Archive for June, 2009
Easy Guacomole
Jun 30th
The first time we had table side guacamole was in Puerto Vallarta five years ago. Now some places like On the Border and Dos Rios sell it table side for $7 and up. This is a waste considering how cheap and easy it is. First start with a ripe Haas avocado. It’s ripe if squishy but not too squishy. Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Take a spoon and scoop out the inside. Then get a fork and mix it all together. Five min of work if that and if you’re lucky 2/$3 on the avacodo. I added a small roma tomato diced, some red onion diced and a small diced jalepeno. About $4. I topped a Tostito’s Scoop filled with pulled pork and cheese.
Marshalltown Wrap Up
Jun 28th
Boy was it hot. We got up to Marshalltown Thursday night around 8 and it was still in the 80’s. Our spot was in the north forty, but we had power to kick on the AC in the trailer which was good. Otherwise I think Casey would have been one big welt from all the mosquitos. The park was in good shape but definately had a lot of areas closed from some local flooding.
Friday we got everything all setup and that afternoon I took David to see Transformers 2. Nice way to beat the heat for a couple hours. When we got back the park was hopping. We went to the cooks meeting and came back for about an hour before David had to go prepare for the Kid’s Que. At the Kids Que the kids all had to cook on small Chargrill grills and do all their prep work there. Kind of fun to see some of the little kids grilling. David made crab stuffed prawns. Pretty good stuff. Good enough for 4th place. Good job David.
We spend the rest of Friday night getting everything prepped. Friday seemed like a blur and it was 1am before I knew it. Got up on Saturday around 7 am and the brisket and pork looked incredible. I loved the color, texture and firmness of it. Everything was cooking great. This contest I cooked everything on the FEC-100 because I was doing any Anything Butt category and was doing scallops on the egg. All was pretty good but the chicken was not quite as tender as it was in State Center.
We ended up finishing 19th overall and 6th place in pork. I thought our food was pretty good. I made a slight adjustment brisket and it was one of the better ones I had made I thought. I figured we were about a couple taste points away in chicken from being in the overall top 10. Not bad when there were 68 extremely tough teams.
Marshalltown Kid’s Que
Jun 28th
David competed in the Marshalltown Kids’s Que this weekend finishing 4th. He made crab stuffed prawns. Here he is doing the prep work.
Leftover Pork
Jun 28th
We have a freezer full of pork. So what do we do besides sandwiches? Dawn’s gotton pretty good at enchilladas.
Fathers Day
Jun 28th
Occasionally we do other stuff then pork, brisket, chicken and ribs on the egg. This is a NY Strip from Costco grilled on the extra large egg using a cast iron grate.
Iowa State BBQ Championship
Jun 26th
Buster Dog BBQ is participating in the Iowa State BBQ Championship in Marshalltown. Tough contest with 60 teams from 10 states.
Pigtail Flipper
Jun 21st
This is becoming one of my favorite BBQ utensils. It’s a pig tail flipper. You can use it to stick into your meat, flip and release. I really like it on chicken and ribs because I can get right under a bone and flip without doing any damage. I don’t like tongs a lot because they usually lock if you hold them in a certain position and they don’t quite grab onto food the way I want. LIke on ribs, you can easily leave a cut mark or scrape off some rub.
State Center Wrap Up
Jun 21st
Well, State Center has come and gone. Definitely not what we were looking for. Friday started off good. Got up and there was a big red blob on the radar over State Center. We left here about 730am and had sun shine the whole way. Got setup and everything without an issue.
We had all the meat prepped and ready when we got there. Everything was going like clock work. Friday we hung out for a while and I was able to tap someones internet connection and get a little work done. We were pretty happy to get back to regular KCBS categories. Last time we had the main four we finished 7th overall. We thought we could do better than that here.
At the cooks meeting they handed out boxes. We were supposed to do lamb but they have ours to someone else but mistake. Oh well, better yet.
So skipping ahead to turn ins…I did eight chicken on the egg and eight on the FEC just to compare. They both tasted almost identical. The chicken was so tender I had to use my gloves to move it as the pigtail was falling out of it. I liked the taste a lot. The judges agreed mostly on the tenderness as we got 3 9’s and 2 8’s but one guy gave us a 7. The thing on chicken that killed us was taste. 4 7’s and a 6 on taste. My guess is it was too spicy for the judges. I enjoyed the flavor as did Dawn and David. Our opinions don’t count.
The ribs were good. We got some from Restaurant Depot we liked. Full and meaty and came clean off the bone here you bite.. Again, judges didnt like what they saw and scored us down in tenderness and taste.
Pork. Well, let’s just say I turned in three money muscles and a couple chunks of the horn area. The two most tender areas. We finished dead ass last in pork. Again, taste killed us. What I don’t understand is how using the same recipe we finished 1st out of 71 in Minnesota in May against a stronger field and DAL here.
Brisket ended up being our best category. Nothing spectacular.
After I got the score sheet I talked to the rep and she said everything was correct. I will take the scoring for what it is. Even the best have bad days. However, not usually in every category. I was talking to a friend of mine from Smokin’ Buddies. He experienced similar things in Austin, MN. He told me at the pork expo that his scores were irregular compared to normal. He is also a judge and told me about his scores and what he thought. Now us cooks always think it should be higher, but in Austin they had issues with incorrectly entered scores and such. This contest was the same rep. Coincidence? I am not going to jump to conclussions, but if we do well in Marshalltown next week, what does that say?
Congrats to those who walked. BIg Moe from Ponderosa Smoke House 72 and Meadow Valley had a great days and Smokey D as always did his best.
Former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer used to have a 24 hour rule after a game where you don’t talk about it anymore. That’s why I am writing this tonight.
Chest to Chest
Jun 18th
Just a link of Chest to Chest BBQ locations. Kind of lIke Butt to Butt in Shannon, Il. WIn brisket at one of these locations and you’re invited to compete against some of the best brisket cooks around.
Brisket Pine Bluff AR
Brisket Decatur AL
Brisket Frisco CO
Brisket Dillon CO
Brisket Marshalltown IA
Brisket Waucoma IA
Brisket Great Bend KS
Champion Great Bend KS
Brisket Dodge City KS
Champion Dodge City KS
Brisket Lenexa KS
Res Champion Great Bend KS
Champion Great Bend KS
Brisket Great Bend KS
Champion Great Bend KS
Res Champion Great Bend KS
Brisket Emporia KS
Brisket KC GAB KS
Brisket KC GAB KS
Brisket Paola KS
Brisket Raytown MO
Brisket Blue Springs MO
Brisket Laurie MO
Brisket Warrensburg MO
Brisket KC Royal Open MO
Champion KC Royal Open MO
Brisket KC Royal Inv MO
Champion KC Royal Inv MO
Brisket KCMO
Brisket Reserve Champion KCMO
Champion KCMO Res Champion KCMO
Brisket LaPlatte NE
Brisket Bellevue NE
Brisket Ponca OK
Brisket Tulsa OK
Brisket Jenks OK
Brisket New Holland PA
Brisket Lebanon TN
Brisket Lynchburg TN
Champion Lynchburg TN
Brisket Lawerenceburg TN
Brisket Terligua TX
Brisket Houston TX
Brisket Humble TX
Brisket Meridan TX
Bisket Terrell TX
Brisket Grand Prairie TX
Grand Champion Grand Prairie TX
Grand Champion Great Bend KS 1st Annual Chest to Chest
Grand Champion Great Bend KS 2nd Annual Chest to Chest
Grand Champion Great Bend KS 3rd Annual Chest to Chest
No More Close Ups of My Meat
Jun 16th