Smokin’ on Big Creek – Pleasant Hill Missouri

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We had an amazing weekend in Pleasant Hill Missouri at Smokin’ on Big Creek.  This is a fantastic event.  Jeff, Stan, and their group of volunteers put on a first class BBQ event.  To top it off the weather was great! 

With 77 of the best teams in the Midwest in attendance it was one of the toughest fields we will face throughout the entire year.  These early season contests attract large fields and tough competition.  Our cook was fairly uneventful and overall we were very pleased with the food we turned out.

It was our first event using the new Memphis Pro Wood Fire Grill in competition and it performed flawlessly as usual.  It turned out some amazing chicken that propelled us to the Reserve Grand Championship on Saturday!  Category results: Chicken 14th, Ribs 6th, Pork 7th, Brisket 12th.

Todd Johns of Pork Pullin’ Plowboys was Grand Champion and pulled off an amazing feat getting first place calls in Chicken, Ribs, and Pork!  Congrats Todd!!

Memphis Pro

With the weather finally warming up a bit I had a chance to do several practice cooks with the new Memphis Wood Fire Grill. I cooked my competition style chicken and it turned out great. A little tweaking with the timing and I think we've got a winner. They took up a great smoke flavor from the apple and cherry pellets and they were very juicy and tender. Two more chicken cooks this week and we'll be ready to roll with it in Pleasant Hill.

I cooked a few steaks on it as well last week and they were phenomenal. Set the grill at 650 degrees and in 8 minutes I had a perfect Ribeye.

I also spent a little time updating the Website a bit, I hope to continue to do so! Speaking of websites, anyone want to trade website work for BBQ? I would love to have a professional often updated site, I just don't have the skills to do it :)!

NKC Recap

Our first event of 2011 is in the books! Kim and I loaded up the boys Thursday night and headed for North Kansas City. The new trailer and tow rig worked very well and we arrived with no significant issues (we did manage to lose a hub cap on the Motorhome, coincidentally the first trip with the previous rig we lost a hub cap...must be something with me and hub caps :)).

I was great to get out and cook again. The weather was perfect all weekend and we got to see some of our best bbq friends. With 104 teams competing the field was very deep. Many of bbq's biggest players were in attendance. We had a very solid and consistent cook finishing 22nd in Chicken, 20th in Ribs, 20th in Pork, and 47th in Brisket. That put us 15th overall at the end of the day, not bad for our first time out in the new digs. I was pleased with our results in a tough field.

Earlier in the week my new Memphis Pro Wood Fire Grill arrived http://www.hearthlandproducts.com/
We hauled it to NKC with us and I got to put it through its paces on Friday. What a great machine! I am so impressed with the quality of construction, temperature control, and just how well it works. We made pizzas and cookies with it Friday night and they turned out great. The temperature range and control with this thing is amazing (from 180-650 degrees). I'm looking forward to getting some meat on it this week, this will be our main chicken cooker and will likely see the ribs and big meats as well. From what I can tell so far, it's all it's advertised to be and I'm going to love it!

Our next event will be Smokin' on Big Creek in Pleasant Hill Mo April 1st & 2nd. I'm already looking forward to it :) Here are some pictures from the weekend and of the new Memphis Pro.

Trailer Update

We made a little more progress on the trailer this weekend, below are some pics. We figured out the layout, installed the cabinets and started laying out the plumbing. The drop in sink went into the base cabinet pretty well and is going to look great when it's done. I also put the Backwoods Fatboy on the porch, going to get it secured down tomorrow. With any luck the plumbing work should get done next weekend, 11 days to go!

Trailer Progress

Matt and I made the 1000 mile round trip to pick up the new trailer a couple of weeks ago. It looks great and I can't wait to get cooking with it! First things first though as we have lots of work to do to build out the kitchen in the enclosed area. Here is what she looked like when we got it home

I spent the last two weeks laying out the inside and ordering parts. I ended up ordering cabinets from http://www.pitproducts.com/ and I can't wait to see them. By far the most inexpensive aluminum cabinets I could find. The reviews I've read are good and I hope the quality is as good as they say. I found tanks and a three bay sink on ebay. I ordered a Bosch Ariston 4 gallon water heater, a ShurFlo 115V RV Pump, and a ShurFlo accumulator tank from amazon.com. With all that Matt's got his work cut out for him to make us a kitchen with runnning water!

Kim and I installed the vinyl flooring yesterday and I think it looks great. We also decided to add an additional outlet for the water heater, Brian got that installed yesterday as well. With any luck the cabinets should arrive this week and installation can begin. I signed us up for a contest in North Kansas City on March 11st, so that is the new deadline! I will post pictures again as we make more progress.

First Look at the New Trailer

I got a couple of build pictures of our new Extreme BBQ Trailer today and thought I would share them here for those interested. It sounds like it's a few days from finished and and I can't wait to see the final product.

It's 7'x14' (7' interior height) with a 4' porch. It should be light and easy to maneuver behind the Motorhome. More pics to come as I get them!

I Am Alive!

First, an apology...I didn't intentionally abandon this blog all summer, it just sort of happened. The competition BBQ season kinda took over my life in late summer and early fall. The good news is that we had a fantastic year and I will give a recap post here in a bit.



We are also starting the planning process for the 2011 contest year. We hope to cook in our first event in mid-February so it won't be long before it starts all over again. It's also award banquet season and we have a couple of those to attend over the next couple of weeks and I hope to report on those as well.



We have also made major equipment changes in this off season. I November we sold TippyQ the 5th wheel toyhauler and late last month picked up our new to us 30 foot Class C Motorhome

We are very excited to have it and took forward to the travel comfort it will add for the long miles this summer. It should make getting to and from contests much easier and it has its own generator so no more worries about lousy power at contests!

To pair with the Motorhome we ordered a 2011 Extreme BBQ Trailer. Extreme BBQ trailers are custom build BBQ Porch trailers. We ordered a 7'x14' trailer with a 4' porch for the smokers. It should pull nicely behind the Motorhome. We should be able to pick up the trailer sometime in January and will have a lot of work to do to finish the kitchen on the inside. I will post pictures as soon as I have them.

I am also working with a national company on a sponsorship deal for 2011. I am very excited about this opportunity and I hope to have more news to share soon :)

2011 looks like its shaping up to be one heck of a year in competition BBQ, There's talk of a $200,000 payout contest, a new TV show is allegedly in the works again, and Kingsford is rumored to have big plans for bbq cooks in 2011. We are very excited about the year and hope to keep our lucky streak going. We will be picking our events carefully in 2011 and although we will likely cook fewer contests, we will very likely travel more miles in pursuit of the best contests against the best competition.

So that is where we are heading into the 2011 season. I am working on a recap post for 2010 and will get you caught up on that this weekend!