Just got home from attending Oinktoberfest for the third time.

IT was cold. I mean freezing your butt off cold. IT made for an interesting cook and not too much socializing at night.

We took our three children with us this time. We have previously taken Ella and Lexi our daughters out with us but this time we also included our son Gabe. Also known as chaos. He is walking chaos. He is 3 and he is a non stop going concern full of more energy than a power plant. It proved to be a very challenging contest to mind him and the meat.

I will say I struggled on timing this weekend. Having to split my focus as a Mom and a BBQer is something I am going to have to work on. I had a really challenging time. I knew my brisket chicken and ribs were off. I was right for sure. Overall we placed a disappointing 6th. Our highest protein was a 4th call in pork. It is what it is.

I will say that Oinktoberfest was better run this year. I liked the Las Vegas theme and some of the teams did an amazing job decorating their cook sites. Really fun to see. We did not have any problems with power and that was a relief. Our neighbours were great as well. Would like to be beside them for any future comps.

It was great to see everyone at the potluck and the food was fantastic. Tuscan bean salad, venison, grilled bologna, wicked good burgers, corn dip, bread pudding with caramel, Really awesome curry sausages, abts, sausage dip, cookies, and fresh from Alaska Salmon brought in by Griff. I am sure I am forgetting some things but it was all good for sure.

I had a great little parsley party with Kim from Smoke on Wheels. It was so cold out (6 Celcius) that we decided to do our boxes up Friday night in the comfort of the trailer with some nice hot tea. It sure makes box making go fast when you are chatting with a friend.

I took very few pictures as well. Just did not have the time. The kids had an amazing time with the Good Smoke girls and Angela. Thank you all so much for helping to look after our kids. They had a blast going through the corn mazes, looking at pumpkins and doing all the kids activities.

The highlight for us scoring this weekend was the dessert category. We got 1st with another 180 perfect score. THat was cool. It was a new dessert I was trying out so I am glad it seemed to go just fine. We also tied for 3rd in the side dish category with Can’t stop Grilling but lost the tie and came in 4th.

Huge Congratulations to Kim & Andy for the GC and all others who got calls. Fun times for sure.

Thats it thats all for now. I need to go and thaw out plus catch up on some ZZZZ Our next comp will be Georgia for the Best of the Best on Halloween.

I will however be on Canada AM for the Canadian Thanksgiving showing people how to BBQ turkey and all the fixings.

Many thanks once again to our wonderful sponsors. Traeger Canada, Hovey’s Gourmet Meats, Big Rock Brewery, Alcan. – We appreciate your support.

Pictures from OINK

I have to do this comp. Amy has told me two years now to go. I really need to make it out there.

Great family great comp. Fun times. If you are in the area (heck even if you are not) GO.

Last year while attending the Home Hardware show I walked by a really nice display of planks. I enjoy planking. Its fun. I like to infuse food whatever it my be – mashed potatoes, salmon, shrimp etc etc. So I though I would share my favorite brand. The company is Montana Grilling Gear. Their president for the Canadian Distribution is Masoud Mafi. He is a great guy and always on the look out for great BBQ products.

I love the cross cut grilling planks. They make a terrific presentation and are full of wonderful flavours

Here are some pics of their planks.

Also a favorite recipe of mine:

20 large shrimp,(16/20 or higher) peeled and deveined
20 slices bacon (I have used maple cured, hickory smoked)
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese crumbled
1 pkg cream cheese
2 tsp cajun BBQ rub

*please note if not using a Traeger you will need to soak your plank in water submerged for at least an hour before grill time

Directions
1. Preheat grill for medium heat.

2. Mix Cheeses together.

3. Take a tablespoon of cheese mixture and spread on back of shrimp and wrap in bacon. Secure with toothpick if necessary.

4. Sprinkle all of the shrimp with the cajun rub

3. Arrange shrimp on a sugar maple cross cut plank(s) , place on grill rack. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once.

LOL so this is how it rolls. I was at the Home Hardware Trade show this past Sunday Monday and Tuesday. I love doing this show. Its loads of fun and hardwork rolled into one. It was a bit quieter on one of the afternoons and so a friend (Mark Bianco) of mine from another booth popped over with some chocolate. I just happened to have a pound of bacon and a great assortment of Traegers to work on !!!!!

So this is where it all began. With generous donations from the folks at the Cadbury booth & Hershey’s (thanks very much Phil and Aaron) we got started on this program.
The day before we had done a preliminary run and I took things to a whole new level the following day tweaking our procedure.

Heres some pictures of how we got them done. They were wrapped in 3 layers of bacon in total. In the experiment we found that 3 types of chocolate (we tried all total 6 different types) came out on top for sure. Our favorite choices for bacon wrapped chocolate bars would be Crispy Crunch, it was awesome – seriously awesome. I was thrilled. For sure. Then came the Hershey’smilk chocolate bars. I stacked 4 of them together. It worked really well. But them the ultimate completely ultimate bacon and eggs occurred. I took the Cadbury creme eggs and wrapped them in bacon. Oh My GOODNESS!!!!!!!

Seriously insanely good. The gooey center combined with the chocolate covering topped with the bacon was just out of this world. I know this has been done by baking before but never has it been done on a BBQ!! The BBQ Crisps up the bacon so wonderfully and the light smoke flavor is just the icing on the cake. Wow.

Pictures of all these bacon goodness and chocolate adventures:

Please note the first 15-20 minutes the tray was on the grill then we removed them from the tray and put them directly on the grill. I would suggest if you do it use frozen chocolate bars or eggs to start. WE had the traegers at 225F and used Hickory pellets.

Also I would like to say the very first person to ever eat this creation was none other than Mike Holmes from Holmes on Homes. LOL now that was funny.

Was listening to the BBQ Central Show tonight and heard a mention of a new website from Ray Lampe. I am a fan of Rays as he was one of the first guys who was really supportive of Diva Q!

This new website is sure to be a success. Its going to become a terrific resource for recipes and it has a great forum as well. I encourage all of you BBQ foodies to sign up and post your recipes.

WWW.Firecooker.com

Well this is going to be quick update to the blog for sure! I am currently doing a 3 day Traeger demo at the Home Hardware show in St. Jacobs. I am beyond busy.

Back to the comp:

WE arrived in St. Thomas. The site was well laid out. Volunteers everywhere. Ice on site. (They need a couple more porta potties) and overall a really well organized comp. Lots and lots of opportunities for the future for sure. I really enjoyed our neighbours BBQ Effect and especially seeing Jean Claude Bacle from Basques Charcoal.

Everything went smoothly. I was terrified. Any time we have had a night where everything has gone smoothly and I liked all the boxes we have bombed. However we did it. We finally got anther GC in Canada. Team Can’t Stop Grilling took the RGC and it was a reallllly close race to the win for us. Very exciting to have it come down to the wire. Super sweet.

Overall

1st in Anything Butt – Chefs Choice

1st in Pork (woot this was a really high score too!)

2nd in Ribs

3rd in Brisket

3rd in Chicken

GRAND CHAMPION

This was especially a great win as it gave us something we really wanted an Invite to the Americal Royal for 2010.
Our daughters Lexi and Ella were also with us. That was a wonderful thing to share with them. They are our princesses and we are blessed.

Our son Gabe as he is 3 yrs old stays with the Inlaws and he was spoilt rotten all week so he was happy too!

It was a wonderful weekend. I was thrilled to see the Canadian Teams come out and Good Smoke BBQ from the USA.

BIG COngratulations to Can’t Stop Grilling for the RGC.

Overall it was a great relief to know we can still win in Canada.

MANY MANY MANY Thanks to our Sponsors for their ongoing support:

Traeger Canada
Hovey’s Gourmet Meats
Big Rock Brewery (I am seriously lovin the grasshopper!)
Basques Charcoal
Alcan (Novelis)

But above all once again we would like to sincerely thank our families and friends for their love and support. God Bless you all. We would not be able to do this without you.

Here are some videos that were shot from last weekends competition in Category

Brian Misko – House of Q (Kissing a pig and lying about Gatorade LOL)

Jim Williams – Pigsicle (seriously these guys have the most expensive comp shirts I have ever seen)
talking about his new $30,000 pit. Its a bit of bling for sure. (On a personal note though you don’t have to spend $30,000 to make good Q thats for sure I have seen and eaten some of the best Q out of a UDS and garbage can smoker)

Alberta Pork – Chef Justin Chatlain We were given some terrific pork tenderloins that were incredible! Put Pork on your fork!

Grilling Vegetables – Nanthan Brock
Vegetables are great on the grill for sure!

Chefs Challenge – Anything butt preparation Grillers in the Mist, Sean Lynn
Caprese salad & Avocado multi color tomato, couscous, chilean sea bass with prosciutto, saffron pine nut couscous, butterscotch upside down apple cake – WOW

Day 1

Well we have arrived and have been enjoying the last couple of days in Calgary.
What a gorgeous city this is. Full of terrific friendly people and a welcoming atmosphere. Got a bit of shopping done on my first day as our flight arrived really early in the morning . Overall the downtown core is one of the nicest I have ever seen. This is a great walking and biking city as well. Exploring the downtown core we saw lots of incredible artwork.

Our hotel here is literally 100ft from our comp site. Now think about that for a minute. WE are so close to our suite that our typical 3 hour nap on a military cot will now be in a nicely appointed hotel room with a comfy duvet and good pillows. * Sigh* I think I could very well get spoiled during this competition.

Our first night proceeded with meeting up with some teams we just adore. Prairie Smoke & Spice, Completely Q Less and House of Q. We all enjoyed a nice meal and well I wont deny it a heck of a lot of alcohol was consumed at a downtown bar. I did however introduce the Western teams to my favourite shot – Chocolate Cake (I have Rich from Lost Smoke Nation and Kenny from Dizzy Pig to thank for introducing this shot to me at Oinktoberfest a few years ago)

Chocolate Cake Shot Recipe
1 part Grey Goose
1 part Frangelico
Sugared lemon slices.
Suck on the lemon take the shot and you would swear you have just eaten a slice of chocolate cake.

Angie Quaale from Completely Q-Less and owner of the incredible store Well Seasoned (www.wellseasoned.ca) and I did manage to also close an additional pub as well that night. Lets just say we will keep the rest of the night to ourselves. Good Times. Great friends.

Day 2/3

The competition is pretty fierce out here. They run by PNWBA rules. They have an agreement with the KCBS and they have got their crap together out here. The contest is very well organized. This is probably the easiest competition we have ever flown in to. The tents tables and chairs are all provided by the city of Calgary so that’s a relief to us. Our hockey bag and cooler full of meat (Gotta bring my HOVEYS gourmet meats!!) all came through customs no problem so we are good to go here. So many friends here that everything we need is right at our doorstop so to speak. Angie ran me all over town to stock up on supplies even so no car rental required either.

We had lots of opportunities to talk with teams. Had the best chowder EVER from Pigasaurus Morley. Wo w. Still craving more. Saw pigsicles new giant pit. Its nice looking. Saw 4 incredible BBQ’s though. They are hydrogen tanks that have been converted to cabinets. Really neat idea. Great execution .

My big meats went on without a hitch – huge thanks to Gene from Western Air Fireplace & BBQs who is providing all of our BBQ’s this weekend. We are thrilled to be using 3 Traegers this comp. In addition we are blessed to be in the hometown of our Beer sponsor BIG Rock. Tom Stuart made sure we were adequately stocked on lime and also my personal favourite Grasshoppper. Its all good.

My boxes were done ahead of time no problems there either. I went off for my 3 hour nap and stared at the ceiling for an hour. LOL that comfy cushy nap was apparently too much for me to handle. Whereas if I had my military cot I would have been passed out in seconds. Go figure.

So now as I sit here we are at 6:30 am the birds just woke up and Ill be pulling a few things off shortly. I am so close the hotel that I have my laptop on site and I am tapping into their WIFI from the parking lot. Seriously. I am spoiled here as well – my all time favourite coffee kicking horse is in abundance. Life is good. BBQ people rock.

Off to take care of meat.

Final Day:

Well it was a great contest and I had a lot of fun with my husband Vlado and the many terrific teams. We didn’t do as well overall as we had hoped for but we did get to see our friends Jacy and Rob from Prairie Smoke n Spice get another GC. They are truly a terrific couple and we were thrilled for them. In addition we saw other friends House of Q and completely Q less take walks.

We were thrilled however on receiving a 1st in brisket. This year has been brutal for us in the brisket category and this was nice especially since we were in Alberta of all places. It really did pay off to bring our Ribs and brisket from Hovey’s Gourmet meats in Barrie all the way to Calgary. They are the only two categories we got calls in.

Additionally as usual the comment cards were odd. One comment card said the pork was lovely great color tender and juicy another said the pork was dry and tough and too salty all of our comment cards were this way. Ugh Seriouslty. Not good.

Overall we came in 4th (1st brisket, 3rd ribs, 13th chicken 14th pork)

It is what it is.

We wish all out Western BbQ friends all the very best at the Langley BC competition this weekend. It is being run by Angie and Dennis Quaale from www.wellseasoned.ca and team COmpletely Q-less

This weekend we are off to St. Thomas Ontario for the Canadian Southern BBQ Championships – sadly they are 2 teams short of a Jack Qualifier. Seriously this is not good at all for any of the teams going. After that we are off to St. Jacobs area for the 3 day Fall Home Hardware show with Traeger Canada. ITs going to be an insane week of packing and BBQing in preparation.

Here are pictures from the Calgary trip:
CAlgary BBQ on the Bow

Once again many thanks to our trip sponsors Traeger Canada, Hovey’s Gourmet meats and BIg Rock Brewery (Much appreciation to Tom Stuart to make sure we were adequately stocked!)