It’s just three more weeks until the first KCBS-like barbecue competition takes place in Dayton, Ohio!  The competition is called the Ohio Open Barbecue Cook-Off, and information can be found at www.rollingsmoke.com.  It’s being put on by Jim Weaver of Jimmy’s Hog Pen and Jim Ferguson of Rolling Smoke Barbecue, both local competitors to the Dayton Area.The location is at the American Legion in Kettering.  Entry fee is low this year, $100.

KCBS rules will be followed, with the exception of fuel source…  Competitors can use any fuel source they want,

so we stick burners will have to compete against LP and electric.

If you’re local, please support this competition; it’s the first year, but it may be a state qualifier for the Jack!  And,. hopefully, it will be sanctioned next year!

The conventional wisdom on getting ready for a competition includes practice cooks.  For new teams, this also usually includes advice on setting up at home to do a cook, but acting as though you’re off site.  This helps a team figure out if they have the right equipment or not.

I’ve been thinking about this lately, and while that works, it leads to a different problem then not having what’s needed…

Problem #2: Having too much stuff!!!

While this may not sound like a problem, try prepping and cooking 60 pounds or so of meat under a canopy with nothing but coolers and bins of supplies.  When you have too much, you just have to wade through all the extra stuff to get to what you need!

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the June 12, 2007 edition of Carnival of Food Photography!  Remember, the focus is on the photo!

 I got a lot more entries this time… Thanks to all that submitted.  I think I’ve got all of the entries represented except one, which was in a forum, not a blog… I apologize, but the Carnival is for blogs!

The first entry is an great looking cookie photo from MC, on Shibooya… Apricot Cream Cheese Butter Cookies… What can be bad there?  You’ve got fruit (healthy), cream cheese (yum), butter (even more yum) all mixed up into a cookie!

Along the theme of fruit, Robert submitted an entry on Lauren’s Vegan Journal for Strawberry Soup (Do you think Lauren will be offended being included on a barbecue-related blog???  I hope not!   Lauren, if you are, just let me know… I’ll take care of it, but your soup sounds great!).

Suzanne submitted Uber No Knead Bread (a recipe I’m going to have to try) from Adventures in Daily Living.  I love good, homemade bread, as anyone that regularly reads this knows by now.

Next, we have the eggs to go with the bread, Shinie’s Mutant Egg on Well I Guess This Is Growing Up!  You’ll need two slices of Suzanne’s bread to mop up all that yolk!

Martin Westwood, in Great Britain, submitted some ribs then reorged, but I found this photo of his on BBQ Brit... Chris Lilly Ribs! (not actually Chris’s ribs, but his recipe :)  I’m glad to see that some Brits are making good barbecue.

And moving into some tasty looking pasta, Vishal K Bharadwaj has a great looking Lemon Pepper lingquine at AllVishal.com.  There’s a great photo of the finished product, but I thought this photo of the pepper was pretty cool.

Thanks to everyone that submitted blogs for this edition of Carnival of Food Photography!  Nicole, I know you’re going to be reading this… You better send me something next time!!!!!

Back in April, my wife and I went on a quick trip to NYC, and I happened to have photographed about every piece of food that I ate!

One place we found we loved on a previous trip was Carnegie Deli in Times Square.  Not only do they have great pastrami sandwiches, but they also have incredible cheesecake.  In fact, I have half of one in my freezer right now, a gift from my sister, Heather.

But recently, Bobby Flay did a Throwdown with Junior’s in Brooklyn on cheesecake… Bobby won that one, but Junior’s put up a new cheesecake called Devil’s Food Cheesecake.  It’s basically a devil’s food cake with a layer of cheesecake in the middle of the whole thing. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Our first competition of the season is over!  It was both a disappointment and a success.

It was a disappointment because we made 2 big blunders…  First, we didn’t test the sauce we used for chicken, and it was too thick, resulting in low scores for oversaucing.  Second, I didn’t get the ribs done enough, resulting in low scores for tenderness/texture.  I think those scores also lead to lower taste scores.

Our pork was not bad; we liked it a lot, but we only placed 12th out of 26.  It tasted great!

The brisket, however, was a success… We took 2nd!  Our biggest payout, and a trophy to boot!

Continue reading to see the photos of the entry boxes.  Our presentation scores are with each photo.  The photos are larger than usual so you can see them better!

Read the rest of this entry »