jamie, Chris, and John. Pure Happiness

About 11 years ago my high school friend [go rockets!] Chris Hart and I decided to compete in the Pig and Pepper BBQ competition.  It was a wind swept weekend with rain and we were ill prepared:  crappy tent, horrible smoker, no tables.  We really had no idea what we were doing.

I remember being so cold and wet, thankfully Jed of Uncle Jed’s BBQ team took us in and let us sit next to his fire and gave us bourbon (two essentials at a BBQ competition, we were learning).  Finally went to sleep in a damp tent with a belly full of bourbon only to wake up to a collapsed tent and the fire out in our lame smoker.  Our pork was mushy, brisket raw, and it was pretty obvious we had no clue and no chance of winning.

We did the best we could with what we had and that wasn’t much, we decided to focus on our chicken and some how it worked. During the awards we got a third place trophy, we were so happy.  That weekend is one of my favorite memories; we had so much fun besides the elements, met great friends, and capped it off with a little gold trophy that said ‘nice try’….

Fast Forward to this year and we are now a well oiled machine:  a new Jambo Pit, lots of equipment, and 7 of the best guys you would ever want to spend a weekend with. Our team, iQue, has been doing very well, Chris Hart has become one of the best BBQ competitors in the United States and I am proud to help out where I can.  We compete all over the country, mostly in New England (New England BBQ Society), as well as, compete in some of the bigger national competitions like the Kansas City Royal (we got 1^st in brisket a few years back outta of 500+ teams) and The Jack Daniels World Championships in Lynchberg, TN.

This past weekend, Chris Hart, Jamie Hart, and John Delpha went down to the Jack Daniels Invitational World Championships and I am so proud to say THEY WON!!! This is the first New England team to win this and it is no small feet.  Think the Superbowl of BBQ!  It’s a long way from that rainy weekend 11 years ago, I couldn’t be happier.

Thank you to Harpoon for being a wonderful sponsor.

Awards for the invitational are over, we place 43 outta 119, not our best showing.

I thought our Q was good! Tomorrow we compete against 476 teams….

Here’s the boys during awards and me an bill Arnold- he makes the award wining blues hog sauce.

We’re done with the turn ins
Veg: pumpkin purée seasoned with nutmeg cinn maple syrup topped with fluff and toasted pecans

Potato: cheddar filled tots

Beans: 4 beans with east coast grills baked beans, head country sauce, and BBQ spices.

Dessert: ken’s butter cake, cool whip and caramel

Here’s our brisket turn in, few years back we placed 1st here

Meats are so goood, we’re real happy.

We’re all hurting from last night. Meats are looking real good.

Chicken is first, here’s the turn in

Arrived last night at tenish, (chris hart, iQue’s pitmaster, flew in and got here a little after we did) put the cooker (Jambo pit) in place, emptied the rv of coolers and gear and settled down for some serious poker and bourbon. We played till about 2am then crashed.

Up at 7am. Today is mainly filled with setting up camp and getting ready for the invitational BBQ competitions tomorrow (we start cooking tonight at 11- briskets and pork) and the sides competitions.

For the BBQ meats we trim, inject, and rub building unique layers of flavor. The side dishes we are running tests, just made the most tasty pumpkin puree thanks to chef John Delpha. Blanched potatoes for tots and braised the beans in Bill Arnold’s Blues Hog sauce.

Team next to us, Montley Que, is making gumbo so we’re off to try some then a shrimp boil at Transformer BBQ, then to see Gari and his team from Jamaica for Red Stripe and Appleton Rum.

Meats will be fired later, Chris, Kenny and Jamie will stay up all night to watch the fire, I’ll be up at 6 to enter the grits comp..

I’ll take pictures of tomorrows entries, here’s today’s piks…

We are still driving to Kansas City, been driving straight thru with ed, ken, and i driving in 3 hour shifts, we project our eta is 10pm.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, of course, and then decided we’d try to find some killer BBQ for lunch.

Thanks to Yelp we realized that 17th Street, Murphysboro IL, selected by Food & Wine magazine as having Best Ribs in America, was only a hour out of the way. Actually, not really on the way, not for ribs that is.

I met Amy Mills years back when she was writing with her father (BBQ legend Mike Mills) Peace, Love, and Barbeque. A cookbook fearuring recipes from bbq cookers around the country, I am honored to have contributed a recipe in it.

Quickly emailed her to see if she or Mike would be there, she wasn’t going to be but wrote Mike would! We were sooo psyched!

Mike Mills is a three time Memphis in May champion as well as numerous other competitions and owns many BBQ restaurants. He gave us a tour, and treated to some of the best BBQ eva! What a great guy.

We’re three hours out from kc, and then the craziness starts….

Here’s some pictures from the visit

Ed Doyle and I are finally on the road. Between picking up the RV, getting the smoker, and loading up five hours dissapeared….

We’re on 90 heading to Nyac to pick up Ken Goodman and then a straign shot to Kansas City.

Here’s what this weekend will entail:
Friday night:
10 thousand person party
shrimp boil with the transformer team, start cooking meats for invitational BBQ comp-about 85 teams

Saturday
7:15 am, ugh, ‘kiss my grits’ competition
Noon BBQ turn ins start
Awards 5?
Start cooking meats for Sundays open BBQ comps, about 500 teams
Texas hold’em tournament
Red Stripe party at Gari’s from jamaica team site

Sunday
BBQ turn ins
Sides comps: veg, potato, beans, dessert
Awards

A very long fun weekend, with lots of poker, Harpoon Beer (we love our sponsor!), laughs, and hard core BBQ comps.

I’ll be blogging all weekend….stay tuned…

Lifting 75#s (twice) at 3am was a real treat. I wanted to make it easy to get out so I played with it for ten minutes trying to get it perfect.

The smoker held 200F all night, I got up every two hours and added wood and coal. Ricky arrived at 9:30 to finish cooking the pig.