Tonight, Chris Cognac, the Hungry Detective (who has been kind enough to read here in the past) will be in South Carolina on tonight’s show at 10:30 PM EDT.  The main topic mentioned in the listing for tonight’s show is barbecue.

What does this mean to me?  Well, at least one barbecue joint Chris visited is the One of a Kind Smokehouse, with Ken and Holly Blacklidge.  Ken and Holly have become family friends since my wife and I visited last October while staying at a family member’s house nearby.  Now, every time we’re there, we stop by, multiple times.  Ken and Holly run a great place, with real, honest barbecue with some great twists like bacon wrapped shrimp and smoked salmon. 

If you can, either watch, tape or Tivo tonight’s show.  And if you’re within reach, make a trip to the Smokehouse; you’ll not only get some great barbecue, you’ll get treated well.

Here I am at the end of October.  This is the month I tell people shows why Ohio is a great place to live… The fall colors are great!  Living in the woods means I get to see a lot of color, and this year is one of the best recent years to do some leaf viewing.

October is also really busy for us.  It’s great weather to be out, so we do a lot.  Every weekend seems to fill up, almost too much.  Luckily, we have a couple of weekends to relax between now and the holidays starting.  It’s also been a tough October for me, with Woody gone.  He always liked the turn in weather, and I just have great memories of spending time with him at this time of the year.  If anyone reading this has a dog, especially a lab, make sure to spoil them a little extra for me this week!

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I’m now going to do what half the food bloggers in the US are also doing this weekend: reviewing Alton Brown’s latest short-series endeavor, "Feasting on Asphalt".  The reason everyone’s doing this is simple - The final episode aired over the weekend.  I just had the chance to watch it on Tivo the other day, and I wanted to get my judging thoughts out before I had no more thoughts of any sort.

Some of the other reviews around can be found at:

• Men in Aprons
• The Thinking Mother

I’ve read some reviews that didn’t like the show… I’ll try to hunt some down again later.  It’s only fair - not everyone will like everything.

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This week in blogging…  Great start, huh?  I thought I’d do a blog preview of the week, to keep me focused and hopefully keep my readers’ interest!

First off, I submitted my tomato pie entry to "Carnival of the Recipes - The BBQ Edition", and it got included!  This is a feature that can be hosted by just about anyone, but pulls together a topic of recipes.  The tomato pie is included in the side dish part of the entry.  I’ve submitted another entry for an upcoming "Carnival of the Grill"; if it makes it, I’ll post about that, too.

Later this week, I’ll have some info on salmon.  I have generally cedar-planked salmon recently, but I hot smoked some really great salmon, and I’ll talk about salmon in general for outdoor cooking.

I’ll also have my next installment of updates on how I’m doing diet-wise.  Already, I’m noticing a difference in how my pants are fitting!

And I’m preparing for my first judging experience at a KCBS event.  My wife and I will be going to Madison, IN, this Friday to judge Saturday.  The only thing that will change that is whether I can leave my dog overnight… Woody’s having some issues, and I have to be comfortable leaving him with a friend that will come over to watch him.  We’ll see how he’s doing later in the week before I make up my mind.

That’s what I’m planning for this week…  If there are any topics of interest, email me or leave a comment.