Sweet Pete's Best Racks on the River

We're off to our first contest of the year!  It's been a long time since we actually competed so it will be nice to only have one meat to concentrate on...and it's only 2 hours away.  

It's gonna rain but we've got some great rain gear and canopy so we'll be fine. Hoping to take home some of the prize money on this one.  There will also be food sampling so I hope folks come out despite the weather.  Half of the sampling money goes to a great cause...firefighter charities, the other half goes to the teams.  

Take a nice drive, come out to see us, eat some great ribs, and enjoy your day!

Our first event of the year

Y'all come on down to the river for some tasty ribs!  Bullhead is just a hop, skip and a jump from Las Vegas...it's just across the river from Laughlin.  

This is our first contest of the year...a good one to get our feet wet since it's been quite a while as far as competing goes.  Take the short ride, enjoy some tasty ribs, support a local charity...take a day trip and get out of the house.  

Tasting tickets are just $2 each with half coming back to the teams and the other half goes to support the Bullhead City Firefighters Charities.  

Hitting the BBQ Trail

It's official!  We signed up for the 1st round of events for the Sam's Club National BBQ Tour.  Salt Lake City will be our destination in April to compete in the local event.  We've been wanting to get up there for quite some time now to see friends, visit their new restaurant, etc.  

Last year, we didn't register for the whole Sam's Club thing.  In 2012, we made it all the way to the finals in Bentonville, Arkansas and were blessed to finish 6th in brisket and 6th overall.  It would be awesome if that were the case again this year.  We'll see.  There are so many variables that come into play.  It will be an adventure we look forward to.

A long over due post update

Holy cow!  I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything on this blog.  It's not like we've been up to nothing...we've been busy.

In August, we participated in a Kid's Que burger contest at St. Jude's Ranch for Kids in Boulder City.  The kids were so excited to team up with our BBQ teams to cook the best burgers they could.  They all had a great time.  Thankfully, we had an overcast, cool day for August which we were all grateful for.  

There have been several practice cooks. 

We both took a BBQ class from Jennifer Duncan (Smoked to the Bone).

We know Tommy and Jen and it was a pleasure to take the class and spend time with them.  Timm got to be her assistant for much of the class.  

Timm organized and ran the Thrill of the Grill contest in November.  It was held at Bass Pro Shops once again.  They have been really good to us, giving us prime space, ads on the marquee and more. 

The team's entries were creative and tasty.  

Timm inputs all the scores.

In December, NVBBQA hosted the Downtown Throw Down on Fremont Street.  It was a fabulous success with teams representing 6 states.  Steve did most of the organizing for this event.  On the grounds of the event Doug, Timm, and Paul, along with Steve pulled it off.  It was a ton of work, we learned a bunch and look forward to doing it again.

In October, I had both my knees replaced.  It's been a long time coming...a 15 year process for me.  This kept me down so there were no contests for us the last part of the year.  

We did however cater several events including a 50th anniversary, a HOA community barbecue, a topping off party for Martin Harris...we fed almost 400 construction workers and staff for that one.  

Holbrook Recap

We've been back from Holbrook a while now and realized I've not updated my blog.  For shame.  ;)

For those that aren't aware of where Holbrook is...it sits on I-40 on the eastern side of Arizona in the midst of the Navajo Nation, lots of red dirt, petrified trees and all sorts of vintage/funky interstate highway memorabilia kind of things.  

Interstate 40 is heavily traveled and a major road of choice for semi trucks traversing this great land of ours.  With that being said...the road can be pretty rough in many places.  I'm pleased to tell you it is finally being replaced in long sections and is getting much better   

We arrived in Holbrook before lunch, set up our site, and settled in for another contest.  Last year, this was what I considered a local contest with many of the teams we often compete against.  But this year there were many well known and highly successful teams from around the country.    Johnny Triggs was our neighbor on one side and Left Coast Q on the other.  Big Poppa Smokers and several of his Elite Teams were there including Iowa's Smokey D's and others.  Smoking Hills, Little Miss BBQ,  The Cowboy Way, Karnivorous, Loot & Booty, Ranch 13, Lucky 13, Sin City Smokers and more lined the streets around the haunted courthouse.  Sorry, no ghost tour this year.  :(  At the judges meeting the KCBS reps announced they were running with the new scoring system.  There are just a minor changes in weighting of scores but the information on the score sheets was quite interesting.  You can see who was on the same table with you, how your box scored against the judges avg score and more.  

We set about the tasks of prepping, cooking, boxing and more as usual.  I thought we overcooked the chicken since the pit hit about 350 at that point.  Turned out that one of the pieces was still slightly pink at the bone...bummer.  It was considered undercooked and scored very poorly.  We still managed a mid pack score on chicken though.  I don't what happened to our pork...it wasn't spectacular like the pork in Boulder City, but I didn't consider it bad either.  I am embarrassed to say it came in "Dead Ass Last".  Please Lord, never let that happen again.  However, we redeemed ourselves in brisket and took 3rd brisket.  In that highly successful crowd of teams I was really pleased to hear our name...especially for brisket.  

One little Indian boy came around by our booth looking really concerned.  He came back with his mom a bit later.  He was afraid we were going to cook the dog for the contest since he saw her on the logo.  I have to admit that was a first to hear or even imagine.  We assured him she was not going into the pit and was our mascot.  We introduced Cassy to him and he went away felling much better about the whole thing.

Once again, we donated our prepared meats to the local food bank along with many other teams.  There is a great need in the area that we have the honor of helping to fulfill with something we are passionate about. It's a good feeling to know that so many will benefit from it. 

We finished 15th overall.  I can't help to think where we could have been without the problems we encountered with chicken and pork.  Congrats to all the teams, it was great to see so many of them again.  Thanks to Tommy and Jennifer Duncan.  They put on a top notch contest every time.  Till next time...keep on smoking that meat. 

Holbrook here we come

It's Thursday before a contest and that means I run around like a chicken with my head cut off making sure the last things are done before heading out in the morning.  Suitcase needs to be packed, ice chests need to be loaded, truck get hooked up and the trailer is almost ready to go.
Cassy always knows we are leaving and she is well aware that she needs to be going, too.  If the back door on the truck is open, she'll be sittin' in the seat waiting patiently.
Holbrook, Arizona is waiting for us...and we don't want to keep'em waiting.  We hope to bring home some cash and hardware this time around.  Wish us luck.

Independence Day

Wishing all our family and friends a safe and fun filled holiday.  Give thanks for those who have fought and sacrificed so all can enjoy our liberties.