Harpoon

Cooked one of my favorite contests, last weekend, the Harpoon New England BBQ Championships in Windsor, Vermont. It's a weekend of cooking, friends and beer, beer beer. It was our third Harpoon, and as it had in previous years, the event did not disappoint.

The plan was for me to leave Thursday in order to get to the site in the afternoon and save some good spots for us and other teams.

The trip started off poorly Thursday, as I didn't get more than 10 minutes away from home before I had trouble with the trailer tires, again. I was adding air to the 4 trailer tires when the valve stem just blew off and whizzed past me like a rocket. Further inspection revealed that all four tires had dry rot on the valve stems, so I went over to an auto shop in Colchester and they replaced all four in around 15 minutes, and I was back on the road.

Unfortunately, that whole deal set me back a few hours. By the time I made it up to the contest site, it was after nine PM. One of my main motivations in getting up there so early was to have a choice of sites. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived, most of the sites I had my eye on were either taken by teams that were already there or were roped off.

My choices were: towards the front gate on the main road, a single spot in the high volume vending area, or way back in what is known as "the ghetto," back by the port-o-johns. I didn't want to be near the gate or in the ghetto, so I ended up taking the spot on the main drag. While I had planned to do a decent amount of vending, I did not think we would have enough food to justify being in that spot. But I felt it was either that spot or risk taking food home from lack of traffic, so I took that spot anyway. And we handled the crowds really well. Our site....

For vending, my plan was to cook ABT's, stuffed jalapenos. They are labor intensive, but I had a feeling that customers would love them, which they did. We ran out of them quickly, and even had to put a sign up "no more jalapenos!!!" because people kept asking for them. We also cooked ribs, and sold our extra competition meat too. We did end up selling out.

We also had Rick Westhaver, AKA "Little Dick" on hand to help with our vending. He's only 15, but has been going to contests for almost 15 years and the kid really did a great job for us. He knows his stuff, and don't be surprised if he starts winning contests as soon as he is old enough to cook himself.

Back to Thursday night, which was nice. There were not too many teams there, as most who arrived set up and went to hotels, and I had the camper to myself. Having a one year old boy, there are very few times when you can shut your phone off and just sleep in, which is exactly what I did. I did have to listen to the incessant sound of rain pounding the top of the camper all night, a reminder that this is a contest in the Northeast, where it always seems to rain.

At Harpoon, the KCBS competition is Saturday, and the NEBS grilling contest is Sunday. This is backwards from most contests in the Northeast, where grilling is Saturday and BBQ is Sunday.

Anyway, the KCBS contest is one I would rather forget. Nothing was either terrible or spectacular, it all was pretty much middle of the road. The bummer for us is that we had friends there who had never been to a contest before, and would have loved to give them something to cheer about at the awards. But no calls....

We did much better at the grilling contest.

I really wanted to do well in the grilling contest this year. As a team we have put up some really bad performances in grilling, and I wanted to reverse that trend. In my mind, I really wanted to win the grilling contest. I had only cooked two BBQ contests this year, and did not expect to be able to contend with a couple of top area teams that have been really nailing it lately in KCBS, but grilling is always wide open. And if you win Harpoon grilling, you get:

- One of the coolest trophies out there, which features a working Harpoon tap

- Free entry to next year's Harpoon contest, which will be at least $300

- $500 prize money

A pretty good prize package for a grilling contest for sure. I absolutely felt that we could compete for the win, and I wanted it badly. We came close.

Sheila and I talked a ton about grilling leading up to the contest. We settled on recipes that I felt would score well, plain and simple. Not trying to set trends, no experiments, just scores. The categories were lamb, beef, fish and chef's choice. Around 30 teams grilled.

For lamb, we cooked lamb chops. Got some nice chops, hit them with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary (thanks Jed) and some olive oil. They grilled up really nice. I had planned to hit them with a little mint jelly at the end, but it just looked horrible to me so I turned them in unsauced. Did ok, was 12th.

Next was beef. I did beef short ribs. They came out a little tough for my liking, but they tasted great. I had initially planned to turn in the ones that were all the same size, but sacrificed appearance in order to get the best, meatiest ones in the box. Worked out well in the end, took 2nd place.

Next was the fish, where we cooked salmon. This came out good too, took 6th place. Wrapping things up was chef's choice, which we did chicken wings. The wings were good, but it was the appearance that carried the day. Took 6th place.

So overall, we were reserve grand champions. Came close, but just wasn't enough to beat I Smell Smoke!!!, who swept both contests for the weekend. Even though we didn't win, it felt great to take RGC, especially after not doing well in the BBQ contest and dealing with a lot of adversity during the overnight hours Saturday into Sunday. It was a much needed confidence boost.

I stayed over alone at the site Sunday night. I had heard that in previous years, Sunday night had been a lot of fun, with many teams staying over and extending a great weekend by one more day. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone left this year. It was kind of sad to watch everyone break down and leave. We had just taken reserve and I really wanted to celebrate. At least a few stayed, including several members of the Lunchmeat team, along with Sean McCabe of Bourbon and Beale. Thanks to Lunchmeat for feeding me! It was a low key, relaxing night. I also hung around with Dr. Gonzo for the first time Sunday night. I had met him before but had never spent any real time with him. A really funny and interesting guy.

Before the sun went away Sunday, me, McCabe and Dr Gonzo walked down to the Path of Life Garden and the Connecticut River. I always make a point to go down there at some point during the contest. It is a really beautiful and strange place. If you want to see something really strange, venture down there after midnight on Saturday of BBQ weekend.

Got up Monday, packed up and was on the road by 9AM. Fortunately, this time I had an uneventful ride home, with no mechanical problems. It was great to see Max again, he stayed home and I really missed him. We stayed in touch via Blackberry though.

New Paltz, Take Three

For the third straight year, Q Haven cooked the Hudson Valley Ribfest in Highland, New York. It's really New Paltz, a college town which is minutes from the contest site.

The last two years, we have not done really well at this contest. In 2006, we were shut out, and did not get a single call in either the New England Barbeque Society grilling contest or Kansas City Barbeque Society BBQ contest. In 2007, we did well in the grilling contest, taking 2nd place in fish and sausage, but were again shut out in BBQ. Badly. Horrible scores across the board.

Would the third time be the charm?

The goal was to leave no later than one p.m. Friday for the site. This was a drive I dread, as Friday traffic in Danbury, then in New York state, is usually terrible. Finally got on the road more like two, and the traffic was surprisingly light. Arrived at the contest site at around 6:30. I was towing the toy hauler, while Sheila and Max followed in the Jetta.

Yes, Max made the trip for his first BBQ competition. At five weeks, we figured we had waited long enough haha. Seriously, having the camper and several willing volunteers to help watch him, we felt we could bring him. Here's Max in his portable camper crib.

We got our site assignment, and it was not in the location where I had hoped to be. However, we were sited next to our friends Mike and Kris from Lakeside Smokers, so it was OK.

Fortunately, the thunderstorms expected Friday rolled past before I got there. The weather the rest of the weekend was great.

Anyway, on to the cooking.

Saturday was the NEBS grilling contest, and it was business as usual for Q Haven at New Paltz, as we got shut out. However, our scores were not too bad. 33 teams competed in grilling.

The first category was pork chop. I did a Frenched chop, seared in a cast iron skillet, then finished on the grill with a dijon sauce. I had a presentation idea, but the chops ended up being too big. I just did what I could to get them all in the box and turned it in. Seventh place.

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Next was sausage. I did the exact same sausage fattie recipe that took second place at New Paltz last year. The recipe is now retired for competition purposes, so I will post the recipe in a future post. It took 19th place.

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Next was steak. I did a NY Strip, and Cristiaan made a red wine reduction that we lightly splashed on there. This was close, just needed a little more flavor and it could have hit. 12th place.

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Last was fish. I always keep it simple with fish, and this time I did swordfish, grilled with a little salt, pepper and Old Bay, then finished with a coating of an olive oil, lemon juice and fresh oregano. For some reason, the judges did not score this well for appearance. A little better appearance score and this definitely gets a call. Instead, it was 7th place.

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Is that a 6 in appearance? Three judges thought so. Perfectly cooked, look at those nice, subtle grill marks! Oh, forget it....

Maybe it was an attack on the "boring" all parsley presentation. Feel free to post a comment if you have any thoughts.

So we finished 9th overall for the contest. While we didn't get any calls, it was a far better showing than our last grilling attempt, when we came in second to last at Oyster Bay.

After grilling, Cristiaan and I hit the pool. There's a huge, Olympic sized pool on the grounds of the Ulster County Fairgrounds. A great way to unwind after a long day of cooking.

Saturday afternoon and evening, I learned a lesson. I always enjoy cooking for people, and I invited several family members to come Saturday afternoon. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but having to entertain and cook for all those people is clearly a distraction. I get distracted by the normal goings on at a contest to begin with, and adding that much pressure just makes it worse. I have decided to focus on the contest cooking at contests, and save the cooking for family for home.

Saturday night, I needlessly stayed up too late. Did not get a lot of sleep. Dam dip was served late, and I try not to miss it!

Dam Dip is a massive cast iron skillet of Mexican goodness served late night by Sully of Lunchmeat. It is always awesome after an evening of adult beverages.

Sunday went smoothly cooking for the BBQ contest, which featured 53 teams. Most of the big names in BBQ in the Northeast that have been doing well were there, including iQue, Lunchmeat, Lakeside Smokers, Transformer BBQ and BBQ Brethren.com. Oh yeah, I Smell Smoke!!! was there too :-)

I was concerned that the chicken would not be finished on time because I didn't get the grill hot enough, but it ended up being done just enough. Chicken was 10th place.

Next were ribs. It was my second time cooking spares, and they came out really well. Tenderness was right where I wanted it to be, took 3rd place. Here is Cristiaan modeling one of them.

Pork...tried a couple of new things, missed the mark. My old pork recipe will return for Westport. This one took 23rd place.

Last was brisket. We hardly followed up on taking 1st place in brisket at Harpoon. Even though I cooked it for 16 hours, I never got these briskets up to the right temperature, and the meat was not nearly as tender as I would have liked. I knew it, and the judges confirmed it. 40th place. Ouch.

Sheila handled the apple category. She made crepes. What she made for the filling had great flavor, but the crepes themselves did not have any flavor at all, and it hurt the dish overall. 41st place.

So in the end, we were 11th overall. Not the worst showing but not where I would have liked to be. I have identified some mistakes and areas for improvement, and hopefully it will show at Westport next month.

iQue won the event, taking first place pork and brisket in the process. However, so many different teams got calls to the stage, and others took big steps forward. Our friends from Wine and Swine finished 8th overall, and Sexy Gino's took first place chicken and 9th overall. Both are Connecticut teams too, and it is good so see some other teams from the state doing well on the circuit.

After it was all over, we took our time breaking down, really cleaning everything and packing well. After breakdown was complete, Cristiaan, Mike Boisvert of Lakeside Smokers, and Sean McCabe of Group W Bench all went over and took a final dip in the pool. After a long weekend of extremely hard work it felt so great.

I was the last BBQ team to leave the contest site. BBQ contests are too short. While I got to hang around and visit with a lot of people, there is never enough time to see everyone. I miss being there already, and cannot wait for the next one.

Back From New Paltz

Got home early this morning from the Hudson Valley Ribfest in Highland, NY. We had a great time, took 3rd place in ribs among 53 teams, and learned a few lessons along the way. A recap of the event is coming soon.

Oh, and that picture is of a beef short rib I cooked for Saturday snacks. They came out pretty good.

To Grill Or Not To Grill

As is usually the case, this weekend's contest at New Paltz, NY will be both a BBQ contest and a grilling contest. While grilling can be fun, it adds additional layers of planning and expense with small prize pools that sometimes make me think they are not worth cooking.

But I keep coming back.

I've done pretty well in grilling contests in the past, but it is safe to say I am in a bit of a grilling slump. The last two grilling contests I cooked I didn't do very well. In fact, we would have come in dead last at the last one in Oyster Bay, NY if one of the teams had not missed a turn in time.

But I am grilling at New Paltz. What I am grilling at this moment remains up in the air.

The categories are fish, sausage, pork chop and beef steak. These are nearly the same categories as last year's event at New Paltz, where we took 2nd place in both fish and sausage and finished fourth overall. If I had not tanked the steak entry we would have had a shot at grand or reserve. So while I always like to change things up from event to event, I am inclined to keep things pretty similar to last year.

If I had only written everything down....

I can guarantee that the steak entry will be completely changed. Last year, I turned in a single strip steak with some kind of Gorgonzola cream sauce i whipped up. That is not happening again. The rest are starting to come together in my head, I'll finalize in the next couple of days.

Cost of Competing #2

Case Study #2: Snowshoe Grilling Challenge
Abington, Mass. March 29, 2008

Unlike the FYBO, the Snowshoe was a straight grilling contest, with the categories of fish steak, sausage fatty, beef of any kind and vegetable.

- Entry Fee: $35
- Fish Category: $41
- Fattie Category: $15
- Beef Category: $34
- Vegetable Category: $19
- Garnish: $10
- Gas $50
- Total: $194
- Prize Money: 0
- Calls: 0
- Trophies: 0

Net: $-194

Since this was a one day grilling event and the drive was less than two hours, there was no need to bring the trailer, which saved a lot in gas. We clearly overspent on the fish and beef categories. Was a fun contest, and grilling events are a crap shoot when it comes to scoring. Fortunately, there was no "other" column at this contest, because we were able to do the event with all existing resources, ie foil pans, gloves, charcoal, wood, etc.

Next up will be a look at the Oyster Bay contest earlier this month, with a much more depressing bottom line!

By the way, I've had a brisket on since midnight, and will post some pictures of the finished product tonight.

Oyster Bay Wrap Up

We cooked the first annual Oyster Bay Smoke & Steam grilling competition this past weekend on Long Island, New York. We went into the event with high hopes, had a lot of fun while we were there, took it on the chin from the judges, then returned home tired and confused. Here's the rundown.

The plan was to stay overnight in Long Island Friday night, as we were supposed to be on site around 7:00 in the morning, and we didn't want to have to leave the house in Connecticut at 4AM. I am not a morning person. So we stayed at a hotel in Melville, NY, around 20 minutes from the contest site.

I packed the truck Thursday night so all we would have to do is throw the cooler in the truck and leave Friday after work. That plan worked out pretty well, and we were on the road at around seven p.m. with the jam packed vehicle.

The drive was rough because it poured the whole ride, but we arrived at the hotel at around 10PM. The cool thing was that Brendan and Julie from Transformer BBQ were staying in the same hotel. Once we checked in, we went downstairs to the hotel bar and had a few drinks and a lot of laughs.

The contest site was a town street in front of the historic railroad station. It was a unique place for a contest. It was hard to tell exactly where to set up, so we grabbed the first spot we could find. Here is our site.

Ended up next to a team from Long Island called "Rub This." I remembered them from Sayville last year, except I did not meet them at that event. They are a cool bunch, and we had fun bantering throughout the day and trying each other's food.

The categories were beef steak, pork chop, chicken and oysters.

For the beef steak, we cooked NY strips with red wine butter. If it wasn't for one of the teams being DQ'd for missing the turn in time, we would have been last place, instead it was 11th out of 12. I'm not going to dwell on this a whole lot but this one bothered me the most.

We bought nice NY strips from a good butcher, gave them a splash of extra virgin olive oil, rubbed with sea salt and fresh ground pepper, grilled to medium rare, hit with a dab of red wine butter and sliced. I would eat that six days a week, regardless of what the judges thought of it.

I'm just bummed we gave the judges three whole strip steaks. Hope they choked on it.

Next was pork chops. Did a frenched chop with apple butter. I thought it was OK. I was hoping the quality meat would carry us here, but it didn't quite get it done. Pork chop was 5th place, our best finish of the day.

The chicken. What might have been.....

I hit them a little too hard with the smoke and left them on a pretty hot smoker a little too long as I was cooking the first two categories. I kind of took it for granted that they would be fine. The color ended up really dark. The meat was still pretty juicy and tasted good, but the color pretty much did me in. Three 5's for appearance tells the story, and the judges were right. It's a meat contest, and the meat didn't look very good. 10th out of 12.

The funny thing is that one of the judges gave this a 9 for appearance.

Oysters was last. Until around two weeks ago, I had never cooked oysters in my life. I have had oysters Rockefeller a few times and liked it, so I decided to make them for the contest. Took a basic recipe and added a few of my own touches. I thought they were good, and some of the judges agreed. Three gave it an 8 for taste, another gave it a 3. Another second to last finish, 11th place.

So in the end, we would have been dead last if it wasn't for the team that got DQ'd in steak. If they had turned in a slab of horse meat we would have been last. It was not the best feeling for sure. Transformer BBQ won the grand championship and just rocked the whole event. Sheila and I tried so hard to be happy for them but we were both pretty depressed. They obviously cooked some killer food.

Transformer BBQ

I was really bummed because this is basically it for us on the competition circuit for some time, and we will have to wait a long time to redeem ourselves. Sheila is now seven months pregnant, so we cannot commit to any more competitions for a while. Our next event will probably be in September. We will be at Harpoon but depending on the baby situation, I may not be there at all. Hopefully I will be able to make it for at least part of the weekend.

Baby Mama Sheila

Dead @$$ Last!

Well, almost.

If it were not for one of the teams missing a turn in time, that's exactly what we would have been at the Oyster Bay Smoke and Steam Grilling Competition Saturday on Long Island. We finished 11th out of 12 teams for the event, including dead last for beef steak, second to last for chicken and 10th of 12 for oysters.

I am not really happy with the results but hey, what can you do. Overall, we had a good time at the contest, the weather was great, we got to hang out with some friends and made a few new ones, so the weekend was not a total loss at all.

I will put together a full recap of the contest in the next few days. Check http://www.qhavenbbq.com/ and click pics as I will upload pictures from the event right after I post this.

Getting Ready For Oyster Bay

We are heading down to Oyster Bay, Long Island this weekend for the Smoke n' Steam Grilling Contest. As Sheila is almost seven months pregnant, this will be our last contest until after the baby comes.

This should be a fun event. I've never been to Oyster Bay, but I hear it is really nice. We are leaving after work Friday, and are staying in a hotel Friday night near the contest site. We had considered driving up early Saturday morning, but that would have required us leaving at around 4 AM in order to get there early enough. That would have been a long day. Staying overnight Friday will allow us to be well rested for the contest.

The categories are beef steak, pork chop, chicken and oysters. I'm happy with the recipies I have come up with for the weekend, and hopefully we will do well. If not, it will be a long drive home afterwards.

This Weekend

Going up to Maynard, Massachusetts Sunday to get myself trained to be a certified Kansas City Barbeque Society judge. I've wanted to take a judging class for a long time now, but have not been able to make any of the classes that have been held in the area.

It should be interesting. I've cooked more than a dozen contests now, and this should be a good learning experience for me.

Also, officially submitted the application for the Oyster Bay grilling event May 10th on Long Island. I already have a good idea of what I am going to cook for three of the categories, which are chicken, beef steak and pork chops. Saturday, I'm going to do a practice run on oysters, which is the fourth category. Sheila will be in California for the weekend, so I have all day Saturday to cook and eat. Probably not the best thing for my waistline but it will be a great day of gluttony.

Something is holding me back from sending in the application for the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest June 20-22. Don't get me wrong, I really want to cook the contest, but Sheila will be into the 9th month of pregnancy and I'm really not sure being away for three days is the right thing to do. She could go into early labor or something and I would miss the whole thing.

Chances are, it will be fine, as her pregnancy has been going along well. Over the last month, she has seriously started showing, and the kid sure is moving around and kicking. It's becoming more and more real.

By the way, it's a boy, and his name will be Max.

Smoke and Steam

We have decided to enter the "Smoke and Steam" Grilling Contest" in Oyster Bay, Long Island New York on May 10th. We were unsure whether or not to enter this one, as Sheila will be around seven months pregnant about that time. However, since it is a grilling contest, we don't need to bring a whole lot, and it sounds like it will be a cool venue and event.

Now, time to figure out what to do with the oyster category!

Snoeshoe

Cooked the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge last weekend in Abington, Massachusetts. I felt pretty good about the recipe plans going into the event, but it just didn't work out well. The team list was strong, but I feel we could have done much better with better execution.

We got on site at around 7:30 AM. That was plenty early, as the only thing we were cooking that would take any time is the sausage fatty. The rest of the categories, fish, beef and vegetable, were all short cook recipes.

Our setup was bare bones. Since it was sunny, we didn't even take the pop up tent out of the Ford Explorer. Two tables, two plastic bins of supplies, one cooler. We fit everything for the event in our SUV, and didn't even have to tie anything to the roof. We did all the prep at home Friday night, so all we really had to do was show up and cook.

The fish category, I had planned to play it safe and do a grilled swordfish. That's something I have cooked many times before, and gotten several calls for it. However, while I was on the way to buy fish, Sheila called and pitched a recipe for a pistashio encrusted salmon. We talked about it and decided to give it a try.

How did it taste? Well, we will never know. I only purchased one large Atlantic salmon filet, and we cooked it whole, and turned the whole thing in. It was finished with a teriyaki glaze, which I had planned to drizzle from a squirt bottle. However, a chunk of the dice in the sauce clogged the top of the squirt bottle, and when it came out it blasted a huge blob of sauce on the fish. I tried to salvage the appearance but it didn't look that great.

The fish took 9th place out of 17 teams. I could not find a judge to admit having eaten it. It appeared to be very moist. If any judge cares to admit having it please shoot me an e-mail to qhaven@comcast.net and give me some feedback.

Next was sausage fatty. In case you do not know what that is, it is sausage (usually breakfast) either stuffed or mixed with cheese and other ingredients, then hit with some BBQ rub and smoked. I used my usual fatty recipe,and it just missed the mark, taking 6th place.

Next was beef of any kind. This was our worst category of the day. I cook steaks all the time, both at home and in grilling contests. However, with the strong team list, I decided to cook a tenderloin. I seared it, then roasted it with a gorganzola panko crust. Finished with a red wine reduction. I didn't have enough usable pieces so I had to half them, and the box did not look good. 12th place.

The final category was vegetables. We decided to make vegetable quesadillas, with Sheila's famous salsa, jalapenos, a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses, finished with a dallop of limed sour cream. We could have assembled these hours earlier. However, we didn't. We barely made the steak turn in time, and were scrambling to get these finished and in the box. Still, took 6th place.

So overall we got no calls and finished 9th place of the 17 teams. Could have been better. You can't make key mistakes like I did and expect to finish among the top teams that were at the event. While I was unhappy and a little embarrased by the showing, it's not the end of the world. We learned a lot and will be ready for the next one, whenever that is.

Sunday Night Dinner

A little bummed about the pedestrian showing at the Snowshoe yesterday, I decided to do some cooking today. Guess I needed to show myself that I could still cook.


With Sheila gone for the day on business, I decided to cook a rack of lamb that I've had in the freezer for a while. Sheila doesn't eat lamb, so this was a good opportunity.

Rubbed the rack of lamb with coarse ground mustard, then fresh chopped rosemary, fresh ground pepper and kosher salt. Pan seared, then 14 minutes at 450 in the oven. Nice medium rare.

Served over roasted garlic mashed potatoes, finished with a port wine demi. Great blend of flavors. Would have been in the top 5....

Back From The Snowshoe

There was no snow but it was pretty cold yesterday at the Snowshoe grilling challenge in Abington, Massachusetts. Just missed calls with 6th place in the sausage fatty and vegetable categories, and we came away empty handed for the event. We finished 9th overall out of 17 teams. But it was a lot of fun seeing people, and we had a really good time. It was around 35 degrees and windy, but the sun stayed out all day.

As always, we learned some stuff for next time. Needed a chicken wing category! More later....

There Must Be A Competition Coming Up

Had a dream last night that I forgot to cook or turn in chicken at a BBQ contest. Everything else was turned in at the wrong time, and we got a score of zero. That's how I know a competition is coming up. It takes over the mind.

We go to the Snoeshoe Grilling Challenge on Saturday. It will be an extremely competitive event. I can't wait to get there.

Battle of the BBQ Brethren, Sayville NY

This past weekend, Q Haven competed at the Battle of the BBQ Brethren in Sayville, Long Island, New York. We had originally planned to compete at Dover this weekend, but after much deliberation we decided to head to Long Island instead. It turned out to be the right decision for many reasons.

The first had nothing to do with Long Island. Apparently there was a massive storm in Dover that caused major damage to team sites. I remember how scary the microburst was at New Paltz back in August, and by all accounts this was much worse. In Long Island, we got a lot of rain Friday night, but the weather was beautiful Saturday and Sunday.

Getting ahead of myself again....

Sheila and I decided that we would take the ferry to Long Island instead of driving the long way, down I-95 to New York City, then back up to Sayville. Even though it cost over a hundred dollars each way, it was well worth it, as getting the SUV and trailer on and off the ferry was a snap, and the drive was easy on the NY side.

We arrived at the site of the contest mid afternoon Friday. The contest was set in a park in the middle of a neighborhood. Will Breakstone aka Willie B greeted us and set us up with a nice site at the back of the contest area.

We only did a partial set up Friday because of the rain. However, we made a ton of ABT's, also known as stuffed jalapenos wrapped with bacon, for the planned potluck dinner Friday night. Unfortunately, a lot of the teams decided to either arrive Saturday morning or went home for the night because of the bad weather. That meant a lot of ABT's ended up in the garbage.

The good news was that there was a ton of food left over from the sponsor's dinner, so the teams were treated to a late night feast of prime rib. Very cool.

Saturday, the weather cleared up nicely, and the conditions were ideal for a competition for the rest of the weekend. High around 80 both days, no humidity, little wind. It was perfect.

Saturday was the grilling competition. Nineteen teams participated in the grilling event of the total of 29 teams entered in the contest. It was one of our finest events as a team, even though it was just Sheila and I doing the cooking, with assistance from Kris Eastman of Lakeside Smokers.

The first category was beef steak. I decided to cook filet mignon with bernaise sauce. The sauce came out really well, and the steak took 5th place.

Next came chicken wings. I've never had a call in chicken wings before spanning several grilling competitions. However, these came out awesome. I used Plowboy's Yardbird Rub and BBQ sauce, and the wings took first place.

Next was fruit. Sheila developed this recipe, which was grilled pineapples with chocolate sauce. Again, first place. Sheila rocks!

The final category was fish steak. We did the exact same recipe we used at New Paltz, swordfish with champagne mustard sauce, which came in second place out of 31 teams that contest. Not this time. The swordfish came in 13th.

When all the numbers were in, we were reserve grand champions, which is 2nd place. It was a great moment for us.

Saturday night was just a whole lot of fun. There wre a lot of friends at the contest. We were sited right next to Lakeside Smokers, who are our best friends on the competition circuit. On the other side, we had Wine and Swine, another Connecticut team who we had never met before. They turned out to be a great bunch of guys, with Merl and Jason working in the liquor business and Mike DeAngelo, who is a chef at Paul Newman's restaurant in Fairfield County.

We also got to spend time with a lot of friends from the BBQ Brethren, including Clint Cantwell (Smoke in da Eye), the Anchormen (sans Ray Depot), the grand poobah Phil who runs the Brethren web site, and many others.

Perhaps the weekend's most impressive showing was by Transformer BBQ. They decided that doing one BBQ competition in a weekend wasn't enough, so they cooked in Dover Saturday, then drove to Long Island and competed Sunday. They came in 20th in Dover among some fierce national competition, then finished 5th overall in Long Island. Brendan, Julie and JT are clearly a force to be reckoned with. They'll be at the Jack Daniel's sooner than later in my opinion.

Anyway, back to the cooking.

Unfortunately, our strong showing in the grilling contest didn't exactly carry over to the BBQ competition Sunday.

The first category was chicken. I didn't get the grill as hot as I wanted it, and I was having trouble getting the chicken finished. However, it finished just in time, and we got our first call of the season in chicken, taking 5th place.

Next were ribs. I decided to take a chance and marinate the ribs, something I had never done before in competition. Also, I bought the ribs at Restaurant Depot, which is a place I use for a lot of things, but not usually for ribs. Not sure if those things were really factors, but the ribs really missed the mark. 22nd place.

Missed with pork too. We thought this was our best turn in of the weekend. The judges disagreed. Also, 22nd place.

The final category was brisket. We thought brisket was our worst category of the weekend. Dry and tough. There must have been a lot of bad brisket turned in too, because we took 8th place.

Overall, it was a pretty successful and very fun contest. I wish the BBQ results were better but I recognize some key mistakes that probably cost us in ribs and pork.

The people who put this contest together did an awesome job. Especially Eric Devlin (motoeric), who despite a foot injury hobbled around from team to team on crutches every day to make sure everything was OK. Will Breakstone (Willie B) did a great job too, as did the too many to mention people who did little things behind the scenes that made the contest such a success.

Now, the long off season begins. Believe me there will be a lot of practicing.