ALL THINGS BARBEQUE

I Like Pie. A short story.

2011-11-09T21:09:00.005-06:00

So, this e-mail arrives offering a free pie. Not just any pie, but a "very special" pecan pie. Delete. Why? Because I know it's just spam, and even if it isn't, ultimately the sender wants something. But then something odd happened, another e-mail. I was a surprised. Typically, those "send you something to try" e-mails are one and done. Again, I delete it. To my shock, there's a third e-mail. This time I scrutinized it. Not only did it look legit, it actually looked like a personal message from the sender. I figure anybody persistent enough to send three e-mails must be confident in their product? So I respond, acknowledging that I'll try the pie. After all, I like pie. And if I didn't like this one, I just wouldn't write anything, right (spoiler alert)?

Fast forward a couple weeks. Getting ready to have a house full for a celebration, any thought of a complimentary pie had long since been forgotten. Pulling in the driveway from yet another trip of hunting and gathering, I spied a package on my front step. It was a medium size box, not tall enough to be a shoe box, but wider. I wasn't
expecting any deliveries. So I retrieve it and discover it's decently heavy considering the size. Then I read the shipping label. Hell,it's that Goode Company Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie just as promised.

I carried it into the kitchen, opened the box, and found this very
cool branded wooden box proudly proclaiming that it's contents were
made in Texas. When I slid back the lid, I discovered a pecan pie.
Not just any pecan pie mind you, but a beautiful 9" specimen with the
most perfect pecans displayed on top. Those pecans had to be hand
picked and placed. There's no way that many perfect nuts end up on a
pie by accident. What can I say? First impressions are very
important and so far this pie was pretty impressive. Thinking back,
I'm still amazed that a pie could be shipped part way across the
country and arrive in such perfect condition, but it did. Now, I am a skeptic, and it takes more than just looks to win me over, let alone motivate me to write a glowing product review. What
did I do? Well, I tried the pie right then and there. Wouldn't you?

Plain and simple folks, the Goode Company Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie
rocks. I know a thing or two about eating pie. My mother made pecan
pies. Folks raved about them. Her recipe was straight off the Karo
syrup bottle, but that was our little secret. My grandmother is the
serious pie maker of the family. Like giving two people halves of a
$100 bill, she taught my wife to make the crust and me to make the
filling. We've gone on to win many awards with those pies.
Specifically, what I liked about this pecan pie was it's balance. (I
know, I know. I might stop reading a pie review if the writer dropped
the idea of balance in pies, but hang in there). You know how some
people will kill you with kindness, using over the top sappiness to
get on your good side? Pie makers often do the same thing with
sweetness. Too often pies are over the top sweet, with no substance
or flavor. Not so with this pie. As sweet as most pecan pies are
these days, people eat them without any topping. As good as this pie
was alone, it would be great with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, or
even better, a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream along side. Don't get
me wrong, I can't imagine anybody complaining about a nice slice of
this pecan pie. It's the perfect finish to any barbecue meal.

Make it a little easier on yourself this year for the holidays. Order
a pecan pie from the Goode Company. It'll mean one less thing to do,
allowing you to focus your attention on smoking the perfect bird and
creating the perfect sides. Or better yet, send one to someone this
holiday. From a guy who spent twenty years in an industry making sure to never use the phrase "I promise", this pie will be the hit of yourdessert table or the gift they won't soon forget. I promise.

Another Pellet Envy class in the books

2011-03-08T17:18:00.000-06:00

This past weekend Pellet Envy hosted 40 students at our cooking class in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. Folks from several states attended and while the class typically averages attendees from about fifteen states, this class was unusually loaded with people from Kansas and Missouri.

In addition to many obsessed barbecue fans, the class included Mike Williams from Clinton, Missouri. Mike had just returned from his tour of duty in the Middle East. While serving in Kuwait, Mike met Johnny Trigg of Smokin' Triggers, Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke, and Jamie Geer of JamboPits.com, all part of a group that went to give our troops a little taste of home while they served their country in a far away land. While in Kuwait, Johnny, Tuffy, and Jamie fed over 3,000 soldiers on two different bases in a very short period of time. During this time, they met Mike who struct up a conversation about learning how to cook championship quality barbecue and in the end, Mike sent me an e-mail while serving, saying that when he got home he planned to attend a Pellet Envy class. We were honored to have Mike as part of this class. He was thoroughly engaging and enthusiastic to learn our style of barbecue.

Next up, the Old School versus High Tech class rolls into Yorktown, Virginia on March 18 & 19, 2011. With seats still available, Johnny Trigg and I will be teaching our two unique styles of barbecue as guests of Mark Breen, proprietor of the County Grill and Smokehouse. Pellet Envy will schedule one or two more class dates in 2011. Receiving requests daily, we're compiling a list of interested folks. If you'd like to get in on a future class, please contact rod@pelletenvy.com or get in touch with us through the Pellet Envy website.

It's getting to be the time of year to get some smoke in the air. Sheri and I look forward to seeing you all on the barbecue trail soon.

All Things Barbecue named a best barbecue blog

2011-01-11T12:42:00.002-06:00

That's right readers, this blog has been named one of the fifty best blogs on barbecue by the Culinary Schools Guide. Listed among a very distinguished list of bloggers, this humble little self promoting gem rubs elbows with some of the best and most active barbecue bloggers on the planet. "It's a great honor to be recognized among the best barbecue blogs in the universe. It's definitely a surprise and honestly, I'm rendered virtually speechless." said Rod Gray when asked about the award (man that was weird, since I'm the one typing this). Anyway, check out the other bloggers at http://www.guidetoculinaryschools.com/best-bbq-blogs

Going to Kansas City. Kansas City here I come!

2011-01-06T15:11:00.041-06:00

So you’re coming to Kansas City for the KCBS annual banquet. Beyond the various meetings, trade show and the Saturday evening festivities, you’re probably wondering what to do and where to go while you’re here. Kansas City is the city of fountains, although I imagine that all the fountains will be shut down or frozen solid when you get here. Do not despair. A lot of people have probably forgotten more about Kansas City then I’ll ever know, but let’s see if we can’t find something to do while you’re here.

The coolest thing about this year’s banquet in Kansas City is the location that Kelly Cain, Manager of Special Projects and Bullsheet Editor for the KCBS, has picked for you. The Hyatt has some amazing dining. During your stay, I recommend you take the elevator up to Skies to at least have a drink. Skies is a revolving restaurant at the top of the Hyatt and has a remarkable view of the city. Also, the Peppercorn Duck Club is famous for their chocolate bar. If you are a chocolate lover, this is one you shouldn’t miss and they offer it as a stand alone option for $12 if you decide to eat dinner elsewhere and just partake in their dessert. No, it's not cheap, but how many times do you get the chance to feast on a chocolate bar in a fine dining establishment? Yeah, I thought so . . . . .

Despite the cold winters here in the midwest, another very cool thing (pun intended) about your hotel is the ability to leave the building utilizing the catwalk system and not even don your coat. The glass walkway takes you to the award winning Westin Crown Center, yet another high-rise hotel that also houses some great dining, live theaters and cinema, plus over 80 shops. Finally, this suspended indoor sidewalk system connects to Union Station. Built in 1914 and renovated at the turn of this century, this grand historic landmark has unique exhibits plus specialty shops and fine dining like Pierpont’s, owned by the Hereford House folks.

Beyond the immediate area of your hotel, there are some really great things to do. Consider the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial. Just a few short blocks away, this is the said to be the only federally funded tribute to the first world war. Also, check out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, located a short drive from the hotel. With hundreds of artifacts and photographs, plus multi-media displays, and more, this place is not to be missed for the die hard sports fan. Looking to add a little culture to your diet? Travel south a bit to the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art. Just look for the larger than life shuttle cock on the lawn. Finally, if you’re in the mood for a movie, head for the AMC Mainstreet 6. This new state of the art theater concept is just minutes from the Hyatt and offers a swank lounge, self service fountain beverage bar, a topping bar for your popcorn and even the ultimate movie going experience, Cinema Suites, where you sit in full size rumble seat recliners and enjoy in-theater dining with serve at your seat. If you’ve never seen a movie this way, you have to got to try it.

Honestly, I’ve barely scratched the surface of things to do in Kansas City. But, all this talk about places to go and things to see has surely made you hungry, right? Don’t fear, Kansas City is sort of a foodie town. Right around your hotel, there are tons of options, from The American, the Westin’s crown jewel with James Beard award winning Executive Chef Debbie Gold, to The Cashew, big sister to The Peanut and a bit more of an upscale establishment ; it’s the perfect choice for happy hour on Friday or just about any time. Just looking for a quick bite? My hidden gem in Kansas City is Kitty’s Cafe and although a bit non-traditional, this carry-out serves the best pork tenderloin sandwich in town. Get it just the way it comes. You won't regret it. Their hours are limited and they are not open in the evenings, so be sure to check before you go. If that’s a bit too far off the beaten path, check out Grinders. Featured on one of the first Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and owned by a guy named Stretch, this place is the real deal with great pizza and sandwiches. Be careful which door you enter though. Grinders West is a whole different restaurant, and while I’ve never eaten there, I’d say it’s the calmer cousin to the original.

Beyond the immediate area, there is plenty of dining experiences to please just about every palate. Need plenty of choices in a small area? Consider the Kansas City Power & Light District. Situated across the street from our new indoor arena the Sprint Center and a short drive north from your hotel, this is Kansas City’s newest dining and night life area. With over 50 restaurants, bars, shops, etc., P&L is the new place to see and be seen in KC. Or, just a little farther and to the south, the Country Club Plaza , established in 1922, has something for everyone. Take in the holiday lights, or just walk about this 15 block district with over 150 premier shops and some of Kansas City’s best restaurants. This is first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile, modeled after Seville, Spain, and the shopping mecca of Kansas City. If you’ve never experienced The Plaza, I recommend you make your way down, if only for a short visit and to see the Christmas lights in person before they go dark for the year. Finally, there’s the Crossroads District. It’s a bit more spread out than the first two and a lot more eclectic. The businesses in this area are very unique.

If you’re like me though, you like to try local favorites over national chains. In that case, this cowtown has plenty of home grown establishments. For fine dining, consider Michael Smith, Bluestem, and Le Fou Frog or drive a little further north and try Justus Drug Store in Smithville. All of these will require reservations or at least a call ahead. There are tons of great steakhouses in Kansas City, but for the quintessential Kansas City steakhouse experience, make your way to the Plaza III, Johnny Trigg’s personal favorite when in town. If you’re in the mood for something a little more casual, consider these restaurants:

Peanut - best buffalo wings and BLT’s in Kansas City, 50th & Main is the original but 8th & Broadway is closer to the Hyatt

Blanc Burgers and Bottles - Great burgers, tons of bottled sodas, plus ice cream w/liquor

Lidia’s - Italian cuisine in the Freight House, just across the tracks from Union Station

Grunauer - German/Austrian cuisine in the Freight House

d’Bronx - New York style pizza and deli, in the Crown Center shops

Spin Pizza - Hand tossed, stone fired pizzas and creative salads on the Plaza

Happy Gillis Cafe’ & Hangout - Started out as soup delivery, great breakfast, not far

You Say Tomato - Great place to grab breakfast not far from the hotel

Houstons - on the Plaza, my only chain restaurant recommendation, fabulous food and service

Manny’s - Mexican

Margarita’s - Mexican

Panzon’s - Mexican

La Bodega - Spanish tapas

Christopher Elbow - Kansas City’s finest chocolatier, try the hot chocolate with house made marshmallows

Glace’ - Christopher Elbow’s take on artisan ice cream. Check out the very unique flavors online.

These are just a few of the great choices in Kansas City and all of them are reasonably close to the hotel, although many are not within walking distance. Check out the Kansas City Urban Spoon page for more great recommendations. Also, check on The Pitch online. It's Kansas City's entertainment newspaper and it's available for free all over town and offers "the best of Kansas City 2010" for a lot of great dining and shopping recommendations or a rockin' food blog called Fat City. The Pitch is never wrong in their selections. Don't believe me? Well, just check out the Best Competition Barbecue Team in their Best Of feature. (I know, a little shameless self promotion, but it's my blog after all).

Now, notice that I didn’t give any barbecue restaurant recommendations? Know why? You’re barbecue people. I have my favorites, but that’s not to say they would be your favorites. Kansas City is steeped in barbecue heritage and culture. You’re on your own when deciding where to get your que fix. If you don’t pick a favorite the first time, don’t despair. There’s another slow smokin’ establishment just around the corner for your dining pleasure.

As for nightlife in Kansas City, consider the Power & Light District, the Country Club Plaza, the Crossroads District, or the Westport area. Just be careful, don’t drink and drive, and DO NOT stop to play any three-card Monte or shell games if given the opportunity. Jeff Stith has planned an after party right in the hotel. It’s a mere $10 at the door to cover the cost of the room with all proceeds to benefit Harvesters and Cancersuckschicago.com He’s planning a cash bar and all the fun you can carry home. Stop in before you wander out into the cold Kansas City streets on Saturday. It’s for a good cause and I’ll bet you’ll see lots of friendly faces.

Let's talk transportation. Although this post focuses on things to do after you get to your hotel, there is a shuttle service from the airport to the Hyatt Regency Crown Center. The cost is $17 per person and it runs from 5:50AM to 11:25PM. The hotel concierge will have all the details. Kansas City has taxi service, although it's not extensive. The area of your hotel probably has the largest and most active group of cabs in the city. Finally, Kansas City offers public transportation in the form of a bus line call the Metro Area Express, aka the MAX. It is a streamlined service that is perfect for travel from downtown to the Country Club Plaza and your hotel is smack dab in between those two areas on the bus line. The cost to ride the MAX is $1.50. Be sure to check into a "transfer ticket" so you can ride round trip for that price. I think you'll find that the MAX is very easy to use.

If you’re looking for something to do on the cheap, consider hoping in your car and driving over to the American Royal to visit your cook site. It’s not far away, but you’d be amazed how different things look when it’s not American Royal Barbecue time.

Enjoy your time in my town. When you see Kelly Cain, be sure to stop and thank her for putting so much thought and effort into making the 25th anniversary KCBS annual awards banquet so special. If you have any questions you can contact me through the Pellet Envy website. Shoot me an e-mail or call me. I’m happy to help out with ideas or recommendations. It’s great to have the banquet back and I hope everyone has a blast while in Kansas City.

Third times a charm at Autumn Blaze

2010-10-18T08:14:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we competing at the Autumn Blaze cook-off in Garnett, Kansas. This was our third consecutive year to compete at the event, having finished as the Reserve Grand Champion the previous two years. Ted Uhler and his crew run a tight ship and this year was no exception.

Turn in time came and went without incident. With our newest lucky charm, our niece Shea, there to help us pick the absolute best product to put in the boxes, Sheri and and I felt like we'd strung together four decent categories. As Darren Warth of Iowa's Smokey D's would say about his food most days, "good enough to win, good enough to lose." Thanks for the hard work of Dennis and Linda Polson, our KCBS contest reps, to our surprise, awards were ready thirty minutes earlier than announced at the cook's meeting. As awards progressed we heard our names in all four categories, but none were really strong calls (7th Chicken, 4th Ribs, 3rd Pork and 10th Brisket). Ted decided to call out top ten places overall, ultimately removing all doubt when he called Getting Sauced as the Reserve Grand Champions before taking a break from finishing up the overall to recap the Knights of Columbus participating teams and thanking a few more sponsors, before calling Pellet Envy as the Grand Champion of his 2010 event with forty teams competing.

After being so close the last two years, it was truly a sense of relief and accomplishment to be named the winner of this years contest. We're already making plans to get back to Garnett for the 2011 Autumn Blaze event as long as Ted promises not to wear that outfit again.

Pellet Envy wins two categories, finishes as the Reserve Grand Champion

2010-10-18T08:13:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, we competed in the Cookin' On The Kaw BBQ Contest in DeSoto, Kansas. The event is held in the new Riverfest Park on the north side of town. The organizers work hard to provide a festive Friday evening complete with a chili contest, a people's choice chicken wing contest, food vendors and great blues bands including Brody Buster. With perfect fall weather, the crowd was huge this year.

With 49 teams competing in the KCBS sanctioned event, Pellet Envy got off to a hot start at awards, winning the Chicken and Ribs categories. Additionally we were called for 6th place in the Pork category. With no call in brisket, we were left to wonder if we had done enough to have our team name called last. In the end, we fell just slightly short, being named the Reserve Grand Champion, being bested by Jeff Stehney and Slaughterhouse Five. Congrats to them on their victory.

Pork Barrel BBQ and Pellet Envy team up to feed the troops

2010-10-18T07:53:00.004-05:00

With no time to recover from catering a huge party at the American Royal and competing in back to back events, Sheri and I teamed up with Bret and Heath of Pork Barrel BBQ to fire up the smoker to feed 250 service men and women and their families at the newly remodeled USO facility on the Ft. Riley military base. In addition to a meal complete with brisket, ribs, all the sides and award winning Pork Barrel BBQ sauces, we presented the USO with a check for $6,072.21 to be used to create an outdoor patio area for the troops and their families to relax and socialize while grilling and smoking their favorite recipes from home. The money was raised from donations of barbecue people from around the country including Barbara Cochran, Pork Barrel BBQ's business partner and best known publicly for her appearance as one of the investors on the ABC hit television show Shark Tank.Kansas Senator Sam Brownback spearheaded this effort, contacting the USO and ultimately getting permission for us to make this event happen. Special thanks to Creekstone Farms for donating 300 lbs. of their fabulous Angus brisket, Reser's Fine Foods for providing 300 lbs of their amazing side dishes, including potato salad, macaroni salad and baked beans, the Kansas City Barbeque Society for donating 60 slabs of St. Louis cut spare ribs, Ole Hickory Pits for allowing us to utilize their monsterous trailer mounted EL-EDX rotisserie smoker which easily held everything we cooked, and Oklahoma Joe's BBQ/The Kansas City Barbecue Store and Horizon Smokers for donating a brand spanking' new Horizon Classic smoker for the new patio area of the newly remodeled USO Center on base. All of these companies were very generous and without them, this event would not have been possible. For everyone involved, this was a very rewarding experience. We enjoyed serving those that serve our country and look forward to the opportunity to do it again very soon.

Pellet Envy named best competition team

2010-10-17T12:49:00.003-05:00

We were completely shocked to check in on our Facebook fan page recently and find our good friend Kevin Dilmore congratulating us on receiving recognition as the Best Competition Barbecue Team in Kansas City for 2010 by The Pitch, our underground newspaper known for having it's finger on the pulse of the KC food and social scene. We love The Pitch, especially for the food reviews and definite opinions on the hot topics around town. We can't wait to pour over the annual Best Of awards, always learning of great new places to dine and shop that otherwise probably wouldn't make our radar. So, it is a great honor for us to be named as the best competition team.

Since starting as a music publication in 1980, the Pitch has grown to become Kansas City's leading source of sophisticated information that readers know they can't get anywhere else -- whether it's in-depth news and analysis about local power brokers; a rundown of who's in and who's out in the city's spirited arts, music and nightlife scenes; or the skinny on famous barbecue joints and steakhouses. More than 258,000 people read the paper every month, picking it up every week at 1,800 locations throughout a seven-county region. Readers across the world also look to our Web site, www.pitch.com, to keep up with what's happening here or to make plans whenever they're goin' to Kansas City.

So it's your first time to cook the Jack

2010-09-07T12:39:00.006-05:00

With the 2010 Jack draw now in the books, the dust has settled and there are a ton of first time teams scrambling to deal with all that is the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue Contest. Just the logistics is so different from most any other event we cook. I mean, when you think about it, Lynchburg, Tennessee is a town with an approximate population of 400 people. The weekend of the contest, the little place swells to the point of almost bursting, with an estimated 30,000 people visiting all on one day. Somewhere I read that the annual visitors to the Jack Daniel's Distillery is 125,000. Having 25% of them all come on one day makes my brain hurt a little. Expect to wait in traffic a good while if you driving around this tiny town on that Saturday.

So, it's your first time to cook the event, huh? Here are a few things to consider.

1. Make your hotel reservations NOW. Not tonight, not tomorrow, now! There is only one motel in Lynchburg. Beyond that, there are a couple bed and breakfast places. At least 95% of folks visiting or cooking the event don't stay in Lynchburg. They stay in the outlying towns. Tullahoma is probably the closest. They have a handful of hotels. We've also stayed in Shelbyville, although the road to and from Lynchburg looks a little treacherous to be traveling at night. Fayetteville and Winchester are the two other choices that come to mind, although we've never actually stayed there but a lot of our friends and fellow cooks have. Another option would be to stay in the cabins on the state lakes. There are a couple choices there and in '07 we stayed in a really great cabin that had all the comforts of home with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room area and a big deck off the back. Beyond these choices, some teams even rent RV's, having them delivered from Nashville. Still others just make due at their cook sites.

2. Make your reservations for Ms. Mary BoBo's Boarding House. If you've never been, you really should eat a meal here. They seat in waves and serve the food family style at communal tables in various rooms of the house. When you call, ask about the menu that day. And, it changes daily, so should you be so inclined, you could eat there more than one day during your trip. They own fried chicken there and be sure to try the Jack spiced apples. Oh man.

3. Take a tour of the distillery. Make sure you get one of David Roper's tours. David, affectionately known as "Porky" there, is a tour guide. His tours usually take a little longer than the other guides and he guides the cook's tour, which typically is on Friday morning. It's not so much important to make the cook's tour as it is just to get over there and see the place with David as your guide. If you can't get David as your tour guide, ask for Goose. Either way, you'll be thoroughly entertained.

4. Get up to the Hardware Store as soon as you arrive in Lynchburg. The Hardware Store is actually the Jack Daniel's memorabilia store. They sell all things Jack. They also run out of stuff quickly on this weekend. They will have the contest t-shirts and just about anything else that could have Jack Daniel's logo put on it. As a competitor, there is a team discount so be sure to tell them your team name. Hey, every little bit helps. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that there is a place on the info sheet where you can pre-order your contest t-shirts. Use it. It's the easiest way to insure you get all the sizes and quantities you want. The hot new trend of the past couple years is to buy a barrel top and get all of the competing teams for that year to sign it. We've resisted that urge so far, but I can see how it would make a great way to remember your experience.

5. Bring your team flag or state flag or a banner and march in the parade. The parade line forms at the cook-off and teams march a couple blocks to the distillery on Friday afternoon. The international teams really get into it with cool costumes, fun gear and exotic noise makers. Jack typically gives the teams beads to throw to the spectators. It's just a fun little celebration.

6. Make it up on the hill. There is a cooks' dinner hosted by Jack Daniel's for cooks, judges and dignitaries. It's on Friday about 5:00PM. The parade route ends at the distillery where school buses are parked and waiting to escort you to dinner in the pavilion. The menu is typically southern fare and there is a bar. The place is usually very crowded and everyone is in a festive mood. You can even write down a thought or subject that you'd like to get off your mind and throw it in the fire as a ceremonial way to rid yourself of it. The real reason for making the trip though, is for the view. The pavilion is so awesome, but the view is absolutely amazing.

Most of all, have fun. There is so much to do and see. Between the "I Know Jack About Grilling" event, the Butt Bowling contest, the private parties, the crowds, and on and on, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the event. Be sure to take rain gear, especially good rain boots. It rains every year and things get muddy real fast. Some years your rain boots are the only shoes you need. And don't forget that Lynchburg is in a dry county so if you thirst for something special, better bring it with you and always, always put it in a red Solo cup. Try to get in as much of the festivities as possible, but above all, don't lose sight of why you came. Cook well and enjoy your time in the hollar.

Pellet Envy earns a pass to the 23rd Annual Jack Daniel's World Invitational Barbecue Contest

2010-08-25T16:15:00.004-05:00

This past weekend at the Flint Hills Beef Fest in Emporia, Kansas, we bested the field of forty-five teams to be crowned the Grand Champion. With top ten calls in all four Kansas City Barbecue Society categories, we amassed a point total of 674.2854 to slip past Reserve Grand Champion Pork Me Purple and chief cook Jarrod Caton. Despite the heat every year at this event, we have fond memories from years past. Beef Fest was an event we won in our first full year of competition. We also cooked it the year that Bart Clark of team Twin Oak won, sealing his fate as the KCBS team of the year 2005. Finally, this was the site of the now infamous lettuce core incident that got the Smokin' Salmons disqualified and ultimately cost the team a victory.

What makes this win so special for us though, is that being award grand champion in Emporia last weekend gives Pellet Envy our seventh win during the qualifying period for the Jack Daniel's World Invitational Barbecue Contest. In it's 23rd year, "The Jack" as teams affectionately call it, is one of the most prestigious on the circuit, not to mention one of the hardest in which to qualify. I won't bore you with the details, but in short, when the dust settles after the invitational draw on September 3rd, 2011, some of the best teams in the country will be left at home. The only way to insure your invitation and removing the fate of the draw, is to either win the only qualifying event in a state, be the only team to win a qualifier from your home state, or win seven qualifying events within the qualifying period, the later being far and away the hardest to do. We feel very luck to have guaranteed our place in the 23rd annual event by winning seven qualifiers. One bit of trivia: Pellet Envy has never been in the draw. In the our seven years to participate in this event, we've been invited four times under the Ole Number Seven rule, making Pellet Envy the top team to compete in the Jack in this fashion. The other three years we won the only qualifiers in a state.

One other thing that makes this past weekend's win special, is the points awarded for the Kansas City Barbeque Society Team of the Year chase. This Emporia win propels us into second place, only ten points behind the current leader. With Pellet Envy being the current national champion, it would be an amazing feat to repeat as the KCBS Team of the Year. With about fifteen weeks left to the season, there is still a lot of barbecue to cook. But hold on to your hats, because this year could be an even wilder finish than the 2010 season that saw us travel over 13,000 miles in six weeks to compete and win the title. I just hope we're up to the challenge should it come down to that. Stay tuned race fans!

Pellet Envy moves to top spot in National BBQ Rankings

2010-08-24T17:15:00.000-05:00

With a win in Emporia, Kansas this past weekend, Pellet Envy takes over the top stop in the National BBQ Rankings for the first time this season. With 5,050 unique teams ranked, our team slipped past Bubba Q, a top tier traveling competition team piloted by William "Bubba" Latimer out of Georgia. The National BBQ Rankings combines contest results throughout the country to ultimately rank the top teams. Each week the rankings are calculated according to a proprietary National BBQ Rankings formula to determine the team ranks. Teams are awarded points based on top ten finishes in qualifying contests. These rankings are updated and released each Monday throughout the competition season and presented on the nationalbbqrankings.com website.

A 104 week rolling calendar is utilized to calculate the rankings. The NBBQR believes this gives the best indication of team success, both over a short period of time and at a sustainable level. By including the two major sanctioning bodies, the Kansas City Barbeque Society and the Florida Barbecue Association, plus unsanctioned events in the rankings, the NBBQR gathers a large portion of contests and teams. Points are awarded teams finishing in the top ten of each category. These points then degrade over thirteen 8 week periods. The points are then totaled and the teams are ranked accordingly.

Smokin' On Big Creek - Pleasant Hill, Missouri

2010-04-04T08:17:00.003-05:00

Another contest in the books. This past weekend we competed at the third annual Smokin' On Big Creek in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. Only a thirty minute drive, Sheri and I didn't know what to do with all of our extra time. So, we procrastinated.

Having driven over 1,000 miles home on Wednesday from Charlotte, North Carolina, I was left with one day to get things cleaning up from Hammond, Louisiana, plus gathering up the supplies, refilling the rubs and sauces, and packing up to go again on Friday. They may call it "Jet Lag", but I think it applies to long days in a vehicle as well, because I just did not have what it took to get it all done in one day. So, some of my prep spilled over into Friday morning. Luckily, Sheri had Good Friday off, so she was able to help. Without her, I'd might still be trying to get ready.

After a serious straight line wind storm that blew through Kansas City on Friday morning with gusts up to 80 miles an hour and a power outage at the house, I finally arrived at the event about 3:00PM. Nearly the last team to arrive, there were 65 teams cooking in Pleasant Hill. Being Easter weekend, I would not have guessed such a great attendance. Well, at least not prior to my contest experience.

As you all know, we travel the country to cook and compete. Not until I was looking at our schedule to tell friends when we'd be cooking around home, a couple years ago, did I realize how little we actually cook around home. In our travels, we've discovered a level of hospitality at barbecue contests not typically found locally. I realize that this statement, especially when cast broadly, probably offends some local KC contest organizers. It's definitely not meant that way. Rather, competition barbecue around Kansas City has such a history that sometimes I feel it's taken for granted. I've said this many times and I believe it. No where else in the country will you see 60 teams competing for $3,000 total prize money. And yes, I know it's not all about the money, but wouldn't you at least like to think you have a shot to win back the cost to compete when you enter an event? I know I would. I realize that money and hospitality are not the same thing and I could write on this subject until you fell asleep reading this, if you haven't already, so let's move on . . .

Jeff Stith and his crew, including his lovely wife Tammy, busted their tails this weekend to make Smokin' On Big Creek every bit has hospitable as about any contest we've ever cooked, and we've cooked a ton of contests. They greeted us with a smile and that attitude didn't change from start to end. We wanted for nothing. His group made us feel welcome. They catered to our every need, making sure we had ice and snatching up trash as fast as we put it out. There was always someone available to answer questions and Jeff himself took the time to ask if everything was okay several times during the contest. Because of the storm I mentioned, some of the grounds were very muddy. Jeff personally delivered sheets of cardboard for teams to put down in their spots to help with the mud and mess. I don't care who you are, that's a level of service not often seen at barbecue contests. All in all, Smokin' On Big Creek is a true gem in the Kansas City area and it's no surprise the contest experiences exponential growth every year.

Congrats to Kim and Andy of Smoke on Wheels. They were awarded a perfect score in Chicken and were names the overall Grand Champions. Congrats to Craig and Patty Kidwell of Boys of BBQ and Patty for their Reserve Grand Champion finish. Afterwards Patty told me that she set out to beat Pellet Envy this weekend and she did a damn good job. We finished with a second place call in Ribs and fourths in Chicken and Pork. Our brisket let us down this weekend and we finished a very respectable fifth overall in a seriously tough field of cooks. Special congrats to Rich & Bunny Tuttle of KCass BBQ as they won the brisket category and qualified for the Chest to Chest Brisket Invitational in Great Bend, Kansas this Labor Day weekend.

We're off to beautiful Shannon, Illinois this weekend to teach our style of barbecue to a sold out crowd of knowledge thirty folks. Shannon is the only location we've hosted a class all three years and has been our most successful class site. We're really looking forward to it. See you all soon.

I bought a book . . .

2010-03-16T16:51:00.004-05:00

So, it's been some time since I've actually written anything for this blog. I used several excuses, including the points chase at the end of last season. Speaking of that, I didn't realize that many of my non-barbecue friends did not know this, but Pellet Envy ended the season as the Kansas City Barbeque Society Team of the Year. Yes, I've put a little spin on that title and renamed it the "National Barbecue Champions." But I digress . . . .

A couple things happened late last year that completely unmotivated me to write the blog. One was the overwhelming idea that I had nothing to say. Well, nothing worth reading anyway. I mean, how many times do you want to read a contest recap? They sort of all run together after awhile, right? So, as I continued to convince myself that my posts were no longer interesting, it sort of snowballed into a sort of writer's block.

To make matters worse, I decided I needed to be more professional in the way I wrote so I bought a book. Yes, it was supposed to be a book that would help me write better. Not the kind of book that motivates you to write more interesting things, although I think I would have bought that book as well. No, this was a book to teach me not to make so many grammatical mistakes when I wrote. As I read it, I realized just what a crappy writer I really was. The more I read, the more I saw the multitude of mistakes I made while writing my blog posts. I think you all know where this is going, so let's just get this out on the table . . . . This book totally screwed with my head. After already losing confidence in my posts, the information in this book sort of made me feel stupid about writing. So much so, that I basically totally gave up on posting to this blog.

I'm here to tell you that those days are over. Screw what's right. This is my blog. I'll write in any damn way I want. So, that's what we're going to do. At least once a week, I'm going to write a new post. Who the hells knows that it's going to be about. I'll do my best to make it interesting and to the point. You do your best to give me a little feedback now and again, just to keep the ship heading in the right direction.

The season has officially started. We've added a new major sponsors. Our first class, hosted here in Kansas City, is in the books. The biggest paying contest in the country is this weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas. I don't have to tell most of you that Arkansas is our barbecue home away from home. It's time to get this ball rolling again. I'm here to tell you now, "I'm back!"

TLC Pitmasters season finale to air tonight

2010-02-04T12:23:00.008-06:00

So, the eighth and final installment of the heavily discussed docudrama on competition barbecue is set to air tonight. Pitmasters, starring many of my good friends in competition barbecue, is a new show in the TLC family this season. Today, four of the personalities are in New York City for a photo shoot. To me, that would indicate there is a second season in the works. Let's hope so. If you would have witnessed what I did in Lakeland, Florida last weekend you would realize the impact this show is having on competition barbecue. It's major.

Tune in tonight. Johnny Trigg promises me that this will be the best show of the series. He must win! Here's a sneak peak of tonights show as the cooks listening to comments from the judges at they sample their entries.

Here's a video of Tuffy Stone from Cool Smoke.

Read the comments from Executive Producer John Markus on his blog about the show.

Kansas City class sold out

2010-01-14T08:20:00.003-06:00

The Pellet Envy cooking class scheduled for March 5 & 6 in Kansas City is sold out. Seats still remain for our April 9 & 10 class in Shannon, Illinois and our April 30 & May 1 class in Lebanon, Tennessee. Check out the classes page on the Pellet Envy website for details. Contact rod@pelletenvy.com with questions.

Random thoughts, mostly unrelated to barbecue

2010-01-07T09:07:00.004-06:00

I'm feeling guilty about having nothing interesting to say. Not so guilty that I have gotten here sooner to write something witty or clever, but guilty enough to at least try to think of a fun, entertaining topic. It must be the weather, because I've really got nothing.

The Closer, aka Sheri, gets two weeks off through the holidays. We wore out the road between home and the theater, damn near becoming qualified to be movie critiques. We saw every decent, adult oriented movie that was playing. Our AMC theaters here in Kansas City are testing a new system of assigned seating in their theaters. So, you get online and actually pick your seats. It's cool because you can get there just a few minutes before your show and have great seats. AMC claims they're testing this system because of the time and trouble of refunding movie goers tickets when they can't get an acceptable seat. That can't be the reason, as they now have people waiting in the theater with a clipboard that help you find your seats. Sounds like just a trade off to me. Either way, I like the idea because I'm the anal guy that wants to get to the theater really early to get the best seats.

We also wore out the closest Redbox over the holidays. In addition to all of the movies we saw in theater, we must have rented another six to eight movies. If you haven't tried a Redbox, you really should. With the exception of streaming Netflix, there just can't be an easier, more instant gratification-ish way to rent a movie. Jump online, find a movie you'd like to see, and Redbox will tell you where it's in stock in a machine near you. And most folks don't realize that the movies can be returned to any Redbox location. For a buck per flick, it just doesn't get any easier than that.

The snowblower is getting to stretch it's legs so far this year. I think I've had it out four or five times already, the latest being this morning. This was the first time I really felt cold outside. It's about 5 degrees here, but the wind chill makes it feel like -15 and the winds are gusting up to 30 mph. We're supposed to get three days of this. Nice!

I've got three cooks worth of briskets and butts in the freezer. I was hoping to get a cook in each of the next three weeks. This week is shot. Maybe the weather will allow me to cook twice next week. If I can make my three cook goal, the freezer will be empty and I'll be ready for the 2010 season.

Happy new year to everyone! Things will be thawing out in no time and the competition season will be here before you know it. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the bbq trail this year.

Todays cook - A pictorial short story

2009-12-22T12:41:00.002-06:00

What are you thankful for this season?

2009-12-20T13:42:00.011-06:00

I'm thankful that I didn't give up on barbecue after many miserable failures early on.

I'm thankful that I found pellet cookers in the beginning, after starting out cooking on what was a great grill, but a mediocre smoker at best.

I’m thankful that Florida and Arizona barbecue judges recognize when barbecue is good, regardless of regional preferences.

I’m thankful my old truck hung in there this year, especially during the last six weeks of the season when we traveled almost 13,000 miles.

I’m thankful for my brisket and rib suppliers, and no, I’m not going to name them here.

I’m thankful that Iowa’s Smokey D’s BBQ decide to lay out for five weeks near the end of the season, really thankful.

I'm thankful for Kathy S., without whom I would be required to endure the Chief's miserable season in person with The Closer.

I’m thankful fuel wasn't $4.96 per gallon this year, like it was on the east coast in late June of 2008.

I’m thankful my wife lets me continue to do what I love, despite me always having this feeling I should grow up and get a real job.

I’m thankful that I Smell Smoke only cooked 21 contests this year, more thankful than you'll know.

I’m thankful for our major sponsor Greased Lightning and all of our sponsors, who without them, we could not travel the country cooking and competing,

I’m thankful for the all folks who believe we might have something interesting to say and so attended our classes this past year.

I'm thankful that Johnny Trigg taught me to cook on a traditional offset that fall weekend in 2005 and has continued to help me over the years.

I'm thankful Ribdog and Henway were able to help me out while I was on the road in Florida and Arizona.

I'm thankful Steph is so diligent in organizing those potluck dinners at contests. Otherwise, I might go hungry on Friday night.

I’m very thankful for all the great people I have met because of barbecue and now call friends, no, good friends.

Most importantly, I’m thankful for the support of my wife, family and friends. Without them, none of this barbecue stuff would have been possible.

What are you thankful for? Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing you and yours the best this holiday season.

2010 Pellet Envy Cooking School Schedule Announced

2009-12-15T10:05:00.004-06:00

The initial 2010 Pellet Envy competition barbecue class dates are official. Many of you have e-mailed or called to inquire about our teaching schedule for next season. The end to the 2009 season plus the now official movie star status of teaching partner and good friend Johnny Trigg, delayed publishing these dates. But that's all over now, and these are the three dates on the books for 2010 so far:

Kansas City - March 5 & 6, 2010

Shannon, Illinois - April 9 & 10, 2010

Lebannon, Tennessee - April 30 & May 1

We will teach every deep, dark secret of our cooking programs for both the traditional offset and pellet cooker style of pits this year. Applications should be live on the Pellet Envy website any day. Classes are limited, so sign up early. For questions, contact me at rod@pelletenvy.com

Greased Lightning signs on for 2010

2009-12-15T09:38:00.006-06:00

We're excited to announce that Greased Lightning has renewed our marketing partnership for the 2010 season. Having used and loved the Greased Lightning multipurpose cleaner for years, we're ecstatic to have them on board for the third straight year. Over the past two seasons, countless competition teams and spectators have been introduced to and grown to love the cleaner perfect for a dirty, greasy world. Taking stains out of clothes that nothing else will and cleaning all things barbecue, Greased Lightning has become an indispensable product in the Pellet Envy camp. We look forward to reminding folks of the best all purpose cleaning product under the sun. Look for samples and coupons at our events all over the country in 2010.

Quick update

2009-11-24T11:29:00.003-06:00

Tonight at 8:00 PM Central I'll be talking with Greg Rempe, the host of the BBQ Central Show. Greg wants to dive in and discuss this crazy Team of the Year points chase and I'm happy to oblige. Tune in to hear me tell it like it is, no matter who's feelings I may hurt.

Wednesday on the Dr. Oz show is the return of the Kansas City group. Tune in to see my progress and see if the Kansas side could kick the collective butts of the Missouri folks.

I'm working on a more normal post folks. With over 10,000 miles traveled through fifteen states, it's been a tough five weeks. I should have a short read up before I head back to Tempe, Arizona to see this thing to the end. Hang in there . . . .

The beginning of the end . . . of the 2009 season

2009-11-05T19:59:00.005-06:00

Well gang, the season is almost over. I'm three-fourths of the way to Shelby, North Carolina to compete against 82 other teams that just don't want to see this year end. Additionally, there are 42 teams in Russellville, Arkansas competing this weekend. Nobody wants the 2009 season to end, especially the five or six teams caught up in the dog fight for Kansas City Barbeque Society team of the year. It's a tight race, very tight. It's why I planned trips to Arizona and Florida in addition to this southeast odyssey I'm on this weekend.

We got a little beat up in Talladega, Alabama this past weekend. We still had a great time, no thanks to the cold, rainy weather. What a cool place to be on a NASCAR race weekend. I've never seen so many people camping out to attend a race and I've never seen so many people selling firewood by the side of the road. I guess it had to do with the cold weather on race weekend. It was just a little weird, honestly. We got to have a good meal with good friends on Friday evening and shook hands with many of the southeast teams we don't see often enough. It was good to see a friend win, although a little bittersweet. See, I Smell Smoke's win at Talladega put Steve and the gang with 18 points of us in the points chase for overall team of the year. That's a little close for comfort. Good for them, but I'm holding Steve partially responsible for all the extra miles I'm going to put on my truck in the coming days. Even got a little Greased Lightning to the teams and judges via the goodie bags. All and all, it was a good time, even if we need to work on our southeast flavor profile.

Between competition and some life style changes compliments of Dr. Oz, it's been a busy last few weeks. Sort of took my eye off the barbecue ball a little. Don't fear dear readers, I'm back and have my eye on the prize. However, let me apologize now if I'm a little slow in responding to e-mail in the next couple weeks. Driving from to and from Shelby, NC, Phoenix, AZ and Tampa, FL with a quick two day trip to New York for another Dr. Oz show taping mixed in, it's going to be a blur.

Good luck to all the teams competing the next few weeks and to all those chasing the TOY carrot. See you all on the bbq trail!

2009-11-05T19:58:00.001-06:00

I'm back . . . . . sort of

2009-10-13T09:23:00.003-05:00

We're going to call this a Two Minute Tuesday. I cannot believe the number of people who have recently commented about my lack of blog posts. I have no excuse. Nor do I have an explanation. I just haven't had it in me lately and/or I just don't feel like I have anything worthwhile to say.

Most of you know I appeared on the new Dr. Oz show about a month ago. Since then, I've been working on making some changes in my lifestyle and diet. Most of the time I do really well. The rough days come when we travel or have a busy few days, like the American Royal weekend before last. This has become my latest obsession. I've known for some time that I need to make some wholesale changes. The pressure of national television has been the ultimate motivation.

I promised you a controversial blog post some time back. I wrote it, honestly I did. Then I read it. I didn't like it. Now the moment has passed and I don't necessarily think the topic is relevant any more. I'll look at it again soon.

Hang in there folks. We get back to competing this weekend and I'm sure that will get the juices flowing again.

Very quick update . . .

2009-09-28T09:07:00.002-05:00

This is the busiest week of the year for Pellet Envy. We're catering and cooking back to back contests at the world's largest barbecue contest right here in Kansas City, the American Royal. Many of our friends from all over the country will be here. I love and hate this weekend all at the same time.

I'll get back to work on this blog next week. I wrote that post I promised in an earlier edition, but it just isn't what I want to say. I'll use my impressive wordsmithing powers to sculpt it into a masterpiece next week . . . . tongue in cheek, of course. Until then, thank you all for reading along. I continue to get reports of folks reading this blog and honestly, it's overwhelming. I appreciate you all. See you next week.

Two minute Tuesday, Volume 1, Issue 3

2009-09-15T20:46:00.003-05:00

In keeping with the current theme, I've decided to convert One Minute Mondays to Two Minute Tuesdays. I just can't write that little about any one topic.

As you readers know, I've been noticeably absent from the blog the last few weeks except for a couple simple posts with little relevance to the importance of competition barbecue. So continues the trend, although I'll tell you all that based on some recent events in competition barbecue, I'm working up a real post and some of you may not care for it. Be prepared.

The drive back from Mesquite, Nevada was long. Two full days in fact. I had one day to clean-up, wash-up and fill-up everything needed for the next contest. After that one day, I jetted off to far away places on a little adventure completely unrelated to barbecue. After a long two days and a delay in getting home, plus some needed time to reflect on recent events in barbecue, it was obvious to me that I needed a weekend off to recenter my focus for the rest of the season. So that I did.

Stay tuned. I'm not just threatening a full blown post, I'm promising it. I'm sure it won't disappoint.

One Minute Monday, Volume I, Issue 2

2009-09-07T19:26:00.004-05:00

So I think I've finally found my calling. I think I can be the Red Adair of forest fires. Yep, that's it. All I have to do is pull my Geer pit (aka Jambo) where ever rain is needed. See, having just returned from Nevada, where it rained on the pit EVERY DAY of the trip. In fact, on two of the three days we were in Mesquite, there were torrential rains with damaging winds. Every time I pull that pit to an event it get's rained on. I don't know the odds of this happening the way it does, but I wish Vegas would look into it.

Speaking of rain in Mesquite, I don't get how other parts of the country make their weather sound so threatening. I mean, they had a couple of pretty decent thunderstorms roll through while we were there. But see, they don't call them thunderstorms. Oh no, out there they're called monsoons. You have to admit, a monsoon does sound way more menacing. In fact, before this experience, I'd have told you that I never want to tangle with a monsoon. However, now that I know they're just a good old fashion gully washer with a little wind and some lightning for visual effect, they no longer concern me.

The weather we experienced Friday night/Saturday morning at the Smokin' In Mesquite was the second worst weather I've ever experienced at a contest and while cooking under a canopy. For awhile, I was holding on to that canopy, wondering if it and/or I would survive. Fortunately, that thought and the weather quickly passed. (I went a little passed by minute, but it was worth it. This column might become Two Minute Tuesdays. You have to admit, it as a ring to it.)

One minute Mondays . . .

2009-08-31T08:50:00.002-05:00

Stealing an idea from the Dodge County boys, on Mondays I'm going to type whatever is on my mind, but only for one minute. No pictures, just my thoughts on whatever topic is rolling around in my head when I sit down at the computer. Today it's about barbecue. Imagine that. There are still three full months of barbecue left this year. I'll admit that I'm totally caught up in this damn team of the year points chase thing. I told myself that I'd never do that because I knew it would take the fun out of this whole deal for me. Well, it sort of has.

In addition to seeing the near future, Johnny Trigg and I are planning our 2010 cooking class schedule. With so much going on, it's hard to think about next year already. We're planning four events and we've nailed down the cities for three of them. One is still up in the air and we don't have actual locations for two of the three just yet. We're considering somewhere west. Maybe Salt Lake City or further. Not to sound arrogant, but if there isn't enough interest to support a class, then we're considering back east instead. If you are interest in either a class out west or a class back east, shoot me a note at rod@pelletenvy.com. Your contact could be the determining factor.

Finally, I'm considering a little trivia contest here on the blog. Stay tuned. I'm a fast typer, but my minute is almos

Where will you be this Thursday afternoon?

2009-08-30T07:59:00.002-05:00

It's finally here! This is the week of the Jack Daniel's World Invitational Champship contestant draw. On Thursday, pit masters from all over the country will sit at their computer, staring at their monitors, incessantly refreshing the screen to see if their team is the latest bung drawn in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Many top cooks will not sleep well on Wednesday night in anticipation of this big day. The anxiety levels will be high on Thursday. And, sadly, some of the best cooks in the country will be disheartened when it's all over, because no matter how great a cook, you still had to play your cards right or get lucky in the draw to get invited. The draw takes place around 1:00 PM on September 3. It's a big deal to us cooks. No, it's a huge deal. We covet the Jack Daniel's event like no other. Despite it's quirks and prejudice towards being a grand marketing event for the whiskey instead of the best barbecue contest ever, we all want desperately to be there. For most, it's THE crowning acheivements to a successful season and regardless of what they say, the folks that don't get drawn are disappointed.

I've done my best to compile a complete list of teams in the draw and those that are automatics. I couldn't do it alone, oh no. I had tons of help. No need to name names, you all know who you are. Just for fun, here's a COMPLETELY UNOFFICIAL look at the impending draw:

ALABAMA
Jiggy Piggy
Lotta Bull BBQ X 2
Team Top Chick
The EGGseQuetive
Wild Bunch Butt Burners X 2

ARKANSAS
Butcher BBQ
Habitual Smokers
Jack's Old South
Naaman's BBQ X 2
River City Rub

Tee Wayne's Cajun Cookin'

CALIFORNIA

All Hogs Go To Heaven X 2

Lotta Bull BBQ
Ric's Righteous Ribs
Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ X 3
Smokin' Yankees
Tropical Heat

COLORADO
A Boy & His BBQ
Burnin' Bob's Butts 'N Bones
Florida Skin and Bones
Sweet Peppers
Wild Hogs BBQ X 2

FLORIDA
Barbecue Crew

Forrest's Fine Foods

Home BBQ X 2

Mount Dora Bar-B-Que Company X 4
Quau

Smokin' Cracker BBQ Team

GEORGIA
Chatham Artillery BBQ

Jack's Old South
Jus-Fer-Fun Cooking
Learn2Q.com
Mount Dora Bar-B-Que

IOWA

4 Mile Smokin Crew
Bare Bones BBQ Team
Big T's Q Cru X 2
Iowa's Smokey D's X 2
Meadow Valley BBQ X 2
Quau

The Heat is On

ILLINOIS
Big and Twig BBQ
Dr. Porkenstein
Gilly's Barnstormin' BBQ
Iowa's Smokey D's
Jack's Old South
Lotta Bull BBQ X 2
Redneck Grillers
Shigs in Pit
Smokey Joel/Cubby Bear
Ulcer Acres X 3

INDIANA
Hoosier Crawdaddy
Moonswiners
Shigs-in-Pit X 2
Steel Smokin BBQ
Iowa's Smokey D's

KANSAS
A Boy and His BBQ

Bare Bones BBQ Team
Brew-n-Bar-B-Que X 2
Crimson & Blue BBQ
Dodge County Smokers X 2
Early Bird BBQ
Flower of the Flames
Habitual Smokers
Hoggy Style
Iowa's Smokey D's
JP Custom Smoke X 3
Pickled Pig

Pig In Pig Out

Pork Pullin Plowboys X 2
Ribs 4 U
Rubbin' It Lovin' It BBQ
Smoke on Wheels X 2
Smokers Wild
Smokin Triggers

KENTUCKY
Monty Pigthon/Holy Grill
South Pork
Swiggin Pig
Team Allegro

LOUISIANA

Cajun Cookin'
Naaman's BBQ X 2
Pop's Blazin Smokers
Quau
Smokin' in the Dark - TX

Tee Wayne's Cajun Cookin'
We Be Smokin'

MARYLAND
3 Eyz BBQ
BBQ Guru

MICHIGAN
All Day Smoke
Smokin' Scotsmen X 2
Pork of the North
Extreme Roasters

MINNESOTA

The Heat is On
Iowa's Smokey D's
Tippy Canoe BBQ Crew
Parrothead Smokers

Prairie Oak Smokers

MISSOURI
A Boy & His BBQ
All American BBQ
Big Wigs BBQ
Blaster BBQ
Blues Hog BBQ X 2
Caveman Cuisine
Great Grills O'Fire X 4
Half Sauced Barbecue X 2
Hogzilla

Holy Smoke BBQ X 2
JP Custom Smoke
KC Can Crew
Lip Lickin BBQ

Plowboy's BBQ
Quau

QSS Smokin'

Que's Your Daddy BBQ
R Butts R Smokin'
Reservoir Hogs
Ribs 4 U
Rick's Pit Stop
Rubbin' It Lovin' It BBQ
Smoke Me Tender BBQ
Smoke on Wheels
Smoke This BBQ
The Pickled Pig
Uncle Bub's BBQ
Rib Call BBQ

MISSISSIPPI
BBQr's Delight

House of Q
Jiggy Piggy
Pops Blazen Smokers
Wild Bunch Butt Burners

NORTH CAROLINA
Chatham Artillary BBQ
Checkered Pig X 2
GB's BBQ
Learn2Q.com
Mountain Magic Country BBQ
Screamin Nite Hog BBQ X 2
Smoke This
Swamp Sauce Smokers

NEBRASKA
Emerald Buffalo
KC Can Crew
Pork Me Purple
Smokin' Tailgators
Toad Hollar

NEW JERSEY
Fat Angel BBQ
Lo'-N-Slo'
Stumpy Coals

NEW MEXICO
Rib-It
"Q"
IBCA Lea County BBQ Winner*

NEW YORK
Lunchmeat
Smoke in Da Eye
Smoke on Wheels
Yabba Dabba Que!
Mr. Bobo's

OHIO
Shigs-N-Pit
Hoosier Crawdaddy

OKLAHOMA
Buffalo's BBQ X 3
Butcher BBQ X 5
Little Pig Town BBQ
Naaman's BBQ
Stu's Q BBQ X 2
Twin Oaks BBQ

OREGON

Fat Dad's BBQ X 3

Unnamed team

Winner of PNWBA event*

TENNESSEE
Big Mo from Aho
Big River BBQ
House of Q

Learn2Q.com X 2
Music City Pig Pals
Quau
Smokers Wild
Smokin Butt Crew
Smoky Mountain Smokers X 3
Wild Bunch Butt Burners

TEXAS
3 "B" BBQ X 3
AOK Cookers
B & D Cookers
Bad Smoke Rising
Bad to the Bone
Big Henry's Cookers
Big Mike's
Bohica Cookers
Bud Light Lime
Coastal City Smokers
Cookin' Boot
Lite Cookers
Los Tios Y Los Primos
Old Main Bar Cookers
One Slice at a Time
Outhouse BBQ
Puro Party Cooking Team
Rambro
Rodeo Q Cookers
She Thinks My Slabs are Sexy
Smokin' in the Dark
Still Smokin' It
Taste Buds
Texas Pride
The Breadman
We Be Smokin' Too

SOUTH CAROLINA
BS Pitmeisters
Butts and Breasts
Chatham Artillary BBQ
Common Interest
Smoky Mountain Smokers

VIRGINIA
Dizzy Pig
Wood Chicks

WISCONSIN
Bringin' the Heat X 2

Dr. Porkenstein
Jelly Roll Jones BBQ Company

AUTOMATICS:
4 Legs Up
4 Men and a Pig
Blakes BBQ
Blazen BBQ
Bub-ba-Q
Burnin' Bob's Butts 'N Bones*
CancerSucksChicago.com
Cool Smoke
Hoochie - Que
IQue
I Smell Smoke
Just Smokin' Around
Lakeside Smokers
Munchin' Hogs At the Hilton
PA Midnite Smokers
Parrothead Smokers
Pellet Envy
R2-BQ
Rhythm 'n Que
Spitfire BBQ
Swamp Boys BBQ
Sweet Swine O'Mine

Several disclaimers: This list is complete unofficial. In fact, there are several assumptions made that may or may not be true. Additonally, this list doesn't account for all home state winners, teams in states where no other team from the state won a qualifying event regardless of location. It does include a few of them. If you're not familair with that part of the qualification process, some teams waltz into the Jack every year this way. We're considering a move to a state where we can do this.

This is worth saying one more time - This list was composed just for fun. I just thought you all might enjoy a look at the draw. I can't believe the response this list has generated over the last few weeks. It was a fun project and several of you pointed out corrections that I've made. Best of luck to everyone in the draw.

Even good judges have bad days

2009-08-25T08:49:00.012-05:00

Everybody has an off day, right? So we cooked the Cass County BBQ Square-Off in Harrisonville, Missouri last weekend. Had friends out for dinner Friday. As many of you know, that's something we just don't do. Even fired up the Jambo on Friday afternoon to cook some ribs, beans and ABT's for our friends. See, I told you we did stuff we NEVER do. We had a great time. Even the weather was perfect. "Get to the part about the off day!" you're thinking, right? Well, see our cook site neighbors, Ribs 4 U, have three team members. Greg & Eric are the cooks. Their third member is in charge of quality control. His name is Charlie and he's a seven year old pedigreed Black Labrador Retriever. He hales from eastern Tennessee and his parents are both champions. That's him in the pictures. Starting a year ago or so, Eric and Charlie decided to spice things up a bit with a side contest, pitting the Ribs 4 U bone from their pork against that of another team, letting Charlie declare a winner. The weird part is Charlie is like 93% accurate in determining who's pork will fair better in the contest that day. He does this by claiming the winning bone for myself. While only slightly less than scientific, it adds a bit of excitement and drama to an event, well at least for those directly involved.So this weekend it was Pellet Envy versus Ribs 4 U in the Papered Pooch Pork Prognostication. Both teams provided a competition pork bone. The bones were verified for authenticity and placed side by side on the pavement approximately 25 feet from the very eager, always watchful judge. You should have seen poor Charlie. It's his absolute favorite thing to do at a contest and the poor guy was shaking with anticipation. Even his facial expression displayed his angst. Heck, he looked like the kid riding in his mother's shopping cart that she had stopped just out of reach of the candy isle at the grocery store. A pitiful scene. Suddenly and almost out of nowhere, he received the command to release and before you could blink, he darted over, inspected his choices with a quick sniff and declared a winner. It all happened so fast, there's barely even time to get it on film, even though we were ready and waiting with our cameras. But this time something strange happened. Charlies raced over, sniffed and snatched up the Ribs 4 U bone. Then, suddenly, after taking only a step or two, he made a quick circle, dropped the obviously inferior final product and snatched up the Pellet Envy blade bone. Then, and just as I had declared victory, thrusting my gravity challenged body into the air to simulate a Tiger Woods style celebration, Charlie rejected the PE pig skeletal member and again scooped up his teammates offering, swiftly departing the judging area, headed for a celebration of his own.What had just happened? Was history in the making? Until that day, Charlie had never displayed indecisiveness, not an ounce. But on this day, he had chosen a winner, considered the hanging chad, and ultimately returned to his original choice, all in a matter of seconds. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, all in only moments. Honestly, it was near heart breaking and totally confusing. Could it be so close that even Charlie was unable to pick the true pork champion of the day? What was the true meaning of his actions that afternoon? We would have to wait for awards to confirm the outcome.On this day, Charlie's indecision wound up costing his team. Congrats to Ribs 4 U on their Reserve Grand Championship. We won the event with a brisket win and third place calls in chicken, ribs and pork. Our pork finish bested Greg, Eric and Charlie, ultimately deciding the win. We had a blast and will graciously accept any rematch offers tendered at future events. Special thanks to Charlie for providing some entertainment on that Saturday afternoon. Enjoying time with friends is what makes these events special. Getting to see some folks I haven't seen in over 25 years and meeting their families for the first time really make contests like this one memorable.

I'm headed to Albert Lea, Minnesota to cook solo this weekend. It's an easy drive. They're expecting about 40 teams so it should be fun. Good luck to all the teams competing this last weekend to qualify for the Jack Daniel's World Invitational BBQ Championship. See you all on the bbq trail.

A little humor until something better comes along

2009-08-18T16:20:00.001-05:00

Rod and his buddies were hanging out and planning to attend an upcoming barbecue contest. Unfortunately, he had to tell them that he couldn't go this time because his wife wouldn't let him. After a lot of teasing and name calling, Rod headed home frustrated.

The following week when Rod’s buddies arrived at the contest to set up, they were shocked to see Rod. He was already sitting at his cook site with a cold beer, pit positioned, canopy up, everything unloaded from his truck, all his prep work done and everything cleaned up."How did you talk your missus into letting you go Rod?""I didn't have to," Rod replied. Yesterday, when I left work, I went home and slumped down in my chair with a beer to drown my sorrows because I couldn't go cooking. Then the ol' lady snuck up behind me and covered my eyes with her hands and said, 'Surprise!'."

"When I peeled her hands back, she was standing there in a beautiful see through negligee and she said, 'Carry me into the bedroom, tie me to the bed and you can do whatever you want'.....So, Here I am!"

I really want to update my blog . . . .

2009-08-18T09:21:00.003-05:00

I do, I really do. But I don't want to update the blog with meaningless ramblings. Okay, keep the comments to yourself. I mean I don't want to update the blog with ramblings even more meaningless than normal. We've cooked two events, Dillon, Colorado and Excelsior Springs, Missouri. One of them we stunk it up and one was okay. We won brisket in Excelsior Springs, so that was cool. I've been better about taking pictures as well, so I'll have some decent shots to share. Bare with me. I guess I am sort of suffering from BBQ writer's block. I'll try to do better. Hey, I am updating the Jack Daniel's draw list though, so I'm completely lazy. Stay tuned. . . . .

Happy birthday Mr. Groneman

2009-08-02T08:56:00.017-05:00

I can't think of any better way to celebrate your birthday than to dominate a field of talent laden barbecue cooks at a seventy-seven team contest. So that's just what Andy of Smoke on Wheels did this past weekend in Laurie, MO. Happy birthday Mr. Groneman.The weather was perfect. Very un-August like with extremely mild temps in the 70's and a light breeze. Heck, it even got down in the 60's at night. The setting was a green, grassy park, complete with tons of trees and hills. Oh the hills. I don't know how it happened exactly, but I was lucky enough to very close to turn-in. I had always heard how hilly and hot the Hillbilly BBQ contest was. I feel extremely lucky to have experienced neither. Heck, with Fishboy present, the forecast even called for up to an 80% chance of rain during turn-ins on Saturday and even that missed us.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was a little incident that occurred late Friday night. To contribute to the Friday night birthday dinner celebration, I brought two pies, a cream cheese cherry pie and a butterscotch cream pie. It was suggested that I retain the butterscotch pie for later use as part of this yet unknown sacrifice during a 12:00 AM ritual. Translation: We were going to eat that pie at midnight. The idea was even presented to me in a way that made me believe this was a little known tradition. I later discovered that the actual tradition was that Squeal of Approval serves macaroni and cheese at their site at midnight. Typically, no pies are harmed in this tradition.So about 11:30 PM we were all looking a little tired. By all, I mean Steph, Kyle and Val of TheSlabs.com, Chris and Neal of Dodge County Smokers, Grant Miller and myself. Then someone commented that it was time to call it a night. But that couldn't be. See, I had this pie in one of my coolers and I needed to get it out as I would need that cooler space the next day. Somebody was going to eat that pie. So, before the party could break up, I marched over to my site and returned with the pie. A bit reluctant, Val took charge, gathering up a few paper plates and some forks. Nobody offered up a knife to cut the pie, so from her seated position, using the side table of her Director's style chair, Val began using two of the plastic forks to "serve" the pie. As the pie's original owner, I was honored with the first "piece", a blob about the size of a tennis ball. Val must have decided that it was too awkward to dispense the pie from that side table using those forks because just after handing me the first serving, she got up from her chair, and just as she did, the pie slid off the side table, smashing to the ground, business side down. The whole thing happened in slow motion. For a moment there was complete silence as the pie laid in the grass in all it's glory, pan side up. Then, almost in unison as Kyle made a comment about physics, we all began to laugh. And laugh we did. Looking back, I don't know if it was really all that funny or if we were all just that tired, but we all had a good, hard laugh. Making matters even more funny, Val instantly began scooping the pie from the ground onto a paper plate with two of the forks, being careful not to scoop so deep as to break through to the ground. And as she did it, we laughed harder. I'm not sure she had thought it through when she began to try save the pie, rather I think she was just embarrassed and this was the only thing she could think to do. Either way, it added to an already hilarious situation. Asked whether is was $14 worth of fun, I answered "absolutely."Pellet Envy finished third at the Hillbilly Cook-off in Laurie, Missouri. That finish was a total shocker as we only received one top ten call, a seventh place in pork. Our chicken finished 17th, our ribs finished 34th and our brisket finished 11th. I'm going to be totally honest here, I thought it was a good cook with the exception of the ribs. I've had a little trouble with the ribs the last four events. That day they were a little over cooked and the judges caught me. Good for them. TheSlabs.com recieved a perfect 180 for their pork entry. Congrats to them. Those 180's are extremely difficult to come by these days, let along one where every judge awards the best possible score (999). It was awesome to witness. Wonder if we'll see a pork video from them in the near future?This week we're off to Dillon, Colorado for the BBQ at the Summit event. Some of you may remember this event was where the shortest career in barbecue vending began and ended. We won't make that mistake ever again. This weekend we're just competing and we're excited about that. See you all the bbq trail!

Up In Smoke BBQ Bash, Mason City, Iowa

2009-07-28T19:16:00.011-05:00

We're often asked about which contests are our favorites. We can typically find something goodin about every contest we cook. Then there are the events that just stand out. The Mason City event is one of those stand outs. After returning home last Saturday, I received an e-mail from a fellow competitor who is a long established cook but who had entered this event for the first time. His note simply said "What a great contest. Wish they were all like this one." That pretty much sums up Mason City.With a commitment in Kansas City last Friday that could not be rescheduled, we didn't arrive at East Park until about 10:00PM. That in itself made this event a challange. Sheri and I definitely felt the pressure to get there, get set up, get the meat inspected and prepped and get settled in for the cook. We did all that in about an hour and in the dark. Of course, contest organizer and hostess, Ruth Miller, dropped by to check on us and deliver homemade chocolate peanut butter brownies. This was after 11:00 PM. You will not find a better, more accomodating person running a contest anywhere in the country. For those who have experienced the now gone Lebannon, Tennessee event, picture Wanda, Mary Ann, and Christine all rolled into one. That's Ruth.2009 brought 65 teams to the park, up from 50 the previous year. It's obvious to me why. We've not cooked the Up In Smoke BBQ Bash three straight years and as unbelieveable as it seems, it continues to get better. The location is a park on the east side of town with large, shady trees. There is always plenty of power. They have a fabulous group of volunteers. And, they go out of their way to make each and every team feel like they're the most important team there. They even have gifts for the teams to go along with free ice, donuts and coffee delivered to team sites in the morning and contest t-shirts for each team. Did I mention that Ruth was back by 7:00AM roaming the isles with fresh, hot coffee? Well, she was, ankle brace showing under her sandals and all. What a trooper.We cooked from our same spot as the previous year. We even had the same neighbors, including Tim and Mike of Monkey's Uncle BBQ. You couldn't ask for better neighbors, always polite and pleasant. Oh, and it didn't hurt that they made it known to us that they want to attend an Old School versus High Tech competition cooking class in 2010. In fact, I don't know why this happened, but between comments made to Johnny Trigg and me, more than a dozen people expressed sincere interest in making it to one of our classes in 2010. We'll teach four or five classes next year and we've already decided two of those will be in Kansas City and Shannon, Illinois. Check out the Pellet Envy website for details in the near future.The whole weekend there was only one faux pas. When announcing the overall, Howard started with number one instead of number ten, removing all suspense as to the winner. As for us, we received one call, second place brisket and finished eighth overall. Congrats to all the winners, espeically Bare Bones BBQ and Iowa's Own Smoky D's BBQ for their GC and RGC finish.

So I'll stop slobbering all over this contest now. One thing about arriving late and missing the Cook's meeting, you miss seeing all your friends. It wasn't until awards that I realized who all was there. In fact, we never really made it out of our spot this past weekend, and that's a shame. Additionally, we had some friends from a nearby town who made it to the event on Friday night. We missed them at the event and only saw them for a couple minutes by chance as we waited in line at a fast food drive-in just before making it to the event that evening. This weekend we cook in Laurie, Missouri. It's a long established event with close to 80 teams, but this will be our first time to cook it. See you all on the bbq trail!.By the way, the picture of the crowd from Friday night is courtesy of the Globe Gazette. For more information on the weekend, check them out.

Waterloo/La Porte City

2009-07-28T17:21:00.008-05:00

Last year Sheri got her nose into the "Contests" section of the KCBS Bullsheet and decided we should cook a brand new double header in Iowa. Yes, you read that right, Sheri decided it. Not only that, but she thought we should travel light and cook under an EZ-Up with the Jambo pit. Well, it was our lucky weekend last year as we won both events.Fast forward to 2009. As most cooks will tell you, we feel somewhat obligated to return to the scene of the crime, entering the events we won the previous year. We don't all do it, but I'd say most do. Okay, even if most don't, we do. Are you happy now? Anyway, this year we had added incentive because Sheri discovered that one of her cousins, Jason, now lives in Waterloo. We found out at a little family get together a couple months back. So catching a double header and getting a chance to visit with Jason and his wife Jamie, were incentive enough to make the trek back to north central Iowa, again traveling without the luxury of our competition trailer.We arrived late, just as we did the previous year. Cindy Wells and the gang had saved us the same spot, only this time Johnny & Trish Trigg of Smokin' Triggers were our neighbors. And just as last time, the Waterloo hospitality was second to none. Everyone went out of their way to greet us. On Saturday morning the event delivered donuts, coffee, juice and the local paper to our cook sites, and the spectators were every enthusiastic about barbecue. In fact, the previous year, I had a conversation with a gentleman who had retired from the boiler repair business. Well, he found me again this year, only this time he wanted me to know that after our conversation last year, he decided to jump into competition barbecue with both feet. He had built himself a mobile pit and cooked six events in 2008, all after we spoke in mid July last year. In addition, he has begun to vend from a roadside location. Man, I had no idea I could have that effect on anybody and I hope he won't hold it against me in the future.We didn't put our best cooking foot forward in Waterloo. We won chicken, finished 11th in ribs, were 7th in pork and 16th in brisket. To our surprise, we finished just in the money for overall at 3rd place. I believe the judges scored us accordingly that day. We couldn't dwell on it too much though, as we had to pack up and head for the next event, fifteen miles south in La Porte City.Cooking contests back to back is tough both mentally and physically. I'm not going to compare it to any endurance sport, but try it yourself sometime. Of the 25 teams in La Porte, something like 21 of them had cooked Waterloo that day. As a result, things were a little more loose at this second event. As you can see by the pictures, Scottie looked like somebody had stolen his best brisket right out of his pit, Shad was cracking the whip on Angie, Darrin's nephew must have lost a bet to have to wear that glove on his head, and somebody kidnapped Kyle's boom box. Yeah, I think we were all a little punchy come Sunday.Not long after we arrived in La Porte, Bob and Kyle Brown of Iowa Outlaws BBQ approached me. Seems Bob had a bone to pick with me over a previous blog post I made giving Nu Way Cafe in Wichita the nod over Maid-Rite sandwiches. Seems Bob grew up eating Taylor's Maid-Rites out of Marshalltown, Iowa and he took a little offense to my decision. We discussed it and ultimately agreed to disagree. Well, that is until Sunday after turn-ins. Seems Bob had a relative stop off at Taylor's just before coming up to La Porte and bring two hot, fresh original Maid-Rite sandwiches up for Johnny and me. There were no pictures. That's because those Taylor Maid-Rites were awesome and the two of us snarfed them down before anybody could get it memorialized. I'm going to be honest, that Maid-Rite was damn good. Without having the Nu Way and Maid-Rite side by side, I'm going to call it a tie. If you've never eaten a loose meat sandwich from either place, you really need to give them a try. Thanks Bob, you made a believer out of me.

Speaking of believing, I believe Iowa has more friendly people per capita than any other place in the world. Everyone smiles. Everyone is friendly. Everyone is excited about barbecue. It's truly amazing. The hospitality is second to none. Well, except for one Iowa team. See Ryan Newsom, chief pitmaster of Big T'z Q Cru, he's a sneaky one. Ryan took our Old School versus High Tech class in Shannon, Illinois this year. Even though we've now taught over 500 students, I remember him because he's the only guy ever whose name I got wrong on the registration. His name tag said "Ray." Not a bad name, just not his name. He took it in stride that day, or so it seems.

Big T'z Q Cru, headed by pitmaster Ryan and his lovely wife Sonya, whipped up on his two instructors at Waterloo, finishing the Reserve Grand Champion of the event. But he wasn't finished there, oh no. At La Porte City, Mr. Newsom graciously presented both Johnny and me a bottle of Crown Royal Reserve in appreciation for the knowledge he gained from the OS vs HT class back in April. Attached was a note saying he'd "see us at the Royal." Get it? See, in this, his first year, Ryan has already won BBQLossal at the World Pork Expo and the Marshalltown, Iowa event in addition to his RGC the day before. At the time, I thought it was a very gracious gesture. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his check cleared. Oh, how naive can one be? But now I know the whole gift deal was a ploy, a way to get Trigg and me to let down our guard and cook a little looser in La Porte. You hear tell all the time how teams will plan things to get other teams or their members off their game. Heck, I saw it in person a few years back with I traveled with the Smokin' Salmons to Stillwater, Oklahoma, right Rick? Anyway, this mastermind disguised as a first year cook had obviously cooked up a scheme to take us out . . . . and it worked perfectly! Big T'z Cru walked away the Grand Champion of the Smokin' In The Park event that day. That picture, courtesy of his lovely bride and teammate, of us three was taken only moments before awards began. That smirk on Ryan's face tells the whole story. His plan was executed flawlessly. That's one Iowan who doesn't treat strangers very nicely. That's all I have to say about that.

Iowa is a great place to compete in a barbecue contest. The weather for the weekend was perfect. The hospitality of the two events was good. The people from the area were friendly and welcoming . . .well, sans one smiling scoundrel, an obvious wolf in sheep's clothing. We finished sixth overall at La Porte City, with a tenth place call in chicken, fifteenth place in ribs, seventh place call in pork and a third place call in brisket. We cooked better the second day despite our scores and finish. The back to back events made it a very long weekend and the drive home on Sunday after awards was a tough one. However, with a little time having passed, I know Sheri and I would do it all again. Both events did a nice job and we can't wait to get back there next year. And in the end, both Johnny and I are very proud of Ryan and his team Big T'z Q Cru for their accomplishments this year. Congrats to them!

My First Beer by Tuffy Stone

2009-07-27T11:20:00.009-05:00

I have a few short topics on my mind. They don't really constitute a blog post. I thought if I threw them together, maybe it would work. So, here you go . . . Oh, and by the way, the title of this post is really the caption for this picture of Tuffy at Norfolk, Virginia a couple years ago. Sometimes pictures really do say a thousand words.

We received our third EVER comment card from a judge in Mason City this past weekend. Accompanying a score of 8 9 9, the judge wanted me to know that my pork presentation lacked originality. Now maybe I slept through the part of the Certified Barbeque Judge class when Ed Roith was teaching, but I don't recall any conversation about judging a turn-in based on the uniqueness of the presentation. Without cooks and judges there would be no barbeque contests, but sometimes the judges just put way too much thought into it all. We'll cook to the best of our abilities that day and all we want from you folks in the tent is to just judge the meat!

It's Monday morning. We arrived back home about 10:00 PM on Saturday night. Took Sunday off, both mentally and physically. This morning I've cleaned the ashes out of the pit, taken it to the car wash, dried it off and put it away. In anticipation of this weekend the rubs are restocked, the dishes are washed and I even split wood and stocked the pit. To whomever wrote those instructions on that maul about allowing the weight of it to do the work: Please come over and split some of my wood. There's no way in hell the weight of that maul will split the stuff I have without a little extra effort.

Before the rumors start, Pellet Envy dropped out of the Prilosec OTC BBQ Shootout Series. SMI Group and Prilosec are doing a great thing for barbeque and everyone involved should be proud. However, we have to do what's best for us. Best of luck to NASCAR, SMI, Prilosec and the competitors in Bristol and Atlanta in the coming weeks.

With the season a little more than half way over, we find ourselves in a points race for KCBS Team of the Year. I don't want to get caught up in all the hype and strategizing associated with trying to come out on top. I did that a couple years ago and the added stress totally took the fun out of competition barbecue for me. Best of luck to the teams in the hunt and the whole thing will most likely shake out by late October, whatever happens, happens.

Reading Adam Perry Lang's new book Serious Barbecue, I want to try so many of his recipes that I don't know where to start. Well, all that was solved when my week long house guest Johnny Trigg, stole the book from my home last week. Return that book unharmed Trigger, and nobody has to know you're planning to change up all your recipes at the next contest. Hey, maybe he already did that at Mason City. After all, he did finish 3rd overall. Hardy, har, har.

Thank you for putting up with my random barbecue thoughts. I've got ideas for recaps on the last three events we cooked in Iowa. Those events should be up on the blog very soon.

Took the week off . . . . I guess

2009-07-24T07:51:00.003-05:00

Well, unintentionally I took this week off from writing the blog. We cooked a double header last weekend in Iowa. With house guests all week and some other things to tend to, this week's update got neglected. It's Friday now and time to head for Mason City, Iowa. Next week I'll double up, reporting on all three Iowa events from the past two weekends.

In the mean time, I was directed to an article about Kansas City barbecue that includes a quote from me. You can find it here (click right on that sentence). Enjoy. Thanks for reading the blog. We'll get caught up next week.

Is it hot enough for you?

2009-07-15T07:55:00.009-05:00

Luckily, nobody posed that question to us while in Great Bend, Kansas last weekend. Someone might have come unglued had they been asked. At 5:30 PM on Friday, the temperature was 111.1 in the shade of our canopy. Imagine sticking your face into a hot bbq pit about then. As we cooked for the brisket invitational last Friday, I could feel myself aging. Seriously, that heat just sucked the life right out of us. Several people who cooked Great Bend this year were still recovering on Sunday and Monday, and it was unanimous that the Central Kansas Barbecue Cook-off was the hottest contest we've ever cooked. Adding insult to injury, a quick moving, severe storm popped up about 1:15 AM on Friday morning and took out a few EZ-Ups plus in a 36 hour period the wind blew 15 - 20 MPH FROM ALL FOUR DIRECTIONS.This was our seventh year to cook on the tarmac in Barton County. We've always enjoyed this event, even though historically the judges have roughed us up a bit. Kent Romine has a great staff of volunteers and he does his best to meet everyone's needs and make them feel welcome. From great power, free ice and t-shirts, to all day passes for the kids to ride everything they want at the Barton County Fair, the small things are not forgotten. This year was no different.We traveled light, cooking under a canopy with the Jambo. In addition to the heat making the cook more challenging, the lack of space and organization adds another layer. Thankfully, our friends and neighbors were there to help us out. For whatever reason, this past weekend we needed a lot of help. Special thanks to our neighbors Chris and Jana of Early Bird BBQ. Our fan died early Friday. So they loaned us one. If really came in handy. Chris also helped keep us cool with Pickle pops. If you haven't had one, you need to try it. I'd say it's an acquired taste. Also, thank you to Andy and Kim of Plowboys BBQ, errrrrrr Smoke On Wheels. In addition to hosting the Friday night Mexican bonanza, Andy created a misting tent complete with a misting fan. That canopy might have been the busiest spot at the contest. A big thanks to Steph of TheSlabs.com for organizing both the dinner and Saturday breakfast. Oh, and thanks to Eric and Greg of Ribs 4 U for having just what I needed to get through the contest. Greg threatened to make me a gin and tonic out in Great Bend. I'm going hold him to that next time we're at the same event. Kelly of Four Legs Up deserves a big thanks as well. He hosts the good luck shot of Gentleman Jack about everywhere I go. This weekend he hosted twice. Finally, thanks to our other neighbors Lee and Kathy of Dawghouse BBQ. With Sheri traveling back and forth to and from the hotel, a couple times I found myself without something and Lee was quick to save the day. Plus, Lee and Kathy hosted breakfast and despite being empty handed, they allowed me to dine with the group. Great neighbors.Despite a dismal finish in the Chest to Chest National Brisket invitational (don't ask - 16th out of 17 entries), we rebounded nicely, winning the Central Kansas Barbecue Cook-off including a 5th place finish in chicken, 2nd place finish in Ribs and winning the Brisket category. "What did I change about my brisket from day one to day two?" you might wonder. Not a damn thing. My teaching partner Johnny Trigg has a saying for situations like this one. It goes something like this - "They liked it so well today, they're going to get more of the same tomorrow," and that exactly what I did. Funny how that works out.The winner of the brisket category at the KCBS sanctioned event and the Grand Champion of the event are both invited to the 2010 Chest to Chest. So we're doubly qualified. But that presents a unique problem. We're also qualified for the Butt to Butt XII held in conjunction with the Illinois State Championship in Shannon, IL on the same weekend next year. I don't even want to think about that choice right now. Maybe after I recover from the self prescribed heat stroke like symptoms.

This weekend is the Iowa double header with events in Waterloo and La Porte. Luckily, the towns are only about fifteen miles apart. We enjoyed these events last year, and not just because we won them both. Both are set in town parks and both had, warm, small town type atmosphere. Good luck to everyone competing this weekend. See you all on the bbq trail!

Phoning this one in . . . .

2009-07-08T21:46:00.005-05:00

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.

2009-07-02T16:41:00.016-05:00

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 . . .

2009-06-22T12:55:00.015-05:00

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

2009-06-15T11:32:00.002-05:00

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?

2009-06-14T17:27:00.012-05:00

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!

2009-06-11T10:32:00.004-05:00

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 . . . . .

2009-06-07T10:06:00.015-05:00

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!

Lynchburg, Tennesse here we come again

2009-05-31T14:34:00.015-05:00

Pellet Envy was crowned Grand Champion this past weekend in Abilene, Kansas. This win was the seventh win of qualifying events for the Jack Daniel's World Invitational Barbeque Championship during their qualifying season. Winning in my home town was even sweeter as it solidified what should be an automatic invitation to this event in late October.

The toughest event in which to get invited and definitely the most prestigous amongst pit masters, Pellet Envy has competed at the Jack five times in our short competition barbecue career and we're looking forward to getting back to the holla this fall for the festivities and some serious competition. If you get to Lynchburg, be sure to look us up.

Whoever said you can't go home again was just plain wrong!

2009-05-31T14:01:00.011-05:00

Okay, so I try to be politically correct at least 90% of the time. Well, my version of politically correct any way. This post will fall into that 10% of the time when I just tell you how I feel. I know sometimes this approach steps on toes, but once in awhile you just have to let your hair down. That's a joke. Get it? Let me apologize now if I offend anyone, or better yet, if you think you're about to be offended, just stop reading.

I'm going to spare you the speech about just being lucky or hitting the right tables, even if those two things are probably both true. I'm also not going to tell you that we didn't cook as well as we wanted, because we almost never do and I say it often. But, I am going to say that it was awesome to win in my home town. The Wheatstock Grill-Off, Peace, Love & BBQ at the Second annual Flour Power Family Fun Fest was about the only game in town, so there was a ton of top notch talent. I had been uneasy about the event since setting my sights on getting ready back the Tuesday before. Then, one after another, things began to happen last week that made just getting to the event difficult, let alone concentrating on cooking and being competitive in a field that included five of the top ten teams in the nation from '08 plus several teams who have been pouring it on strong thus far in '09. Add cooking back where I grew up, with darn near my entire family there, and the pressure for this smaller, otherwise lower profile event felt enormous. Luckily for use, the two Cookshack FEC-100's fueled by the BBQr's Delight hickory blend pellets were up to the task.

It's always easy for the winner to tell everyone about how great the event was. However, this really was a hidden gem. Tons of space, all the power you want, free ice, plenty of volunteers, all of whom were extremely friendly, things to do including bands, a car show and vendors, all made this a barbecue contest I'm proud to have in my home town. On Friday, we offered to help the contest organizer keep the contest going in Abilene. I hope she took me seriously. Not that it won't happen without us, but I'd love to see this event grow and flourish.

The pictures include Twin Oak Smokin' Crews latest Horizon pit, and the stack on the homemade smoker used by our neighbors, the Smokey Hill Brothers. It's the manifold from a '90 Toyota truck. Also, pictures of just a small part of the car show and a '67 Voltswagon Bettle that won Best Other. My picture does not due the little bug justice. I absolutely fell in love with the color of the car, even talking to the car's owner about it. Someday I'd love to have a pit painted that color. Don't hold your breath though, the owner expressed just how expensive the paint and the overall finish process was, surely making it prohibitive for a long, long time. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

Prilosec OTC BBQ Shootout Series rolls into Charlotte

2009-05-28T10:44:00.012-05:00

This past weekend the Prilosec OTC BBQ Shootout Series hosted an all out barbecue throwdown in Charlotte, North Carolina. Home to Lowes Motorspeedway and the Coca-Cola 600, SMI rolled out the red carpet and walked the dog, even creating a two day break in the wet weather, to host the second in a series of four invitational cook-offs pitting some of American's top barbecue competitors against the elements, time and each other.With over 350,000 fans at the track over four days, thirteen teams set up camp and got some smoke blowin' in hopes of claiming a portion of the over $15,000 in cash and prizes. Three of the teams were featured, distributing mouth watering samples of their best pulled pork to literally thousands of hungry fans. As a bonus, spectators learned the benefits of the little purple pill and got to rub elbows with cooks from across the country, getting advice and tips on cooking better barbecue.In the end Bart Clark of Twin Oak Smokin' Crew gave the rest of the field a little heartburn, winning two of the four categories and dominating the event for the second straight time. For the effort Twin Oak was named the Grand Champion and walked away with over a third of the total prize pool, a huge trophy and a congratulatory handshake from Jeff Burton, driver of the number 31 Prilosec OTC car. Not a bad couple of days work if I do say so myself. Here 's how it all shook out:

CHICKEN:
1. Twin Oak Smokin' Crew
2. Cool Smoke
3. Lotta Bull BBQ
4. Texas Rib Rangers
5. Checkered Pig BBQ
6. Lost Gonzo
7. Pellet Envy
8. It Ain't Prime
9. Dr. BBQ
10. Jack's Down Home BBQ
11. Tarheel Smokers
12. Smokin' Triggers
13. Wood Chicks BBQ

RIBS:
1. Checkered Pig BBQ
2. Pellet Envy
3. Dr. BBQ
4. Twin Oak Smokin' Crew
5. Lotta Bull BBQ
6. Smokin' Triggers
7. Tarheel Smokers
8. Texas Rib Rangers
9. Lost Gonzo
10. Cool Smoke
11. Wood Chicks BBQ
12. It Ain't Prime
13. Jack's Down Home BBQ

PORK:
1. It Ain't Prime
2. Tarheel Smokers
3. Cool Smoke
4. Twin Oak Smokin' Crew
5. Jack's Down Home BBQ
6. Checkered Pig BBQ
7. Pellet Envy
8. Dr. BBQ
9. Texas Rib Rangers
10. Lost Gonzo
11. Lotta Bull BBQ
12. Wood Chicks BBQ
13. Smokin' Triggers

BRISKET:
1. Twin Oak Smokin' Crew
2. It Ain't Prime
3. Jack's Down Home BBQ
4. Wood Chicks BBQ
5. Texas Rib Rangers
6. Smokin' Triggers
7. Checkered Pig BBQ
8. Tarheel Smokers
9. Pellet Envy
10. Lotta Bull BBQ
11. Dr. BBQ
12. Cool Smoke
13. Lost Gonzo

OVERALL:
Grand Champion - Twin Oak Smokin' Crew
Reserve Grand Champion - Checkered Pig BBQ
3. Pellet Envy
4. Texas Rib Rangers
5. It Ain't Prime
6. Lotta Bull BBQ
7. Cool Smoke
8. Tarheel Smokers
9. Dr. BBQ
10. Smokin' Triggers
11. Jack's Down Home BBQ
12. Wood Chicks BBQ
13. Lost Gonzo

Congrats to Bart, Tommy Houston of Checkered Pig and all of the folks who heard their name that day. Bristol, Tennessee is the next stop for the BBQ Shootout Series sponsored by Procter and Gamble. In late August this field of top cooks will again kick the tires and light the fires, battling to see who will be the next Prilosec OTC BBQ Shootout Series champion. See you all there!

So, how's your day so far?

2009-05-27T11:34:00.000-05:00

Here's mine . . . . .

I think that sums it up pretty well .

Did you know that pigs are great swimmers?

2009-05-19T07:33:00.016-05:00

Side note: I guess I'm feeling the pressure to create an over the top post about Memphis In May. Nothing else explains my delay in getting to this task. Well, if that's what you're expecting, you may be a bit disappointed.

Memphis In May is like nothing else we've experience in competition barbecue. Dating back to when we started competing, we've never cooked an event where we knew so few teams and felt so unsure of ourselves. Nicknamed Memphis In Mud because of the wet weather associated with the event, especially in recent years, it totally lived up to that billing. We arrived on Wednesday to standing water in our site and teams pushing wheelbarrows of sand up and down the road. By the time we figured out where to find the sand pile and that it was for team use, all the sand had been scooped up. As many of you may recall, I wrestled with renting or constructing a flooring system, ultimately deciding to roll the dice and do neither. We did, but wouldn't try that again.MIM requires that teams be in their spots by Wednesday at 12:00PM, even though the actual contest isn't until Saturday. As KCBS cooks, we struggled to understand the reasoning. However, once on site it was better understood. With Friends and Family night on Wednesday, corporate party night on Thursday and private party night on Friday, there is a ton of foot traffic by afternoon. MIM allows teams a little time early Thursday and Friday mornings to deliver meat and supplies to their site to replenish and restock.
Contestant sites were decorated to the nines, many with multi story structures, elaborate themes and tons of foliage and flowers. Ours was not. Seeing these sites explains why teams arrive on site the weekend before the event and have twenty or thirty members. How else are you going to tear down and pack up after three or four straight days of partying like rock stars? Sheer numbers are the only answer. Even with attrition, somebody will be left on Sunday to get it all cleaned up. On the other hand, once in Memphis Pellet Envy went shopping and picked up four foot sections of plastic accent fence just to keep from feeling like total outcasts. As it turns out, it was an important addition to site, keeping wayward spectators from wandering in . . .well, most of them.So, to roll this experience all into one, I want to summarize my feelings on several aspects on the contest, specifically how the event was run, the competition and our overall impression. From an organization and execution perspective, Memphis In May is one of the best, if not the best run event we've attended. Having competed in over 250 events, that's a serious statement. As newcomers, we didn't totally grasp all fifty-seven pages of the event rules and regulations. However, once on site, we were greeted by, worked with and were treated about as professionally as we've ever been. We had tons of question and nobody, I mean nobody, ever said they couldn't or wouldn't help us or get the answers we needed. For an event of over 250 teams with upwards of 1,000 volunteers, that is absolutely amazing. MIM is to commended.As for the competition, honestly I'm still forming my opinion. It's one of the reasons I've procrastinated in writing. We've now cooked two MIM events total. This is going to sound like a KCBS cook whining about a different sanctioning body, and maybe it is. But for all the cooks who approach me to complain about KCBS judging, it feels like MIM judging is an even faster moving target yet. The blind box is relatively straight forward, I guess. Asking some of the top MIM cooks about blind box strategy, I got blank stares and generic answers. Now, maybe that's just their way of holding their cards close to the vest, but I don't think so. Seems to be all that is required is an ungarnished 9" styrofoam clamshell brimming with meat. We saw one rib team use a toothpick to hold their box closed as they walked it to turn-in because it was so full it wouldn't close otherwise. If you get your best meat in the box, and plenty of it, you've done your best for blind box. However, the on site judging . . .man, oh man, that's where this KCBS cook starts to get a headache. Don't even get me started.We had a decent time. We got to spend some quality time with Marc and Natalie from Greased Lightning. We had one great neighbor and one bad. The bad neighbor influenced our experience at our first ever MIM. If I wanted to go back, but was told the only spot was next to Three Alarm Smokers, I'd refuse. Their music was so loud the cabinets in the trailer vibrated and conversations with our friends and sponsors were impossible. Additionally, they decided the best place to dispose of their cigarette butts was in our site and I'm not talking about just a handful. If you know anything about on site MIM judging, site cleanliness is paramount. It's obvious this is the only contest, . . . ummm party for this classless bunch of firemen wannabes. Their competition career would be short lived if they exhibited this behavior at other events. I understand the desire for MIM to be festive, but they overlook common courtesy. It's unfortunate that MIM really doesn't concern themselves with these issues or directly address it in their rules, except to say that speakers must be turned into the site rather than away. The only quiet time rules mentioned were during on site judging. Go figure..Overall Memphis In May should be experienced by everyone, whether as a cook, a judge or a spectator. It was experienced by more than 100,000 people this year as I'm told. If our sponsor again requires it, we will return. Otherwise, the event requires too much time and is hugely cost prohibitive for a small, traveling team. We tied for 13th in ribs and supposedly lost a real live coin flip to finish 14th. I'm proud of that finish considering we're neophytes to the whole MIM style of competition. All things considered, that's a pretty decent outcome.Very special thanks to Rob and Ben of Ulika BBQ fame. These two guys traveled from Nashville to become Pellet Envy team members for the weekend. They did anything and everything asked of them. Honestly, Sheri and I could not have done it without them. Also, thanks to Chris Lilly. Despite a pretty significant distance between his site and ours and considering his new book, Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book, was released that week, Chris came by our site several times to make sure we were doing okay, sometimes with his entourage in tow. Actually, too many people to name did this for us and we greatly appreciate it. You all know who you are. Also, I want to thank Anne, Traci and the National Pork Board and the Other White Meat Tour for allowing me to be a part of their presentations in the Cattleman's tent. That was a blast and my research for the talk taught me many things about pigs, including that little known fact that they could give Michael Phelps a run for his money. Finally, a special thanks to Karen Walker for loaning me some of her awesome pictures for this post. Not all of these pics are from Karen, only the good ones.

OLD SCHOOL VERSUS HIGH TECH REACHES MILESTONE

2009-05-04T09:08:00.008-05:00

This past weekend the Old School versus High Tech cooking class reached a milestone. With the Danville, Virginia event in the books, we have spewed our philosophy on barbecue to over 500 students. That's unbelievable. When it began, I never really considered where we were headed. Rather, the timing was good to throw my hat in the ring as an instructor and although it took some doing, once convinced, Johnny Trigg loved teaching. In fact, I called him one Sunday after a class. We talked about where we were headed the next weekend and then he said, "but I wish we were headed to teach another class this weekend instead." If you know Johnny, then you realize how much he loves to compete, so those words say a ton.

If you had told me then that so many people would want to hear what we had to say, I would have enthusiastically disagreed. Now, less than three years later, we look back at all of the great folks we've met and the successes they've had and despite the hard work, it has been extremely rewarding. In fact, that's what keeps us going. I won't kid you, sometimes it's a little hard to swallow when I sit in my seat during awards and watch a student walk to the stage to claim a category win or better yet, be the grand champion. That's the competitor in me and I can't change that. However, that feeling is quickly replaced by a sense of accomplishment and pride. To think that our teaching has such an impact on the successes of so many people is overwhelming. It's also very satisfying. In fact, it's like nothing else I've experienced in competition barbecue. I'm going to stop now or else my head won't fit through the door and I have things to do today. See, Sheri's blow dryer died this morning and as a full tilt, hard charging barbecue guy, it's my job to find a replacement by sunrise tomorrow OR ELSE!

Thank you to all of the folks who believed in us enough to find your way to our classes. It's because of you that we continue to teach. We have met so many really great folks from all over this country. We're going to concentrate on cooking for a few months now. To my surprise, inquiries about future classes is at an all time high. That may be because we've completed our initial '09 schedule. Now we're considering one more event for this year at an undetermined location. Please e-mail me or check the website for details on future classes. Pellet Envy may be idle this weekend in preparation for our first ever appearance at Memphis in May next weekend. Wish us luck, because we're going to need it. We'll so much be a fish out of water down in Memphis. See you all on the barbecue trail!

Sugar Creek - A Pictorial Short Story

2009-04-27T21:58:00.003-05:00

THIS PAST WEEK IN BARBEQUE

2009-04-20T12:58:00.004-05:00

This post is going to be the down and dirty, to the point version. We cooked the Capitol City Cook-off in Jefferson City, Missouri this past weekend. Our good friend Bruce Ring, a veteran of the competition circuit, organizes and hosts this event. Bruce hurt his back and had surgery just a week before this event. He's a trooper though as he was there working as hard as ever the entire time. In addition to his committee members, Mike Lake of Rock River BBQ and Randy Twyford of Twyfords BBQ & Catering stepped in to help Bruce out. Except for some rain on Saturday, the event came off without a hitch. We even had a group of eleven and twelve year olds playing 70's classic rock on Saturday morning. I smile when I type that, because you sort of had to be there. It was their first ever paying gig. I've decided that kids should not play music if they don't understand the lyrics. Enough said.

Here's our finish:

Chicken: 10th
Ribs: 2nd
Pork: 21st
Brisket: 12th

Overall - 4th place out of 55 teams.

Congrats to my cooking class partner Johnny Trigg of Smokin' Triggers on a third place overall finish. Also, congrats to Candy Weaver of BBQr's Delight on her win in Lula, Mississippi. Congrats to Scott & Suzie of South Pork on their win this past weekend. Also, congrats to John & Kathy Swift on their victory in Winchester, Tennessee. Finally, happy birthday and congrats to Steve Farrin of I Smell Smoke infamy on the big win in Maryland this past weekend. Steve and the gang bested 92 teams. Well done everyone.

We're off to Smokin' In The Creek this weekend. It's about as close to home as we get. A couple of old friends I haven't seen since high school are coming out to see us at this event. I'm excited to see them and catch up. It will be good to be close to home as the month of May is going to be wild with many, many hours logged behind the wheel. See you all somewhere on the competition barbecue trail.

Boys and their toys

2009-04-16T09:23:00.013-05:00

Last week the story broke that the championship team Lotta Bull was making room for a new pit in the proverbial garage, clearing out the old, trusted Jambo. Sources tell us the team will debut the replacement this weekend at the 22nd annual High on the Hog Festival in Winchester, Tennessee. We think we've caught a glimpse a day early of the pit in which the team will put full faith. Notice the square, supposedly insulated firebox, a big departure from the trailered pits currently offered by the builder and remarkably similar to those created by Jamie Geer.

Speaking of Jamie Geer, this brand spanking new Jambo, complete with a high gloss finish on the barrel, pin striping detail and ghost flames, was spotted at the Smoke In the Spring event last weekend in Osage City, Kansas. Posing with the pit is proud owner Donnie Teel of Buffalo BBQ. That's one awesome looking rig, one the owner should definitely be proud of. Smile Donnie!

Thanks to Greg of Ribs 4 U for the great shots of this new Jambo.

Post Script - Dear Readers, the communication lines are buzzing as a result of this post. Do not be surprised if it is reported soon that the first pit pictured is nothing like the actual thing. Stay tuned . . . .

Smoke In the Spring - Osage City, Kansas recap

2009-04-13T21:31:00.005-05:00

After a two year hiatus from Osage City, Kansas, this past weekend we returned to the Smoke In The Spring event, now in it's sixth year. My, what two years has done for this event as 69 teams converged on this small central Kansas town. Winners of the inaugural event in 2004 when there were about half the number of teams, Corey Linton and the gang accepted the torch from Don Cawby and ran with it . . . . . fast!

Johnny Trigg and I double dipped on Friday evening, dining with Jarrod and the Pork Me Purple team. Pork chops, potatoes cooked with onion and bacon and green beans made for the perfect, down home meal. Then we sauntered across the isle and sampled Mexican night hosted by Early Bird BBQ. With a plethora of offerings from over a dozen teams, the choices were bountiful but we were able to keep our wits about ourselves. Finally, the gang got back together for breakfast, again hosted by Chris and Jana Early. Grits casserole, potato casserole, smoked sausage, almond cherry coffee cake, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy, bacon and bloody marys rounded out the menu. We ate well in Osage City this past weekend. Thnx for Steph for organizing the meals. She's such a giver.

Except for lows in the 30's on Friday night, the weather was good and we had plenty of sunshine. Turn-in's were uneventful. Everything came out about like expected except the ribs. For whatever reason, about the only attribute we could taste was the heat. No sweet, no savory, no real balance. Tenderness was perfect and they looked awesome, but they just lacked flavor. So, we did what we could and sent them on their way. Here's how it all shook out:

Chicken - 20th
Ribs - 12th
Pork - 9th
Brisket - 6th
Overall - 6th

We were happy with our finish in a very tough crowd. Several great teams took some lumps in Osage City. I know they'll come out swinging at their next event. Speaking of which, we're off to the Capitol City Cook-off in Jefferson City, MO. Hosted by good friend Bruce Ring who is recovering from back surgery, we've battled some pretty rough weather there the past two years. We're hoping Bruce and the boys catch a break and the sun shines on Jeff City this weekend. We were lucky enough to win the first event here two years ago. We're hoping we can turn it into a "win it every other year" type situation. See you all there!

Late April fools joke?

2009-04-10T09:55:00.006-05:00

I thought I'd seen it all, but this just proves I haven't. If it's true, the Lotta Bull BBQ flagship pit, built by Jamie Geer for Johnny Trigg many years back, is up for sale on eBay. I don't really know what to think of it and a few things just don't jive, so I'm left virtually speechless about this development. Publicity stunt? Cash flow issue? The owner stood in the wind a little too long last weekend? We may never know. Here's one thing I do know, based on the original purchase price of that pit, I should pull my retirement investments and go long in Jambo's. One thing is for sure, the new owner of this pit will definitely own a piece of competition barbecue history.

Good luck to everyone bidding on this pit or competing this weekend. Looks like Mother Nature intends to challenge us again.

CHECKERED FLAG FALLS AT TEXAS MOTORSPEEDWAY

2009-04-06T10:00:00.012-05:00

Pellet Envy took the Reserve Grand Champion honors this past weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. Speedway Motorsports, Inc. and Proctor and Gamble put their collective corporate heads together to create the Prilosec OTC BBQ Shootout Series. Thirteen teams were hand picked to do battle on race weekend at NASCAR tracks around the country. The first of the four events was held at the Texas Motorspeedway. Saturday the speedway played host to the O'Reilly 300 Nationwide Series race and Sunday, the Sprint Cup Samsung 500. Congrats to Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon on their victories.

With these events popping up on such short notice, we called on a couple good friends to fill in this past weekend. Neal and Chris of Dodge County Smokers helped us out by competing in Texas while we hosted our Old School versus High Tech cooking class in Shannon, IL. Besting all but Twin Oak Smokin' Crew in a field of top notch barbecue talent, kudo's to the Dodge County boys on a job well done. We've planned a debriefing soon so I'll have all the juicy details to write about here on the blog. Stay tuned. I think it's going to be a wild one. Oh, and here are the overall results:

Grand Champion - Twin Oak Smokin' Crew

Reserve Grand Champion - Pellet Envy

3. Cool Smoke

4. Checkered Pig

5. Lost Gonzo

6. Texas Rib Rangers

7. Lotta Bull BBQ

8. Smokin' Triggers

9. Backstreet Blues

10. It Ain't Prime

11. Jack's Down Home BBQ

12. Wood Chicks

13. Texas Thunder

Another great class in Shannon, Illinois

2009-04-06T09:30:00.005-05:00

This past weekend, Johnny Trigg and I returned to one of our all time favorite places to teach, Shannon, Illinois. Home of the world renowned Butt to Butt Invitational, Illinois State BBQ Championship and long time competition circuit favorites Mike and Theresa Lake, Shannon is a very small town with a population in the 300's. One gas station, one beer joint and no grocery store.

A truly great group of folks made the trek to north central Illinois for our Old School versus High Tech event. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but again we had 14 states plus Canada represented. The energy and enthusiasm was high in the group. I've said this before too, but that level of excitement is what makes this class so much darn fun. I realize that it's the instructor's responsibility to create that environment and I think we're getting better at doing just that. If this group is any indication, we're doing a damn good job if I say so myself. One other thing, a special thanks to Bob Sammons. This is Bob's second class with us. He arrived early to help us set up and stayed late to help clean up. He brought gifts. Bob's just a great guy and Johnny and I are both glad to call him a friend, even if he supports North Carolina basketball.

Results from the classes are starting to appear already in 2009. Students in our February Great Bend class finished one and two in Pleasant Hill, Missouri this past weekend. Huge congrats to both of them. Most think we're in this for the money, and don't get me wrong, the paycheck is nice, but if we weren't getting great feedback and seeing great results, both Johnny and I would have long since hung up our teaching hats. The most fulfilling part of this whole thing is the successes of our students.

This weekend we're headed to Smokin' In The Spring in Osage City, Kansas. After cooking this event the first two years and winning the inaugural, we've been away for two years and we're excited to be getting back. Corey and the group do a great job and as usual, with 70 teams, it's shaping up to be another success. See you all somewhere!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

2009-03-30T20:04:00.007-05:00

Translation: Let the good times roll! And roll they did in Hammond, Louisiana this past weekend as Pellet Envy was crowned grand champion of the sixth annual Smokin' Blues and BBQ Challenge. Rough weather Friday night could not dampen the spirits of the volunteers of this great even. If you don't know, you won't find better hospitality at an event any where in the country. Eric Phares and the gang roll out the red carpet for teams, judges and sponsors at this event. From goodie bags and gifts to lavish meals on Friday night AND Saturday morning, these folks know just who to treat folks.With forty-nine teams in attendance for the KCBS event, most of the best talent in the country was on hand. Rain, heavy at times, and strong winds challenged the cooks on Friday evening and into the early morning hours Saturday. Luckily, the sun broke through mid morning Saturday and a cold front chased away the high humidity of the day before.Mike and Theresa Lake, of Rock River BBQ, debuted their new Jambo pit for the event. Having picked it up only days earlier, the Lakes received two strong calls and finished fifth overall. Outstanding way to break in a new pit if you ask me. Speaking of Jambo pits, five of the top six overall finishers cooked on Jamie Geer built pits. I can't say that I've ever seen such a thing before. Congrats to Jamie on building such a quality product.

For the second year in a row, I was proud to have Emily Phares as my taster and runner. For those that don't know, Emily guided me to a reserve grand champion finish last year. So, when she arrived at my site on Saturday morning, a felt a small sense of relief. See, Emily has a great palate and just as important, can verbalize subtle differences in taste. She also has a track record of steering teams to victory, helping Buttrub.com to a victory at this event in '07. Having my head in the smoke since 2:00 AM really makes it difficult to discern the finer points of final product. Having someone who does such a great job tasting and describing the nuances is a huge help. Sheri typically does this for the team, but could not be there this weekend.As for our finish in the categories, we were 12th in chicken, 7th in ribs, 1st in pork, and 1st in brisket. For the record, I cooked two Swift C.A.B. briskets and I.B.P. pork butts from Restaurant Depot. I mention this so as to dispel any rumor that I'm cooking any genetically superior beef or heritage breed pork for competition. Here's the deal, good food is good food. If you prepare it well, most days you get rewarded. Some days you don't, even when it's good, and some days you do even when you probably shouldn't. We all know how that happens in competition barbecue. So, you take what you can from the experience and celebrate the victories a little, tempered by those other days. Winning Hammond was a thrill. It was great to see my cooking class partner Johnny Trigg have a strong finish as well. It was great to see so many friends this early in the season all in one place as well.Next week we're off to Shannon, Illinois for the Old School versus High Tech cooking class. Shannon was the site of our best class last year and it's shaping up to be the same this year. It's also the home of the infamous Butt to Butt and Illinois State Championship held there every July. We're really looking forward to this class and meeting a bunch of new folks. See you all in Shannon.

I too believe . . . .

2009-03-22T09:25:00.004-05:00

Jason Sheehan is a James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic for Denver's Westword newspaper. This is his modern essay submitted to the I Believe project on NPR.

I believe in barbecue. As soul food and comfort food and health food, as a cuisine of both solace and celebration. When I'm feeling good, I want barbecue. And when I'm feeling bad, I just want barbecue more. I believe in barbecue in all its regional derivations, in its ethnic translations, in forms that range from white-tablecloth presentations of cunningly sauced costillas, to Chinese take-out spareribs that stain your fingers red, to the most authentic product of the tarpaper rib shacks of the Deep South. I believe that like sunshine and great sex, no day is bad that has barbecue in it.

I believe in the art of generations of pit men working in relative obscurity to keep alive the craft of slow smoking as it's been practiced for as long as there's been fire. A barbecue cook must have an intimate understanding of his work: the physics of fire and convection, the hard science of meat and heat and smoke -- and then forget it all to achieve a sort of gut-level, Zen instinct for the process.

I believe that barbecue drives culture, not the other way around. Some of the first blows struck for equality and civil rights in the Deep South were made not in the courtrooms or schools or on buses, but in the barbecue shacks. There were dining rooms, backyards and roadhouse juke joints in the South that were integrated long before any other public places.

I believe that good barbecue requires no decor, and that the best barbecue exists despite its trappings. Paper plates are okay in a barbecue joint. And paper napkins. And plastic silverware. And I believe that any place with a menu longer than can fit on a single page -- or better yet, just a chalkboard -- is coming dangerously close to putting on airs.

I believe that good barbecue needs sides the way good blues need rhythm, and that there is only one rule: Serve whatever you like, but whatever you serve, make it fresh. Have someone's mama in the back doing the "taters" and hush puppies and sweet tea, because Mama will know what she's doing -- or at least know better than some assembly-line worker bagging up powdered mashed potatoes by the ton.

I believe that proper barbecue ought to come in significant portions. Skinny people can eat barbecue, and do, but the kitchen should cook for a fat man who hasn't eaten since breakfast. My leftovers should last for days.

I believe that if you don't get sauce under your nails when you're eating, you're doing it wrong. I believe that if you don't ruin your shirt, you're not trying hard enough.

I believe -- I know -- there is no such thing as too much barbecue. Good, bad or in-between, old-fashioned pit-smoked or high-tech and modern; it doesn't matter. Existing without gimmickry, without the infernal swindles and capering of so much of contemporary cuisine, barbecue is truth; it is history and home, and the only thing I don't believe is that I'll ever get enough.

Gorging myself on basketball baby!

2009-03-20T18:13:00.006-05:00

March madness is in full swing. Luckily, Pellet Envy is idol this weekend, because this is my absolute favorite weekend in sports. The Big XII is 6-0 in the first round of the NCAA tourney. My bracket is holding on, mostly due to the lack of upsets. Kansas battled past a scrappy North Dakota State opponent this afternoon. For those that don't know, Kansas has historically had a little trouble with first round teams who's mascot's start with the letter "B". Luckily, the hawks didn't let history repeat despite the NDSU Bison's Ben Woodside pouring in 37 of their 74 points.

Unrelated, the All Things Barbeque blog is listed in a poll for best barbeque blog. ATB started out slow, but is quickly gaining momentum thanks mostly to cousin Pam in Dallas. She's my favorite cousin. Honestly, I only have two and she was closer in age to me than her sister, so she was around more when I was growing up. (Sorry Pam, I guess you get to be my favorite by default.) She was usually the target of my pranks and practical jokes. Remember the disappearing ink on the brand spanking new cheerleader uniform cuz? Anyway, if you enjoy reading this drivel, click on the link in the upper right hand corner of this page and vote for All Things Barbeque. If you really like the blog, just place a vote for All Things Barbeque. After all, this blog is clearly blatant self promotion anyway. Seriously though, I appreciate your help and support.

Click to vote

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T09:33:00.002-05:00

”I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. "~ Frank Sinatra ~

We "heart" Arkansas

2009-03-15T17:12:00.011-05:00

Pellet Envy was crowned the Reserve Grand Champions of the Presidential Center Smoke On The Water USA Barbecue Championship this past weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas. A Ron Cates production, the event drew 130 teams from as far as Massachusetts and Oregon. Although mother nature wasn't very cooperative, the cold, windy, wet weather was long forgotten when the MC called our names next to last. Little Rock marks the fourth time in the last five major Arkansas contests where we've been successful. Driving home, we joked about picking up roots and moving to the state that apparently loves our barbecue the most.Hosted at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library with rumors of an appearance by President Clinton himself, this event required a level of planning not previously seen on the competition circuit. With teams being assigned very specific load in times, we arrived at 11:00 AM sharp expecting to see mayhem in the streets of Little Rock. However and based on our past experiences with events organized by Ron Cates and his family, we were not surprised to be greeted by a well informed staff and witnessed total preparation and organization. We should have known better than to even think otherwise.

Ushered into our team site located in the parking lot of the presidential library, it was great to kick off the season and see so many old friends and even make a few new friends. With two long established contests competing with the event for teams, it was obvious that many had decided to take their chances of winning a piece of the $50K payout. Names on the roster included teams from the MIM circuit, many displaying elaborate pits and cooking rigs. We elected to go old school, cooking on our Jambo under a canopy as we had last September at the Smoke on the Water festival in Hot Springs. In the end, I'd say it was a good decision.

Even with our top ten calls in chicken, pork and brisket, it was difficult to know the final outcome. The event paid twenty places in the four main categories plus ten spots overall. As many teams do, we tried to keep a mental track of the frequency and place of team calls. However, the sheer number of places and huge team count made it nearly impossible to predict. It's especially important to mention that history has shown that at events of this size and larger, the categories where a team doesn't place greatly effect their overall outcome, sometimes in a positive way, but more typically in a negative way. Not knowing our Pork Ribs category finish made it difficult to know if we ultimately had a good day or a great day. In the end, it was an amazing day. We missed winning the event by the slimmest of margins, about one raw appearance point, a very slim margin. All said, we were surprised and excited with our finish. And once again, Arkansas rewarded us for our style of cooking.

After a weekend to clean-up, rest up and get organized, the season will be in full swing. Next stop is Hammond, Louisiana, home of the Smokin' Blues and BBQ Challenge, one of the most hospitable events on the face of the earth. Eric Phares and Deek DeBlieux do a damn fine job of making the teams feel special. Hammond has quickly become one of my all time favorite events. Hope to see you all there!

Doe's Eat Place

2009-03-15T16:09:00.010-05:00

One thing we struggle with while on the road competing in barbecue contests around the country, is enjoying our trip and actually doing more than drive and cook. So, in 2009 we've vowed to make small adventures out of these sometimes long and difficult excursions. This weekend we sought out a local dining establishment and toured the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.Before you correct me, I now know that Doe's Eat Place is not a local establishment, even though our waitress confirmed to me that it was. Rather, it's the first franchise of the original Greensville, Mississippi establishment. With Doe's having roots back to the early 1940's, the Little Rock location opened for business in the 80's in an area described as downscale, yet only blocks from the Arkansas state capitol. It was made famous when the Clinton campaign staff adopted it as their hang-out in 1992 and President Clinton counts it as one of his favorites.

We arrived at the end of the lunch rush on Friday. With few places to park and even fewer tables available, we found our way to a small table in the back of the shotgun style joint. Well worn and homey, the tables were covered with vinyl red checkered tablecloths and the floor, once a black and white vinyl tile, is now worn down to the concrete with a great patina in many places. Doe's is famous for their steaks, served in huge portions, sliced and designed to be shared. In fact, it's considered the Holy Grail of steaks to some. To our surprise, the lunch menu also offers more traditional lunch fare like hamburgers, chili-dogs, spaghetti and catfish. Another Doe's specialty is their tamales, served with a bowl of chili on the side. While all of this was tempting, we remained focused and ordered a Porterhouse. The waitress informed us they were out of the mother of all cuts of beef, so we settled for a two and a half pound T-bone. Doe's steaks are served with their marinated salad, house cut french fries and Texas toast.As you can see by my pictures, it took a little while for our lunch to make it's way out of the kitchen. As the crowd began exiting the restaurant a few at a time, our waitress brought out an order of Doe's famous tamales with a side of chili. She explained that she had just rejected our steak because she was not pleased with the way it was cooked and had requested that they start over. So, the tamales were on the house. I realize this sounds like a negative, but honestly it wasn't. When was the last time your restaurant waitstaff took it upon themselves to exercise quality control BEFORE you were served your meal? Yeah, my point exactly. We were in no hurry, actually enjoying our time out of the cold, damp Little Rock weather so this was absolutely no inconvenience.But let me cut directly to the chase . . . . . our steak was amazing. I mean, the fries and the Texas toast were great also, but our huge, pre-sliced T-bone was a site to behold and tasted even better than it looked. Perfect doneness, great texture and tenderness and wonderful flavor, this steak was perfect. In fact, it was the kind of perfect where you don't even think about how the meat was seasoned or cooked, you just enjoy it. Speaking of which, Doe's cooks their steaks in a unique way, using a gas broiler of sorts and heats from the top, allowing the natural juices of the steak to be caught from beneath and poured back over the meat just before serving. I can't tell you if this contributes to what makes Doe's so awesome, but I can tell you they are just that.I can whole-heartedly recommend Doe's Eat Place in Little Rock to anyone craving the ultimate carnivorous experience. We left feeling completely satisfied and even a little triumphant for finding this gem. The wait staff was friendly and accommodating, the atmosphere was casual and relaxing and the meal itself was nothing short of stellar. When in Little Rock, make your way to the corner of Ringo and Markham. But be warned, bring your appetite because Doe's Eat Place don't serve no girly steaks.

A Jack Daniel's freezer full of meat?

2009-03-09T10:00:00.012-05:00

Saturday was a good day. The weather was great. Kansas men's basketball beat Texas in a great game and clinched their fifth straight Big XII regular season title. We got to spend the evening with some old friends, catch up on the last twenty years and enjoying a great meal. Oh, and we won a freezer full of meat!

This past weekend, PBR Big Sky and the Power & Light District here in Kansas City hosted a contest in the KC Live venue, a city block sized open air, causal entertainment area surrounded by two stories of Kansas City's newest and hottest clubs and restaurants. The event had three categories, chicken, ribs and sauce. Fourteen area teams accepted the challenge to cook backyard style and provide a little entertainment for the Professional Bull Riders fans and spectators headed to see the event hosted by the Sprint Center that evening and the folks out to watch the basketball games on the big screen and enjoy the unusually mild March day. Between the weather, the venue and the people, we all had a great time.

With calls in all three categories, we were lucky enough to win the event. Our prize was a Jack Daniel's logo'd freezer full of meat. The Pickled Pig was the Reserve Grand Champion, winning a custom carved wooden pig created before our very eyes by the Chainsaw Chix, a couple of Husqvarna chainsaw wielding young ladies creating rooster tails of sawdust as they sculpted large hardwood logs in front of crowds of onlookers. It was quite a sight. Congrats to Paul, Mike and the crew on a job well done. We had a blast. It was good to see some friends and do a little cooking in a casual, fun atmosphere. We'd love to see this event back next year and would help it happen in any way we can.It's shaping up to be a busy week. I'm speaking to the Centurions Leadership Group about competition barbecue tomorrow, participating in meetings on Wednesday and heading out Thursday for the Presidential Smoke on the Water in Little Rock, Arkansas where we'll compete Friday and Saturday. I'm also hoping to catch a little of the Big XII men's basketball tourney as well. Here's to hoping that some of this past Saturday's weather will travel down to central Arkansas for this weekend. See you all on the barbecue trail soon!

Ambrosi Bros. Cutlery

2009-03-04T07:54:00.003-06:00

If you follow this blog even semi-regularly, then you know that posts like this one are few and far between. However, this post is simply a shameless plug for one of my favorite places in Kansas City. At the beginning of the barbecue season, I bundle up my knives and take them to be sharpened by Spencer at Ambrosi Bros. Cutlery here in Kansas City. Cutlery stores are an endangered species. If you've never been in his shop, you're missing out. It's filled with tons of cool stuff. A warning: Hang around too long and you will almost assuredly max out your credit card.

Next time you're in KC, stop in to see Spencer at 3023 Main and get your knives sharpened. Check out the deals on used knives as well. Mine are now scary sharp and ready for a long season. Oh, and when you venture in, mention you're a competition barbecue cook. It'll get you a break on the cost and a special hand polish to boot. Mention that you read about Ambrosi Bros. here at your own risk, as it might only get you a hard time.

OS vs. HT in Austin with the National Barbecue Association

2009-03-01T20:05:00.010-06:00

When Amy Mills, the heir apparent to the 17th Street Bar & Grill and Memphis Championship Barbecue empire, called last November to ask if we would consider hosting our Old School versus High Tech cooking class in conjunction with the NBBQA annual conference, I felt honored. When she asked me to be a presenter for one of the many awesome seminars scheduled during the five day event, I was flattered. I had heard great things about the conference but had never been able to participate. Getting to be part of this annual event held around the country every February, was truly a great experience.

I was lucky enough to get to speak on a topic near and dear to my heart. Presenting with Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke and Randy Twyford of Ulcer Acres BBQ, our topic was "Compete and Win a Barbeque Contest." I won't bore you with the details, but we each presented a different perspective and collectively had a great time speaking to the group.

Our competition cooking class was on Saturday, the last day of the event. With the participant level now over 450 , and having now hosted ten of these classes, I will say that we had a sharp, engaging group in Texas. Lots of good, thought provoking questions were asked and answered and overall, I think it was one of our better classes despite teaching our normal two day format in one long, tiring day.

A special thanks to Craig Sharry of Texas Pepper Jelly. Craig participated in the class, bringing samples of his awesome products for everyone and donating Messermeister cutlery and apparel for us to give away via impromptu trivia questions asked during the day. If you haven't tried Craig's jellies, I assure you that you don't know what you're missing. He makes some truly awesome products and reps a great line of cutlery.

A very cool thing that happened at this class. George Mullins was the first person to register for the Austin event. Very casually, he asked for our hat sizes early on. What we didn't anticipate, was that George was kind enough to bring a couple awesome Resitol cowboy hats to the class that just happened to be our sizes. He even brought a couple Sharpies, for which he had a special purpose in mind. At the end of the class on Saturday, George presented Johnny and me with the hats signed by everyone in the class. That's us pictured above wearing our new hats with George after one long day professing our barbecue secrets. It was a fabulous idea as we now have a memento of our first and last ever one day class. Your generosity is greatly appreciated George. Thank you very much. Sheri even thanks you because now she believes I will retire that over sized palm leaf hat I got in Reno in '07.

Time to get a couple contests under our belt before the Shannon class scheduled for April 3 & 4. That class has really gotten some attention this past week. Shannon was the home of our biggest and most successful class last year and it's shaping up not to disappoint again this year. See you all on the bbq trail.

Cooper's Old Time Pit Barbeque in Llano, Texas

2009-03-01T18:48:00.020-06:00

If you're a Texan, you may want to stop reading this now. I'm about to give my opinion on one of the hill country's best barbecue restaurants, and while I absolutely loved the place you may be offended before this is all over.The National Barbecue Association annual conference is a blur to me. I made the twelve hour drive down on a Wednesday, worked part time in the Cookshack exhibit on Thursday and Friday, participated on a panel in a seminar on Friday morning, gathered up all the class needs that day as well, taught a one day, thirteen hour version of our cooking class on Saturday and drove home on Sunday. In fact, I think I'm still recovering from it all.
The NBBQA scheduled tours of the hill country and local barbecue establishments on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, but I just couldn't justify going down that early. Oh, and a little history, Sheri and I had talked about spending a few days visiting the famous Texas hill country barbecue establishments between Christmas and New Years, but ultimately decided it just wasn't in the '08 budget. I've long wanted to make the rounds and form my own opinion of Texas barbecue from this famed, well documented area of the south.

On Thursday at the luncheon, a few of us at our table began discussing what we'd missed earlier in the week. After all, those that made the hill country tour absolutely raved about it. It was like rubbing a little Smokin' Guns Hot in the wound honestly. So, as we sat in our seats discussing the possibilities, I began to realize that Thursday afternoon was going to be the only time I would have to see anything at all in the Austin area. Luckily, Chris Jones of Colins Creek BBQ, a ranch style cuisine caterer, bbq competitor, Midland, Texas native and soon to be student in our Saturday class, was seated at our table. During the video presentation, I scribbled down my short list of possible destinations on a piece of paper including Lockart, Taylor, Elgin and Llano and pushed it his way, including a note to rank the locations in the order he thought we should see them. Not at all surprised, he returned my inquiry with Llano ranked number one, confirming my long held suspicions that Cooper's Old Time BBQ belonged at the top of my list of hill country barbecue joints not to miss. Knowing it was an hour and a half each way and still feeling unsure about breaking away from the conference that afternoon, I pondered whether I should put the thought out of my mind and prepare for the tasks ahead. Luckily, Danielle Dimovski of DivaQ fame was seated next to me and when she realized that I was even half considering making the journey, she began to needle me. See, she had missed that Tuesday tour as well. My face must have shown my reluctance, because a short time later Chris took the note back, scribbled something down and slid it back to me. It said "If you don't believe me, ask Paul Kirk." As luck would have it, Paul was sitting at the next table, concentrating on the presentation, but that wasn't going to stop me. So I asked. Paul, in fact, confirmed that we should head for Llano and rest is history.

Danielle, Chris, Kelly Wertz and I were on the road inside of thirty minutes. In short, we all loved Cooper's and agreed that it was some of the best barbecue we'd ever eaten. We ordered every meat offered that day and our tab of $134 proves it. It was all amazing. Nothing but properly cooked meat seasoned with salt, pepper and smoke from well seasoned post oak wood.

But here's where the story takes a turn for the worse and even get's a little dicey. I don't understand why Texans must continue to promote the idea that they cook as their ancestors did. As you can see by the pictures, Cooper's had an area where they burn wood down to hot coals. These coals are scooped up and distributed by extremely long handled shovels. The old metal and brick pits, resembling large dog houses found on a greyhound farm, are lined up at one end of the building, portraying an old fashion, direct cooking method long since abandoned by most cooks. However, if you make it all the way around back, you'll find three very modern JR Oyler rotisserie pits well hid. Why? Why hide the way you really cook your food? Everything we ate at Cooper's was fabulous. It was so good, I'd recommend it to anyone, any time. I don't care if that barbecue was cooked in something praised by Ron Popeil or George Foreman on a 4:00 AM cable channel informercial. It was that good. Why must they hide how they really cook? Will people think any less of them? In my opinion, as long as they continue to turn out the level of quality we experienced that Thursday afternoon in Llano, Texas, nobody would give two hoots how that barbecue was cooked. Oh, and in case you're wondering, there are other legendary Texas barbecue establishments that do the same thing and as long as their food is any where near as good as Cooper's, I won't think a bit less of them.

Someday I'll get back to make the rounds to those well documented, historical Texas barbecue joints. Until then, visions of tri-tip, jalapeno cheddar sausage and beef ribs from Cooper's will dance in my head while I dream. It was honestly some of the best barbecue I've ever eaten, even if they can't be honest about it.

Coney Island in Oklahoma City

2009-03-01T18:20:00.007-06:00

At WinterQ event in Great Bend, Kansas a couple weekends back, there was a Friday night appetizer contest. As with most of these ancillary events, it was pretty much anything goes. Folks will spend upwards of a hundred dollars on an entry to win $25. We typically don't enter so that we can remain focused on the big prize, the KCBS sanctioned contest. However, hearing that WinterQ was a bit festive and unique to most events, I decided to enter. I settled on mini chili dogs, mostly because I thought they'd be great for dinner on a cold night. If you read the contest recap below, you'll see how it all came out.

My inspiration for these mini chili dogs came after sampling the seasonal chili offering at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Olathe. That chili reminded me of the Cincinnati style chili we had at Skyline on the road to Washington, D.C. last summer. To my surprise, Jeff Stehney's inspiration had little to do with Cincinnati style chili, but rather the Coney Island chili in Oklahoma City. See, Jeff grew up eating the mini chili dogs at Coney Island and recreated from his childhood memories to serve in his restaurants this winter.

Discovering this, I knew I had to make a pit stop while traveling through OKC on my way to Austin, TX for the National Barbecue Association annual conference. Luckily, Coney Island was not hard to find, located just a few blocks south of the new Ford Center where they'll play the Big XII men's basketball tournament this year. So, I stopped in to check it out.

If you're thinking of dropping in to Coney Island for a bite to eat, consider this - if you don't want chili, don't go. Everything they offer has chili on it. I ordered three of their mini chili dogs. They were very reasonable at $1.25 each. I also ordered a large drink. My entire tab was under $6. The chili dogs were very good. The buns were crazy fresh. The dogs themselves were cured and were bright red, something I had seen but never eaten. I didn't notice a discernible taste difference in them. The chili was good, but not special. I ordered mine "loaded," which meant yellow mustard, onion and cheese. When I return, I will ask to go light on the mustard or forgo it altogether as there was so much mustard it overpowered the chili. That was the only disappointment.

Chili dogs, Frito pies, chili topped spaghetti and bowls of chili just about complete the entire menu. Coney Island has been in business since 1924 according to the signage on the glass storefront. It had the feel of an old time place where many childhood memories were made. When I'm in the area again, I will stop in for a few mini chili dogs and a tall, cold, Big Red.

How about a little wager just to make things more interesting?

2009-02-16T10:24:00.007-06:00

In Great Bend, Kansas this past weekend at the 2nd annual WinterQ, the contest organizer threw in an interesting twist. At the suggestion of Donnie Teel from Buffalo BBQ, Kent Romine decided to host a Calcutta auction of the teams. The idea was to raise money for charity and provide an added level of interest for the cooks.

Kent explained it a month or so back and it sounded mildly interesting. I'd only really heard of it around rodeos and golf tournaments, but figured it could be successfully applied to anything competitive. However, I was unsure how well it would work at a barbecue contest, mostly because we cooks are just too damn cheap. True to form, the auction started off a bit awkward and tense, with most of us keeping our heads down, devoting our concentration to not to make eye contact with the auctioneer or his ring men. Donnie wasn’t cooking the event. He’s pitless, waiting on the most recent Jamie Geer creation to roll out of paint, so he drove up to table captain and hang. Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, Donnie was in shorts and a t-shirt all weekend. If you read my earlier post on the event, you know it was colder than a well digger’s ass in Great Bend this past weekend. That Okie may not be the brightest bulb in the string even if he can cook. Anyway, not wanting this deal to be a flop, Donnie bought up several teams. In all, he bought four or five teams including Pellet Envy. Folks not competing bought teams, teams bought themselves and others looked for deals on teams going cheap that might get them in the money. Feeling the peer pressure to do my part, I jumped in to buy Moe Cason of Ponderosa BBQ. Big Moe was on fire last year. He cooked over 25 events, all by himself, and really had an outstanding year. However, Moe didn’t cook much in Kansas or Oklahoma and the group just didn’t know him. So, I got a bargain basement price on the overall clad big fellow and was quite happy with my buy. That’s him above, getting in a power nap just before springing to life to cook like he’d never cooked before!
The payout was based on teams finishing in the top three of any of the four categories. Of the total purse, charity received the first twenty percent. After that, the money was divided by four. From there, the payout was fifty percent of the category money for first place, thirty percent for second and twenty percent for third. The total auction proceeds were $2,275. Honestly, that’s way more than I thought it would be.

Now I can’t speak for the rest of the teams, but I will say that the Calcutta added a little pressure to my cook. Intended or not, Donnie’s purchase made me want to do my best, leaving it all in the hands of the judges that day. In the end, Mr. Teel left with more than he brought. I didn’t contribute the way I would have liked, but some days it just works that way. If I had to do it over, I’d get more involved with the Calcutta. It was interesting and added a twist to the competition. But I’m telling you right now, the first team I’m buying is Pellet Envy. That way, the pressure is off and screwing up a cook affects nobody but me.

We came, we cooked, we froze our butts off!

2009-02-16T08:55:00.013-06:00

It was so cold in Great Bend this past weekend I could have cut diamonds with my nipples. The two pictures above tell much of the story. It was 31 degrees and dropping when I arrived on Friday about 2:00PM. The winds were out of the north and you can see by the flags standing straight out, it was blowing pretty good. The second annual Kansas WinterQ has come and gone. Mostly I'm happy because it's gone. I've always said that I'll only play golf when I can wear shorts. That philosophy may bleed into my thinking on competition barbecue. It was just too damn cold to cook outside. Now I know what you're thinking. Oh yes, I do dear reader. You're thinking "How can he complain? He's got that cool bbq trailer." Well, let me tell you that when it's 15 degrees and windy, my trailer is just a big ole walk-in refrigerator on wheels!

Enough with complaining about the cold. Several folks who attended the inaugural WinterQ told me it was nothing like the typical contest, that it was way more laid back. I didn't really believe them, but I had to find out for myself. Mostly they were right. It was a good time. It could have been a great time if it were forty degrees warmer! You'd never know Kyle of TheSlabs.com was cold. That's him pictured above. I've been told more than once that he sees a little bbq in everything he does. I guess so. Kent Romine always does a great job with his events and this one was no exception. With an appetizer contest on Friday night, auctioning off team prepared meat for charity, a really great breakfast and the added interest of a Calcutta, overall this was a pretty good time.

Teams could set up outside on the pavement where there was great power and plenty of space. Or, teams could choose to park their pits around one of the large fairground buildings and make camp inside where it was warm. With 34 teams in attendance, about half of them decided to play it smart and make camp inside. I have no idea what the other half of us were thinking. To make matters worse, I went against my most basic competition strategy of concentrating on the four main categories, instead entering the Friday night appetizer contest. However, instead of going crazy with some expensive gourmet dish, I elected to submit Cincinnati style mini chili dogs complete with lots of cheese, chopped red onion and jalapenos. Sponsored by Oklahoma Joe's BBQ, I'm proud to say that those dogs rocked the house with the only judges that mattered, my bbq buddies and me. Oh, and they finished 9th our of 28 appetizer entries. Not bad, not bad at all. I think steaming the buns put me over the top on that deal.

So the event really went off without a hitch, including the traditional 10:30AM shot, hosted by local favorite 4 Legs Up and pictured above. I want to blame the cold weather and my participation in some ancillary activities for my performance, but I really can't. Neither of my briskets were really where I wanted them and the judges agreed. Otherwise, I was fine with my entries. I liked the chicken that day and the judges concurred. Finishing second in chicken, eighth in ribs, tenth in pork and twenty-first in brisket, Pellet Envy finished tenth overall. Not a bad start to the '09 contest season. I just wished we'd had a little stronger showing. Oh well, there's always next weekend, right? Well, not exactly, but the season will be in full swing by mid March.

Speaking of next weekend, Sheri and I are off to Austin, Texas. I'm speaking on a panel for the National Barbecue Association's annual conference. The topic is Compete and Win Barbecue Contests. We're also hosting an Old School versus High Tech competition cooking class in Austin on Saturday. It's a chance to see many of the competitors we see on the circuit all year long, but in a more relaxed setting. It's also a chance to meet folks who share our passion. It should be a great time and it's got to be way warmer than Great Bend, Kansas in February. I'm really looking forward to it.

Balmy February in central Kansas - OSvsHT recap

2009-02-10T09:49:00.007-06:00

The '09 competition season kicked off with an Old School versus High Tech class in Great Bend, Kansas last weekend. Special thanks to Valerie, who told me she ordered our excellent weather. Big thanks to Kent for hosting our class. Also, very special thanks to Kelly, Roni, Keenan and Robert of Four Legs Up BBQ for providing the awesome meals. You all made our class a success.

This was a great class. Thirty-nine people attended from fourteen different states, including a couple from Massachusetts. To our surprise, all but one of them traveled a good distance to participate. Expo One on the Barton County Fairgrounds was more than enough room, allowing us to stretch out a little. Good food and good fun.

Kansas WinterQ , a second year event that has drawn teams from far and wide and is shaping up to bring out some of the best talent in the country. The weather doesn't look quite as promising as last weekend, but I expect the camaraderie to fully make up for that. Plus, if you've never had the privilege of being part of a Kent Romine event, you are so missing out. See you all in Great Bend this weekend! Next weekend the OSvsHT train rolls into Austin, Texas for the National Barbecue Association annual conference. If you're still on the fence about this one, jump off and come play. It's going to be a grand time!

2009 KCBS Awards Banquet

2009-01-29T13:48:00.007-06:00

Another year of competition in the books. The annual awards banquet was held away from Kansas City for the first time in the existence of the society. The Music City Sheraton in Nashville hosted the event, and personally, I think it turned out well. Thrown into a situation of which they had no previous experience, the KCBS staff, especially Karen and Kelly, did a remarkable job planning, organizing and implementing the whole thing. It's always more difficult to pull this off in a town other than where you work, but I must say, it didn't show.

Rob of Ulika BBQ did a nice job recapping the event. You can read his account on the Ulika Food Blog. I thought having the mayor of Nashville address the banquet was a great touch. Obviously a very busy man, he did his best to relate to us despite not really knowing anything about us. I also like the shortened version of the banquet compared to years past. This trend started last year. Prior to that, I recall years where the banquet went well into the early morning hours.

The culmination of the evening was the Kansas City Barbeque Society Team of the Year awards and, in my opinion, the whole reason for the evening. Teams were recognized for finishing in the top ten of each of meat four categories plus the top twenty overall. Pellet Envy was recognized in all five categories, finishing no lower than fifth place and one of only three teams of the 4345 teams competing in KCBS sanctioned events to be included in every category. Additionally, we were recognized as one of only five teams to achieve a perfect score in a category and scored the most points in any contest in 2008. The following are the category finishes for Pellet Envy:

Overall - 2nd Runner Up

Chicken - 1st Runner Up
Ribs - 5th place
Pork - 4th place
Brisket - 1st Runner Up

We feel very fortunate about our 2008 season. The 2009 season is already underway with two January events in Florida. Old School versus High Tech kicks off the season with our first class in Great Bend, Kansas next weekend. The competition season is starting earlier and ending later every year. Before we know it, our season will be continuous. If nothing else, this shows the popularity of barbecue. The future of competition barbecue sure looks so bright from here, I gotta wear shades.

Sir, would you like a magazine?

2009-01-29T13:39:00.005-06:00

Most everyone knows I have a long list of pet peeves. One of them is how selfish and self centered people today can be. So, on my otherwise uneventful flight home from Nashville on Southwest Airlines, here is a picture of an old woman sitting across the isle in bulkhead. For those that don't know, there is definitely more leg room in the first row of the plane. So, to take advantage of it, this women followed in the footsteps of they guy on the isle (pun intended), removed her shoes and wiped her sweaty, smelly feet on the rack of magazines. Nice! Doesn't anyone consider their actions as it effects others any more? Next time you reach for the in flight catalog, will you remember this picture? I think you will. Have a great day and remember to wash your hands often!

The Music City food scene through my eyes

2009-01-29T11:37:00.014-06:00

The Kansas City Barbeque Society held the annual banquet outside of Kansas City for the first time ever. In addition to the banquet, there were several meetings scheduled around the event including the annual Rules meeting moderated by yours truly. Spending four days in Nashville gave me a little time to try out the culinary scene. Here are some of my stops.

My extensive research concluded that Fat Mo's was one of the best burgers in the Music City. So, after a quick stop at our hotel, it was on to the Merry Oaks location. I'm sure there are great burgers to be had, but unfortunately Fat Mo's wasn't one of them. Their burgers are big, but that doesn't make them great. The burger itself was dry and even though it started out as half a pound of meat according to the menu, the bun was bigger. The toppings and condiments were just the standard fare. They offered a couple burgers on the menu that weighed in at 16 & 27 ounces respectfully, but I couldn't see how those would represent honest burgers. Skip Fat Mo's and head for the Five Guys chain or any other of the many great restaurants in Nashville.

Friday evening was our schedule board meeting. This is typically the prime time for everyone to make dinner plans and socialize. We had to improvise, making our dinner plans on Thursday evening. It's been a banquet weekend tradition to dine at the Plaza III in Kansas City. There are several great choices for steakhouses in Nashville but after researching our choices, we landed on Sperry's in West Meade. It was confirmed to be a good choice by many of the locals. Sperry's is a classic steak house adorned with lots of wood, giving it a classic feel. When you enter the restaurant, you're greeted by a great old copper espresso machine. We made reservations, so were seated immediately. The dining room was about half full. Our table was located close to the two sided stone fireplace. It's the first four person table on the right in the photo above. They had several steaks on the menu and many other great choices without the choices being overwhelming. One typo, they had mistakenly called their Kansas City strip steak a New York strip. I was a little embarrassed for them. One of the house specialties was a bleu cheese stuffed bacon wrapped filet. That was my choice and it was cooked perfectly and very flavorful, despite my concern that the bleu cheese might over power the neutral beef flavor of the most tender steak available. It didn't. They offer a traditional steak house salad bar included really great choices of dressing including Green Goddess, Ranch Bleu, classic Bleu Cheese and a great roasted garlic option. The twice baked potato was classically prepared and a perfect accompaniment to my steak. The Mushrooms Sperry appetizer was an awesome start to the meal. My only regret was not saving room for the house favorite bananas foster prepared table side, which is obviously popular as we witnessed it's preparation several times during our meal.
Friday, after Steph and Steve arrived, we made plans to meet Rob and Ben from Ulika BBQ at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. Knowing how long it takes to get your order there, and having to get back to the hotel to moderate my meeting, we agreed to meet at 11:00 am. Little did we know that Prince's didn't open until noon. So, plan B called for us to head for Arnold's Country Kitchen, a classic meat and three. We arrived at Arnold's about 11:30 am and was greeted by a line that stretched to the door and not a single available table in site. Luckily the line moves quickly here and the patrons do as well. On Friday they offered a handful of meat choices and about a dozen sides available each day. The steamship round of beef looked awesome, but we tried the fried catfish and chicken and dumplings instead. With real mashed potatoes and brown gravy, mac & cheese, greens, white beans and green beans as some of the sides that day, I can say that everything was awesome. The chess pie with meringue was sweet and satisfying with a little texture from the cornmeal. There are surely many great meat & three options in the Nashville area, but for me I will definitely go back to Arnold's when back in the area. Note: Photo credit to Mr. Steve F of I Smell Smoke fame.
Saturday was THE day in our Music City dining experience. At the recommendation of Ben, aka BP, during or meal on Friday, we headed for Monell's. I can tell you this, when Ben speaks about food in Nashville, or anywhere for that matter, I will listen. Monell's was the freakin' mother load! Our party of five arrived for brunch on Saturday at about 10:30 am. The concept is somewhat unique. The meals are serviced family style at several large community tables. Our party of five was seated with a party of four already seated. The table completely set with pots of coffee, pitchers of ice tea and orange juice, and all of condiments. Shortly after being seated the meal is served in large bowls and platters.

The meal started off a bit rocky. We were served biscuits and gravy. The biscuits were hot and fresh but obviously not made on site. The gravy was thin, pasty and flavorless, void of any sausage or other meat, and with only a hint of black pepper . I can say those first two items were the low point of the meal, because everything else that graced our table was fabulous. Large bowls of fried potatoes, grits, corn pudding, cinnamon rolls and fried apples plus a huge platter of pancakes were swiftly delivered to our table. All of it was awesome. Our whole table let out a unison "oh, ah" when a platter as big as a trash can lid filled with fried country ham, thick cut crispy bacon and breakfast sausage patties arrived. That's it in my right hand while making a pitiful attempt at a "power to the people" gesture with my free hand. How embarrassing. The bountiful display of fried meat was followed by a heaping bowl of fresh fried chicken. We all looked at each other in disbelief, communicating that we had hit the mother load! It's all a blur now, but I think I even saw a pair of rock hands thrust into the air in my periphial vision at that moment.

The food at Monell's was fabulous, sans the biscuits and gravy. We all ate more than we should, but it was worth it. This place is the epitome of southern style food for this Yankee. I will be sure to return every time I get to Nashville.

Not to be denied, Steve, Stephanie and I headed back to Prince's Hot Chicken Shack on Saturday mid afternoon. Honestly, none of us were hungry, but this place was considered our primary objective when we discussed eating our way through Nashville. The chicken at Prince's has obviously developed a cult following. When we arrived shortly after their Saturday 2:00 pm opening, there were already 22 orders ahead of us and all of the five booths were taken. An unassuming place, it was poorly decorated and poorly kept. We ordered plain, mild, medium and hot mixed quarters to go so we could sample the different levels of heat. Hearing stories about the extra hot, we decided we'd just let our imaginations run wild. Based on my previous experience at Prince's, we expected a 30 to 40 minute wait, but actually waited over an hour. As tourists, the wait wasn't horrible, but I can't imagine that wait if I didn't have time to kill. However, based on my two experiences, I might think twice about waiting that long every time I stopped in. Not that the staff would care. Customer service is not the strong suit here.

The chicken as awesome, just as it was when I was in a few months back. The plain fried chicken is some of the best I've eaten. The addicting heat of the other choices is the draw of this place for me. In the pictures above, the first one is of a medium leg quarter and the second is a hot leg quarter. Notice the deeper, richer color of the hot chicken. It obviously either been dipped longer in their spice blend or at least has more spice applied. The medium is my favorite with just the right blend of savory fried chicken flavor and spice. We didn't order any sides, but the fries looked great. Next time we're in Nashville with an hour to kill, we'll definitely stop in for some Prince's hot chicken.

Folks told me that Nashville was not a food town. They had me convinced there were little to find on the culinary front. I think they were wrong. Best known for it's music, Nashville has some really great hidden treasures. We found some fabulous eats in a short amount of time. I can't wait to get back there to discover even more great places. I know we only scratched the surface.

New digs!

2009-01-15T21:28:00.005-06:00

Well, it's been awhile in the works, but Chris of Grafik Kid hung in there with me to create a great new Pellet Envy web site for 2009. I haven't actually seen Chris in awhile, but I imagine that he's probably pulled much of his hair out because of this project. I'm known for being a little picky sometimes. Chris is responsible for the graphic design of the trailer wrap, our banner ads on the BBQ Forum, and now our redesigned site. I don't mind making a shameless plug for Chris. He's an internet prodigy. In fact, he reminds me a lot of me when I was his age, only he's taller, better looking and a lot smarter. The neighbors did ask me to help set the time on their VCR's back then though. Oh, and he offers his own web hosting and site maintenance at awesome prices to boot! This kid is good, but enough of my unabashed praise.

So, check out the new site. Stay awhile, roam around. If you like it, shoot me a note. If you don't, well I guess you can still send me your comments, but I might not read them. No seriously, tell me your thoughts, especially if you see something we can improve on or add. We're just a few weeks away from our first classes in Great Bend and Austin. Shannon registrations are already coming in too. It won't be long and I'll be back to complaining about my turn-ins. Life ain't so bad . . . . . .

Old School vs. High Tech - 2009 schedule

2009-01-06T16:37:00.004-06:00

Lots of interest in our ccompetition cooking classes for this year already. I thought surely the calls and e-mails would start next week, giving me a little more time to procrastinate. Not so! The following is a list of confirmed classes for 2009. The applications are not yet availabe for the last two, but should be by the end of the week.

Great Bend, Kansas - February 6 & 7

Austin, Texas - February 21

Shannon, Illinois - April 3 & 4

Danville, Virginia - May 1 & 2

For more information or to enroll, please visit the "Classes" page on the Pellet Envy webite. The Austin class is in conjunction with the National Barbecue Association's annual convention. It is the exact same cirriculum as all of our classes, but taught in one long day. It will start at 7:00 am and end at approximately 7:00 pm. To enroll in that event, please visit http://www.nbbqa.org/ and utilize their online conference enrollment application. You do not need to be a member of the organization to participate and the cost is the same as our other events.

If you have questions, please contact me at rod@pelletenvy.com. Also, Johnny Trigg and I are considering one or two more dates in 2009, but nothing is finalized. Send me an e-mail or check back for information on future classes.

Merry new year!

2009-01-04T20:23:00.009-06:00

I read the BBQ Forum when I can. I've said before, it's because of that forum that I am in this deep in barbeque. Lately, folks have been posting pics of their meals. So, I thought I'd post a picture of my dinner. Problem is, and as usual, I never remember to have my camera at the ready to capture that perfect shot. This was the best I could do. So instead, let me tell you about it.

We planned to stay in for New Year's Eve. For several reasons really, but mostly because we're just old. We decided we'd cook a nice meal and watch a movie. One quick call to John Scavuzzo at Scavuzzo's and I had two prime Kansas City strip steaks and two Certified Angus Beef filets waiting for me, all wet aged fifty days. We fired up the grill for the strips on New Years Eve. So, tonight we had the filets.

For whatever reason, pepper has become one of our favorite spices. So, this was the perfect opportunity for Steak Au Poivre, something Sheri had never tried. We patted the filets dry and added a pinch of good salt and an abundance of fresh cracked Tellicherry peppercorns, pressing it into the steaks. They were cooked in a saute pan over medium high heat with a little good EVOO and butter until they had a nice crust. Then they were transferred to a sheet pan in a hot oven to finish. Mean while, we made a pan sauce using the fat and brown bits from the steaks, a couple chopped shallots, some beef broth and some good brandy. The balance of the menu included a salad of winter greens dressed with a warm balsamic vinegar dressing that included honey, grainy mustard and olive oil and garnished with chopped shallot, toasted walnuts, parmigiana reggiano shavings and pomegranate seeds, and on the remaining space of that sheet pan new potatoes roasted in that hot oven with whole garlic cloves and fresh rosemary and sage. The smell from the potatoes filled the kitchen. I am so totally against cooking great steaks indoors, but man this turn out to be a great meal. Fabulous flavor, wonderfully tender, perfectly medium rare, and we didn't miss the grill one bit.

With the holidays and cold weather, we've cooked at home more than any time this past year. Honestly, it's kind of fun. In this internet age, we're all into instant gratification in everything we do. I'm no different and that desire had crept into my cooking. Good food is still important, but I'm no longer willing to pay the price of cooking for hours on end. This meal took us less than an hour to prepare and about half that time to clean-up. That's perfect for me. The coming month will be full of planning and details without any travel and it's going to give me time to do more of this style of cooking. The latest issue of Savuer arrived the other day. In it were recipes to make your own stout whole grain mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Never before had I even thought of making up a batch of either one of these, but I think I'll give it a go. After all, January will be the last slow month until December and both will come in handy if we're going to cook more.

Speaking of slow times. Sheri's had the past two weeks off. What did she do? She'd probably tell you "not much," but it wouldn't be true. We celebrated Christmas four times in six days. I can tell you that was at least two too many. We also hit the movie theater a bunch, taking advantage of their cheap early times and seeing five movies including Slumdog Millionaire, Marley and Me, Valkyrie, Seven Pounds, and Doubt. While four of them were decent, I can only recommend Slumdog Millionaire. Oh, and I want my money back for Marley and Me, even if it was only $5. With the ending to that movie, that just isn't entertainment to me. We also went out of our way to eat at new places in Kansas City. We made it to Mama's 39th Street Diner, Blue Grotto (a first for Sheri), Pizza Bella and Christopher Elbow Chocolates (although we didn't' actually eat there, again it was first for Sheri, even though this is the source of her absolute favorite chocolates. They are very amazing and completely unique). We had lunch with some good friends we hadn't seen in quite awhile, too long really. We also watched a few movies at home, including, Traitor, Eagle Eye and The Hulk. Skip two of them and only see Eagle Eye if you like implausible action flicks. But enough with "my holiday vacation."

It's 2009. It's also the off season. The forum is alive with talk about the KCBS election and Team of the Year. Everybody has an opinion this time of year, everybody. Fortunately, enough years have passed that I know this year is really no different than any other year, it's just the off season. I haven't seen many posts about New Year's resolutions. I have one though. Can you guess what it is? No, it's not weight loss, but we all know it should be. I'm making a resolution to take more and better pictures. I left my old camera in the truck last summer and the heat fried it. The cost to repair it far exceeded it's value. Since them Sheri and I have shared a camera, making it easy for me not to have one handy. So much so, that I've really gotten out of the habit of taking pictures at all. Through a series of fortunate events, I have in my possession a Canon G10. It's a point and shoot on steroids. The knobs and buttons on the thing hurt my head, even though I learned on an old SLR. For now it's set on auto everything. I'm also planning to get a few lessons on digital photography. Ultimately, my goal is to take better pictures to remember our travels and events and rotating them on the website. That's my New Year's resolution.

Happy New Year to everyone. Here's wishing you your best year ever. This blog started about one year ago. It's not a resolution, but I hope to become a better blogger and even broaden the scope of these ramblings. After all, if you're going to read this drivel, it might as well be entertaining. I might even mix in a restaurant review or recipe here or there.

Tis the season . . . .

2008-12-19T16:38:00.004-06:00

Well, a so called friend called me on the carpet today for not updating my blog in almost a month. I can't blame him. I read several blogs and I lose interest when the blogger has long gaps between posts. Since this friend is a fellow competitor, I mistakenly thought he'd cut me a little slack. I mean, he admitted that he was a little tired by the end of the season, as was I. Honestly, the 2008 competition season probably was the hardest and took more out of me than any previous year. On top of competing in thirty-one events, we hosted four classes and were booked for some sort of barbecue related event every weekend we weren't cooking or teaching between March and November. Then add our desire to make sure our sponsors were completely and totally satisfied with our efforts, and you have one long competition season this year.

Please don't misunderstand me though. Honestly, I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm thankful. Honestly, I'm thankful for many things. "Like what?" you ask. Well, like the friendships and relationships that have come from teaching and competing. When I dive into a "hobby," I usually dive into the deep end. I can tell you that in no other hobby have we met so many great people and developed so many great friendships. Most of my best friend are now people we've met over the years in barbecue. I'm thankful for the sponsorship opportunities in 2008. We could not have done the things we did this year without the help of Cookshack, BBQr's Delight and especially Greased Lightning. I'm thankful for all of the folks that attended our classes this year. We meet so many great people that we otherwise may not have met because of the Old School versus High Tech cooking classes. A lot of great memories have come from these events. Many of the students stay in touch, sharing their successes with us. I am so proud when somebody from the class calls or e-mails to share their accomplishments. It makes our teaching endeavors all worth while. Most of all, I am grateful for the support of family. I'm sure my wife and family thought I'd kept my head in the pit a little too long when I decided to go full time in barbecue. Even though they may have thought that, they never said a word to me. They just supported me, especially my wife Sheri. For that, I am thankful and I wouldn't be where I am at now without them.

2008 was a great year. We had some luck, we found a group of sponsors that fit our style, and we traveled to many new places. I hope everyone looks back on their year and finds things for which they are thankful. Sometimes it's hard to do, especially considering how caught up we get in day to day things and the economy and such. But if you take a minute to reflect on this past year, there are so many things for which we should all be thankful.

The new season is just around the corner. While you all think I've been taking it easy, instead we've been working out our 2009 Old School versus High Tech schedule. With dates in Great Bend, Kansas, Austin, Texas, Shannon, Illinois and Danville, Virginia, we're looking to finalize the '09 schedule with a couple more classes, potentially in Ohio and Utah.

Happy Holidays everyone! Thank you for reading my ramblings. With the rest of December and all of January off from competition, I may try my had at a few KC barbecue restaurant reviews. I've always envied by friends at Ulika BBQ for their blog and this down time might give me a chance to see if I'm up to something like what Rob, BP and the Mrs. are doing over there. I don't expect to do the job as well as they do, but it gives me something to shoot for. I hope every one enjoys this holiday season!

The 2008 season draws to a close.

2008-11-24T08:10:00.004-06:00

The above map is an interactive feature from The Pickled Pig website. Thnx to Paul O's hard work, you can see where were received our awards this year. It really should be displayed on a full screen. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to post it on the Pellet Envy website, so it's here.

The year is over. It ended somewhat inauspiciously, considering that I skipped the last event due to illness and didn't have much of a showing in what turned out to be the last event of the year. The trip itself was an adventure and I as it unfolded I had several great ideas for blog posts. Unfortunately, I've pretty much forgotten most of those ideas. Additionally, the hardest thing for me to do is get pictures taken while on the road. I have no idea why that is, but I always kick myself when I get home. I see so many others taking pics at events, but I just can't train myself to have that point and shoot digital camera at the ready like they do.

This post is really just a quick update. In fact, it's sort of a teaser to what I hope is several posts about the trip. For those of you that don't know, we headed to the Atlanta area where we catered a Kansas City style barbecue lunch for 150 at the Greased Lightning headquarters. That was way cool. Then we traveled a short distance to a suburb and hosted an Old School versus High Tech cooking class with the help of Big Jim Stancil. Then the plan was to head south to Florida to cook two events to end the year. Unfortunately, I ended up with a bad head cold in the summer like weather before even getting to the first event. Being so far from home I decided I better cook. The tenth place finish tells you how that turned out. Then, in my clouded state, I decided that I could rest up and get back on my feet in time to cook Plant City. So, I pretty much slept for four days. However, I wasn't getting better. As foggy as I felt and without the ability to taste anything, Wednesday evening I made the call to head home. Cooking Plant City wasn't going to do me any good and, if I were a judge, I sure wouldn't want to eat the food of a sick cook. So, Thursday I started the two day trip home.

So, it's Thanksgiving week. Sheri decided to host family dinner this year at our home. I've had two days to continue my recovery. I have a ton of stuff to do. I hope this post can tide you all over until I can do better. If, by chance, it doesn't happen before Thanksgiving, here's hoping everyone has a wonderful, joyous day with their families. Oh, and over indulge, you have three days to recover.

Scenes from the Jack, and yes, I'm home now!

2008-10-30T17:12:00.014-05:00

Hey all! I sure didn't mean to leave you hanging. I've received a ton of calls and e-mails to see if I made it home. I did. In fact, I left Paducah before 1:00 PM on Monday and was home about 7:00 PM that evening. On the way home I called my trailer shop and scheduled a first thing Tuesday appointment for them to give the trailer a once over before we headed to Atlanta to teach the next OS vs HT class and head on to Florida to cook for two weeks. As luck would have it this week, my shop tells me I need a new rear axle. So, I've got my fingers crossed that the new axle makes it in in time for us to head south again. This, on top of a scheduled brake job on my truck plus some unscheduled additional repairs to the idler arm, etc. So, it's a $2,500 repair week. Ouch! I can't stand much more in the repair department this year. But I digress . . .

So, you know how you take pictures on your adventures and either you're expecting them to be awesome and they turn out to be bad or, just the opposite happens. Well, the Murphy's law about photos has applied itself to the ones I took in Lynchburg. I thought they would be awesome. They really aren't. Here they are just the same: This is the holy grounds in Lynchburg. It's where dinner is served on Friday evening for cooks, teams, judges and VIPs. It overlooks the hollow and let me tell you, it's a magnificent view of down below. The event buses us all up there in school buses, offers up local favorites, including Tennessee bourbon whiskey, and provides entertainment in the form of a picker or two.
This is Saturday morning about 9:30 AM in the Pellet Envy camp. The crowds were just starting to swell as the cloudy skies gave way to the sun, helping things dry out just a little.
Here are the crowds walking down the hill from the entrance to the park. They walked right at our site, turning to the right to move along the paved road on into the park and the heart of the event where the bands played.
This is a view of the crowds heading on into the park after they round that corner. You can see part of the covered structure in the distance on the left. That's where the judges work their magic. To get a good idea of how many people attend this event each year, click directly on the picture.
It was like Christmas in October at the Pellet Envy site. Here are two fine gentlemen walking away with Greased Lightning goodie bags in hand. They couldn't wait to see what treasures they had just been given by three of Lynchburg's finest cheerleaders, well four if you count Sheri.
This team represented Oregon, made obvious by the bright green canopy with the day-glow Oregon Ducks logo. Sheri was excited to see these folks because her dad moved out there several years back. We're long overdue for a trip out that way and she took this picture to show her dad that it really is possible for folks to travel that far! We're working on it Dick, we really are.
This is Team Diva Q. We didn't know it at the time, but they were trying to put one over on us, delivering the now infamous and award winning Death by Diva dessert. Danielle's daughter was bright, alert and outgoing when we met her on Friday. As you can see by this picture, she's near comatose, eyes all but rolling back into her head after sampling the awesome chocolaty creation of her mother. What a wicked good dessert. We were honored to get to try it.
This is the Stone Gang at the Lynchburg Coral. Notice that they all have their legs crossed the same way. That's no accident. This was a well oiled machine. Their instructions were to keep the distractions out of the Cool Smoke Camp as turn-in times approached. Pretty rough looking hombres. I know I would not have approached them unarmed!

Check out the web for more pics of this years Jack Daniel's event. I've seen some really great pics from the Jack this year. Try the Ulika blog site and the Do Rag Q site. Look around while you're there, as there is more than one page of pics at both places. Despite our dismal finish and the Friday rain, we had a great time at this years 20th Annual Jack Daniel's World Invitational and look forward to serving up the exact same food there next year!

Still heading home from the Jack

2008-10-27T09:23:00.010-05:00

This started out to be a short, interim post while I wait for the mechanics to repair the Pellet Envy wagon. Seems it's more than just bearings, but maybe not quite so bad that they have to replace the entire axle. Instead, this is the whole enchilada from this past weekend. Either way, the trailer breakdown is the crowning jewel on a fun but somewhat frustrating weekend. As most of you know, we competed in the 2008 Jack Daniel's World Invitational. Typical of our last three years there, we did not do as well as we had hoped, finishing 41st overall. I don't even remember our category finishes, but I remember the judges liked our chicken and ribs better than our pork and brisket. A nameless fellow competitor who had similar results this past weekend called me yesterday to rub a little salt in the wound, asking why it was the judges like our entries everywhere but the Jack or Royal. All you can do is shrug your shoulders and answer honestly with "I have no idea." Seriously though, I don't put a lot of thought into that. It would just hurt my head. The bright spot was winning the Sauce category. That was awesome.

For anyone who's never been, there is some sort of magic to the park down in the hollow in Lynchburg, Tennessee. All the teams come early, plan parties and gatherings, and generally have a great time. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but this event is like no other. It could be the exclusiveness of the contest. This past weekend several of the best teams in the country, including the 2008 Kansas City Barbeque Society Team of the Year, were not there to compete. It could be the surroundings. The contest is held in a park area just a short distance from the town square. It's a rustic, casual setting with plenty of grass and trees plus a few poll barn type structures, a walking horse track and a very out of place skateboard pad. I'm sure once the contest is over the park returns to it's normal everyday uses and the skateboard area fits right in. It could be the hospitality that make this event special too. We no more than arrived when Kathy Brazier delivered her gift of baked goods and sweets. Kathy's gift has become a tradition and we always look forward to it and cherish it's contents. Whatever the reason, the Jack Daniel's event holds a special place in the hearts of the cooks.

We had a blast this year. We arrived early afternoon on Thursday and immediately headed up to the square for our traditional visit to the Hardware Store. This store is actually the Jack Daniel's memorabilia shop. It's stuffed to the gills with all things Jack. Teams are seen carrying handled Jack Daniel bags brimming with merchandise. We also ate dinner at Ms. Mary Bo Bo's on Friday. That's another tradition. This year the meal was chicken and dressing, meatloaf, baked macaroni and cheese, fried okra, butter beans, baked apples with a little Jack Daniel's, corn muffins, several other great dishes and a chocolate pie with a little Jack Daniel's whipped cream. Honestly, this year was the best meal we've ever had at Ms. Mary Bo Bo's. It may have been the company. Sheri even found Ms. Tolley up on the hill Friday evening to tell her. We also got to set up our canopy and give out goody bags from Greased Lightning. They included samples of the original cleaner, hand sanitizer, koozies, coupons and information about their "Sponsor Anything" promotion. Folks loved them. Thanks to Holly, Heather and Jessica, local Lynchburg girls who helped us distribute over a thousand bags, running out in just over two hours. It was so awesome. The crowds loved our give aways, were eager to hear about how fabulous Greased Lightning is, and some even had their own stories about this great product. Folks even stopped by during turn-ins to ask if we had any more.

For most teams, well those not lucky enough to get to Tennessee in late October, the American Royal signifies the end of the season. At least is does in the midwest. However, things are definitely changing. For those that get to compete in the Jack, that event was always considered the season ender. Not so of either these days. This year, there are 30 events after the American Royal and they stretch all the way into December. Not wanting the year to end, teams are competing long after what used to be the season enders. Heck, there were nearly 50 teams in Jenks, Oklahoma this past weekend and 35 teams in Garden City, Missouri. Although the Lakeland, Florida event in late January has been around for many years, with contests now in February and early March, the next contest season is fast approaching. Before we all know it, we'll be able to compete year round. My point in all this I guess is to say that competition barbecue is still growing. Yes, we've seen numbers of teams down this year at most events. I believe that is directly related to fuel prices. I also believe the economy is effecting participation in these events and will effect the actual events soon, if it hasn't already. It's a unique time in competition barbeque, one that could bring some interesting changes.

As with many, our season is not over yet. We get to cook for our major sponsor, Greased Lightning at their headquarters next week near Atlanta. We'll follow that event up with our class in Covington, Georgia. Then the next two weekends we'll be competing in Florida, with events in Ft. Lauderdale and Plant City. Then the season will finally be over. That's a good thing too. It's been a long year. Fuel prices, additional responsibilities and more events then ever has all taken it's toll on our season. Don't get me wrong, it's been a great year. We could not have done it without Greased Lightning and I'll never forget the year we won our most events ever. It's been a great ride.

Congrats to Kelly, Ronnie and Chelsea on winning the Jack Daniel's World Invitational this past weekend. You would be hard pressed to find a more deserving family. Kelly's been cooking well this year and he peaked at just the right time. Also, congrats to Four Mile Fred for finishing as the Reserve Grand Champion of the Jack. That's way cool as well. Also, congrats to all who heard their names in Lynchburg. There is no better feeling.

A note to folks with trailers. I am very diligent about keeping the bearings packed and the trailer in good shape. I have the bearings packed and inspected annually. I inspect the trailer and check tire pressure before each long trip. It's a good idea to do the same. We've traveled many, many problem free miles with this trailer over the years. This is the first serious issue we've had with it and it's over six years old. I would say it was due, but with proper care and preventative maintenance, I hope you never have something like this happen to your trailer. Sometimes this stuff isn't preventable.

Thank you all for reading our blog. It's fun that friends and family are interested in our barbeque adventure. I'm writing this from the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Paducah. I think I have some great pictures but didn't bring the connection needed to transfer them from the camera to the computer. So, you're all going to have to check back later in the week to get a peek. The mechanic just called and it looks like I could be back on the road by about lunch time. Keep your fingers crossed. That would be very, very cool.