We went to this contest as a family. It was a super nice change from the Royal. I love being with my family at BBQ contests. The route to and from PA was spectacular with all of the fall foliage.

Vlad the happy driver!

The contest was a KCBS & MABA event. KCBS categories Chicken Ribs Pork and Brisket and MABA categories Weavers Bologna, Bell Evans Chicken Wings Bell Evans Leg and thighs plus dessert.

I got the shock of my life when we received our products to use in the auxiliary categories.  The Lebanon bologna was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It is much closer to a sweet summer sausage. I had no idea what to do with it. My plans went out the window as soon as I saw it. I had never entered a bologna contest ever. Both the bologna and the wings were submitted on Friday night so it was a busy evening.

 So I cubed it up and slathered it with Sam Dog BBQ Mustard Sauce and a few other ingredients. Placed it in one of the Traegers and let it smoke for 4 hours until all the sides were caramelized. Lets just say it wasn’t pretty, but it was super tasty. We put it in our individual containers added a shot of Forty Creek whiskey as a chaser and sent it off to the judges.

We also competed in the wing category.  I love categories with open plating and we had a lot of fun with this one. We decided to give the judges some of our Yeungling beer as a side to the wings. I mean really who doesn’t love wings and beer?? I wish we could have tried one of teh wings but we had so few to work with (Meat was supplied) that we just had enough to barely fill the plate.

The rest of our Friday night was spent socializing. There are a lot of teams we got to catch up with including one of my Sisters in Smoke Jenny from Black Cat BBQ.

I believe there may have been some tequila involved. Really really good tequila from the fine folks Chip & Sally at Red Lion Spicy Foods one of our neighbors.

After a few libations I headed off to bed for a couple of hours. It was a lovely albeit cold evening.  Perfect for me.

When I woke up one of my other neighbors was up and stoking the fire in his Jambo. Mike Richter is an uber BBQ competitor. Currently ranked #3 in the KCBS TOY. He is super kind and nice to chat with I am glad to call him a friend.  I don’t get to see him or Barb often enough.

Then as the sun rose I took a bit of a walk about. Got to visit with the Smokin Gnomes, Tim, Tiny’s BBQ, and a whole lotta other terrific people.

The time got away from me a bit and I put on my Bell Evans best legs contest meat a bit late. Grill Grates came to the rescue and we turned in grilled chicken. It was tasty chicken. Much different from our normal KCBS chicken.

I can blame the time getting away from me on one thing. Donuts. Seriously damn good donuts. The biggest box of donuts ever that was provided to the teams along with coffee too!  Like a moth to a flame I was entranced….

The rest of the entries including dessert last went off without a hitch. They went in the boxes fine but the brisket was dry and I tried a couple of new presentations that I was thinking of doing for the Jack next weekend.  I figured if the brisket came in above DAL well then the judges were going to be very generous.

The awards ceremony time came and we headed off.

To my absolute shock we got a 1st place in bologna. LOL still makes me giggle.

We also took a 3rd in dessert 4th in wings and a 4th in Pork. The judges were uber generous and gave us 39/47 in brisket. They didn’t like our ribs 23/47 or our chicken 24/47 overall coming in at 21/47. Ugh. The Bell Evans BEst legs I am not sure where we ended up as they only reported to 5th place.

Huge congratulations to Aporkalypse Now (aka Myron of the North) for their GC and to Lo & Slo BBQ on their RGC and to all who competed!

So that’s it for regular comps for the year for us and we are now packing for the Jack next weekend. Hopefully we come home with at least 1 of these again that would be spectacular !

I just need to get through catering a wedding and a baby shower this weekend plus a couple of soccer matches with the kids- a presentation at school and then driving there for 18 hours. I’ll sleep when I am dead. God bless the staff at Starbucks. They are keeping me upright with all the caffeine I am consuming.

Wow. What a trip. What a challenge. I am still sleep deprived and catching up on blog posts……

I flew into Kansas to compete in the American Royal Invitational and the Open. It was a blast. Absolutely exhausting and completely absorbing.

My illustrious site. One 10×10 tent 1 table and a really cool Q Kitchen equipped with an FE and a mack daddy char-broiler.

I am lucky to have some great friends all over. Truly once again let me repeat BBQ people are awesome. They do anything and everything to help. So with friends like Andy & Kim Groneman and the Early family, I had everything I needed to compete. Bare bones but all of the essentials. A complete kitchen with an FE and a charbroiler, a Tent a cot, some coolers and friends to help. I had stocked up the previous day with Kim at BBQFans, Liberty Fruit and the hen house and I was all set.

However I will say my site had to be one of the worst possible locations ever. Horrible would be an understatement. I was right along the end of the entrance (AKA  HALLWAY OF HELL! – see below)  for the folks heading into the dark side and when they wanted to drag their drunk obnoxious loud asses home they had to go right by my site again.

Then there was the lovely* cleaning crew located right around the corner that seemed to take great joy every morning at 3am waking all of us up with their noise. They didn’t stop till well past 7 or 8 am.

Total sleep for 2 days less than 6 hours. Total times I wanted to throttle someone ————- I can’t count that high.

My super comfy cot with Big Poppas Smokers Sweater pillow.

Just an example of two of the drunks that stumbled by.  Freak clowns. I should have just set up a video camera.

Sleep deprivation aside it was a challenge. I have only cooked on an FE 3 times prior to this. Thank fully I had taken Butcher BBQ and Plowboys class and they covered how they run their meats in their FE’s In addition Andy was uber helpful. Anytime you do 2 contests back to back it is a challenge

I got to spend some time socializing with friends and thats a big part of getting to go to the Royal

I also had a couple of Texans – Chris Jones and David Henry plus Neil Strawder with me to run boxes and to help where they could. That was a really fun part of the weekend. Loved hanging with the guys.

I also got to spend time with a Legend and dear friend of mine Dave Raymond from Sweet baby Rays. I love this guy. He rocks.

The Royal is an interesting contest. On day one for the Invitational I came in 88th out of 141 and in the Open 81st out of 498 . Not stellar by any means. It was a challenge and I am really glad I did it no matter what the results.  It was an excellent personal challenge just to get through it all. I know I made some good BBQ.

Another huge highlight for the weekend had to be participating in a steak throw down as part of the KCBS tour !I got to compete against Heath Hall of Pork Barrel BBQ Fame. We had a blast with this and it was tons of fun!!

I had a huge surge of patriotic Canadian pride seeing 2 of my fellow countrymen Tim Brown and Daryl Maybanks from Can’t Stop Grilling take Reserve Grand Championship in the open!! They had a rough Invitational and came out on top HUGE congrats to them both and for also using Kingsford as it doubled their prize money!! WTG guys!!

Congratulations to all who got their name called and to everyone who just survived the Royal again!!

Results for both Days Invitational (Congratulations Tippycanoe BBQ Crew GC!) and Open (Congratulations Motley Que Crew GC!)

I picked up one of these handy dandy ABT tools . They work perfectly for making lots of those tasty stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos! It is also a multi task gadget as it is perfect for coring tomatoes and fruits!

A couple of super yummy recipes to use this new fav gadget:

Cheesy ABTs

ABT’s for a party 

Progressive Corer 

7-1/2″ long,
Stainless steel and nylon,
Dishwasher safe
Made in China
- Small end for tomato and strawberry stems,
- Long end to remove seeds from peppers and more

$ 4.99 MSRP (US price)

Well. Where do I begin. How about with a BIG Thank you.

It was an awesome night for a fundraiser at the Charlotte Room. It was a wonderful venue for this event. Can’t wait to go back. We all had an excellent time. It was amazing to see so many folks come out.  I loved every moment of it. I was truly humbled by the support. Vlad and I cooked for a week before the event to make sure we had enough food for everyone. Right up until 230 am the day of the event I was still in the kitchen and let me tell you it was worth it!!

I first of all have to thank my Jack Team. They have been working really hard towards this fundraiser for a long time. Behind the scenes they plugged our event ran around and got things did more than you can imagine.

Diva Q official Jack Team for 2011

Patrick Weir

Jessie Sweeney

Mike Miller

Jason Rees

Jamie Parisi

Vlado Dimovski

If it wasn’t for all their hard work we could not have put on this fundraiser. Or the support of all our sponsors listed above. I am really grateful for the help. You are only as good as the people that are with you in life and I tell you I am one lucky chick.

I have to say a HUGE thanks to all who came by from near and far. The dynamic duo from Team Eatapedia John Thomson and Paul Firlotte even came all the way from Ottawa to show their support. I adore the entire team. They are good freaking funny people.

John Thomson Paul Firlotte Wilfred Reinke – Photo Credit Wilfred Reinke 

I tried to get around to everyone and I think it was near impossible. I did however get to chat for a bit with my BBQ Brother Ted Reader. It was only fitting that we toasted with a shot of Jack Daniels -

Diva Q & Ted Reader toasting with Jack Daniels

The team set up as much food as humanly possible at the Buffet. Mike Miller from Big Bone BBQ ran the kitchen for the evening. I could not have done it without him and Vlad they never stopped with Patrick and Jessie running everything to floor and raffle tickets too! Jason kept the prime rib cut and Jamie ran the door (and poker) with Jennifer and Jeff G. (My friends who came early helped set up and helped anywhere and everywhere) There was prime rib, chicken, ribs, pulled pork, beans and our legendary mac & cheese which almost caused a riot when it ran out. (*Seriously I promise to make 8 trays of this next time) I love Buster Rhinos BBQ products and a lot of it was used in our BBQ. There were abt’s and pig candy brownies and cakes too! With all of the buffet and everything taken care of I could actually talk with people. This was truly terrific.

Photo Credit Wilfred Reinke 

There was so much laughter it was infectious. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a room full of happy BBQ eating folks. Many thanks  to Scott & Tania from Culinary Adventure Co. for hosting our online ticket sales and all their help with their donations. I know I will be taking some of their classes and food adventures in the near future!

There were lots of prizes and raffles to be had including a very generous donation from Traeger Canada their Traeger JR with a digital temperature control !! thanks so much to all of our donors. There was an incredible assortment of BBQ products and foodie gifts galore!

Photo Credit Wilfred Reinke 

So from now till the Jack I have 2 more contests and I will practice and then when I think I am done practicing I will practice more.

We are all set now to do our very best to represent at the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ. We are going up against the best in the world. I can’t wait. Thanks to all of you who came out sent support and helped us get there. You are all freaking awesome.

I am a big believer in using a grill to its full capacity when you light it up. No reason to do these one at time. One of the things I like to do is stock up my freezer with smoked garlic for the winter. It freezes really well and its super handy to have on hand to add to soups stocks dips (try making an aioli with it) and even served as is on toast points or crusty bread drizzled with a good quality olive oil.

Smoked Garlic

Ingredients

• 20           bulbs garlic
• 1c            Extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ c          black pepper
• ¼ c          kosher salt

• Hickory wood chips
• aluminum foil

Directions

1. Preheat grill medium high heat creating an indirect fire zone.
2. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 inch of the top of bulbs, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.
3. Place the bulbs in a half size disposable aluminum pan
4. Drizzle the olive oil on the bulbs.
5. Sprinkle the black pepper and kosher salt on the bulbs. You can also substitute blended salts like chipotle or porcini for an added flavour bonus.
6. Take 1 handful of hickory wood and create a smoker packet using foil or use a smoker box.
7. Place the pan of bulbs on the indirect side of the grill. Add smoker packet to direct side of grill.  Replenish smoker packets ever 30 minutes.
8. After 1 hour cover the pan with foil. Continue until the cloves are softened and light brown in color.
9. Remove from grill and cool completely. Package the bulbs individually in for the freezer.  Use within 3 months.
10. Use in soups, stocks, on toast points and anywhere you love garlic.

   

Jack Draw Results-Congratulations to all the teams that had their bungs drawn we will see you there! I toast to the teams:

*Please note these results have been received 2nd hand from various sources-we hope they are accurate however they cannot be official results until the Jack Daniels and KCBS have released their lists.

OFFICIAL LIST from KCBS 

The Draws

TN- Swiggin Pig
UT- R&R BBQ
AR- Sweet Peppers
PA- Chix Swine & Bovine
IN- Squealer’s BBQ
MA- Fatback Joe’s
OH- Saucehound BBQ
CO- Flyboy BBQ
IA- Tippy Canoe BBQ
WI- Brew-B-Que
AR- Redneck Grillers
MO- 4 Smokin Butts
NE- Hot Grill on Grill Action
OK- Butcher BBQ
WY- Burnin’ Bobs Butts and Bones
NY- Mr. Bobo’s Traveling BBQ All-Stars
MD- Jack’s Old South
TX- The Drunken Brisket
FL- Big Papa’s Country Kitchen
AL- Big Creek BBQ
NC- 2 Old Men and a Grill
GA- Barbeque Crew
VA- Duegello BBQ
SD- Big Dog BBQ
SC- Fatback’s BBQ and Rib Shack
WA- Wine Country Q
IL- Team Dude
MN- Lucky’s Q
MS- Kenny’s Kountry Kookers
NJ- Fat Angel BBQ
KY- The Long Dawgs
KS- Buffalo BBQ
LA- Big Bear BBQ
MI- Motley Que Crew
ME- Feeding Friendz
OR- Smokey’s Bar-B-Q
CA- Master of Disaster
DE- GoneHoggin.com

Home State Draws

AL- Wild Bunch Butt Burners
KS- Smoke On Wheels
KY- Warren County Pork Choppers
OR- Fat Dad’s BBQ
PA- PA Midnite Smokers
SD- Gerritt Boys BBQ
WI- 2 Fat Bikers BBQ
AR- Hog Tide Bar-B-Que
OH- 2 Worthless Nuts

KCBS List also has the following teams listed:

BS Pitmeisters
Whiskey Ranch BBQ
Shiggin & Grinnin
Spitfire
Up in Smoke
 

WILD Card Draw:

Wildcard – Here Piggy Piggy

Jack Automatics:

Texas Pepper Jelly
Big Bob Gibson
Quau
Lotta Bull
iQue
Southern Exposure
Munchin’ Hogs at the Hilton
I Smell Smoke
Black Cat BBQ
Pork Barrel BBQ
Piggy D’s BBQ
Rythmn & Que
Smokin’ Hoggz BBQ
Smoked to The Bone
Mad Dawgz BBQ
Squeal-on-u-bbq
Lakeside Smokers
Hambones by the Fire

** IF you are on the list and I have not updated with your team link please let me know and I will add it.

I love bread. All types. Choosing the right bread to go with your BBQ meats is an important part of the meal. I believe in the perfect ratio of meat to bun. I hate getting a sandwich that has 2 x or more bun to meat.
In lieu of plain old white hamburger buns (my go to bun of choice for pulled pork and shredded brisket) I have to tell you about two others I ♥ dearly.

I have a fondness (understatement) for Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. They come in original, honey wheat and savory butter. They are seriously addictive with the perfect texture of yummy fluffiness and with a touch of sweetness that really compliments BBQ meats. In fact you could put anything on them and they would be good.

Available only in the US. (Pictured above my freezer stash)

Next up a product that has a chewier texture but a really satisfying flavor once again going well with all BBQ’es meats. Presidents Choice Mini Ciabatta pre-sliced burger buns.  I like the fact they don’t get as soggy as some other buns and I think they are terrific for parties if you are making platters of sammies up for a crowd. From sausages, burgers to pulled pork and even grilled veggies options  these mini buns are just perfect. Available widely in Canada.

We were in Monroe Michigan over the weekend. This was a first time KCBS contest at their fairgrounds. The town is beautiful. No matter what we will be putting this event back on our calender for next year.

We arrived and were immediately welcomed. Shown to our spot for the weekend we took in our surroundings. It was lovely. We have a beautiful level grass site with individual power and water hook-ups. There were really spotless bathrooms just a short walk away and SHOWERS! The judge’s tent wasn’t very far away either.  Twenty five teams had gathered for this event. In addition there were lots of experienced judges.

There was a potluck arranged by the nice folks from Great Lakes BBQ Supply (an awesome store for BBQ shopping!!)  had brought in a ranch kettle for all to use to cook a protein and we brought a deep dish cheesecake to share. Got to meet the AW Hell BBQ team – super nice people although I did pass on their bucket of jello shots. Got to visit with a lot of GLBBQA folks we don’t see often enough.

It was one of the quietest competitions I have ever been to. At about 10:30/11pm you could hear the crickets chirping. It seemed like everyone was quietly enjoying the star filled night.

All of our meats went on with no problems. Everything looked good in fact. One small problem I encountered was the battery in my thermapen went and I had to borrow another from a friend (thanks Scott!). Other than that is was smooth sailing for the entire night and into the morning.

In the morning the chicken went on with no problems as did the ribs. They looked great. Then came turn in time. Looked at the clock and something was wrong. Went outside the trailer and the other clock was showing a different time. Looked at my blackberry it showed another time. I had no idea what time it really was. Minutes and seconds count in competition BBQ.

To make a long painful story short  my chicken turn in was 20 seconds late.  Disqualified in Chicken. DAL. DQ whatever you call it – it sucked worse than anything I have ever experienced at a comp. Disgust, disappointment, embarrassment, anger, frustration and a whole lot of other emotions went through me at that moment.

My jaw dropped and I felt horrible for Vlad as he passed me the box back. He was mortified as was I. I just sat in the trailer and just looked at the turn in box of chicken – it seemed to be taunting me. How did this happen? Are you kidding me? It’s my fault the box should have gone in sooner. Last minute adjusting and cleaning had cost us a ton of KCBS points and a chance to win. I didn’t cry. I was more angry with myself than that.  Wanting to hit or throw something – I threw the turn in box of chicken and all into the trash and cursed a few times. I took a picture of it to remind me never to let that happen again. My heart just sunk and I wanted to be anywhere but in that trailer at that moment. I wanted to crawl under a rock.  All that chicken prep the box had looked delicious all that work for nothing.  I didn’t come 5 1/2 hours for nothing.

Told Vlad to give me some space (smart man he went outside and did some packing) and tried desperately to get my head together for ribs. I really had a hard time focusing on them. The box looked like shit when I turned it in and I was in the “I don’t give a crap frame of mind. “  Horrible thinking.

Between categories I was really impressed with Mike Lake. He came over to check on us to make sure we were alright. That showed a lot of class and I thank him and Theresa for their kind words and sympathies. I felt horrible for them as well. That cannot be easy for reps to do.

Gave myself a little pep talk – get over it I told myself. That’s all I could do at that time. I got refocused and turned in some really terrific pork and some yummy brisket.  That was all I could do. I have never been so relieved that a competition was over.

I poured myself a very strong vodka tonic with lots of lime and reviewed the day. Took notes of things I need to do differently in the future. Then we just wanted to pack and leave as fast as possible.

A few friends popped by and offered their condolences.  They knew just how low I was at that moment. We went to the awards to cheer for our friends but when our pork was called for 1^st and our brisket was called for 3^rd there was no joy in it for me.  I was much happier listening to our friends getting called.

A highlight for us was watching Bavarian Smoke pitmaster Dick & Lori get their very 1st GC !!  This was their bung for the Jack draw! Huge congratulations to them and to all those who got calls !

Reserve Grand Champion Smokin Aces CrapShoot BBQ, pitmaster Mark Rasmussen was a true class act after awards.  As we were leaving we went to say good bye. He gave me a big hug and said we would have had the RGC or higher and that he back-doored it in. He said he knew it the second he saw the scores. I told him we would never know maybe the judges would not have liked our chicken ( I thought it would have scored at least a 165 or above). It was still nice of him to acknowledge our scores which were in the running. I appreciated those very kind words. Class act.

It took us forever to get home and it was a really quiet drive.  Vlad and I were just bummed out. We both work very hard just like other teams out there. It just sucked.

So there it is in a nutshell the worst competition day of my life. It sucked and was a hard lesson to learn. I pray for each team on the circuit to never have to experience this. I sure as hell will do everything I can to never let it happen again.

We are getting ready for the Jack Daniels Invitational already! Prepping our lists and making plans ! We are doing a fundraiser for the Jack trip. Its an expensive trip to haul our gear down and represent Canada to the best of our abilities. We are thankful to sponsors and our friends and family who have been helping us!

Here are the details of our fundraiser. There are only 180 seats available so please purchase your tickets in advance we cannot guarantee there will be any available at the door: **** Please note that the poker tourney and the pool tourney will have separate buy ins. Thanks all!!

https://kiosk.eztix.co/kiosk/3622

Huge thanks to our sponsors and supporters for this event:

BBQ’ed or grilled meat on sticks makes people happy. I am sure there is a study out there somewhere. Have you ever been to a dinner party and a tray of skewered meats goes by??? People lose their minds.  Anything you grill on a stick makes people happy. I think its a caveman thing. Truly. It doesn’t really matter what sticks you use. It could be traditional wooden or metal skewers or maybe something a little more exotic like lemongrass or branches of rosemary.

Pork Kebabs on charcoal

This weekend my kids were involved with these. They were a huge hands on help forming the meat around the skewers.  We love Chevaps.  We buy them regularly from DS Meats in Ajax Ontario. This is our homemade version.

We used a combination of ground beef and pork. Plus assorted herbs and seasonings.  There is no recipe.

Its all up to your own personal tastes. I walked to the herb garden and grabbed chives and thyme which seem to be thriving in our garden this year. A couple of minced jalapenos and garlic were added as well. Pulsed everything in a food processor  with kosher salt and black pepper and added to the meat mixture. Then I took about 2 handfuls of the meat mixture and pulsed it in the mini chopper. Its a nice way to get a different texture from the meat. Its also holds the meat together well acting as a binder.

We also added Vegeta. Vegeta is a staple spice in our household pantry.  Using an ice cram scoop ensures that each portion of meat will cook in approximately the same time.

I used metal skewers with the intention of putting them on the Big Green Egg. One problem I had no charcoal left. Ugh. Are you kidding me?? I was shocked but sadly it was true no charcoal – must pick up more Basques this week!!

Off to the traeger! 

About halfway done…

Slathered with Joey Mac’s Amberque.  love this stuff. Great on well… everything.

Dinnertime.