Transformer BBQ

No longer will Brendan have to spend hours in the dark and pouring rain trying to get our electrical hookup to work.  We’ve got our own power - in the form on a sleek red box filled with gas - good thing gas is cheap these days.

When you start doing the math, our 2008 BBQ has been a little out of control.  Here’s a few stats on our season:

# of contests Total: 20

# of KCBS Sanctioned Contests: 10

# of Grilling contests: 9

# of NEBS sanctioned Events: 15

# of racks of Ribs cooked standard BBQ format events: 55

# of racks of Ribs cooked in 2008: 175

# of Changes in Rib Recipe since Jan 1, 2008: 0

# of First place finishes in a category: 7 (8 including NEBS Rib TOTY)

# of states we cooked BBQ in: 7

# of those states in which we didn’t get a walk: 1
These are off the top of my head… so if there are any you want to know, post in the comments and I’ll add them to this post…

 -B

Harpoon not only makes a great beer, they also make the community a better place. Harpoon Helps is the charitable component of the brewery, volunteering and donating for local New England causes. This past weekend, Brendan and I volunteered for the 2nd Annual Harpoon Helps Pre-Thanksgiving Beer-B-Que where a number of NEBS members prepared food for over 150 people. The cost of the meal for each attendee helped to raise money for the Greater Boston Food Bank. We prepared such items as coconut shrimp, jalapeno poppers, hushpuppies, pulled turkey, pork, stuffing and apple bread pudding just to name a few. The food was delicious and a great time was had by all. We enjoyed being part of this fantastic event and look forward to helping out again next year. -JB

Huge New England showing at the Jack last week. The 3 NEBS teams all finished in the top 20, with an outstanding showing by Lunchmeat from Rockland MA with a 5th overall.  Congratulations to IQUE with their first place chefs choice entry… that makes three years in a row for a New England team with IQue in 2006, I Smell Smoke in 2007 and IQue again in 2008. 

(sorry for the short posts… used up some of my typing in the Sayville post)

-B

Just wanted to congratulate some of the people I didn’t mention in the last post.  Congratulations to Clint and John on their first GC in a KCBS event, giving them an automatic into the Royal Invitational next year, and bid into the lottery for the Jack in 2009.  Congratulations to Lakeside on their 2^nd place ribs, and to Smoke on the Water for their Brisket win.  Also nice job by a bunch of very new teams, always good to see new people hooked into this hobby… and a walk to the stage will do it.

     Arrived home last night very very late from Sayville, got a few calls in the grilling event, sort of a lackluster performance during the KCBS event with a call for 6th in ribs.  The contest was eventful to say the least.
     Many bbq competition teams talk about events that are “cooker friendly”.  Its sort of a loose term meaning that things are run smoothly, there are things like power and water for the teams, and things go as they are advertised by the organizer.  Even on a broader sense it involves contests where the organizers provide some sort of extras that show the teams are a first priority.
     I’d rate Sayville as an “Organizer and Judge friendly” event.
Here’s one of the longest recaps you’ll see on here… its my perspective as a team at an event… Read the rest of this entry »

We are excited to be headed to Sayville, Long Island this coming weekend to compete in the Battle of the BBQ Brethren.  Last year this contest was great and I’m sure this year will be just as fantastic.  We planned on attending with just our ‘mini’ crew of me and Brendan, however, we found out that Kim and Brian, our newlywed friends (yes, we gave them transformer bbq sweatshirts as part of their wedding gift) will be stopping by!  We just had the trailer hitch fixed (as our brakes on the trailer have never been hooked up) and I can’t wait to do some driving…and some ferry-ing if we have the chance.  Saturday is the grilling contest which should be interesting with on site judging for 2 of the categories.  Unfortunately, we cannot decide what we’ll be making for either of those items - we need to get our act together.  Sunday is the KCBS contest.  We are looking forward to a fabulous time this weekend.  And, I’m a bit sad already (I like to plan ahead) that this will be our final contest of 2008! 

-julie b.

People keep asking us ‘how was the drive to kansas city?’…well, we flew so that’s not too interesting.  then we get asked ‘did you have a good time?…Oh Yeah!  We started out thinking it would be fun to check out the Royal and we had some miles saved so why not?  Then, we kind of figured why not cook?  Luckily, the Slabs offered to let us borrow a Lang (very critical), tent, tables and chairs.  We then figured out what we really needed to have with us and sent one extra large bin of stuff with i smell smoke as they were driving.  Next, we sent Terrence on his most important mission he had undertaken as part of the squad - to get important supplies.  Then, Bren, JT and I packed one bag each and a soft cooler of meat and headed to St. Louis.

We arrived and found T’s car and went to the local grocery store. We ended up splitting up and looking for food, but we ended up getting duplicate items and having trouble finding each other.  Then, we got our act together and finished off the list.  We got a bunch of booze including 32 oz cans of miller products.  Slept at T’s and made the 4 hour trek to Kansas City in the morning.  We probably made it 10 miles (if that) and HAD to stop at Sonic, the greatest fast food joint of all time (except maybe In and Out burger).  Drive was good except T’s car really shakes…it was fine.  We arrived at the Royal and didn’t really check in, just assumed we’d find our place amongst 500 teams.  And actually, we did immediately, only because we had an amazing spot right near the front of the place.  We had a sweet spot.  We got hooked up.

The AR is HUGE, immense, insane!  Read the rest of this entry »

Its not Friday night yet… but I’m jumping on the bandwagon.   Lakeside Smokers posts food pictures every Friday night… and today Pigtrip.net gave a nod to them by doing the same.  Sort of standard not to post contest food, but here is a item we have retired from competition.  It was very hit or miss depending on the table of judges, and less on how the actual item was prepared… so while this may show up at home, or for friends… I don’t see this coming back any time soon for NEBS or KCBS contests… revealed… the Transformer BBQ Tuna…