Christmas Eve Dinner

Merry Christmas!

Every Christmas Eve Sheila and I make something great for dinner. It has always been our thing before the rat race of Christmas Day. This year we decided to have prime rib, for the second year in a row.

Got a nice, two bone section of certified angus prime rib. For the record I didn't do the hatchet job on the top of the meat, it came that way.

Rubbed it with my usual prime rib seasoning, equal parts turbunado sugar and Schwartz's Montreal steak seasoning.

Cooked at 375 for the first half hour, then lowered the temp to 325 and finished. I wanted to take it to between 120 and 125 degrees in the center, but I got distracted and took it to around 135 degrees.

After sitting for a while it was more of a medium than medium rare, but it was still delicious.

Served with asparagus sauteed with a little olive oil and some fresh minced garlic, and Sheila made Yorkshire pudding. Served the beef with a home made horshradish cream sauce. Poured some of the jus from the beef over before serving, which is why is seems a little gray.

Was a great meal for sure!

Today, we're heading over to my parents house in Orange. For starters my father has another cheese platter lined up for us, and my mom is making a baked brie. For dinner, it will be filet mignon with my bernaise along with the full assortment of sides and dessert made by my pastry chef sister. It is sure to be a merry Christmas!

Contest Sites

I've been thinking a lot about contest sites lately. Our contest sites sure have evolved in our three years of competition BBQ. This first picture below was taken at our first contest in Rhode Island in May of 2006. What you see is what we brought, which wasn't much. Notice the old style radio. Overall, looking back, we were pretty well prepared for that first contest, although that cheap ass pop up tent did not survive the weekend.



This next picture below was our second contest, New Hampshire Rock-N-Ribfest 2006. I added two new EZ Ups and made a sign myself. We also added more teammates and the tremendous amount of clutter that comes with them. I look at the slovenly site below and cannot believe that we won that contest.



Fast forward to Lake Placid, 2006, our third contest. Used winnings from New Hampshire to buy another WSM, a banner and for a logo design. This below would be our team look for a few contests.




This next one below is from the Jack 2006.

Next is our first contest of 2007. Here we have added the RV, our toy hauler.

By New Paltz, 2007, I settled on the base setup below that we still use to this day. I really like this setup, it's functional, even in a tight 20 foot by 20 foot site.

This below is the last contest we cooked, Harpoon 2009. I felt this site was very functional for vending, and still looked pretty good. The clutter is greatly eliminated.

I have some ideas for our 2010 contest sites. Also, I have finally picked up a couple of banners with the team logo on it. We may not score well but our site will look great!

The Soup Nazi

He now has a place at Mohegan Sun. No soup for you one year!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

RIP Mike Grudzinskas

Mike of I Smell Smoke died over the weekend in Arizona, where he was competing with the team. A huge loss for the BBQ community, just a great guy all around.

ABT's!!!

For the NEBS Holiday party today....

BBQ Pitmasters On TLC

Tuned in for the series premiere of BBQ Pitmasters series on The Learning Channel (TLC) last night. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I thought it was an accurate portrayal of what goes on at a contest from a cook's perspective. Even included a massive storm and a flat tire!

I liked that it profiled a few of the big, nationally known cooks, but also a relatively new team, and one that had never competed before and had absolutely no clue what they were doing. The guy Paul Peterson probably thought KCBS was a California TV station before that weekend.

If you haven't seen it yet, give it a look. It won't disappoint. New episodes air Thursdays at 10PM eastern, but it replays several times during the week, next Sunday at 1PM and Monday at 10PM.

I'd also like to suggest Q Haven for season two. I might be willing to let someone spray me down with mustard on camera. Also I think "Drunk Ted" might be good TV. I have a feeling our team could turn the show into a drama!