BBQ Blog Canada!

Never really thought much about speeding up the pickling process, as I've only ever really used it to preserve things for long periods of time, but I do love pickles and it would be kinda neat to go to the farmers market in the morning, and have pickles the next day. 

I'd made it to Memphis, now was time to check out the largest pork cooking contest in the world. I was a little anxious as this had the potential to be disappointment, kinda like when Lucas rebooted the star wars series. My campsite was a short 20 minute drive to the contest, and finding where my parking pass had  put my VIP parking was a bit of a challenge, I did however find it, put on my purple weekend pass wristband, adorn my VIP pit pass around my neck and stroll on in. I was not sure what this VIP pass would actually entitle me to, as I did not get an itinerary with the pass. First off, this contest really is HUGE, I decided to walk around the entire contest first to take in all the sights, this took almost an hour! I popped in and chatted with a few of the competitors who were all very welcoming when they saw my vip pass. For some reason I forgot to take photos this first day! I finally found the VIP area, and was greeted to my choice of draft beer or a glass of wine, I had got there just in time, as we were splitting off into groups and going to eat bbq at various competitors booths.  Over the following 2 days I we would meet and eat with 6 different teams they would give us a little talk on what they do, answer a whole lot of questions and feed us some of their award winning bbq. The coolest competitor we visited was called "the shed" They had the coolest cooker i've ever seen, they had modded a vintage truck into a well insulated cooker, they were competing in the whole hog category.  My vip pass was worth every penny, I ate amazing bbq for 3 solid days, drank my face off for free and hung out with 60 or so (vip) people that were also passionate about the craft of bbq, no rib boilers in this crowd!  On Sunday morning I packed my car, made sure I had lots of sugar free redbull and drove home.. in one 18 hour shot!

Sorry to inform everyone that we will not be cooking at the Canadian open bbq contest at the beach rib fest. The company that was organizing it sent me a nice letter (today) 1 week before the contest to tell me that they are canceling that portion of the event. I'm pretty angry and am fighting the urge to write defamatory coments about the organizers. We lined up sponsors and spent a pile of money on supplies and ingredients for this event. I've included the letter they sent me if you feel like reading the "read more" button.

Bbqblog.ca has put together a competition team to compete in the Canadian open BBQ competition on fathers day weekend. The competition is at Woodbine beach park near downtown Toronto as part of a rib fest. We're looking forward to camping out there all weekend. There's lots of vendors selling ribs, live music and other attraction. for more info visit http://www.beachribfest.com/ We'll be making bbq sauce with Cameron's Beer, and were working on throwing an after party on Saturday night at our favorite bar that sometime has my pulled pork on special, The Charlotte Room

If your panties are always in a bunch about how much salt and corn syrup is in your everyday food, why don't you cowboy up and make your own ketchup? It's really not that hard, and if you have an excess of tomatoes this season, making your own ketchup would be a nice conversation piece next winter when you are eating mac and cheese. 

DIY Ketchup

I could not resist posting this.. cause it's just so darn perdy...  and comes in lots of colors. It's made by bodum, and I've always loved their french press for coffee, found one on amazon for $50, now to pick the color!