This is where it all started in 2001, Alma, Missouri. This was the first ever contest for Randy and I. We’ve been coming back ever since to support this tiny, non-sanctioned contest. We’ve been there when it was 104 degrees and when it rained the entire contest. In the beginning there […]

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For Father’s Day weekend, we took a short, very short, camping trip.  We are fortunate enough to have two beautiful lakes within a couple miles of our house: Blue Springs Lake and Lake Jacomo.  Both have campgrounds.  This weekend, we secured a spot less than 50 feet from the playground at Blue Springs Lake.  Mom […]

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One of our pictures from the Great American BBQ is prominently placed on the Cookshack Winners Circle.  Cookshack is the maker of the Fast Eddy series of cookers.  We have two Fast Eddy 100 models on the back of my trailer.  We’ve been using a Fast Eddy (FEC-100) since June of 2007.

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225 Teams
9th Overall
1st Pork
11th Brisket
The second round of the Great American BBQ weekend ran like a well oiled watch.  Randy and I were working hand and glove together.  Cookers ran well.  Timing worked out perfectly on everything. We were happier with our Open entries than we were with our Invitational entries.  No matter how we […]

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61 Teams
6th Overall
4th Pork
11th Chicken
18th Brisket
This was our first ever invitational competition. The Great American Invitational consists of teams who have won qualifying contests in the prior year. Qualifying contests are those with a governor’s proclamation of a state championship and have at least 15 teams if a first year contest or 25 […]

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52 Teams
2nd Overall - Reserve Grand Champion
8th Sausage
8th Chicken
5th Ribs
1st Pork
Again cooking with my friend Andy Groneman, we were able to hoist some hardware at our second competition of the year.  We were pleased with all of our entries and, thankfully, so were the judges.  Grand champion was our friend Rod Gray of Pellet Envy.

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For quick biscuits that taste so close to homemade, I gotta give two spatulas up for Grands! Southern Style Biscuits.  These frozen biscuits go from hockey pucks to fluffy rich biscuits in 17 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  The resealable bag means that you can prepare two or three biscuits now and have more […]

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52 Teams
1st Overall
2nd - Chicken
4th - Ribs
2nd - Pork
6th - Brisket
This was the first contest of the 2008 season, and what a way to start. We were cooking with the new BBQ trailer that had only been in our possession for 6 days. As someone said, a great way to christen the new […]

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After a long Easter binge of milk chocolate rabbits, the family that was looking for something different, delicious, and a little more healthy. Now I said a little more healthy, so don’t confuse this with text book diet food. We’ve got some green stuff there and turkey instead of red meat for a change.
The ground […]

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For the BBQ’er who has everything, how about a billet aluminum hitch insert for their truck or SUV? Made from aircraft grade aluminum, these inserts fit neatly in any standard 2″ hitch receiver.

Each catches the eye, but you better think about a locking hitch pin, or you may see it on your neighbors truck one […]

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