I just bought two Angus briskets at Restaurant Depot today, total of about 30 pounds. They will be smoked over the next few days, covered in caramelized onions, double wrapped in heavy foil, reheated to render out the fat, vacuum sealed and then frozen to get them to Frank’s house for Saturday. One will also have home made mole added on top of the onions, but only one because it contains tree nuts and peanuts. I haven’t decided what to do about the sauce. Home made seems compulsory but it’s really optional. The brisket should stand on its own.
I agree that the brisket should be able to stand on its own. I’m keep it simple…salt, pepper, and paprika. I smoke it until it gets to 160 then wrap it until it gets to 203. Let it rest for rough 4 hours.
I used salt, pepper, paprika, cumin and coriander. Rubbed it in last night, put it on the smoker at about 11 am. I’ll let it smoke for 6-8 hours, cover with onions and double wrap in heavy foil. I then let it sit in the refrigerator for a day or two to let the flavors meld together, then wrap and heat to 203 in the oven and let it sit at between 200 and 205 for a few hours until the fat renders out. I know I’ve nailed it perfectly when there’s a pool of clear melted fat in the pan in the oven.
Overflow garage. A concept. The garage is not for those with claustrophobia IMHO.
Maybe someone will bring brisket. Love beef, with 1-ounce pours of good red.
![[thumbs-up.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f84c5acc11486ee4baba6dee6cf61dbd133abb18.gif "[thumbs-up.gif]"){kind=small}
Heathen. You can’t grill brisket. It takes slow cooking in a smoker and patience. If you would like to bring brisket to grill, there is no one stopping you, but after all the crap I took last time for not bringing a smoked brisket, this time I will bring two. Heating it up may be a challenge, but I am sure we can work it out.
Jay’s brisket—mmmmmm. That is all.
Good morning to the Falltacular family. For the first time in our 14 years of the event, we have crossed $16,000 of starting bids in the silent auction. THANK YOU! This surpasses last year’s record for the garage and positions us well to take a shot at breaking the $50,000 mark for the first time in our history. What this means is that we now need bidders, the generous people to buy and take these items home. On Saturday 2/22 when you are here, bid a little, bid a lot…consider being part of the record we are now chasing, all in support of Laura’s House.
I also still need some volunteers to help for one hour during the event. If you have not signed up for an hour, I’d like to see a few more names so I can make sure the event is properly staffed to ensure we put on the best experience we can. Send me your name if you are interested.
You are welcome to view the Silent Auction and the Committed Wines (being poured during the event) by clicking on the link that follows:
You forgot to put me down for pouring at the Petrus table. 
Two full briskets smoked yesterday with 10 pounds of onions caramelized and added on top just in case they were not decadent enough.
Congrats, Frank. Nice to see such an outpouring of generosity for a worthy cause. 
Frank - You can also take credit for $170 of contributions to the Kids Kloset Charity in Westchester for kids who don’t have good clothes that is being paid ($135 cash) and delivered ($35 for the warm coat and hat and gloves that Alfert failed to earn but I donated anyway) today for my week of big red wine decadence in response to the charity challenge you initiated. I forgot all about it but my wife reminded me yesterday when she asked me when were we going to donate the Alfert Memorial Coat that was taking up space.
Jay, this sounds like good news but I have to say I don’t understand. Maybe explain in the local language, which is Orange County CA. ![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}
The silent auction continues to grow and you can find a listing of everything by clicking on the link below. It’s a safe visit to Dropbox to find it. I’ve found that reviewing it while listening to Led Zeppelin, especially ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’, makes the file even better. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Led Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away (Official Music Video) - YouTube
I also want to thank all the silent auction donors, which are made up people attending Falltacular, to include some that remain generous but who cannot attend, and finally the winery partners that continue year after year to support Falltacular. To ensure all of this year’s silent auction donors get recognized, I want to simply provide a list of everyone’s name who has donated to this point, for what is our largest ever silent auction. We’re in debt to all of you, for whatever you donated, no matter the size nor value–it all goes to helping Laura’s House so THANK YOU!
Peter Petersen
David Lewin
Brian Tuite
Scott Watkins
Arnie Caplan
Ramon Del Rosario
Helen Sinor/Pax
Mike Officer/Carlisle
Phillip Kaplan/Velvet Bee
Darren Delmore/Tablas Creek
Brian Loring/Loring Wine Company
Jeff Pisoni/Pisoni Vineyards
Marc and Dominique Simon/DV8 Cellars
Leah Smith/Myriad Cellars
Larry Piggins
John Cabot/Cabot Vineyards
Nancy Hamill/Mending Wall
Ki Punwar
David Bueker
Rachel Silkowski DeAscentiis/Say When Wines
Jill Matthiasson/Matthiasson
Blake Brown
Mike Grammer
Chris Seiber
Paul Hiyake
Anne Fogerty/Belharra
Will Segui/Rivers-Marie
Will Segui/William and Mary
Flannery Meats/Bryan Cottriel/Larry Schaffer
Jamie Kutch/Kutch
Brian Bohr
JoAnn Erfer
Bobby Moy/Chiron
Bruce Weimer
Greg Piatigorski/iskaranu
Bradley Brown/Big Basin
Cynthia Dahlinger Koby/L’Ecole No 41
Gerry Frayer
Rob, Beth and Megan Bastuba
Jim Kuhner/Calluna
Jim Kuhner/Cobb
Nancy Hamill/Mending Wall
Ed Kurtzman/August West
Jeff Brinkman/Rhys
Steve Nordhoff/Riverain
Steve and Misuk Anderson
Brandon and Sandy Bastuba
Brian Evans/Liquid Farm
Anonymous
Good morning. I also want to pause and thank the wineries for their donations this year, too. These donations ‘fuel’ the event, fulfilling a critical role as the wines we pour throughout the house during Falltacular. We’ll pour 150 different wines this year, at least two bottles of each wine will be available, too. This is the kind of generosity that helps us help Laura’s House and make for the kind of day all of you have come to enjoy.
While the list changes a bit each year, we appreciate every winery that has helped in the past, as well as again for 2020, which is the list displayed below. It also serves as a reference point for a winery you can support, as you know that they donate their craft to a cause that goes to help others. That is service leadership, folks, and they deserve your support and a place in your cellar.
Of note, any winery you see below with a *** next to it have been supporting us for at least 10 years. That is support we are forever in debt and grateful for, as it’s helped us keep growing. BRAVO!
PAX
CARLISLE
VELVET BEE
TABLAS CREEK
DARREN DELMORE
TERCERO
LORING WINE COMPANY
ALMA de CATTLEYA
LUCIA
DV8 CELLARS
CABOT
SONA
STIPA
RASI
PETITE BEAST
MATTHIASSION
LADD CELLARS
FOGLINE
BELHARRA
CATERWAUL
RIVERS-MARIE
WILLIAM & MARY
KUTCH
CHIRON
BIG BASIN
ISKARANU
L’ECOLE
GRIMM’S BLUFF
CALLUNA
COBB WINES
COVERT
NICHOLSON JONES
MENDING WALL
AUGUST WEST
ALESIA
RHYS
RIVERAIN
DUNSTAN
LIQUID FARM
SWITCHBACK RIDGE
YOUNG HAGEN
SOJOURN
And folks, if you buy from these wineries, take the proactive step to send them a message and thank them for their support to Laura’s House. They need to know that you appreciate them donating their craft, time and expense to be a part of the event and cause you believe in.
Good morning. We’re just a handful of days from the big Falltacular weekend so I want to take this moment to update where we are and what I need from you. Please take note of this post.
Silent Auction–we’re $2,000 past our previous best starting point, with my goal to raise $35,000 in the garage. This means we need to do about 90% profit against the starting bids. This is doable and given the diversity of the items, we can do it. Please, come prepared to bid and support us reaching this target.
Wine Poured–we’ll pour more wines that ever before, about 160 different selections. Everyone can find something to enjoy, and we’ll have several winemakers on hand too. As a reminder, we expect everyone attending to do 1 ounce pours so if you are new to the event or you have a new person referred who attends brand new this year, help them understand this standard. We want the wines to stretch across the event, and we want people to enjoy responsibly.
Stemare–courtesy of Mark Jones and Neudesic, we will ensure everyone attending gets the special custom Falltacular wine stem, with burgundy being the glass shape for this year. Thank you, Mark. And, everyone will get a custom, purple water/spit cup for the event. We use no plastic water bottles in our event so please take the cup home with you as a thank you for helping make our environmental footprint a bit lighter.
Volunteer Schedule–I still need a few more people for an hour on Saturday. Hit me back if you can fill this need.
Special Speaker–we will continue again this year to have our short event announcements and speaker, all starting at 130PM. This year we will be fortunate to have OC Sheriff Don Barnes do our special talk. In most years we have a DV survivor give the talk, but this year we want to tackle it from a community impact POV and let you hear from our top law enforcement leader for OC.
For now, that is enough of an update to what I hope will be our record year, breaking $50,000 raised for Laura’s House.
Talk to you once more later in the week.
Everyone, I need another volunteer to work the front door at 1PM with Lisa Caplan. This is a critical role, when we are extremely busy so Lisa needs another set of hands to help her execute checkin. Whoever would like to help, please post me back. Thank you.
EDIT…we are good here. Leslie Fisher took the slot.
OK, so to everyone attending on Saturday, a question for you and asking for your feedback. The afterparty food has typically been a good success but last year, we had too much of it, and on top of that a lot of folks were full from the afternoon of BBQ and side dishes, along with a lot of that afternoon food still out when the afterparty Indian food arrived.
So to my question: do we need the afterparty food this year or shall we take a pass and see how it goes without it? We’ll keep the beer and champagne tradition so I am just talking about deleting the food.
Our other option is we do afterparty food but we need someone to go get it. I would suggest Mexican, which is cheap and filling and we can get it from downtown San Juan. Probably $5 a person.
Please provide any feedback you like so I can make the decision.
maybe try a pass this year, Frank? Though I have loved the Indian and Mexican food in the last few years. But your reasoning is pretty sound…the initial cheeses/side dishes + BBQ seemed to be enough. Other option–get food but order less 
Thanks, MG. The feedback helps. I have about a dozen responses over on the Facebook Falltacular page, too.
Hi, Frank. Thanks for all that you do and for asking for our input. I sent details via PM
Meanwhile, what is the link to the Facebook page? I may be able to view the posts there but Facebook seems to bring up some sort of retreat/travel when I search.