Phoning this one in . . . .

We had the holiday weekend off. With my delay in posting our DC trip, I thought this might silence the beasts if I could add a blog post this week. These are some random food pictures taken here or there, mostly while traveling to and from contests. I even got ambitious and labeled a few of them. Enjoy.

You win some. You lose some.

Well, by now it's no secret that we finished as the Reserve Grand Champions of the Safeway National Barbecue Battle in Washington, DC this past weekend. Wins in chicken and ribs, coupled with a ninth place finish in pork and a fourth place finish in brisket, out of 48 teams, just wasn't enough to pull off a win. Instead, Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke was awarded the Grand Champion of the event. His calls were sixth in chicken, third in ribs, seventh in pork and second in brisket. When the points combined, those finishes were about three points better than ours and I'm not going to beat around the bush here, it stung. In fact, that might be the most shocking finish we've ever had where we were on the losing end of a deal like that. Hey, I'm just telling the truth. Oh sure, I could sweeten it up, saying things like "We just didn't hit the right tables," or maybe "Tuffy just cooked a little better than us that day," but I won't. What I will say, is that we've been on the giving end of situations many, many times and we were due to end up on the receiving end sooner or later. I gotta say though, if you're going to get beat, there's nobody better to get beat by than the Mr. Rogers of competition barbecue, sans the sweater. Well done Cool Smoke crew.This event is seventeen years old, but this was just our second year to cook on Pennsylvania Ave, and it was no less eventful than our first. See, move in for cook teams is 10:00 PM on Friday night. Obviously the turn in times are later on Saturday for the KCBS event, starting at 6:00 PM, but that's still the equivalent of getting into your spot at a normal cook-off at 4:00 PM. Plus, it's not like everyone casually shows up. Oh no. This is more like a land rush in slow motion. Plus you're competing with big time vendors and sponsors attempting to set up. This is the single most hectic move-in in the history of competition barbecue. It's like absolutely nothing else you've ever seen and it takes forever.Once we got to our spot, we discovered that the event shorted us 5' of space. This sounds minuscule, but it wasn't. In fact, I knew right then we'd have trouble leaving on Sunday night, and we did. With one team already in place and the other arriving just as we did, it was sort of a mad scramble to get the trailer positioned and unhooked. Finally in place about midnight and ready to get organized, we fired up the on board generator, knowing that last year there was no on site power until Saturday morning. Forty-five minutes later the generator died, and I mean DIED. It wouldn't fire, it wouldn't crank, it wouldn't make a single noise. It was dead. So, there we were, wedged into our spot, meat prepped, in the dark, tired and hot with crap everywhere. We sort of made the best of it. To a pellet head, power is everything. The contest power went live about 2:00 AM, but was very poor. This added to our frustrations and made for a very long, hot Saturday. We finally gave up on Sunday and ran our AC even though our power meter told us the power output level was dangerously low. Luckily, Dave of Lazy Ass BBQ was there to keep the motivation level high. Despite his new turquoise cap, he was a pillar of strength for the team.Amongst all this chaos and hubbub, there was a huge success story. Across the isle from us at the event was a brother and sister team. They came equipped with one of those WalMart $60 canopies that was more like a kite than a shelter until after the third attempt at flight, they finally tied off to the fence like a dog and used their coolers and two buckets and some bungees we loaned them to weight it down. They also had a couple of those beige, square, padded card tables. Finally, they cooked on two Weber Smokey Mountain bullet type cookers and a Weber kettle. In addition to competing in the Saturday KCBS event, this young team entered not one, but two of the Sunday MIM categories, Shoulder and Ribs. There were forty-eight teams at the event and I don't know how many were entered in the Ribs category because we didn't get any results on the MIM event, but our neighbors made finals. For those of you that don't know, in an MIM event, the top three teams in each of the three categories (Whole Hog, Shoulder, and Ribs) make a second round of on site judging. Typically, the Ribs category has more teams than the other two combined. So, it was crazy exciting to see these two make the finals? "Why?" you ask. Because in MIM it's been said that it's a dog and pony show, one where teams use china, crystal and silver to set the tables and wow the judges. One where chef's coats and tuxedo's are donned by the cooks and greeters. One where there is more produce on site than a farmer's market. So here you have these two, no team shirts, no high brow place settings, no uppity anything AND THEY MADE THE FINALS! Congrats to The Cheeseheads in space T-19.
We actually finished 4th in the MIM ribs, one spot shy of making our first finals. I'm waiting to see our scores before passing judgement, but I think I know what I did wrong and if so, I definitely know how I will fix it. We've improved each of the three times we've cooked an MIM style event. Congrats to Myron Mixon and his Jack's Old South Team. They swept the three MIM categories and obviously won the overall. Myron told me they've now won there 12 of 14 times they've cooked it. Now that is my definition of a honey hole. We also spent some quality time with Marc Z. from Greased Lightning. It's always good to see Marc. He finally got to sample all four or our KCBS entries, which was cool because it means he ate some of the winning chicken and ribs. Also, through the wonders of Facebook, we also got to see an old friend from high school now residing in DC. She brought her husband, daughter and a friend. We weren't very good hosts though, having just finished our on site MIM judging. Congrats on your retirement from the military Sharon, and thanks for fighting the crowds to come down. It was good to see you again after 25 years.

We're home, unpacked and cleaned up. Jeff of KC Custom's diagnosed and repaired our generator plus some work on the trailer door. If you have any need for someone to work on your motor home, travel trailer, etc., I highly recommend you get in touch with him. His work is top notch. He even has a paint booth large enough to fit a 45' motor home. I've never seen a booth that big. It's cool. We're off for the holiday weekend. Next stop is Great Bend, Kansas for the Chest to Chest Invitational and the Central Kansas BBQ Cook-off. This is an event we've only missed once. We love what Kent Romine does with this contest and we're excited to get back there. See you all on the tarmac in Great Bend!

All photos in this post were courtesy of The Closer.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program . . .

If you've followed this blog, then you'll know I veered off course last week. I'm now ready to get back to business as usual. This past weekend we cooked at the Colorado BBQ Challenge in Frisco, Colorado. We had always heard good things about this long established event and it lived up to it's reputation, including the unusually mild weather with highs in the 60's and lows in the upper 30's while most of the country suffered from the first blast of sweltering heat. Frisco appears to be primarily a tourist trap, nestled in the Rocky Mountains, about 9000 feet above sea level and an hour or so from Denver. I'm sure better writers than me have waxed poetic about Frisco with words like "quaint", "rustic" and "friendly.". I'm just going to tell you that it's oxygen deprived and full of young people who lack direction in life.Tens of thousands of people walked the six block stretch of Main Street on Friday, sizing up the fifty plus tents, deciding where to spend their "hog backs." Most vendors offered up traditional barbecue, while others offered carnival type cuisine and yet others purveyed things like roasted corn, flavored shaved ice, upscale pizza, kabobs and even hoagie style sandwiches of sausages with peppers and onions. And most vendors sold out by early evening that day.So if we're in the same circles on Facebook or Twitter, you already know the trouble I had with the lack of oxygen at 9000 feet above sea level. You just can't deprive a fat man of his air and ask him to perform. That has to be some basic law of physics or something. It just doesn't work. But in the end, I don't know who had a harder time this past weekend, me or my pit. Don't get me wrong, I received a lot of advice about cooking at altitude, and most of it was even valuable. And I did all the right things. I fired up an hour early. As expected, it took almost two hours to get the pit up to temp, more than double the usual time. We were good so far. I got my meat on as scheduled. I watched the pit like a hawk. I ran a good fire. Until daylight broke at about 5:30 AM, things went very smoothly, almost too well really. But that's about the time stuff started to unravel. From day break on , the cook was far more difficult as the pit began to swing back and forth, at least twenty-five degrees either side of where I wanted to be. It was a constant struggle, some might even say a classic battle, between man and machine.
So, here we were, almost two miles high, lacking what each and every one of us take for granted every day (air), playing "adjust the damper and add more fuel" every fifteen minutes. During the trip to Frisco, I had told Sheri that I would not allow ANYTHING to be under cooked at this contest, knowing just how easily this could and does happen when cooking that far up the hill. See, of all sixty-five plus teams in attendance, only one was actually from the area. So, unless you trek up the mountain just to practice cooking, no team cooks more than maybe three or four times a year in these conditions max. My motto has always been "overs beat unders", so I knew if I did nothing else right, getting everything cooked to the desired doneness was critical.

Dear reading, can you tell I've led you down a path? Do you know what happened next? Can you guess? If you thought to yourself, "He didn't get his stuff done," you'd be correct. The pork butts temp'd out exactly where I wanted at about 9:30AM. However, the briskets hung in there about ten degrees short of my final mark until I finally threw in the towel and retired them to holding at about 11:45AM. The ribs were beautiful but were just a little under done for my liking. The chicken was good, but it also fell short, determined by our inability to bite through the skin. Despite what was shaping up to be a bad day in the Pellet Envy camp, we didn't hang our heads. Oh no, we found what we thought was our best product that day, got it in the box, and successfully completed all four turn-ins without incident.I'm done boring you with the details of what we felt was a less than successful cook. We finished third overall and won the brisket category. We finished 14th in chicken, 28th in ribs and 3rd in pork. The pork and brisket finishes were a little surprising, but the judges were right about our ribs that day. They had great flavor and an awesome appearance, but were tight. Oh well, it happens, and this probably won't be the last time. We didn't cook our best and we almost got away with it. Momma said there'd be days like this.Frisco is an amazing event. Events where tons of enthusiastic barbecue fans turn out are truly our favorite, and that's exactly how it happened this past weekend. Heck, shortly after we got packed up rain began to fall. Do you think that effected this event? Heck no! As the rains fell, spectators clutched their Hog Backs and waited patiently in line to sample the offerings of the vendors who had not sold out that previous day. It was a site to behold. The damn funnel cake line was 20 people deep. Madness!!!
Now we're off to Washington, D.C. to compete in the National Barbecue Battle, another event were the masses will descend on us. Last year there were over 150,000 spectators on Pennsylvania Ave over the weekend. The forecast says it's going to be a little cooler than last year, so hopefully they can break their attendance record. See you all on the bbq trail!

Editor's note: The pictures of the crowds as they are in this blog post, really don't do justice to the massive amounts of people attending. Click on the pictures to see them full screen. Trust me, it's worth it!

A follow-up to my resignation from the board

So many people have asked me why I resigned from the Kansas City Barbeque Society Board of Directors last week. I had no idea anybody would even be interested. Honestly, it’s astounding. I’ve had a few days to think about my answer and truthfully, I’m still unsure exactly how to answer, but here are a few of my thoughts:

What if I told you that one board member often responds from another board members e-mail address?

What if I told you that when writing to members about the society, one member of the board signed e-mails “Montague, the defender of freedom against the thought destroying KCBS police”?

What if I told you that one board member frequently has outbursts with childish displays of anger and has even demanded that the board censure him/her?

What if I told you that the KCBS staff feels so beat down by the actions and words of one board member that they often question why they stay?

What if I told you that one board member uses the inside information of the board as power to gain friendship amongst a handful of members, being careful to spin the stories so as to put himself/herself in the best possible light?

What if I told you that a board member openly asked a territorial bbq organization to rep contests in their specific area of the country only minutes after being reminded that it was against the rep rules to solicit for assignments?

What if I told you one board member lives for the argument, simply wearing out his/her opponent in a relentless verbal lashing laced with sarcasms and immaturity, typically verbally beating that person into submission?

What if I told you I left because of one obsessive compulsive, manipulative, overbearing person who wastes hours of meeting time in an attempt to micro manage every detail of the organization’s business, even and especially when it’s not this person’s responsibility?

What if I told you that the members of the board have become so callus to the senseless, childish behavior of one board member, they refuse to challenge what goes on the in the board room?

What if I told you that one board member wastes the time of office staff with busy work to satisfy useless requests and wastes KCBS money demanding legal opinions on frivolous matters?

What if I told you that a couple board members blindly follow the lead of an over zealous, compulsive, neurotic member, forgetting to inject a little common sense or individualism before voting in tandem?

What if I told you the board is so caught up in minutia, they forget to look at the true future of barbecue and how the organization will play a role?

What if I told you one of our board members has a history of unprofessional behavior, so much so that even the Boys Scouts of America have banned this person from ever setting foot on their property?

What if I told you one board member uses the rules to his/her advantage, but also asks for the rules to be suspended when it’s to their advantage, but refuses to do the same for others?

What if I told you that a board member tells members that this is his/her last term and he/she plans to make the office staffs’ lives a living hell?

What if I told you a board member told me I needed to go get my Juris Doctorate before I could speak to him/her?

What if I told you my response to that board member was “F&%* you” and it was during my last board meeting? What if I told you that was a dark moment, and I regret acting that way?

What if I told you that since my departure from the board, one director swiftly drafted a new policy for replacing directors because the current policy, one that works just fine, won’t allow him/her to get a chance to campaign for someone who will blindly follow his/her lead?

Well, I’m not going to tell you any of that. Rather, I’m going to tell you that four and half years were simply long enough. I was not raised to quit anything. I feel bad for not completing my term and worse that I will not be there to help shape the future of competition barbecue, at least giving a little something back. However, this is one of the few times that I simply did what was best for me. Never have I met so many people so passionate about one thing, the kind of people who would give a stranger the shirt off their backs to help, and do it without ever blinking an eye. When someone asks me why they should join the KCBS, I ask “How long do you have?” For all of the trials and tribulations in the board room, this is still far and away the best barbecue organization in the world and as good as it is, it’s improving all the time. I don’t know how proud the organization is of me, but I remain a proud member of the Kansas City Barbeque Society and I thank everyone who has supported me during my volunteer position as a member of the board.

Third time a charm?

As most of you know, somehow I'm always busy when it's 9:22AM, 9:30AM, 10:00AM, 10:30AM, 11:00AM, or 11:30AM lucky shot time at contests. Truthfully, a shot of Gentleman Jack just isn't my thing in the morning hours, no matter how small it may be. But we all need a little luck every now and again, and don't get me wrong, I'll take all I can get. So this past weekend at the South Central Masters BBQ Championship in Wichita, Kansas, I participated in not one, but two of the Saturday morning rituals.

Alas, it wasn't quite enough, as we finished Reserve Grand Champion by just half a point. Our chicken was 7th, ribs 12th, pork 5th and we won the brisket category. You won't catch me saying this often, but our ribs were rockin'. Oh well, the judges disagreed, all six of them giving us straight 8's. That's weird to look at on the score sheet, but I can accept their decision. Thanks to Lee & Kathy of Lee Dawg's BBQ and Mike of Smokin' Leprechauns for hosting the morning shots just the same. When the Naughty Nurses invited me for yet another round of "luck" I should have taken them up on it.

It's been many years since I've spent any time in Wichita. On the way to the contest, I stopped off at the original Nu Way Cafe. For those that don't know, the Nu Way serves loose meat sandwiches. They're offered with traditional hamburger accouterments like mustard, pickles and onion. The place was cool and quaint. I sat on a bar stool at the end of an "L" shaped bar, with a perfect view of the back of a women's head. I think she was as uncomfortable about it as I was. My sandwich was good, probably better than a Maid Rite. Sorry Iowa. They make their own root beer at Nu Way. It reminded me a lot of A&W, but wasn't memorable. I also ordered a chocolate shake to go. It was the best part of meal.

The SCKMBBQC is held on the grounds of the Old Cowtown Museum just west of downtown. It's about as remote as you can get in the center of Wichita. The contest site was a west parking lot with a tall fence surrounding the entire paved area. Honestly, this is about as isolated as I've seen for an event. As soon as I found the contest and got set up (unhooked the pit and backed into my spot), my thoughts turned to how the public would even find us. Well, this is an established event, although I'm told the location is only a couple years old. The mayor of Wichita, Carl Brewer, is a bbq competitor. He and his crew serve a Friday night meal as a fundraiser. As you can see by the pictures, folks had no trouble finding the event. This line lasted a long, long time. It probably helped that the weather was fabulous on both days.

We cooked with several teams I haven't seen in awhile and several we've seen many times. Our neighbors, Smokin' Leprechauns and Naughty Nurses were great. Blue Collar BBQ was close by as well. Tom and his crew are always good people. Gotta love a team with a watermelon canopy top. The hat has a story. It's the award presented to the Grand Champion of this event. I know am in possession of a black one just like it. Don't expect to see me wearing it any time soon.

The highlight of this weekend was seeing a couple old friends I haven't seen since college. The internet is a fascinating place and we found each other as a result of it. Friday night one of my old college roommate and I spent a little time in the revitalized Old Town area. Man is that a cool place. I'm proud of Wichita for that whole deal. The Pump House was awesome, with a cool, retro kind of vibe. The beer was cold too. My old roommate, Mike, is a big dog at Big Dog Motorcycles. Man, do I envy him . . .pun intended. What a cool job though. Saturday he returned with his whole family to sample my food. It was great to see his wife Crystal again and meet his daughter Lyndie and son Hagen. Hope I didn't butcher the spelling too much guys.

On Saturday another good friend from college came out the event to visit. Anne has lived in Wichita since our college days at Emporia State. She looked great. Just to make me old, she told me she has a son who is a Marine, serving his second term in the Middle East. His name is Paul, and although I've never met him, I admire what he does for his country. Anne was my rib taster on Saturday, although I don't hold her at fault for how the ribs finished.

Both Mike and Anne told me stories they remember about me from our college days. While entertaining, I hope their memories have embellished just a bit. I'm not going to get into it here in this blog, but let's just say while believable, I hope I didn't do either of the things they recall. However, it was awesome to see them both and I hope when I get back down that way in the fall, we can all get together again.

Next week we're off to Frisco, Colorado to cook. We've never cooked in Frisco, but have cooked just a few miles away in Dillon. I've heard nothing but great things about the event. The pictures show that the event is very well supported by the folks up there. It's always cool when the big crowds come out. I've been remembering some of the tips and advice I've received about cooking at 9000 feet. Hopefully they'll pay off. Until next time, happy q'ing!

Today I resigned my volunteer position as a board member for the Kansas City Barbeque Society. I want to thank the members of KCBS for their words of encouragement and support over the past four and half years. Because of KCBS, I have met so many great people from all over the country I now call my friends. My actions today leave me feeling as if I have let down many people. However, in light of current events, this decision is what is best for me and ultimately the organization and I hope folks will respect it for that. I relish the time I've served, have always and will always support our great organization and wish only the best for it's growth and continued success.

Everything but the squeal . . . . .

The pig police, they live inside of my head.
The pig police, they come to me in my bed.

BBQlossal is a special event. Anne Rhenstrom, the perpetual and REAL Iowa Pork Queen, and her group do a remarkable job. Honestly, Qlossal doesn't get discussed in bbq circles nearly as much as it should. This is one of the premiere events in the country. It's a pork only contest, where until made optional this year, whole hog was a mandatory category if you wanted to win the overall. Also a change this year, the World Pork Expo was over and moving out as we arrived on Friday. Finally, missing last year, I was introduced to a new location on the grounds this weekend. I liked it. Oh, and you never know who might show up in Iowa. This year some good ole boys from Georgia made the trip.In addition to the nearly normal Saturday contest, this event hosts a hugely successful iron cheffish events, named the Big Green Egg Scramble. Five randomly chosen cooks are given a list of food items they will be provided, but find out which cut of pork they will cook about two hours before the start. In addition, they can bring anything that will fit into a box they're provided. This year's winner was Todd of Pork Pullin' Plowboys assisted by Steph of TheSlabs.com. They made some killer personal pizzas, including a totally over the top dessert pizza. I think I saw the eyes of one of the judges roll back in her head after she sampled it.Almost upon arrival, I was greeted by Don of Boondoggle BBQ bearing the gift of Templeton Rye whiskey. He had no idea that finding a bottle of TR was on my short list of things to do that Friday afternoon. Only a few steps with my gift and Rod of Buster Dog BBQ bequested me with a Casa Magna Robusto cigar, explaining thta it was the highest rated cigar of 2008. I'm not very excitable, but I have to tell you that I was stepping high on my way back to my cook site with these new treasures. What a way to start a contest. A heart felt thank you to both of these guys.

Weather was a factor at Qlossal, which is often the case. Rain began to fall about 5:00 AM. It lasted about five hours. As soon as the clouds moved out, the winds began to torment the cooks, with gusts of up to 30 mph. That's no step for a stepper, but when you're cooking under an instant canopy, both of these can be troublesome. I knew it could and would rain, so had loaded our older canopy. It holds water in the corners. So, for the better part of five hours, I poked the four corners of that damn tent every ten minutes, draining the collecting water. I knew better than to take that tent, but anal Rod didn't want to get the new canopy wet.
Nearly forty pig police found their way to contestant sites about 10:30 AM on Saturday morning. Pig Police oversee the whole hog turn-in process, inspecting teams as they harvest meat from their pigs to put into the turn-in container. Once teams are ready, the PP seal the box with a special sticker and escort the entry to turn-in. The worst winds came just as turn-in for the other three pork categories began. I made it through ribs, but about the time pork shoulder/butt was due, the wind began to punish my old tent. Luckily for me, four young strapping Iowa men came along to save the day. I think they overhead me whimpering in my spot as the winds pushed on the tent sidewalls, threatening to knock over my two tables. These fine, upstanding men took pity on me, securing my tent and tables while I finished the last two categories. Then, bribed only by my ribs and loin leftovers, they helped me tear down and pack up. I swear the entire process only took ten minutes and Pellet Envy was once again the envy of all the other teams left with hours of work to ready themselves for the long trip home. I want to again personally thank (from left to right) Russell, Clayton, Reg and Rodney for their help. I might still be in Iowa if it weren't for some of Iowa's best young talent.
Also, once again thank you to Steph and Kyle for hosting the potluck dinner on Friday. If you haven't had a Stephy Style tamale, you haven't lived. Oh, and Moe Cason of Ponderosa BBQ made Philly cheese steaks that totally rocked my world. I had no idea that boy was so talented. I looked at him in a totally different light after one bite of his fabulous creation.We finished 4th in ribs, 18th in pork, 18th in pork loin and 11th overall out of 59 teams. Not exactly what I came for, but I'll take it considering the great talent that cooked this event. Congrats to Ryan Newstrom and the crew of Big T'z Q Cru on a huge win. That was way cool, especially with his mom on the team. Also, congrats to Pork Pullin' Plowboys, Ribs 4U and A Boy and His BBQ for great overall finishes. This weekend we're off to Wichita to compete in the South Central Kansas Masters BBQ Championship. This will be our first time cooking in Wichita and we're looking forward to the trip. See you all soon on the bbq trail!