Last week as the rain was threatening to flood out parts of Maryland, we packed up and headed to the hills of West Virginia for our first trip to the Pickin’ in the Panhandle bluegrass festival and KCBS competition. We were coming off a good performance at Smokin’ on the Bay and knew that our competition would be equally as strong, if not stronger in West Virginia. This is a unique location for a KCBS competition because it is the one and only West Virginia state competition; which means the grand champion automatically gets a ticket into the Jack Daniels invitational next year. Because of this, a lot of big hitters show up and whether you are a well known team or new to the circuit, you show up to compete!
The teams begin to stack up at Lazy A Campground
We had the pleasure of setting up camp next to the Tipsy Pig, a rookie team who was cooking in their first KCBS competition. We’ve been so lucky to meet incredibly nice people and teams who’ve helped show us the ropes since we started competing in 2010. Although we are still considered a rookie team, we’ve made it a point to go out of our way to pay back the generosity we’ve been shown and help out new teams as much as we can. We may not give up ALL of our secrets, but if we can help, we certainly will. We shared a taste of all four food categories as well as photos of a couple of our boxes … And we were lucky enough to get a taste of their food as well. They did a fantastic job by being part of a three way tie for 10th place in pork. Impressive for a first competition!
A piece of our 7th place chicken.
We were fortunate enough to get two ‘calls’ on this trip. The very first call of the awards ceremony was for the peoples choice pork butt, and PepperMonkeyBBQ won! That earned us another pig trophy for our small collection, but more importantly free entry into next years competition! Our next and only other call was the 7th place chicken, which we were both proud of. Our other categories did well, but not well enough to place in the top ten: 27th in ribs, 18th in pork, and 16th in brisket. Overall we placed 14th, which given the level of competition, we were still happy with, but are really hoping to work our way back to the top ten for our final two competitions this year.
Six racks of ribs ready for the smoke!
We really enjoyed our first trip to Pickin’ in the Panhandle. Jen and the rest of the crew clearly worked very hard to make it an enjoyable event for everyone. Congratulations to Chix, Swine and Bovine on their Grand Champion and earning another trip to the Jack. Congrats to Just Smokin’ Around for coming in a close second. We are looking forward to cashing in our free entry into the 2012 Pickin in the Panhandle. Now it’s time to practice for our upcoming trip to Harrisburg, PA.
- The line forms in Pittsburgh as the air is filled with the smell of grilling!
We attended the 3rd annual Pittsburgh Eggfest last weekend and as always with an Eggfest, we had a blast! Nice weather, great hosts and wonderful food made for a perfect environment to cook and make new friends. We arrived early to set up and althought the sun was beating down on us, it was far better than rain. We got to work preparing our menu: St. Louis style spare ribs, lamb and shrimp meatballs with Afghan green sauce, and blueberry/basil/goat cheese tartlets for dessert. The ribs went well and we were able to show people you can cook a perfectly moist and tender rack of ribs in less than three hours on a big green egg. A crowd gathered asking for recipes and cooking techniques. A friend from Canada didn’t get into the line in time to get a rib from the four racks we cooked, so he kindly asked for a couple of meat scraps from the cutting board which we gladly provided! Next we served a meat ball made of ground lamb and cut up shrimp. Seasoned to perfection and served on top of the Afghan green sauce. The crowd made quick work of the meatballs and an entire boneless leg of lamb was gone within 10 minutes, one meatball at a time! Our kind cooking neighbors voted Erin’s dessert tartlets their ‘fest favorite’ because it had flavors that were unexpected, yet well balanced. A mix of blueberries, goat cheese, cream cheese and basil were stuffed into a crispy shell and lightly smoked on the Big Green Egg just until they were warmed through. The result was a sweet and savory fruit tartlet that had people coming back for seconds and thirds. Individual recipes will be posted on our recipe page in the near future.
Pittsburgh Eggfest was truly a success. I think everyone did a great job showing the public just how versatile the Big Green Egg can be. A whole lot of delicious food was given out and most importantly, new friendships were made. Thanks again to all involved in making this a successful event, hopefully we’ll be able to return next year!
St. Louis style spare ribs ready to be cut and served.
Lamb and shrimp meat balls on the Big Green Egg
Lamb and shrimp meat balls served over Afghan green sauce.
Chicken turn in box from Swinetastic 2011
Swinetastic was our first full KCBS barbecue competition for 2011. This was also the first year for Swinetastic and it was a well organized competition held at the Frederick, Maryland fairgrounds. We had an absolute blast meeting new people and seeing teams we hadn’t crossed paths with since the fall of 2010. The true fun in competing like this is the comradery and the friends you make along the way. Like all KCBS competitions, we cooked four meat categories: Chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder, and beef brisket. This time the ancillary category was seafood. Ancillary categories are more for fun as they are not factored into the overall competition score and they are completely optional. We always enter these because it’s just another chance to show off some creativity and get a professional judge’s opinion on a new recipe. So far we’ve usually placed in the top ten in this ‘extra’ category. Our overall scores improved when compared to last years competitions, but many other teams came with their game face on as we still placed middle of the pack in a couple categories, and my overcooked ribs put them toward the bottom of the pack! Luckily, Erin’s seafood recipe allowed us to walk away with some pride! After three days of little sleep, and spurts of 60 mph winds and hail, we still left with a smile and can’t wait to go back to Frederick, MD next June to do it all over again. Now we have July and August to improve on our techniques and recipes and we’ll test them out against the best in West Virginia next September.
Grilled Sausage Oysters 'Best in seafood' category.
Rib turn in box from Swinetastic 2011
Pork turn in box from Swinetastic 2011
Brisket turn in box from Swinetastic 2011
