Figuring out what you need ahead of time and what tips and tricks you can use are a great time saver. Setting up your site is an important part of the whole process.  Each of these sites has helped me a lot.

Here are some great tips and checklists to make your life easier:

Virginia Pirates Website

*Getting Started

*Tips

*Timelines

*Checklists

Smoking Guns Website

*Competition Checklists

BBQ-Brethren Website

Excellent resource for tips on all things competition and backyard BBQ.

The Pickled Pig Forum

*Excellent resource for competition and backyard BBQ.

Love seeing so many great audition tapes. I know some of these folks and I wish them all the best!!

Smokin Scotsmen!! FEAR THE KILT!!

Fire Fightin’ Cookin Crew ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap0va0O7r9M

Kentucky Smoke Squad



Team Unknown BBQ- Seriously funny video



Moe from Ponderosa BBQ~



Tarheel Smokers!!!


Southern Soul Barbecue Harrison Sapp



A Boy and his BBQ!

Well today has been a very exciting BBQ day!! I got to see the new Traeger 300 in person right after it was unloaded. It is even more impressive in person. Really solid design. I am looking forward to playing on one in the upcoming weeks.

Here are some pictures of the unit

As soon as I get the spec sheet I will update this post!

Whiskeybent BBQ

And here is the new Banner AD for BBQ Pitmasters

New Cookbook that is available this month on Amazon.I was asked a while back to submit some recipes for the upcoming KCBS cookbook 25th Anniversary edition. I was surprised and delighted to receive my copy today. They included all of the recipes I submitted. These are truly some of my all time favorites.

About the authors of this latest KCBS Cookbook:

A charter member of KCBS and former three-term member of the Board of Directors, Ardie Davis founded the American Royal International BBQ Sauce, Rub, and Baste Contest and the Great American Barbecue Sauce, Baste, and Rub Contest. He is the author of five barbeque cookbooks.

Paul Kirk, a charter member of the KCBS and member of the Board of Directors, operates the Baron’s School of Pitmasters. The author of six barbeque cookbooks, he has won more than 475 cooking and barbequing awards, among them seven world championships, including the prestigious American Royal Open, the world’s largest barbeque contest.

Carolyn Wells and her late husband, Gary, were two of the original founders of the Kansas City Barbeque Society. Carolyn is the Executive Director and continues to dedicate her time as an ambassador for the KCBS and for barbeque itself.

The book is chock full of recipes (over 200) from lots of terrific teams and backyard cooks. I had to laugh at page 209 title page Cross Dressing at BBQ & Chili Events. So funny. I won’t ruin the surprise by posting it here but don’t miss that page. Also a fav recipe of mine from a friend Paul Seabrook is featured on page 17 . There are so many interesting and varied recipes throughout this book. It will be fun to experiment with some of them.

At the front of the book there is also a section on the KCBS 4 meats for competition making this an ideal book for any starter team as well.

Lots of fun and loaded up with contributions from so many this makes an ideal BBQ book purchase or gift for any on your list.

DIG IN!!!

As I am prepping for the 2010 season to begin I have to start with where we really needed to improve from 2009. For the last years season I was really happy with our pork. Everything else needs a lot more work. Especially brisket. I have struggled with brisket. Brisket is my challenge above all challenges. Overall for the year we came in 241 out of 4716 on the Pickled Pig Rankings. I am proud and challenged by those results. Just shy of being in the top 5% overall we came in:

• 173 out of 4716  Pork
• 267 out of 4716 Chicken
• 331 out of 4716 Ribs
• 580 out of 4716 Brisket

For these rankings we had 6 competitions that were included:

We did however compete in additional competitions for the 2009 as well that were not included in those rankings:

Canada Southern BBQ Championships
Grand Champion

1st — Pork; 2nd — Ribs; 3rd — Brisket; 3rd —Chicken 1st—Anything  But

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“Smoke on the Water Barbecue Competition Saskatchewan”
Reserve Grand Champion

1st — Pork; 2nd — Ribs; 4th — Brisket; 4th—Chicken 1st—Anything But

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Canadian Pork BBQ Championships
Reserve Grand Champion

2nd—Chicken; 2nd — Pork; 4th — Brisket; 4th — Ribs

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National BBQ Festival “Best of the Best”

Invitational BBQ Cook-off
4th Overall

7th — Pork Shoulder; 6th — Chicken;

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National BBQ Festival “Best of the Best”
Open BBQ Cook-off

13th Overall

9th — Ribs
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BBQ on the Bow Calgary Alberta

4th Overall

1st — Brisket; 3rd — Ribs

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Crazy Canuck BBQ Championships Toronto Ontario

4th Overall

3rd—Chicken; 3rd — Pork; 4th — Ribs; 6th — Brisket

Overall we made improvements to our overall BBQ in my opinion. I am hoping to be able to attend more competitions this year however my schedule may have some interesting diversions this year. I can’t share them yet but I am really excited for 2010 overall. I have a lot of practice and work to do. LOL

We had a fun time going to a few restaurants here in Memphis and area.

The places we went were Germantown  Commissary, Central BBQ, Whole Hog Cafe, Old School Bar-B-Q

Each of the restaurants had some decent food however overall I would have to recommend the Germantown Commissary as my favorite hands down. They also had some of the very best pies I have ever eaten. If you are in the area make sure you stop in.

Today I am off to another bunch of BBQ restaurants. I am really looking forward to them!!