Freaky Friday

As I surf the Blogosphere, I've noticed that some of my fellow bloggers have set aside some days for certain things. Such as "Wordless Wednesday" or "Federalist Friday". So I decide to do a "Freaky Friday" entry.

Don at the "Beyond Left Field" blog wrote about getting close to a ghost. Here is a picture of something, maybe a ghost.

The Dudette (Pat my wife) and I went on a ghost hunt earlier this year. The locations was the Porter County Jail in Valparaiso Indiana. The jail is now a museum. The photo was taken on the upper floor of the jail/museum. The room at one time was side room converted to an office several years ago but then abandoned.

It was about 10:30 at night, the lights were out and we were in almost total darkness. Pat was taking pictures without a flash. She stuck her hand inside the door way of the room and pushed the button. We heard the auto focus trying to focus on something. When we saw the picture it was a WTF moment. The room was pitch black. We saw nothing and there was no flash.

We have no idea what it is/was. It appears to emit some sort of light that illuminated the back wall. Later that evening, we were in the attic. I felt a light tapping on my right upper arm. Also, I get one EVP on my digital recorder. It is considered to by a class b EVP that said "they're hiding".




Do I believe in ghosts? Well, I do believe in God, so I have to accept the fact there is at least one Holy Spirit or most often referred to as the Holy Ghost. Now, the supernatural is another thing...

Memorial Day

Let me begin with thanking all the veterans (past and present) and our fighting forces wherever they may be for their military service. You guys are the greatest!

Don Chute has a great little video with Gene Simmons that you all should see. A tribute to all the branches of the military. Great music for great people!

Now I know you are all wondering how I did in Westmont's Red, White & BBQ contest. Well, the answer is not to good. We were 31st place over all out of 52 teams.

However, my ribs did not come in last place. Let me explain that last comment. The first year we competed there, my ribs cost me a Grand Championship. We had a 3rd place chicken, a 1st place pork and a 4th place beef brisket. My ribs were dead last which put us 7th place over all. The next year my ribs were 2nd from the bottom and last year they were 3rd from the bottom. This year they were 35th out of 52.

Oh well, may next year.

BBQ Stadium, Westmont IL.

Ahhh! Its Saturday! One week from today I'll be back on the floor of BBQ Stadium (Ty Warner Park in Westmont Il). The smell of napalm in the morning...opps I mean the smell of smoking hickory and oak in the morning. Don't ya' just love it? Will Dr Porkenstein do a 4pete? Is this be a come back to competition win for the Porkrastinators? Will Uncle Bub give out his secret recipe for fried Mac & Cheese? I guess we'll have to wait for the smoke to clear next Sunday.

If you didn't know, this is a Kansas City BBQ Society sanctioned contest. We have to cook 4 meats and they are chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder (picnic, butt or both) and beef brisket. The hard part is the turn in times on Sunday. The chicken is due in at noon, the ribs at 12:30, pork at 1pm and brisket at 1:30pm.

I don't know exactly how many teams will be there. Last year they said that they were capping the number of entries at 48 or 54 teams. Also last year they had entries from as far away as New York and five different states. The current point leader (Quau) in the KCBS team of the year standings will be there. CancerSucksChicago.com the 2006 Jack Daniels World Champion will be there.

If you're in the neighborhood stop down and say hi. Also, on Sunday, after turn in, most teams will put out samples of their Championship BBQ. Don't expect the samples to last too long as there are a lot of great tasting food.

I've been lost and now...

I'm found. LOL

Sorry for being away so long. I had a lot of things to do. I've been trying to get the proverbial ducks in order for two things.

1. We had our first BBQ contest May 1 & 2 in Liberty Indiana. We had to get the trailer ready and buy supplies. You'd be surprised about all the things that needed stocking up, especially pellets. BTW we came in 14th out of 38. Not bad for our first outing of the year.

2. During the month of April I was busy visiting the pension board, human resources (personnel dept.) and various other assorted departments.

It is official, I'll be retired as of May 28th, 2010! I'll have 30 years and 2 months of service with the Cook County Sheriff's department. I figured that after 2 trips to the hospital and being sued once I shouldn't press my luck anymore. Its time to try and enjoy life.

Will I have more time to do BBQ contest? Maybe. The cost to do a contest isn't cheap. The Dudette will continue working for a little while but I look for her to "retire" after the first of the year.

My "honey do" list is growing, so I'll have lots to do in my spare time.

Once again sorry for the long delay. I'll have the marinade part up in a few days.

Went to Doctor!

Yes, I went to see the Doctor today. I had a 2:15 appointment, so I get there before 2, just in case she was running early. SILLY ME! I do the co-payment insurance card thing and went to sit down. I must have nodded off but I didn't think so at the time.

I heard my name called and went into the exam room. Her assistant asked the standard million questions. Then I was told that the Doctor was busy but I was next. Then I went back out into the waiting room. Maybe I nodded off and maybe I didn't. Finally I get into see the Doctor. That visit lasted maybe 10 minutes.

I walked out of the office about 2 1/2 hours after I went in. I see a parking ticket on my car. It seems I over stayed my metered time. I didn't think I was in the office waiting that long. That is why I figured I nodded off.

It was a double bummer day! A parking ticket and I get to go back to work tomorrow.

I want to thank my Entrecard friends for the get well wishes.

Cookers

I believe it was Mama Asid from Mama Asid's Entrepod Asked about ceramic cookers. I do not have any personal experience with them. I do know that a lot of the competition cooks use them for cooking their chicken.

In the past I have used 3 Weber Smokey Mountain (WSM) cookers in competition. They are "bullet" smokers like the ceramic cookers like the Big Green Egg or Komodo. Unlike the ceramic cookers the WSM has to be insulated from the wind. A barbecue friend of mine Ray Lampe aka Dr BBQ uses the BGE as his main competition cooker.

Currently I am using the Fast Eddy Cooker (FEC100) made by CookShack. Its not that I didn't like the WSMs because I do. However, on the competition circuit, after two or three days, picking the WSMs up and putting them in the trailer along with tables, chairs, canopies, etc got to be a chore. The FEC stays in the trailer. BTW the FEC100 is a pellet cooker. It uses food grade cooking pellets in place of charcoal to generate cooking heat.

I have not been paid for any of the endorsements of the above cookers or web sites. The opinion are my own.

CancerSucksChicago BBQ Team

The Dudette (Pat) and I just spent an enjoyable weekend at a barbecue cooking class taught by Scottie Johnson and Mike Wozniak. Scottie is the head cook of the CancerSucksChicago.com BBQ Team. Mike Wozniak is the head cook of the Quau (pronounced Q-Wow) BBQ Team.

Scottie started the class by giving us his background in competition barbecue. Then he went into the sad reason on how he named his BBQ team. His wife Corliss died from cancer 7 years ago this month, leaving him with 2 young daughters. On the eve of his winning the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ contest his Father died from cancer. Through out the years, Scottie has dedicated his free time to raising awareness and money for cancer research.

Mike is a perennial top 10 cook in the Kansas City Barbecue Society team standings. A few years ago Mike tied for team of the year with Mike Davis of Lotta Bull BBQ Team. Unfortunately KCBS says there can be only one number 1. So Quau lost to Lotta Bull.

The object of this class was to raise money for cancer research, share information to help everyone cook better, network and have fun. I believe the class achieved all its objectives and then some.

Friday evening started with us being served dinner by Uncle Bubs Barbecue in Westmont. The food was great! As we ate Scottie showed us how to trim briskets and pork butts. I did learn a different way to trim pork. Then Mike and Scottie talked to us about chicken and its preparation. Scottie showed us his trimming of pork ribs. The class ended Friday evening about 10pm with Scottie putting the briskets and pork butts in his FEC100 cooker.

The morning began at about 6:30am with it snowing. Scottie showed us how he wraps his briskets and butts. Then Mike took over the class and show us his custom "Quau" cooker. It is one slick cooker. Then he worked on chicken and Cornish hens.

Mike and Scottie tried to do the class in "contest" time. They gave everyone in attendance the feel and flair of contest timing. Not everyone attending the class were contest cooks. There were some amateur or backyard cooks.

Knowledge, fun and food was shared by all. By the way, this class raised over $13,000 for cancer research.

Winter Burn 2010

You've probably have watched the countdown clock above and wondered, "What the heck is a Winter Burn 2010?" Well... Winter burn is a one day barbecue contest between old and new friends in a bowling alley parking lot. More of a bragging rights thing.

For the last several years backyard and professional barbecue cooks get together to cure their cabin fever and to raise money for N.O.A.H.

This year we will be 12 to 17 teams cooking sausage, chicken, pork ribs and pork loin/tenderloin. There will also be a peoples choice chili contest. Whew! That's a lot going on in one day.

The teams will be arriving about 6am and the first turn in will be at 1:30pm and every half hour thereafter. If you want to talk barbecue, come early. If you want to taste some bodacious, and some not so bodacious, barbecue come closer to 1:30pm.

February 14th (Yes, Valentine's Day)

River Rand Bowl
194 S River Road
Des Plaines IL 60016

Phone: 847/299-1001

Official totals are in!

As the heading says the Official 2009 Totals by the Kansas City Barbecue Society are in. They keep track of over 4,600 member teams in KCBS sanctioned contest.

Over all we are number 288! I think that is pretty darn good considering we did only 7 contests in 2009. Some teams have cooked in more than 30 contest and your standings are based on your 10 bests contest. So all things considered we didn't do to bad.

Individual categories..

Brisket... 170
Ribs... 267
Chicken... 282
Pork Shoulder... 380

To your right you'll see the Pickled Pig Power Rankings. The Pickled Pig keeps track of all teams participating in contests. KCBS keeps track of member teams only.

A butt is not a ham!

There has been a question about a pork butt. "What is it?" Well, its not what you think. A pork butt, sometimes called a Boston butt is actually from the shoulder of a pig. A pork shoulder is usually divided into two portions. The upper portion is called the butt and the lower portion is called a picnic.

The butt is slightly harder to cook properly. It contains five different muscle groups that cook differently. The K.C.B.S. rules state that pork butt shall not be parted while cooking. Or something to that effect. This means that for competition cooking you can't cut the butt into different pieces to cook each muscle properly.

I don't know why they have these names, especially calling it a Boston butt. BUT the butt of a pig is called a ham. So when you are eating ham you are eating the butt and when you eat the butt you are eating the shoulder.

Thankfully, the ribs are called ribs. Baby back and spare ribs are not what they sound like. Baby back ribs are also called loin back ribs. You've heard the expression, "Eating high on the hog"? Well, they are talking about the baby back or loin back ribs. Spare ribs aren't really extra ribs. They are the part of the rib closest to the breast bone.

I had some pics of what I'm talking about. As soon as I find them I'll post them to hopefully make this easier to under stand.

Mid-January

Its mid January and I haven't posted anything! Am I getting lazy or what?

My niece asked me to cook for her sons' Blue and Gold Cub Scout dinner. After talking it over with Pat we decided to cook pulled pork now. We won't be able to make it to the dinner so we cooked about 75 pounds of raw pork butts. It cooked down to about 35 pounds of cooked, pulled meat. The cooked meat is in vacpac bags and sitting in the deep freezer. In case you are interested, the butts were rubbed with SuckleBusters Hog Waller. Its good stuff for ribs and pork butts (not a paid advertisement).

O.M.G.! I've been Munked!

Cabin fever! Already?

I can't believe it! We've been doing BBQ contest every two to three weeks during the summer. Now, we have some time off and we can't wait to get back on the road.

Pat suggested that we just get away every couple of weeks so we don't get out of suitcase packing practice. LOL It is strange, when you go on the road, you can't wait to get home, and when you're home, you can't wait to get back on the road.

How do you explain it?

The above picture is from a couple of Februaries ago when we did the Winter Burn. Although we complain about cold weather we are somewhat ready for it!