Westmont, Illinois!!! Home town contest!!!

Woo hoo, Memorial Day weekend and it's my home town contest. Have worked with the contest organizer, Jim Addington to try and have this as a premier cooks contest. Jim and his crew are tireless in trying to take care of us. If they ever side, they will always side with the cooks...

I pulled in to the park on Friday night, as this is a Saturday/Sunday contest. I was over by Dr. Porkenstein, Quau, Twyford BBQ, Smokey Joel and KRE. A whole group of us went to Uncle Bub's BBQ, which is a local restaurant. The guys all know Mark and Jay as they try and compete whenever they have free time from their busy restaurant and catering business. Well, what a feast that these guys put on for us!!! Every time I turned my head, we had another platter of appetizers or food coming out. Thanks to Uncle Bub's for the feast!!!

We started the Sunday off with a service from Reverend Twyford and a offering from Phillip Brazier who brought us a special treat from Lynchburg... All I can say is ahhhh... ;-) Thanks Phillip and Kathy for coming another year! Sure is nice to get y'all up here...

My food was all turning out how I had wanted. I was real happy with all my turn-ins. The judges thought otherwise... We managed to score 40th out of 45 teams for pork... To me, that is spit out of your mouth disgusting... Oh well. I finally got a call for my 6th place brisket, so at least I wasn't shut-out!!! We did get a nice 23rd place finish in the overall..... lol I am not changing a thing, as I know that my stuff wasn't bad. The good part is that my good friend Alex from Dr. Porkenstein managed to pull the 3-peat, by winning the Grand Championship! Way to go Alex and Kate!! They just own this contest. I am very happy for ya bud!!!

Cancer Sucks!

Scottie

Steeleville, Illinois

Another contest that I am leaving after dropping of my little one at school and then me hitting the road. It took a little over 5 hours, as I was watching my speed!!! I had my sister come with me for this one.

This contest was set-up right in downtown. It was a whole town festival. We were on some side streets and parking lots. It was actually a nice set-up with water and electricity nice and convenient. We were set-up with Smokey Joel, Dr. Porkenstein, Twyford BBQ and Quau as our neighbors. The turn-in area couldn't of been closer either.

They were predicting storms coming through later int he evening, so we all prepared for the storms to come in. While the heavy stuff just missed us, we did get some nice strong winds and rain. Which managed to break my awning on my RV....



A little rain didn't stop us from our late night lamb chop-a-thon... Have I said these go really good with Joel's Mai Thais? ;-) I must admit, while I hate rain at contests, I do enjoy sitting under shelter and listening to the rain fall.

We started the next day off with a morning good luck shot with the Reverend Twyford. Which brings me to the Friday night martini contest. Man, did Randy ever make a good one. He finished high in the contest, which was won by the Smokin Scotsmen. These 2 cocktails were unbelievably good. Can say I have never had a martini that tasted like these 2!!! I had to give it to Reverend though, as he included bacon in his...



For the results, got a 4th and 6th place call for my ribs and pork and they basically spit out my chicken. Finished in 7th place overall, so I know my stuff is right there. Not sure what's going on with the judges this year, but I'll just keep plugging along. I know my recipes work, so I will tweak them a little, but not much... Talk to me in July to see if I kept to that or not! lol

Now, let's see how long it takes me to get a new awning on my RV!!!! Not too many weekends off and no time dyuring the week, as these places close before I am even home... Arghhhh...

Cancer Sucks!

Scottie

I can't drive 55!!!

This post is my tribute to Sammy Hagar!!! ;-)




Well, I am finally back home in Illinois cooking!!! Heading down to Edwardsville, Illinois, which is located in the county which I was born and lived my first 4 years of my life... It was good to be back home...

As you can see by that sign, RV's are to drive 55 MPH... I hooked up with a bus that was going 70 MPH and I thought I had finally figured out how to drive fast in Illinois, as we have this stupid rule that RV's and trailers have to drive 55 MPH... You guessed it, I got busted! When I pulled over, I also happened to stop right in front of this sign... D'oh is all I have to say... Needless to say, I now drive 64 miles MPH in Illinois....

When I arrived at the contest it was pouring down rain. Tough to get motivated to get going on a contest when that is happening! But I was fortunate to be next to Alex and Kate from Dr. Porkenstein and they got me going. The rain ended and it actually became a real nice weekend! Started a nice tradition with Joel and Vince from Smokey Joel/Cubby Bear at this contest. Joel had brought some lamb chops and he cooked them up! Man do they go good with his Mai Thai's!!!



As for the contest the judges seemed to like my food a little better got another 1st place brisket and a couple other calls and was also called for Reserve Grand Champion! The Grand Championship was called for Smokey Joel/Cubby Bear!!! Way to go Joel and Vince!!! They beat my butt by a whopping .0008!!!! We'll get him next time! ;-)

Cancer Sucks!

Scottie