The BBQ Bailout

Sunday, Q Haven is cooking in a contest that came together very quickly, the BBQ Bailout. It was added to the calendar to replace the Freeze Your Butt Off, which collapsed a little more than a week ago.

I am actually very happy that it collapsed and the new contest was put together. I would not have been able to cook a two day contest this weekend because of child care issues, but the one day contest is something I can work with. So I'm going....a contest, yeah!

The categories are pretty straightforward: Chicken, Sausage, Flank Steak and Ribs. I am cooking all of the categories except the flank steak, which is being cooked by my brother. The event is in Maynard, Massachusetts, which is less than two hours from my house. Bonus.

I'm looking forward to getting up there and seeing everyone.

Sunday Cook

Had a rare day for me these days and had nothing going on at all Sunday and I had no place to be, so I decided to fire up the smoker and make some food for the Daytona 500. It's an event, why not celebrate it.

Sheila requested ribs, so I cooked a three pack of loin back ribs, and threw a sausage fatty into the smoker for good measure.

The fatty came out good, I had some ideas when coming up with the recipe, now I have some more ideas. But it was pretty good.

The ribs, they were a lot like this year's Daytona 500, average. Used my own rub and tried a couple of sauce combos, but overall I was uninspired by them. Will probably go back to the old rib recipe for the season. Roasted Yukon gold potatoes were pretty good though.




Maybe everything tasted bad because Junior decided to fight too hard for position while a lap down and wrecked half the field. OK, no more NASCAR talk...

Have I said recently how much I love my Backwoods smoker? It just makes cooking so easy, and clean-up even easier. I'm starting my second year cooking on it, and I am really comfortable with it going into the competition season.

Overall, unhappy with the rib results, but it was fun to get the smoker out for the first time in nearly a month.

Also, I put a few bones in with no seasoning and Max got to try ribs for the first time. Of course it was chopped up and unseasoned, but he seemed to like it!

Max

Lack Of Motivation

It's a combination of that and a lack of subject matter that explains my lack of posts lately. I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking over the last few weeks. I had planned to make a few different types of wings for the Super Bowl, but got lazy and just made buffalo chicken wraps. They were good, but the wings would have been a lot better!

Have been starting to plan for the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge next month. It's the only contest that is on my schedule in the near term. The categories will be fun: Fish, Burger, Pork Tenderloin and Sausage Fatty. I am most excited about the burger. I have strong opinions about what should and should not be on a burger, and lets see if the judges concur. Oh yeah, I have to cook it well too...

Maybe I'll do a burger post soon...

I had really hoped to cook the Freeze Your Butt Off on February 28th and March 1st in Maynard, Massachusetts. However, Sheila will be away that weekend on business, returning home Sunday morning. The good news is that she is flying into Boston, and we timed her return flight from Montreal so that she will get in at around 10AM. If all goes well, we will head up to Maynard after she lands and visit with the brave teams that attend.

For those who are on the fence about this contest, I suggest that you enter. It was cold last year, no question about that, but it was a blast. Saturday night, the I Smell Smoke!!! team had a fireplace going, and the partying went deep into the night.


There was also a potluck dinner Saturday, where the teams all cooked up some great stuff.

Wish I was cooking it....sometimes life gets in the way of my fun.