Hudson Valley Ribfest, New Paltz NY

The largest event we have ever cooked in the Northeast took place this past weekend in New Paltz, the Hudson Valley Ribfest at the Ulster County Fairgrounds. We cooked at New Paltz last year and really enjoyed ourselves, and were excited to be returning.

This year, we did things a little differently. First of all, we have our trailer now, and we were able to pay $25 extra for a larger team site. That was the best 25 bucks I have ever spent. Our site was huge, around 30 feet wide and 80 feet long. This gave us more than enough room to operate. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I knew going in that this was going to be a difficult contest for me, logistically. I had granted one of our reporters vacation for the whole week, and in a nutshell that meant that I could not take off Friday. In addition, the only way that I could leave early for the three hour drive to the contest would be for me to switch with another of my guys and work the early morning shift. So Friday morning, I had to get up at 3:30 AM in order to be in Hartford by 4:30. That was not fun.

The earliest I was able to leave was after my 11:00 AM newscast. I had to run and pick up the fish, stop and get ice, then load the trailer and hit the road. By the time I packed everything and got going, it was 3 PM. I had to stop and dump the trailer's grey water along the way, and was finally at the contest site at around 7:15 PM. And nobody from the team was going to be there until early in the morning, so I had to set things up all by myself. Fun.

I got a basic setup done and decided to take a little time to relax. I Smell Smoke! was the team directly next door, and they were just beginning movie night with a screening of "The Jerk." Everything was very relaxed until a massive crack of thunder stunned everyone. Soon afterwards, a massive line of thunderstorms slammed the site, complete with high winds, hail and torrential rains.

That would have been bad enough. But an apparent microburst hit the site, reducing numerous pop-up tents to piles of twisted metal. Fortunately, we were not affected by the storm at all. We were very lucky, as our tent was not tied down when the storm struck. Here is a picture of some of the tents after the storm, photo stolen from the NEBS web site.

Late Friday night, the team started to arrive. Cristiaan was able to make it around midnight, and Kathleen and Jon came a short time later. Even though I had been up since 3:30 AM, it was so much fun hanging around with the different teams that I ended up staying up until 2AM.

Saturday was the grilling contest. Everything went amazingly smooth for us all day. Now that we have done more than 10 competitions, we seem to have the timing and the flow of the events pretty much down. That makes the competitions so much more fun and less stressful. Forty-one

The first category of the day was fish. We decided to do swordfish as we seem to do in all of the events that have a fish category. However, instead of garlic butter, this time I decided to go with a champagne mustard sauce, and it hit. Fish was 2nd place.

Lamb was the second category. I decided from the start that we would do grilled rack of lamb. However, Sheila doesn't like lamb, so we never really eat it. That left me at a loss for a finishing sauce. I considered a simple mint jelly and later a Cumberland sauce, but we ended up settling on a rosemary au jus. Scored OK, 10th place.

Next was sausage. On August 1st, I ordered some sausage that is supposed to be awesome from a place in Texas to use in this contest. Someone called me a week later from the company and said it would ship Monday and I would have it Wednesday. it never showed up, so I had to scramble. I decided to use a "fatty" recipe I have been working on, and it came out awesome. 2nd place sausage.

The last category was steak. I decided to try and replicate the 1st place steak that I had cooked two weeks ago in Maine. However, that was a sirloin steak category, this one was steak of any kind. I only turned in one full NY strip steak, and it looked alone and empty in the box. The melted gorganzola cheese didn't really work out either. 30th place steak, really hurt our chances of being grand champs.

So overall, we were 4th out of the 41 teams that participated. Pretty cool.

Saturday afternoon/evening was great. My brother Eric, his wife Laurin and three of their four kids came up to hang out Saturday afternoon. We cooked up a whole bunch of ribs, beef ribs, hamburgers and wings, and just hung out and enjoyed the great weather. It was a fun and relaxing day.

Saturday night, we started cooking for the BBQ event Sunday. The evening was relatively calm, and we enjoyed hanging out with I Smell Smoke!, the head of the BBQ Brethren Phil, the guys from Muzzle Brake and so many others who were partying down.

I woke up around 6AM Sunday to start the smokers for the BBQ contest. 57 teams competed in the Q event. Everything was going pretty smooth at first, largely because Cristiaan stayed up really late to tend to the smoker with the brisket and pork in it. However, trouble emerged when I put the ribs on. I walked away for a short time, and when I came back I saw that the temperature had spiked to 280!

Any little thing can drastically change the end result of BBQ, especially ribs. All of our ribs were in that same smoker, and all were affected. The ribs just didn't turn out that great.

The first turn in was chicken. I have been working on a new recipe, and it just isn't coming along as I would like. 36th place.

Next were the ribs, which ended up 24th.

Pork came next. Our best entry of the day, 18th place.

When I cut the brisket, I thought it was our best entry. It was very tender and moist. The judges disagreed, 35th place.

For chef's choice, we had to use apples in the entry. We did an apple stuffed pork tenderloin. It scored pretty well with five of the six judges. The last one gave it a 3-5-3. Don't even get me started on that. 25th place.

We finished 22nd overall for the BBQ event. It was our third competition in four weeks. That and both Sheila and I being very busy with work, I ended up having a lot of fun and blowing off steam instead of paying attention to some cooking details. But overall, it was a great weekend. We did really well in the grilling event, and came very close to winning. I will fix the BBQ problems. We are taking a few much needed weeks off, with a small catering job September 1st.

We are not going to compete at Lowell. Sheila and I are planning to go up and hang around one of the days instead. Hopefully we will add another competition to the schedule before the end of the year, but as of right now, we have nothing set in stone yet. We're looking forward to some much needed R&R.

Back From New Paltz

We got back from New Paltz late Sunday night. We had a blast with the almost 60 teams that cooked the event. Lots more on the event in the coming days. In the meantime, here is a link to our pictures from the contest.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tedlorson/HudsonValleyRibfest

Next Stop, New Paltz

It was nice to have a weekend off from competing. Four competitions in six weeks was a whole lot of work, and it was good to take a few days and relax before the New Paltz event this coming weekend.

Saturday, Sheila and I took in a comedy show in New York City, and went to the BBQ restaurant RUB afterwards. We didn't arrive to eat until after 10PM, so I'm not sure that we got their best Q. However, we didn't think it was that great.

I had the two meat platter with brisket and chicken for $18, and added St. Louis spare ribs for an additional $6. The ribs were good, but were not very meaty. I liked the brisket, but Sheila thought it was too dry. We both thought the chicken was extremely dry and flavorless.

Sheila had the two meat platter too, with smoked turkey and pork. The pork was definately the best thing we had. We really wanted to try the smoked chunks of bacon appetizer, but they were out of that. They were also out of loin back ribs.

Again, we thought it was good, not great. I really want to try Hill Country next. Next time.

In two days, we leave for New Paltz. Since I had already approved a vacation for one of my employees months ago for this week, I have to work on Friday. However, the only way I can make it work is to switch shifts with another reporter and work the early morning shift. That will require me to be in Hartford by 4:30 AM. Then, after work, I am going to have to drive back to Norwich, grab the trailer and drive to New Paltz. It's going to be a really long day.

I'm trying to figure out a way to drive the camper up to Hartford, then leave directly from there after work. Hopefully I can come up with something....

Maine BBQ And Grilling Festival

When I was deciding what BBQ contests to cook this season, the event last weekend in York, Maine was not even on my radar. It was plastered all over the cook's packet that RV's and campers of any kind were strictly forbidden, so I immediately dismissed the contest. Why go somewhere that we would not be able to bring our new trailer?

Then, a few things changed.

The contest we planned to cook August 11th and 12th in New Britain, CT was cancelled. That left us with an open date. Also, the camper issue was raised, and the organizers allowed us to bring our toy hauler. Those changes and a little message board "encouragement" led to the decision to go up and cook Maine.

The event was only one week after Harpoon, which was a lot of work and a huge contest. Maine was a little different.

We arrived after dark Friday night, April 3rd. We pulled up the narrow road to the farm and it was pitch black. I took a chance and veered right off the driveway towards some pop-up tents. Fortunately, this was the correct way to the contest site.

The bad news.....the entire contest site was on a slope. It wasn't that bad a hill, but there was not a single site that was level. We were right in the middle of a working farm, with huge cornfields on either side. It was great scenery.

We were sited right next to our good friends at Lakeside Smokers. We were really looking forward to this event being laid back, where we could just enjoy friends and cook up some great food. That's exactly how it went down.

Bob, Kris, Mike, Lakeside Smokers

Friday night, once we got situated, we settled in for a night of drinking Mike's beer. He was the only one around who had iced his beer, and no ice was available at the venue yet, so his supply took a beating. We had a great time just shooting the breeze with Brendan and Julie of Transformer BBQ, and Sean McCabe of Que Ball. The girls went to bed early, but the rest of us pulled a real late nighter. It was around 4AM that we all finally retired after a great night with a lot of laughs.

It was especially nice to better get to know Brendan and Julie at Transformer BBQ. They started competing a little bit after we did, and they have been coming on strong lately. Much like Lakeside Smokers, I see Transformer as a team to be reckoned with in the near future. They won the grilling event at Harpoon, which is a big deal. Brendan and Julie drove cross country last year, eating almost exclusively in BBQ restaurants across the nation. That kind of dedication shows me that they're really serious about BBQ. Click HERE to read about their journey.

Brendan, Transformer BBQ

Friday night's drinking made Saturday morning a little rough. Once we got through meat inspection we focused really hard on cooking some great food for Saturday's grilling competition. I had delegated some of the grilling categories; Sheila was going to handle the pork tenderloin and bluebery dessert, Cristiaan was doing the pizza category and I was handling sirloin steak and wings.

The first category was wings. They were marinated for several hours, then grilled with a dusting of Plowboy's Yardbird Rub. They were finished with a nice BBQ glaze. I thought these would hit for sure, but they only took 11th place out of 19 teams that competed in grilling.

Next up was steak. I've tried bearnaise sauce and bourbon maple sauce in previous grilling competitions, but since this category was wide open, I decided to do it the way I like steak at home. Brushed with extra virgin olive oil, rubbed with a Montreal steak seasoning, grilled to medium rare, then melted gorgonzola cheese on the top. Four of the six judges gave this entry a perfect score, and it took first place.

Pork tenderloin was next. Since we will be using this recipe again soon I am withholding it for now, but needless to say it was delicious and took 2nd place. I will post the picture though....

The next category was pizza. Cristiaan did pretty much the same recipe that took 2nd place in the chicken category in Lake Placid. However, it missed the mark here, 15th place.

The final category was blueberry dessert. After going through a few recipes, Sheila settled on blueberry crepes. We made the crepes over the charcoal grill, which was interesting. The filling was a saute of blueberries, maple syrup and butter folded into cream cheese, topped off with a homemade blueberry sauce. Took 3rd place.

Here's where the fun started. At the awards ceremony (which was delayed until Sunday) we were called as reserve grand champions for grilling. We were given a large trophy and $250 in cash. We were really excited, but it didn't last for long. It was later determined that they had counted the blueberry dessert towards the overall score, which was not supposed to happen. When the dust cleared, we had to give the trophy and money back, and we were 3rd place.

It was an honest mistake. Onward and upward....

I entered Sunday's BBQ competition with a lot of optimism. We had taken 7th place overall in a very tough field just a week ago at Harpoon. I wanted to make a serious run at grand or reserve grand champion in this event, which was only 21 teams, with several of them competing for the first time.

It was not to be.

Chicken: I have been developing a new chicken recipe, having given up on the old one after only getting one call in nine events. Grilled instead of smoked. Ysing the new Yardbird rub and a new sauce. Missed again. I definately over-rubbed the chicken and it came out really salty. Chicken placed 11th place.

Ribs were next. While they were good, the tenderness was not exactly where I wanted it to be. Also messed up the appearance, and couldn't fit the last rib in the box, making it look uneven. Ribs were 8th place, which got us a call and a "consolation prize" mini-trophy.

Pork was next. I thought it came out really good. It took 7th place but I really expected it to be higher. That's how it goes sometimes. Just ask Sean McCabe of Que Ball about his brisket this week, he thought it was a true winner and it only took 9th. He didn't even want to go and get the trophy. Anyway, here's the pork.

The brisket just flat out missed. I used a different rub than I had in previous events, and it didn't come out the way I would have liked. The meat was tougher than I have ever had it come out before. 13th place.

Chef's Choice had to be 50% lobster, so I did bacon wrapped lobster with seafood remulade. Swing and a miss. 15th place.

Overall I was very disappointed with our BBQ scores. Disappointed with myself, not with the judges. I need to practice more.

MegaTeam

After the BBQ turn ins were complete, we were all hanging around in the Que Ball tent. Somehow the discussion came up that Q Haven, Que Ball and Lakeside Smokers would all merge together and become a "MegaTeam." The MegaTeam would only cook in backyard BBQ competitions. Throughout the afternoon and awards ceremony, shouts of "MegaTeam" could be heard echoing through the farmland of Maine. Whether or not the MegaTeam will actually compete in any events remains a mystery. But look out....if MegaTeam does go public, the other teams at that particular event will be in big trouble.

Not from our cooking, but for their own personal safety!

I have fond memories of our weekend in the farmlands of Maine. I'm sure a lot of other competitors feel the same way.

Harpoon!!!

We finally got a chance to find out first hand why everyone says the Harpoon New England BBQ Championships is the best contest in the Northeast.

Harpoon certainly lived up to its billing.

We arrived at the Harpoon Brewery at around noon Friday. I had wanted to drive up Thursday night in order to get a good vending spot, but was informed by the organizers that we could not get on site until Friday at 11AM. Apparently we were the only team who got that directive, as when we arrived, around 30 teams were already in place and set up. No big deal though, as we got a good spot just off the main drag and near the beer tents.

Harpoon is basicly backwards compared to the other New England BBQ Society events. Usually, NEBS has the grilling event on Saturday and BBQ Sunday. Harpoon has BBQ Saturday and grilling Sunday.

With the BBQ Saturday, we had to immediately begin prepping once we got our site set up. As usual, we brought way to much gear, something I have been trying to avoid. I'm getting better though.

Friday night was fun. Chris Hart and iQue cooked up a taco dinner for the cooks, which was great. It was nice to not have to worry about dinner and focus on the more important task at hand: drinking as much of the free beer as possible. Soon after we arrived, some Harpoon folks delivered three cases of their fine products, and we ended up getting two more the next day. Also, with our welcome packet, we received a big stack of drink tickets. Needless to say, there was no shortage of drinking going on.

There was no shortage of Brethren on hand. Visited with Vinny of Bad Bones BBQ, and finally got to meet the Poobah, Phil, who runs the BBQ Brethren web site. We talked for a while in his competition trailer, which is really cool. Also got to hang around with Willie B, the Champlain Pit Crew and many others.

Willy B

Friday night was a lot of fun. We set the WSM's on Minion method autopilot and cruised around the venue. Didn't party too hard, visited with a lot of teams and Cristiaan and I focused on making sure we didn't lose the temperature on the WSM's. At Lake Placid we all went to sleep and woke up to a 180 degree pit.

After a few hours of sleep, Saturday was all about the BBQ competition and vending.

Harpoon is the one event in the region where the teams are allowed to vend BBQ to the public. I decided that since we have the manpower available with my sister Kathleen and her boyfriend Jon, that we would try our hands at vending. I didn't want to go too crazy cooking and end up not selling all our food, so I didn't bring a whole lot to vend. However, our efforts were very successful, and we sold every bit of our Q, which was awesome.

I wish we could sell food at all our competitions, it would be a great way to offset costs.

However, the vending may have been a little bit of a distraction from the real task at hand, trying to make a strong showing in the BBQ contest. We did pretty well, finishing 7th overall in a very strong field of teams. But I really wanted to do better, and get one of those really nice beer tap trophies.

For chicken, I have completely blown up my old recipe and am developing a new one. However, with any recipe change, there are growing pains. We are now sponsored by Plowboys BBQ and their Yardbird Rub, and this was our first competition using it. The chicken really tasted great, but the appearance was way too dark. Even though it was just smoked, it looked burned, and it didn't score well. Chicken took 22nd place, our worst score of the day.

Next were ribs. I missed the mark a little bit with the flavor here, having made a subtle rub change. However, they were still damn good in my biased opinion. They took 12th place, even though one jerk judge gave them a 7-5-5. I get annoyed when five of the judges give mostly 7's, 8's and 9's then one gives a 5-5. I know the low scores get dropped but it is still annoying. Ribs were 12th place.

Pork was next. I'm very happy with the pork right now. The rub-injection-smoke-sauce combination is working well for us. I started using this recipe at the Jack last year and it was 20th there. Since then, we've had pork calls in almost every event, 2nd at the Winter Sizzler, 2nd in New Hampshire, and at Harpoon a call for 7th place. Was our only call of the weekend.

The final category was brisket. We cooked two briskets, and neither came out particularly well. Both were a little dry, so I ended up saucing it for turn ins. The flavor was pretty good, and brisket took 13th place.

Overall, 7th place is not that bad, especially with the impressive list of teams that was on hand.

My plan was simple, focus on the BBQ competition, then party hard Saturday night. Cristiaan was going to completely handle the grilling on Sunday, so I was really relaxed for a change. After all the stress of planning for the event, working my full time job as a news bureau chief for Westwood One/Metro Networks in Hartford, and putting in long hours at my part time job as a bartender at the New Haven Country Club, I was ready to get ripped.

We hung around with several teams Saturday night. Also, Mike Boisvert and Kris Eastman of Lakeside Smokers were up to judge, and we got to party with them. It was great to see them for a while, and we're looking forward to spending time with them in Maine this weekend.

We also got to have some drinks and Jello shots with the event grand champions, Lunchmeat. Michelle, Gary, Sully and the rest of their team have always been so nice to us since we started competing last year. After numerous reserve grand championships, they now are officially going to the Jack. I'm really happy for them, I know they will have a great time and represent New England well. Barrrh-bahhh-quueee!

Also got to spend some time with Robert Fernandez of the White Trash BBQ blog, who was up for the weekend to judge. Nice guy, and I enjoy his blog. He updates almost every day, unlike me....

Things took a turn for the strange late at night. I went in for a tour of the brewery sometime after midnight, but grew bored pretty quickly in my intoxicated state and left. By then, most of the teams had packed it in and wrapped up their parties. I found Cristiaan back at our camp, and we decided to go check out the camping area down by the Connecticut River to see if anyone was still partying.

Down by the river, there were a bunch of people hanging out by a bonfire in the center of this strange circle made up of these really tall, wooden stick figures playing instruments. I know that makes very little sense, so here is a picture of it.

They were mostly people who work at the brewery and members of bands performing at the festival. They had a guitar and were just sitting around the fire, playing music, laughing and drinking. They took us in and it was a great way to finish up the evening.

Sunday was the grilling contest. Cristiaan came up with the recipes for all four categories, allowing me to focus on the BBQ and vending for the weekend. The first category was chef's choice, for which he decided to cook skirt steak with a green peppercorn sauce. I thought it was good, and the presentation was really nice. The judges agreed on the presentation, but panned it overall. 29th Place

Next was wings. Cristiaan grilled the wings with a honey bourbon glaze. I didn't get to taste one, and they scored 19th.

Sausage was next. I believe it was maple glazed sausage patties, and I believe it took 22nd.

The final category was pork chops. This was our best showing in the grilling competition, taking 12th place.

Overall, we were 24th in the grilling. Certainly not what we expected, but what can you do? I felt bad for Cristiaan, because he put a lot of work into the planning and cooking. But I'm sure it will just motivate him to improve.

After the breakdown, we went down to the river and cooled off before hitting the road. It was the perfect finish to a great weekend.

Harpoon

Got back from our first Harpoon Championships late last night. We had a wonderful time at this event, which certainly lived up to its billing as the top contest in New England. Was great to spend time with friends, and make a few new ones. We got one call for 7th place pork, and finished 7th overall for the BBQ event Saturday. Much more will be posted on Harpoon in the coming days.

Harpoon!

Harpoon is here! No turning back now....

I have been absorbed in Harpoon for the last two weeks. Even at work, it's all I have been focused on. This is the big New England event of the year. It's the one that all the other teams talk about. I think we're ready for it.

Part of me regrets the decision to vend both days. It is going to be a lot of work, and it required a great deal of planning. However, in an attempt to keep things simple, we are just going to vend the competition BBQ meats. We are basicly double cooking our competition Q, and hopefully we'll sell it all. I'm excited about our first vending venture. Hopefully the weather will hold off and we'll have lots of customers!

Hopefully a few people who read this blog will be heading up to Vermont this weekend. Please come by and see us! We will also be selling Plowboy's Yardbird Rub all weekend. It's a great new product that won high accolades at the Great American BBQ in Kansas City this year. We're selling big 19 ounce shakers of rub for $8 each, which is a steal. Come grab some!

Heading north in around 10 hours!

Q Haven To Sell Plowboy's Yardbird Rub

Beginning next weekend in Harpoon, my BBQ team Q Haven will be selling Plowboys BBQ Yardbird Rub at competitions. Yardbird rub is what a growing number of competition BBQ teams across the country are using to season their chicken, and are seeing a lot of success from it. I started using it recently and it has made a big difference in the flavor of our chicken.

I am very excited to partner up with Todd Johns and Plowboys BBQ. We will be selling 16-ounce shakers of Yardbird Rub for $8. Be sure to come by at Harpoon and try some out!

Q Haven In The News

Q Haven got a little bit of media play during our three days in Lake Placid last weekend.

Click here to see me in a TV news spot. For the record I was speaking about our first competition in Rhode Island, not the one in the story.

Click here for a story in the Press Republican. While it's harmless, it is a complete misquote. What I said was "we could care less about the $50 check for winning a category, it's these cheap plastic trophies we want."

Click here to see the Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Some guy recorded me for a podcast but I can't find that anywhere.

Lake Placid

We had been looking forward to going back to Lake Placid for some time. Lake Placid was our 3rd competition last year, and we had a great time. This year, it lived up to it and more.

We decided to leave Thursday night and drive most of the way up to Lake Placid, so we could get a good night's sleep and still get on site early. This was only our second event since we bought the trailer/camper, so I wanted to be one of the first teams in so I wouldn't have to worry about parking it.

We got on site at about 10AM Friday. Last year, there were only 16 teams, so there was plenty of room. This year, there were 36, so the Olympic skating oval was a little tight. Fortunately, we had a site on the outside ring. The teams that ended up in the middle were pretty squeezed.

For anyone who has never been to Lake Placid, it's a great little town. As you pull in, you can feel the history. Two of the most memorable Olympic memories from my childhood happened within days of each other in Lake Placid in 1980, the Miracle on Ice and Eric Heiden's dominant speed skating winning five gold medals. The competition is held inside that skating oval.

The event is held right in the middle of an upscale village. The scenery of Mirror Lake is beautiful. Once we got our site set up, we went up to The Cottage, a restaurant right on the lake. Great sandwiches and views.

We had a great time last year hanging around with Frank and Carol Zeske, and it was so good to see them again. The Zeskes, Dmitry Feld and Jon Lundin and all the organizers do a great job of making the teams feel welcome. The people and the town really make this event.

Frank Zeske

This was going to be a busy weekend of cooking. Friday night was the midnight grilling bash, Saturday a "Buck-a-Bone" people's choice rib contest, and Sunday the KCBS BBQ contest.

Friday night for grilling was not a schedule we are used to, but it was fun. Cristiaan handled the chicken recipe, and I did the strip steak. For the chicken, Cristiaan did a bbq chicken pizza, with sauteed onions and smoked cheddar. It came out really well, and took 2nd place, despite getting two 5's for appearance.


The steak didn't do as well. I did a bone in strip with red wine butter, presented (open garnish) on a bed of onion strings with the box lined with a plank of asparagus. As it turned out, at least one judge ate the onion strings with the steak. I intended them to be just garnish. We cooked them an hour before the turn in, and didn't even season them. My mistake. As they say, don't put it in the box if you don't want them to eat it. Took 11th in steak, and 5th overall for the event. A good start to the weekend.

Friday night was fun. We cooked a lot of ABT's, and my Mom brought some appetizers and we had a pretty nice feast.

Saturday was the "Buck a Bone" competition. We had never done one of these before. So the question was, how much do we cook? I was very unsure on this one. I didn't want to cook a ton of ribs and end up taking them all home. We cooked 17 racks....and sold every bone in the first hour. Wish I had made more.

We probably broke even with the rib contest. But it was really a lot of fun. We got a lot of positive feedback about our ribs, and the people voted us third place for the contest, only losing to Lost Nation and I Smell Smoke!!! That's pretty good company.

We had hoped to do a lot of hanging around and partying Saturday night. However, it got really cold and rained heavily, so we ended up boarding up the camper early and falling asleep to a movie. The camper has proven to be a huge plus while competing. While it allows us to haul all our gear easily, it is extremely comfortable for sleeping. It was nights like this that made us decide to get the camper in the first place.

Sunday was the KCBS BBQ event, with 36 teams cooking. Overall, we cooked what I thought was some really good, consistent food. I thought the chicken was really good. The scores were pretty high, mostly 7's and 8's, but other teams must have had some huge scores. Chicken was our worst entry, took 19th.

I knew that I missed the mark with the ribs. They were a little tough, maybe a little more spice than I should have used. I messed up the presentation too, when the design I planned didn't fit in the box. We had to blow it up last minute, and the box ended up somewhat sloppy. All the handling of the ribs made them lose that nice glaze too. Two judges gave us 799 on ribs, but the two 6's for taste hurt. Ribs were 9th place.

The pork was what I thought was our best entry. I am very pleased with the injection-spice-sauce combo I have developed for pork. Sheila has been really coming up with some nice presentations, which is helping our overall scores, especially in pork. Scored pretty well, 12th in pork. Thought it would do better though.

Brisket was last. I thought the flavor was right on, but knew it was a little tough. I have been struggling with brisket tenderness lately. I put the best pieces in the box and hoped for the best. To my surprise, we got called for 5th place brisket. The appearance scores saved us here, four 9s and two 8s. Sheila gets credit for this one.

Overall, we were 4th place for the event. A pretty good showing considering the top teams that were on hand.

Now, after back to back competitions, we have nearly a month to recover before Harpoon.

New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest

After much deliberation, we decided a few months ago to compete in the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest this past weekend, despite the fact that an event was scheduled in East Hartford for the same days. The Connecticut event had been cancelled last year, and we just didn't want to end up getting shut out of New Hampshire if that happened. Also, we won New Hampshire last year, and felt we should at least go and try and defend our title.

We arrived on site Friday afternoon. Last year, it rained heavily Friday and Saturday, reducing the entire Anheuser Busch Brewery field where the event was held into a mud pit. We came up with a much more promising weather forecast. However, we pulled on the site, and before we could even unhook the trailer from the hitch, the skies opened up and a massive thurderstorm rolled past. We scrambled back to the truck and all Sheila and I could do is look at each other and laugh. Here we go again....

However, the rain quickly stopped, and we had a weekend of great weather. The crowds were huge, and we were surrounded by friends. Mike Boisvert, Kris Eastman and Lisa Mazzone of Lakeside Smokers were right next to us. On the other side was Andy King and the Bastey Boys. Andy was on crutches because of a knee injury, but fortunately he has a posse of people that came and help him out.

Mike and Kris, Lakeside Smokers

Also, there was no shortage of Brethren at the event. For those not familiar, the BBQ Brethren is a forum where I spend a lot of time at work and home trolling around with some great people from around the country who share the same passion for BBQ that I do. It's a very inclusive group and I really enjoy meeting the Brethren when we compete. Brethren on hand included Clint of Smoke in Da Eye, Lunchmeat, and Chris Hart and iQue.

We also met some Brethren for the first time. Tom and Michelle of Lo and Slo BBQ were really cool, and ended up winning grand champions of the grilling competition. Big Barry was there as well, getting a grilling call in his first ever competition.

As for us at Q Haven, is was just me and Sheila. Cristiaan was in Las vegas for the weekend, so he did not attend. Fortunately, we did have some visitors. My friend Av Harris traveled up for Friday and Saturday, and Sheila's father and stepmom came up for the day on Sunday. It was nice to have some support.

This was the first event we would be using our new camper/toy hauler. We towed it up to the venue without any problems, and after plenty of trial and error, we were able to get it parked in our site. It was so great to have a comfortable bed to sleep in and a shower to clean up after all that cooking.

This was a two day event, with grilling Saturday and BBQ Sunday. For grilling, the categories were Fish Steak, Beef Steak, Sausage and Fruit.

For fish, I did pretty much the same thing as at the Snowshoe and Grillin On The Bay; grilled swordfish with garlic butter. It came out pretty good, finished 12th place.

Next was beef steak. I made filet mignon with sauce bearnaise. The sauce came out really good, but I really messed up the presentation. Once I started putting the sauce on, it just got out of control, and I ended up being unhappy with the end product. Look for yourself. 15th place.

Sausage came next. I cooked two different types of sausage, medium hot links and a wheel of garlic, spinach and parmesan. I ended up turning in the wheel, which I thought presented really well. However, it only finished in 11th place.

The final category was fruit. We did grilled apples with a cinnamon-brown sugar sauce. Came out pretty good. 12th place.

We finished 6th overall for grilling. Not bad, but could have been better.

Now, on to the BBQ....

Prep went well Saturday afternoon and the brisket and pork butts went into the smoker between five and six PM. The brisket was 16 pounds, one of the largest I have ever seen. Overall, I cooked one brisket, two butts, six racks of ribs and 24 chicken thighs. This has become our regular competition cook, but I am planning to cook two briskets in the future.

During the overnight hours, Willy B rolled in. He's Will Breakstone, who owns his own Q place on Long Island and I met at the New Paltz event last year. He's a cool guy, and he came over to our site for a beer after he finally made it up. Willy B is the type of guy that people gravitate towards. Before long, we had around 10 people on our site, drinking, laughing and having a great time. Looking forward to hoisting a few with Willy B again at New Paltz.

Everything went amazingly smooth Sunday morning. This was my 7th KCBS competition, so I have my processes pretty much down. Everything got in the cookers on time, and for the most part I was happy with the results.

First was chicken. I was happy with the flavor, but we had come up with a great system of crisping the skin before turn ins, and I didn't stick to it exactly. The result was rubbery skin on some of the entries. Most scores were decent, but one judge gave me a 7-4-5. Thanks pal... Chicken I believe was 15th place.

Ribs. Ahh, the ribs. I practiced ribs numerous times this winter and spring, and they're right where I want them to be. I thought the tenderness was perfect, and the scores backed it up. Ribs were 2nd place.

Pork came next. I'm extremely happy with the pork these days. I have come up with the rub-injection-smoke-sauce combo that I want. Pork was 4th place and our second call.

Last was brisket. Many people who tried our brisket said that it had great flavor. Unfortunately, it was a little tough, so I knew it would be trouble. Brisket was 19th place. Oh well.

Overall, I was happy with the results. Obviously, I want to win every contest we enter, but to get two calls and finish 7th overall out of 36th place is pretty good. I know what needs to be done to improve for this week in Lake Placid. Also, we will have Cristiaan there as another set of hands, so we should be poised to have a great weekend.

A big congrats goes out to Sean McCabe and Q Ball, who won grand champions for the event. Those guys are a whole lot of fun, and clearly Sean is cranking out some great Q in his assortment of Big Green Eggs. We were two sites away from them, and had a lot of laughs with them over the weekend.

Thanks to Mike of Lakeside Smokers for all the things we forgot to bring that he lent us, including but not limited to: foil, extension cords, twist ties and countless uses of his ladder. Also, thanks to Boneyard Smokers, who lent me the grill grates for their smoker after I left mine next to the trailer while packing.

Now, we move on to Lake Placid. We're leaving Thursday night and driving most of the way there. We'll motel it and head into Lake Placid in the AM. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

New Hampshire

Had a great time in New Hampshire at the Rock-n-Ribfest this past weekend. We got calls for 2nd place ribs and 4th place pork. The new camper worked out awesome. I'll post a full report in the next few days.

Q Haven In The News

We leave for our first BBQ competion of the summer in two days, and the planning is underway in earnest. We got a write-up in our local paper today, click the link below to read it.

Norwich Bulletin Story

If you don't have anything to do, come up and see us at the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest this weekend. There is a full slate of teams, and a lot of entertaining stuff, including rides and games for the kids, and lots of live bands all weekend. More info about the event is at the link below.

New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest

Getting Ready

The beginning of our summer BBQ season is just around the corner. Our first cook off will be next weekend in Merrimack, New Hampshire, the Rock-n-Ribfest at the Anheuser Busch Brewery. I just can't wait to be there. I am having severe problems focusing on or thinking about anything else these days.

The boxes of sauce, rub, water pans and other assorted competition items have been pouring in. We closed on our new trailer this week, and are picking it up this weekend. Our BBQ Brethren banner arrived this week too, which will surely bring a lot of new people from the forum to our competition site to say hello. I know a lot of "Brethren" will be at New Hampshire, including Mike from Lakeside Smokers, Chris from iQue, Lunchmeat, Militant Squatter aka Vinny from Bad Bones BBQ, Willy B and I'm sure plenty of others not immediately coming to mind.

There is so much nervous excitement about the upcoming season. We had some success early, winning New Hampshire last year, but I still feel we are nowhere near being part of the elite of the BBQ circuit. Winning one competition does not get us to that status. We did take reserve grand champions at the unsanctioned Winter Sizzler in January, our last Q event. Hopefully that is a sign that New Hampshire last year was not a fluke.

The trailer-toy hauler should make a big difference for us. The one thing that was extremely difficult for us last year was the weather. It seemed to rain heavily every event, so we would get soaked, would sleep in rain soaked tents and just be uncomfortable. This will take the weather out of the equation, and allow us to enjoy ourselves at all events.

In the future, the trailer will allow us to hit events farther away from home. Next year, we plan to look for a couple of events we probably wouldn't do without it.

I think our BBQ recipes are ready. I can't wait to start cooking.