BBQ Events & TV
Barbecue and Bourbon at Blackberry Farm
Blackberry Farm, a beautiful resort in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee is hosting their annual barbecue event July 22-25, 2007. Guests will spend three days learning proper smoking and grilling skills, as well as enjoying a variety of fine beverages.
Being in Tennessee, they aren’t going to let you leave without a healthy sampling of bourbon whiskey! If that’s not enough, Tablas Creek Winery will walk guests through the process of pairing a wine with their grilled masterpieces. Of course, the highlight of each day will be the a fabulous meal.
You’ll be learning to master the grill in luxery my friends! The resort is situated on a 4,200-acre estate in the Great Smoky Mountains and features the finest ammenities. In fact, the 2004 Zagat Survey rated them as the #1 Small Hotel in America.
For more information, or to reserve your spot, check out the Blackberry Farm Website. While I can’t make it this time around, I hope to attend this event next year and learn a trick or two. If so, I’ll be sure to give everyone a full report.
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The Great Arkansas Smokeout
The contest name is the Great Arkansas Smokeout. It will be held November 17 and 18 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The cook-off will follow KCBS rules and regulations and their judging procedures as they are the sanctioning body of the event.
They are currently seeking proclamation to make this a qualifying/championship event and they expect this to be finalized by next week. The total prize money is $8,500 and it will pay through 5 places. The Grand Champion wins $2,500 plus trophy and the Reserve Grand Champion wins $1,250 plus trophy. Everyone who places will also receive a formal certificate.
Entry fees for this contest are a low $150 and everyone will receive the standard 20 × 20 space. The Web site will be completed by next Friday, so check it out soon.
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Hudson Valley Rib Festival
Debbie writes to tell me that the Highland Rotary of Hudson Valley, NY is having its 2nd annual RibFest Aug. 18-20 at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New Paltz, NY.
The RibFest features a KCBS-sanctioned grilling contest, along with demonstrations, a vendors’ row of BBQ-related items, lots of great BBQ vendors, music, kids activities and general good times. You can check out their website for the details.
Last year’s event drew a little over 5,000 people and raised thousands of dollars for local non-profits). I’m sure it will be a lot of fun.
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Richmond Kentucky Lions to hold BBQ
The Richmond, Kentucky chapter of the Lions Club is holding their second annual BBQ cookoff September 10, 2006 at the Richmond Pottery Festival. They are now accepting competitors.
You can enter meats in several categories; Beef, Chicken, Ribs, Pork, or Mutton. There is also a chili cookoff category. Entry is $25 for a single category or $35 for all. To be eligible for the Grand Champion award, you must enter all categories.
The Lions Club uses funding from the barbecue to pay for eye glasses and surgeries for children and other needy folks. It’s a worth cause, and I’m sure it will be a lot of fun. If you are in the Richmond Kentucky area you might like to enter the contest.
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Texas Steak Cook-Off, Hico Texas
If you know your way around a steak, you may want to compete (or maybe just attend) the third annual Texas Steak Cook-Off in Hico, Texas. The little town of Hico, (pronounced “high-coh”) holds the cook off as part of its Old Settlers Reunion, which celebrates its 120th anniversary this year.
There are two divisions, Backyard Expert and Professional. Competitors bring their own grills, marinades, rubs, and mojo —- but the steaks are provided. This is an all ribeye event. I do believe the ribeye is the national steak of Texas!
Visitors can enjoy a steak dinner with salad, baked potato, and a Texas staple — iced tea. I bet there will be a long line around the booth of the winner. I wonder if they get to charge more than the last place team?
Hico, incidentally was the home of Bill Roberts, an interesting character who in his later years claimed to be the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid. According to Roberts, Pat Garrett shot the wrong man! They even have a Billy the Kid museum if you’d like to launch your own investigation.
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Are you America’s Top Tailgater?
If your grilling is done from the back of your tailgate then here’s your chance to win big from Lifetime Products, Inc. They are giving away $10,000 cash, and an ultimate tailgate package. Plus, finalist get an all expenses paid trip to Michigan International Speedway for the big showdown.
You’ll be judged by various famous NASCAR drivers I’ve never heard of and The Food Network’s Mario Batali. Contestants can spend up to $500 on groceries and $1000 on decorations (cash provided). That seems backwards to me, shouldn’t the bulk of the money to go to the food?
Think you have what it takes to stand out from the crowd of NASCAR tailgaters? Tell us why, in 250 words or less, and also:
- Submit your top five tips for creating the perfect tailgate party.
- Share your favorite, original tailgating recipe.
- If selected as a finalist, this is one of three recipes you will be asked to prepare at the finals.
- While not required, entrants are also encouraged to submit photos or videos that demonstrate their abilities in the area of tailgating.
Completed entries must be received no later than July 26, 2006.
Thanks Dock!
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The $50,000 Hamburger
So you think you make the world’s best hamburger do you? Well Sutter Home and the California Avocado Commission want you to prove it, and if you’re right you’ll take home$50,000.
This is the 16th running of the annual contest, and will no doubt draw thousands of entries from around the country. Onions and mustard won’t cut it here folks. You better have something extra special if you are going to hang with the competition. There’s even a category for non beef burgers made from Salmon, Chicken, and so forth.
Hurry, the submission deadline is August 21, 2006. If you are looking for some hints, checkout the official cookbook, which contains recipes from winners and runners-up from past contests. Hmm, I’m thinking my entry will be the Sutter Home Merlot with Avocado burger.
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May is National BBQ Month
It’s May, which if you weren’t aware, is National BBQ Month. Spring is the perfect time to get out there and grill. Unless you are in central Texas apparently, where it’s hot as hell already. Not that it’ll stop diehard grillers however.
If while firing up the grill after the winter you discover that the burners are rusted through and it’s time for a new grill you may want to check out this Buyer’s Guide for some tips.
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Texas BBQ Festival
Attended the Texas BBQ Festival this weekend in Austin, Texas. It was really, really crowded. To say the least. Parking took a good 30 minutes.
My guess is that a whole lot more people ended up attending than they expected. This being the first year, maybe they weren’t sure just how popular it would be. Parking was the biggest problem, but a close second where the lines.
The event was held at a Farmer’s Market. The various local barbecue vendors, about ten of them, setup and were selling “samplers” of $2 or $4. The problem was that the lines were a good 15-20 minutes long, making it difficult (unless you are patient) to sample them all.
Overall a good event, but I hope next year they have it in a larger venue such as a park. Not only for the convenience, but being able to sit under a tree rather than the hot sun would have been nice.
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1st Annual Texas BBQ Festival
Hot on the hills of the HotSauce festival last month, Austin Chronicle and friends are gearing up for a new gig – the Texas Barbecue Festival. The event will be held in Austin on Sunday October 9th.
The Texas Barbecue Festival is a free event, but I’ve heard you’ll need to buy food tickets or something to really get any sampling done. Apparently they’ll pick a new theme for each year as they’ve declared 2005 the year of the sausage. I’m sure half of Elgin will be there.
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Amateur ladies best BBQ All Stars
Ok, you’ve had enough Tivo lag to have watched the final episode of OLN’s All Star BBQ Showdown, so I’m going to talk about it now.
The top prize went to one of the amateur teams, the female three-some “Squeal of Approval”, who beat out pro Mike Davis and a couple of Alabama backyards calling themselves team “En Fuego”.
Surprisingly both of the amateur teams that made it into the semi-finals progressed on to the final round, knocking out a number of top BBQ pros in the process. Semi-finals were ribs (spare or baby back, chef’s choice).
En Fuego had top score in ribs, while Squeal of Approval barely beat out Eddie Maurin in a tie breaker to progress to the finals, which was pork butte.
In the end I guess, it was Squeal of Approval’s beautiful buttes really wowed the judges.
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Attack of the George Foreman grillmasters
The Food Network has been airing the George Foreman College Grill-Off this weekend. It’s a grilling contest that combines several items you don’t normally associate with one another: college students, gourmet cooking, and George Foreman grills.
In the contest, students competed in teams of three for $6,000 in scholarships and a batch of Foreman grills for their school. The big man himself was on hand of course, sneaking bites of everyones entries. I mean, who’s going to refuse him right?
The winning school was the University of Missouri which fielded a team of Hotel and restaurant majors. Nick Ziegler of Blue Springs, Mo., Thom Barr of Clarkson Valley, Mo., and Dan Meyers, of Wichita, Kan., one the competition with their grilled quail wrapped in prosciutto with lemon butter sauce along with potato salad.
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The hot sauce festival was hot
As if there was any doubt, the hot sauce festival was pretty dang hot. As I mentioned in a previous post, this weekend was the 15th annual Hot Sauce Festival in downtown Austin. Very crowded and hot, but definitely Austin. Good music, reasonable beer prices, free hot sauce, quite the bargain.
I tried a lot of different salsas, grilling sauces, spice rubs, and other spicy foods. For grilling, I recommend the Austin Spice Company’s “Smoky Hill Barbeque Salsa and Grilling Glaze”, which you can order from their website. It can be used either as dip, or like you would a barbecue sauce. Tasty!
I also bought some roast garlic sea salt from Spiceburst Gourmet Spices. This stuff will go great on grilled ribeyes.
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Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is tommorow
The 15th annual Austin Chronicle Host Sauce Festival is tomorrow, Sunday August 28th at Waterloo Park in downtown Austin from 11:00 to 5:00. Best of all, entry is free. Plenty of hot sauce, hot music, and well hot people since its topping 100 degrees here right now.
Entry to the competition is available at the show, just complete an entry form from their website and show up with a quart of hot sauce. Last year their were over 300 entries and over one hundred gallons of hot sauce consumed. Other than hot sauce, there is always plenty of food vendors selling a little of everything, including snow cones and cool drinks (which you’ll no doubt need).
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OLN’s Iron Chefs of barbecue
I finally got around to watching a couple of episodes of the Outdoor Life Network’s new series “The All-Star BBQ Showdown” which have been beckoning from the Tivo for the past couple of weeks. Maybe I’m just a big barbecue nerd, but I really enjoyed it. It’s basically Iron Chef barbecue without the funny costumes.
Continue reading “OLN’s Iron Chefs of barbecue”
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