you can vary the smoke intensity and flavors to your tastes. I consider my barbecue a work of art, constantly refined, constantly evolving and always delicious. I use a mixture of hickory, apple and pecan woods but hickory is the dominant wood. I’ll use two-thirds hickory and mix the apple and pecan for the balance giving the food a hint of apple and roasted pecan. I slow cook my barbecue for 10-14 hours over coals. I use split woods and burn them into embers and stoke them into my smoker a shovel at the time, slowly cultivating the aromas and juicy flavors to their peak.

But that isn’t all I cook either so don’t be dismayed. Grilling isn’t just for dogs and burgers any more! Shrimp, fish, chops, roasts, pies, vegetables, steaks, smoked chilies and peppers, even stir-fry and pizza. I’m not afraid of using my charcoal grill along side of my gas grill while my basting sauce slowly simmers on the side burner and my apple pie cooks slowly on another grill. I have even been known to teach a few classes to the “newbie’s” on how to cook outside. Let me encourage you to exercise yourself outside this weekend and dust off the grill, prepare a marinade, and get yourself ready for some delightful pleasures using your gas or charcoal grill.

Share some of your grilling experiences with others by emailing us at ossjournal@ossone.com and give us your favorite recipe and tell us your story. To show our thanks we’ll send you a FREE gift!

What relationship does Liquid Paper Correction Fluid have with the television series sitcom "The Monkees"?

Answer: Bette Nesmith, mother of Monkees actor/songwriter Michael Nesmith, invented Liquid Paper in her kitchen sink. Originally called "Mistake Out" Bette Nesmith's created correction fluid using tempera paint and her kitchen blender in 1951. She was never considered an inventor, however she enjoyed her painting pastime. Bette Nesmith was a typist/executive secretary in a bank and experienced difficulty correcting typewriter errors so she sought out a way to make corrections easier. Bette later sold the company in 1979 to the Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million and royalties. IBM turned down the opportunity to purchase rights to Liquid Paper prior to the Gillette purchase.