Blues, Brews & BBQ
Greenfield MA
October 10-12, 2014

Not much to say about this competition except that it was beautiful weather and we played some great bocce.

In the grilling competition we turned in some beautiful plates: I gave my home-made ginger buffalo sauce another try, and made a buffalo-chicken pizza.  A judge commented that the pizza tasted like funk.  I'm beginning to realize that the judges don't like blue cheese.  My steaks, wings and pizza all fare poorly when I add blue cheese.  Go figure!  Chuck made home-made sausages which he wrapped in pretzel rolls.  Super yum, but didn't score well.  Lastly, Cris made these beautiful apple-cider doughnuts for the dessert category.  They were yummy and so cute!  Since it's close to Halloween, we presented them in this cute box with popcorn as a garnish.  Everyone who tasted them, fellow competitors and other judges after the competition, raved about them, and we had high hopes, but they ranks almost last.  My only thought was that the judges didn't consider them a dessert.  We were very disappointed.

We really thought we couldn't get worse than that, but turns out we could.  The judges didn't like anything we put out this weekend.

Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour
Scarborough ME
August 9, 2014

This tourney is a big deal.  There are five regions; each with five local tournaments.  The top six from each local event compete in a regional event.  The top six from each regional event go to the national event which has a huge payoff.  Unfortunately, Maine seems to be our Achilles heel.  We really did terribly. 

Note: one of the teams that beat us today (Insane Swine) placed third in the national championship, and another team (The Basic BBQ Team) also made it to the national championship.  See?  We compete against some pretty big dogs here in New England.

Krazy Days
Middleborough MA
August 2, 2014

Cris and Chuck did this one on their own.  Krazy Days is a one-day competition so they got up early and got the fires going.  They didn’t participate in the people’s choice, but are determined to go back next year and do it.  Cris’s ribs came in 3rd place.  No pictures.

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.

Riverside Blues and BBQ
Greenfield, MA
October 12-13, 2013

This is our first trip out to Greenfield, and once again the organizers are great!  The people involved in this sport and the nicest you'd ever want to meet.

I thought all our grilling entries were great.  The categories were wings, sausage, pizza and dessert.  The wings weren't over done and tasted yummy.  For the sausage, Chuck made patties and put them on scrambled egg "buns" with onion chutney.  The pizza was a margherita with fresh basil and tomatoes, and we made the bananas foster chimichangas. We came in middle of the pack on all of them.

I was very disappointed with my chicken legs.  I thought they were over-cooked and burnt in spots.  Cris's ribs were the best ribs I've ever tasted.  Their texture was perfect, and they looked pretty, too.  Just goes to show you that you can never tell what the judges will think.  Our ribs came in at the bottom.  Our pork got a shout out at 6th place, and our chicken came in 2nd place!  Our first KCBS award.  I still can't believe it. 

Harvard Fall Festival
Harvard, MA
September 14-15, 2013

The grilling competition categories were boneless chicken, shrimp, wrapped in bacon and dessert. 

We learned something about people’s choice.  One of the categories was sliders.  Chuck put together this pretty little thing:

Which was well-liked, but we didn’t make enough.  Note to selves: make two steamer pans of it next time.  They will be happy to replenish your supply.

This was our teriyaki chicken.  It tasted good, but was a little over done at the edges.  Also, our garnish still holds a lot to be desired.  Not pretty at all.

For the wrapped in bacon category, we actually made a bacon lattice for the bottom of the container.  Then we made bacon fatties: sausage stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon and sliced. 

I don’t think the judges liked that you couldn’t see the bacon because it was around the edges.

I forgot to take a picture of our shrimp box, but here it is.  It is the same crab-stuffed, bacon-wrapped shrimp we made at Brookline.

Lastly, Cris made bananas foster chimichangas.  Good gracious, but they were delicious.  Only a scoop of vanilla ice cream could have improved them.  

In the KCBS competition, we were judged poorly.  The judges didn’t respond well to the legs, although I thought they looked and tasted great.  The ribs over-cooked and then didn’t slice well.  The plate was sticky and sloppy.  We tried handing in the pork in multiple ways: pulled, burnt ends and sliced.  Again, the judges were underwhelmed.  My brisket consistently turns out dry.  This year we had a fiasco.  I had filled my water pan with sand to help hold the heat.  In the middle of the night, the temp shot way up.  In my 2am blur, I forgot about the sand and dumped water into the water pan.  It immediately made steam, coating the brisket with a fine layer of sand.  I almost didn’t hand it in.  Oddly, I got some of my best scores to date.  Go figure.

Our efforts this weekend paid off.  We took 2nd place in shrimp, 5th place in dessert and 3rd place over all in the grilling competition.  We also took 2nd place in people’s choice sliders.  See? We should have made more.

Brookline BBQ Competition
Brookline, NH
July 20-21, 2013

Brookline hosted a grilling competition this year, too.  We really love them.  We throw caution to the wind and experiment.  Unfortunately, the judges don’t always appreciate our attempts.  The categories were pizza, shrimp, steak and dessert.  Cris and I were on our own for the weekend, but we got everything cooked and turned in so we consider it a success.  We tried a fancy caramelized onion pizza, but it didn’t look pretty.  Cris grilled up a bacon-wrapped, crab-stuffed shrimp that earned 2nd place!  I tried a roulade for the steak, but I wasn’t happy with how the cheese filling came out.  I tried a grilled polenta and plum dessert, but it didn’t come out right.  It was too difficult to pull off well under pressure, and not sweet enough.

Day 2 was the tailgate.  Again we got everything turned in, including people’s choice wings and pork.  We won again!  The wings came in 3rd place and our people’s choice wings came in 2nd.  That actually earned us our first purse.  We were so excited!

Harvard Fall Festival
Harvard, MA
September 15-16, 2012

Guess what we have for this competition – A banner! And t-shirts!  Leah’s sister designed the logo for us.  We love it!  We feel so much more official. 

We had horrible rain again, this time for set up.  Ugh!  Rain is really un-fun.

This was our first grilling competition.  The categories were shrimp, wings, sausage and dessert.  Our shrimp came in 7th!  We are so excited.  Our dessert was crepes.  Yes, we made crepes on the grill.  They were yummy, but didn’t impress the judges.

Harvard has interesting people’s choice categories: sausage, chili, wings and pork. 

In KCBS, our ribs came in 14th out of 44 and our pork came in 17th out of 44.  Not too bad.  

Mainely Grillin & Chillin
Eliot, ME
August 11-12, 2012

The people’s choice was run differently than other places we’ve been.  Instead of taking your food to a tent where everyone was served, people came around to the sites and sampled there.  We were at the front so not sure if that hurt us.  I imagine that after walking the entire site, you wouldn’t be too incented to walk back to give a team your ticket.  Here’s Chuck working our table.  We were definitely amateurs, though.  Other teams have signs, decorations, fancy serving gear.    

They also had an interesting side competition.  They told us to make a dessert using a secret ingredient which was lemons.  We pulled together a pound cake with lemon sauce.  I thought it was damn good, but again, we were amateurs.  Other teams had fancy serving trays and plates and made cheese cakes and other amazing things. 

Oh, how it rained on day two.  We had to pack up wet.  It was cold and miserable, but we still had fun.  We did terrible with the judges, though and got some of our worst scores yet. 

Brookline Tailgate Competition
Brookline, NH
July 21-22, 2012

We were so anxious for the season to start.  We finished 6th out of 28 in wings.  We love the folks at Brookline.  Everyone is so friendly, and this event is so organized.  It’s a pleasure to come here.