Transformer BBQ

The squad returned to New Hampshire for the Rock and Ribs Festival looking for a little revenge after having a disappointing performance at the event last year. Terrence, back from school for the summer, joined the team for the first time since Harpoon last year. After arriving Saturday morning and setting up the site, the team shifted modes for the grilling competition. Despite seeming more interested in the beautiful weather and looking for the infamous ninja’s from last year, the team pulled a respectable 5^th place overall during the first day. The highlight of the competition was Julie’s fruit category which she pulled down a second place for her mango. A close second was the impressive scores the team received for appearance. Rumor has it there was something special in those boxes. Sadly, the ninja’s managed to elude the Transformer squad. However, JT and Terrence managed to find the french fries, fried dough, and bloomin onions. They were able to resist the sweet temptation of the deep fried oreos, luckily. While Brendan and Julie prepared the meat for the BBQ competition, Terrence and JT turned their attention to libations and preparing the next day’s turn in boxes. Patrick arrived later in the evening, just in time to refresh the supplies and bring the ping pong balls. Team bonding ensued for the rest of the night.

The BBQ competition highlighted the strides that the team has taken last year. While Transformer wasn’t able to take the Grand Champions position, we placed second in chicken and third in pulled pork. Overall, Transformer ended up 4^th in the BBQ competition. The weekend ended abruptly when a monsoon rolled in and left every one scrambling for shelter. Some team members were lucky enough to find a seat in a car, some were lucky to have rain gear. And then there was Terrence who was thankful to have the shelter of the collapsible trash barrel to protect him from the storm. Alls well that ends well.

-T

kcbs certified bbq judge reporting for duty…the event at peter’s pond was great.  although i was a bit nervous about eating all that food, i found it much easier than expected.  for the most part, the food was good with a few standouts and a few not so good items.  what i enjoyed most was getting to see what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ after we turn in our food.  i’m happy to report that the process is quite smooth and it seems to really work well.  of course, everyone has their own taste preferences, however, for the most part i found that most of the table formed a concensus around what they liked and did not liked (nothing was discussed until of course after all scores were tallied).  i’m glad i had the chance to participate and i’m sure i’ll judge again at some point.  it was certainly much easier to stroll in that morning with no gear to set up, no stress, nothing to cook overnight, clean, etc.  a nice little break.  we stayed for the afternoon and into the evening to hang out with friends.  congrats to i smell smoke for taking the prize and to lakeside smokers on reserve.   On to new hampshire this weekend, wish us luck….julie

Was it Bobby Flay covering the Royal that makes us want to go so badly?  Not really. As much as we love Bobby, it doesn’t take much to convince me that going to the Royal is something that I want to do and make happen this year!  I just added it to our ‘official’ (changes every other day) contest roster - so now I just need to do some organizing.  So why not go?  I have two tickets on American just waiting to be used.  And if I’m going to pay $15 for my bag - I’m jam packing it full of spices, sauce and utensils (can I bring knives?).  I think the only tough part might be finding a smoker, but I have a feeling we can make this work too.  Experiencing a 450+ team contest must be amazing - I’d like to go even if I wasn’t going to cook…but then again, if we are there, why not cook?  American Royal - here we come!

As excited as I am about bbq right now, I’m actually also feeling very nervous about judging my first event tomorrow at Peter’s Pond.  I’m not so much worried that the food will be way better than what we can make, because of course there will be a lot of that…I’m actually freaked out that I have to judge 5 categories, 6 samples each for a grand total of 30 different items.  That is completely overwhelming and I wish I didn’t eat anything today - I’m going to need to be hungry.  I’m sure it will be great, can’t wait to try some tasty food.  And, of course I’m looking forward to hanging out with good friends…

As soon as we start to get ancy, we sign up for extra contests…which is what happened with Grilling on The Bay.  We were already headed to Connecticut on Sunday for a baby shower (Sheila from Q Haven), we were sort of thinking Brooklyn was right around the corner and why not go?  So we took it easy and made it as relaxing as we could.  We also have a lot of wedding stuff going on lately so this was a nice escape from all of that!  The contest was in a great location, however, the turnout was not very high.  Only six teams made the trip - apparently a number of teams did not show up at all.  We thought we cooked some pretty good food and took 1st in two categories. Our big flaw of the weekend was not cooking ribs for the ‘pork’ category.  We did chops which were good, but could never stack up to delicious ribs.  Lesson learned. Anyway, it was a great time, Brendan I worked together better than ever and we had fun too.  Congrats to Clint/Smoke in Da Eye who rocked the event as grand champion.  Enough with the grilling for us, we are excited to get in some BBQ’ing!