Really Bad Chicken Deal

Here's one for the record books. You know how hard it is to trim thighs for competition especially if your scraping the fat off the skin on 16 of em. Last week I went to the local meat counter that acts like an old style meat market but it really ain't to get my thighs for the contest and they didn't have any but had plenty of leg quarters. The gal said "I can cut you some if you want" and I said "sure, I'll be back in a minute". She had all of em cut in about 3 min and they looked perfect and fresh as could be. Problem was she left the rib cage partly on making them look just the right size but way too small by the time you removed it. I went ahead and did my best to trim and scrape and etc only to wind up with quail thighs, which I vac sealed and was thinking about using but decided to get some more cuz them wuz too small. I FORGOT ABOUT HAVING EM IN THE FRIDGE TILL TODAY AND THEY WERE TOO OLD AND HAD TO THROW EM OUT. SUKS BIG TIME. Just because some one say's they are a butcher does not mean they really are is what I say.

Liberty Tree Contest - Dalton, Ga

Our contest started I guess you could say with my having our trailer pulling into Selvidge St at 5pm friday. I unloaded the two little cookers and set the trailer up but went back home instead of sleeping in the trailer since we were about 5 min away. Now that last part sounds real good doesn't it? Not so - I think between the two of us we made about 7 extra trips back to get things that we would have never left out when we loaded up if we were going to be away from home. Also we were a bit more exhausted than normal because we cleaned and organized everything back into the trailer before pulling out which took a good two hours of serious cleaning and work. Feeling kinda like host since we were from Dalton we wanted to cook a little something for our friends on the bbq trail, so we made a Bread-Sausage-Cheese Breakfast Casserole with Eggs on top. I mixed up the casserole at home and took a carton on eggs with me to the cooking site and cooked it there on one of my smokers. This casserole is about the best breakfast casserole you'll ever hope to find and we'll probably do it again for the day after Christmas or the day after New Years or both. It was made extra special by having some of my good friend Vern's home made Smoked Sausage for the meat. We also went home to cook our Brunswick Stew for the Auxiliary category in the contest and managed to win it. We had a bad cook overall with some bad luck on our primary cooker giving us problems through the night that caused us to bomb out in ribs which in turn gave us a bad overall finish. Any way like a friend of mine says, it was a good time, good friends, and good food, so I say that's good enough for me.

Big BBQ Bash

"it was a festive time for sure" - Most contest are centered around a festival of some sort for the community and this one just seemed to be special in a way that I can only describe as a "one on one personal type thing that just kept getting more so as neighbor got to know neighbor". I know all contest are that way but since this one was as small as it was I think it was more so. Big John Molloy and his boys took the Grand Championship with some excellent Pulled Pork, Ribs, and Chicken and I know because we all tasted each others final product after each turn in and that was really fun and I learned that all 3 were very good. My friend Vern was close behind with 3rd Overall and a first in Ribs. John was our neigbor on one side and the other guy you see was the neigbor on the other side and he my friends treated everyone to some of the most awesome 2 in T-Bone you ever had in your life.

Vern's Homemade Smoked Sausage for the Anything But entry. I'm not just saying this and I told him the same thing "this is the best Smoked Sausage I every tasted bar none.



Me and Verns "Better half's"



Our neighbors that cooked that awesome T-Bone just right.



John Molloy, the Grand Champion and very happy camper.

Time For A Hot Dog

I love a good hot dog and decided to make a Hot Dog Plate like they do at the Cremo Drive In. The Cremo has been in business here since I was little, probably over 50 years. Mr Poag became a large property owner and a millionaire opening new ones all over two or three counties and selling them or leasing them to folks that wanted to get into the restaurant business. When you order your Hot Dog or Hamburger as a Plate you get Fries and Slaw with it. I never get the Plates but since we're just playing with our food here, I thought it would be fun to have em that way just once in honor of Mr Poag.

Ham Dumplings

Still enjoying the benefits of last weekends freezer diving. These HAM DUMPLINGS could make Chicken Dumplings obsolete.