Now that we have our favorite warm-weather dessert taken care of, let’s move on to the main course: barbecue brisket.

Barbecue has been on my mind a lot lately. For professional reasons, I had to dig into the subject pretty deeply a few months ago for this feature story on barbecue that just published in BEEF magazine’s May issue.

Of course, reading and writing about barbecue makes a person hungry — very hungry — for barbecue. Unfortunately, barbecue isn’t easy to come by up here in the Frozen Tundra — yet. As I mention in my BEEF story, great progress is being made thanks to Dickey’s and other establishments. And I did make one special trip to Dickey’s in Maple Grove after I finished writing, but during the actual writing process, I can’t tell you how much my mouth watered or how often I longed for a barbecue brisket sandwich. So the first chance we had this spring, Michael fired up our backyard smoker, piled it full of hickory wood that my dad brought us from Oklahoma, and threw on lots of brisket and some hot links.

Smoking meat is a long, somewhat complicated process, so Michael spent that entire Saturday in the backyard, babysitting the smoker. The payoff was well worth his effort; we fed a small crowd that Saturday and had enough leftovers for almost two weeks of lunches! Yum!

Naturally, there’s a lot of secrecy when it comes to barbecue dry rubs and sauces, but I can share that my husband — aka the backyard barbecue chef — primarily follows a recipe from Head Country Barbecue. As infants born in Oklahoma, Michael and I both went from being bottle-fed baby formula to being bottle-fed Head Country barbecue sauce.

Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but really, we love the stuff and always have. And the best news is, you can order it online at www.headcountry.com! While you’re shopping, be sure to pick up some Head Country All-Purpose Seasoning and their marinade, too.

Okay — enough said — here’s the link to the recipe for Head Country’s smoked barbecue brisket. If you don’t have a smoker, don’t fret. Try this alternative recipe for oven-baked barbecue brisket.