Sticks-n-chicks
08-30-2009, 08:45 PM
Time to start the next thread for a Roll Call, we will be competing at Crosspoints BBQ in Shawnee, KS. This was my first contest and I thought I would post my comments from after the BBQ...man 1 year and wow the people I have met the friends I have made and the guys I have learned to not fall asleeep around (ANDY)!!!
Who'd thought 1 year later, several calls (Kennedy our 6 year old leads this year!) I sold my stick burner found some trash cans, went from low and slow to hot and fast. Cooked by myself last year to cooking with a great bunch of guys and now have a TEAM! Not to get to soft but I have made the best friends I could have every asked for!
THANK YOU BBQ!
Oh well...from a year ago...
The first comp… I was told I wouldn’t be able to sleep (you were right John) the week finally arrived. It was Christmas and I could hardly wait, but mid way through the week my Father who is my primary helper had to leave town for some tests and I was going solo. My wife found a sitter so she could try and help on Friday night with boxes (she did a great job) and then on Saturday to help with Turn ins. Here comes the rain…starting on Thursday it began to rain. I took off Friday and began loading up in a nice steady rain. Arrived at Cross Points around 1:00pm and checked in and asked to be by the “Judges tent” and started to setup shop and hung my BBQ Brethren Banner. More rain, finally got setup and changed clothes (time 1) prepped my meat and was pleased to see several of the brethren come by and introduce themselves. Man, great people. My neighbors Brew-n-BBQ were there as well and come by multiple times and asked if I needed anything, bought some ice for me and were there for any questions I had. More rain, about 5:30 tornado sirens went off, wind picked up and for the next hour we had torrential downpours followed by tornado sirens follow by torrential downpours. About 7 o’clock a huge blast of wind came through and it was all I could do to hold on to my canopy. Changed clothes again….One canopy folded in on itself but the rest held. As soon as the weather was over two teams came over and asked if I needed any help and one team told me to tie off onto his truck (Thank You to Mark for that). The weather calmed down and I had dinner and prepped my boxes. More rain about 10:00pm and wind. I was totally worried about my smoker, I had practice but not in weather like this. Usually it take 30-45 minutes to get my smoker up to temp…10:30 125 degrees…11:00 125 Degree…..12:00 125 Degrees I was going nuts all I could think was great here I am and I can’t get my smoker up to temp, I got really down called my wife and told that I sure knew how to pick hobies and was ready to jump off a cliff. She calmed me down and told me not to worry it will get to temp and just relax. I got off the phone and said the hell with it, crawled into the back of my Tahoe and crashed for and hour. Clothes change number 3 woke up about an hour later and holy smoke it was at 225, there was hope. I go to grab my gauges and what do you know they are all wet and won’t power up. So out of three gauges which I have lived and died by during practice I had 1. So on went the meat. Everything went smooth but during the wind my WSM I use for chicken fell over and I didn’t realize until morning after I had overcooked and burned the skin to my pans that my therm was broken and stuck on 275 but was actually 375. Luckily there were some salvageable pieces so I put them on the smoker and went about my morning. Around 6:00 am my Dad shows up, turns out his test were cancelled due to the hurricane so he came back up. Man was that a relief. As the morning went along I noticed my meat was cooking fast…too fast��so I did the stupidest thing I could have done. Rather than letting it cook and putting in a cooler I backed down the temp of my smoker. Seemed like a good idea but was not. As the time went on I noticed my temps were not moving so I cranked up the heat. Everything went rather smoothly. And I was stressed but not freaking out. So I jacked the heat up which overcooked the ribs, I had my therm in 1 pork and 1 brisket. Pork turned out very good, Brisket did not, the 1 brisket I had the therm is was 10-15 degrees lower than the other 2 (way overcooked) and the one that was the right temp tasted horrible.
Over all I finished 12th out of 27 teams and I got a call for my pork 10th place. I was beside myself with how it felt to here “Sticks-n-Chicks” called.
I had 3 goals for this outing
- Turn in on time all 4 meats
- Do not get DQ’d
- Don’t look like and Ass or a complete rookie
I really feel all three were met and I was happy with that but to finish in the middle of the pack with good teams… that ROCKED!
Thanks to everyone who helped and now it’s on to Shawnee.
Who'd thought 1 year later, several calls (Kennedy our 6 year old leads this year!) I sold my stick burner found some trash cans, went from low and slow to hot and fast. Cooked by myself last year to cooking with a great bunch of guys and now have a TEAM! Not to get to soft but I have made the best friends I could have every asked for!
THANK YOU BBQ!
Oh well...from a year ago...
The first comp… I was told I wouldn’t be able to sleep (you were right John) the week finally arrived. It was Christmas and I could hardly wait, but mid way through the week my Father who is my primary helper had to leave town for some tests and I was going solo. My wife found a sitter so she could try and help on Friday night with boxes (she did a great job) and then on Saturday to help with Turn ins. Here comes the rain…starting on Thursday it began to rain. I took off Friday and began loading up in a nice steady rain. Arrived at Cross Points around 1:00pm and checked in and asked to be by the “Judges tent” and started to setup shop and hung my BBQ Brethren Banner. More rain, finally got setup and changed clothes (time 1) prepped my meat and was pleased to see several of the brethren come by and introduce themselves. Man, great people. My neighbors Brew-n-BBQ were there as well and come by multiple times and asked if I needed anything, bought some ice for me and were there for any questions I had. More rain, about 5:30 tornado sirens went off, wind picked up and for the next hour we had torrential downpours followed by tornado sirens follow by torrential downpours. About 7 o’clock a huge blast of wind came through and it was all I could do to hold on to my canopy. Changed clothes again….One canopy folded in on itself but the rest held. As soon as the weather was over two teams came over and asked if I needed any help and one team told me to tie off onto his truck (Thank You to Mark for that). The weather calmed down and I had dinner and prepped my boxes. More rain about 10:00pm and wind. I was totally worried about my smoker, I had practice but not in weather like this. Usually it take 30-45 minutes to get my smoker up to temp…10:30 125 degrees…11:00 125 Degree…..12:00 125 Degrees I was going nuts all I could think was great here I am and I can’t get my smoker up to temp, I got really down called my wife and told that I sure knew how to pick hobies and was ready to jump off a cliff. She calmed me down and told me not to worry it will get to temp and just relax. I got off the phone and said the hell with it, crawled into the back of my Tahoe and crashed for and hour. Clothes change number 3 woke up about an hour later and holy smoke it was at 225, there was hope. I go to grab my gauges and what do you know they are all wet and won’t power up. So out of three gauges which I have lived and died by during practice I had 1. So on went the meat. Everything went smooth but during the wind my WSM I use for chicken fell over and I didn’t realize until morning after I had overcooked and burned the skin to my pans that my therm was broken and stuck on 275 but was actually 375. Luckily there were some salvageable pieces so I put them on the smoker and went about my morning. Around 6:00 am my Dad shows up, turns out his test were cancelled due to the hurricane so he came back up. Man was that a relief. As the morning went along I noticed my meat was cooking fast…too fast��so I did the stupidest thing I could have done. Rather than letting it cook and putting in a cooler I backed down the temp of my smoker. Seemed like a good idea but was not. As the time went on I noticed my temps were not moving so I cranked up the heat. Everything went rather smoothly. And I was stressed but not freaking out. So I jacked the heat up which overcooked the ribs, I had my therm in 1 pork and 1 brisket. Pork turned out very good, Brisket did not, the 1 brisket I had the therm is was 10-15 degrees lower than the other 2 (way overcooked) and the one that was the right temp tasted horrible.
Over all I finished 12th out of 27 teams and I got a call for my pork 10th place. I was beside myself with how it felt to here “Sticks-n-Chicks” called.
I had 3 goals for this outing
- Turn in on time all 4 meats
- Do not get DQ’d
- Don’t look like and Ass or a complete rookie
I really feel all three were met and I was happy with that but to finish in the middle of the pack with good teams… that ROCKED!
Thanks to everyone who helped and now it’s on to Shawnee.