Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Smokin in Steele, Owatonna Mn

TippyCanoe BBQ Crew will be competing in the 2nd annual Smokin in Steele BBQ competition in Owatonna Minnesota this weekend. I'm taking Friday off and hope to be on the road by 9-9:30am. Its another short drive at around an hour travel time.

The weather forecast looks fantastic with no rain and temps around 80. I hope that comes through, mother nature owes me one after Austin a couple of weeks ago.

It sounds like it will be another well attended event with 40 plus teams. I'm hoping we can put all four categories together for the first time this year and come out with a decent showing!!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Minnesota in May Recap

Well that was fun...sort of :) The weather was just wicked with 35 degree temps and 35 mph winds. To add to the fun I pinched a nerve in my back early in the morning on Friday. I couldn't even stand up straight until Friday afternoon, but I survived. I was very nice being close to home, Austin is only about 20 miles from home for us. We had several visitors and cooked a couple of pork loins for supper Friday night.

Despite the wind and cold weather the Backwoods Smokers held temps great and didn't miss a beat. Like usual morning snuck up on us and it wasn't long and turn-in's were done. We must be getting a little better at it with practice as all went very smoothly. With 71 teams completing and some very stiff competition I knew it would take our best to get any calls. Overall, I was happy with our turn-ins. The chicken was amazing and looked great, the ribs were OK, the pork was just pork like usual (we are going to change this up in Owatonna in 2 weeks), and the brisket was some of the best we have turned out. The judges agreed with us for a change and the results looked like this:

Chicken 7th with a 170.28
Ribs 44th with a 152.57
Pork 47th with a 151.43
Brisket 9th with a 165.14
Overall 17th with a 639.43

I will take two calls with that crowd any day! Ribs still seem to be my nemesis, I'm going to cook some for the family this weekend to try something different. We had good time despite the weather and a few hiccups with the organization of the contest. Looking forward to taking another stab at it in Owatonna the last weekend in May.
Joe