This was our first time competing in the Otter River Tailgate.  It was a lovely competition, and we look forward to doing it again.

This was David's Kids Q chicken entry.  He made the recipe up himself.  The secret ingredient in the glaze was Swedish Fish!  No kidding!  They came in 2nd place!

Brookline Tailgate
Brookline NH
July 18-19, 2015

The song goes, "Some days are diamonds.  Some days are stone."  This was a stone day.  We couldn't catch much of a break in the grilling competition today.  Cris carried the team with his coconut shrimp which came in 5th place!  We burnt the pizza.  I moved away from the blue cheese and browned butter, and topped my steaks with an olive compound butter instead.  It was very poorly received.  One thing I've heard from other competitors is that judges can sometimes balk at meat that isn't well done.  BBQ judges are used to meat cooked a long time, so it is always presented fully cooked.  I've been turning in medium rare steaks, which are perfect from my perspective (and that of my 7 year old daughter), but the judges aren't liking it.  2016 will be the year of the well-done steak, I guess.  Our desserts were cheese cake tartlets.  Chuck got a near perfect score on appearance, but 2 out of the 6 judges found the flavor only mediocre.  The other 4 loved it, but averages can suck.

One of the people's choice categories was fascinating this year.  It was a mystery category.  The meat turned out to be a whole turkey!  We were given a basket with these ingredients: Craisins, Shock Top beer, mint vinegar, pepper oil and Swedish Fish!  We cooked the beer, craisins, candy and vinegar down to make a glaze and coated the turkey with the oil to help browning.  The oil and vinegar where the hardest ingredients as they both had a weird, funky, flavor.  I think we put in a good product anyway. 

This was David's second Kids Q.  He replicated his lamb burgers, but mixed some ground bacon into the burger to help keep it juicy and topped it with feta cheese.  They certainly were more juicy, but they didn't do as well.  He came in 6th this time which really bummed him out.  The comment was that the judges couldn't identify what kind of meat it was so I guess the bacon wasn't a great idea because it detracted from the lamb too much. He did make friends with a fellow competitor and they bummed around together most of the weekend, and that is the real point of BBQ.

I thought our wings and ribs were smashing, but the judges really disagreed.  Sometimes I just don't get what they're looking for.  I taste our competitors, and I think we stand up to their product, and yet we fared worse.  Well, no where to go but up.

We're still learning how to make the best bbq box garnish.  We don't care for the parsley putting green, and discovered this method with green leaf lettuce.  Here's a link YouTube video by Redneck Scientific demonstrating how to make this box.  You'll note his looks a lot better than mine.

Brookline Fire Department Tailgate
Brookline NH
July 19-20, 2014

We always have fun at Brookline.  It’s one of the best organized competitions we attend each year.  This year the grilling categories were pizza, shrimp, steak and dessert.  We have yet to master pizza on the grill.  It’s always a little over done.  Chuck made a steak and caramelized onion pizza.  It made a great dinner.  Cris is a master at shrimp and made a coconut shrimp this time.  I made a brown-butter basted ribeye with blue cheese.  I’m not very good at steak at home, but this was a perfect medium rare.  I garnished it with grilled potatoes.  I thought it was awesome.  It came in 5th place.  We tried the chimichangas again for dessert, but this time they didn’t perform, although they were lovely.

I tried my ginger hot wings this time.  I knew it was a risk with the New England judge’s palate, but my hot wing sauce is awesome.  It proved too spicy, I fear.  Cris’s ribs came in 5th place, thought!  Hurray!

This was David’s first try at the Kids Q.  The category was burgers.  He created a Moroccan lamb burger based off of a lamb meatball recipe he’s had before.  He even made his own pita bread and tomato chutney.  The burger came in 5th place!  He was thrilled.