Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A quick update

After NH Charlie and I competed in Boston Hills NY and placed 4th overall in the Barbecue and Reserve Grand Champs in the grilling contest. We got a score of 676 in the grilling which really boosted our standings for NEBS Team of the Year.

Lake Placid one of our favorite contests of the year followed Boston Hills. We placed 2nd in Peoples choice ribs and were Grand Champs in the KCBS bbq competition. When they called our name for Grand Champs the whole crowd was stunned because we had 3 lower calls in the categories and there was a team with a 1st place and two 2nd places that everyone including us thought would win the event. Luckily for us that team did not do well in the 4th category and our consistant placing in each category propelled us to the top.

After Lake placid I took the parents to Wildwood NJ for some fun in Atlantic City and a competition practically on the beach. The site of this years event was right next to the sea wall and the view was awesome. I posted some pictures in an earlier update. While there are no woods in Wildwood there is plenty of Wild to go around. The bars let out around 3am and it's quite a site to see.

Stupid me forgot to pack pellets for this trip and out of 62 teams I was the only pellet cooker in attendance. I decided to cook all the big meats in my Backwoods and save what little pellets that were in the hopper for chicken. That decision paid off and we were named Reserve Grand Champions. Congrats to Fat Angel BBQ for their first Grand Championship!

The following week we sat out the event in Troy NY because we all had other things on our schedule.

The most recent event we attended was the Harpoon Championships of New England Barbecue bar none our favorite contest every year. Charlie and a team of helpers vend the event and Doug and I concentrate on the Competition end of things. We placed 1st in Brisket and Pork which put us on top for team of the year for both of those categories. We were trailing coming in to the event and hoped we would do well enough to win at least one of the categories. It was also good enough to make us Grand Champs for the second year in a row !

We were also Grand Champs of the Grilling contest which we have struggled in the past couple of years. Harpoon is a Marathon and most of us on the team are not even built for a sprint, a brisk walk maybe. Doug really worked his tail off on Sunday and I did my best to help even though I think I may have gotten a bad Ice Cube sometime during the night.

Sunday of Harpoon is also the day that the NEBS Team Of the year is announced. I'm very proud to say we were named NEBS Team of the Year for the 4th Year in a row. The awards this year were a knife block with Lamson Sharp knives that had the NEBS logo inscribed in them.

Next up we are teaching a class and then on to Maine for another competition.

That's all for now.