Rock'n Ribs - Springfield, MO

Rock’n Ribs in Springfield, Missouri has always held a special place in our hearts as this was our first BBQ contest we ever competed in.  Like most years, events in Mid-April have a higher than normal chance of rain and cold weather and this year was especially bad with rain, cold and high winds hitting the event on both Friday and Saturday. The sun did come out right about Brisket turn-in time so the crowds arrived at just the right time for the 8,000 lbs of pork and brisket that the teams prepared for the public sampling.

Because this is our home event, Christine and I get to compete in addition to running the BBQ Tour. While at most contests, we pack up and stay in a hotel, I had an early Friday morning segment on KOLR-10, the local CBS station so I stayed onsite Thursday night and watched the bad weather come across Oklahoma heading straight for us. I did get some sleep until a couple of transformers popped at 3:15. That will sure wake you up out of a sound sleep! I cooked ribs for the reporter and let him chow down during one of our spots.

Friday night at Rock’n Ribs is the VIP party night for adults only. While the rain kept most of the crowds away, the die-hards  made it out to listen to the bands and try some public samples.  Saturday was turn-in day and we got in two very well attended demonstrations for the crowd. The nice thing about Saturday at Rock’n Ribs is the public sampling and people line up like ants going from booth to booth to get their free food samples. This year the event used text voting for people to vote instead of paper ballots like in the past. Team “Here Piggy Piggy BBQ” which is sponsored by Davis Cellular had their members in line teaching people how to text in their vote and had twice as many votes as the second place team. Pretty sure they had good BBQ also since they were voted People’s Choice Winners. As a matter of full disclosure, “Here Piggy Piggy BBQ” is Christine and my cooking team so I can vouch for the good BBQ.

This was the 12^th year for Rock’n Ribs and after all the money is tallied, they should be able to top the $1,000,000 mark for donations to Children’s Charities of the Ozarks since inception. It takes close to 900 volunteers and is directed by the local Rotary clubs to pull off this massive event that fills up a Bass Pro Shops parking lot. This year was also special since there was an International team competing from Puerto Rico – BBQ Freaks! They even brought rum along to help teach the locals about their home spirits and even conducted some rum tasting. They weren’t quite used to the cold weather though but I am told that rum warms the innards…

At awards time, the sun was shining on all the teams who got calls, especially Quau with their first place Chicken, 3 Brothers with Different Mothers with Ribs (they said Dad sure got around), Belly Brothers, last year’s GC with first place Pork and Dead Pigs Tell No Tales edging out family Quau for first place Brisket. Belly Brothers ended up with a second place Reserve Champion trophy while Quau won their second Grand Championship in a row (won Columbus, MS the week prior) along with another big Kingsford check. Mike even ran up to Jefferson City on Thursday to compete in the Butt to Butt Championship. Christine and I took home a 5^th place Brisket trophy and will hang up our cooking aprons for another year before we hope to defend our People’s Choice award!

Grilling on the River - Columbus, Mississippi

Christine (yeah, Chris is going by Christine since some folks last year came to events looking for the two “dudes”, Mike and Chris) and I rolled into Columbus on Thursday morning prior to the 5^th Annual Grilling on the River contest. This contest raises funds for the Columbus area Humane Society. On Friday, the event didn’t open until 4 but since this was our first stop for the BBQ Tour, we showed up early to get things set up. This year we have a new smoker – the Good-One Marshall which is the “middle child” of the Good-One family with a larger grilling area than the Open Range model we used the last two years and four smoking racks available to smoke up whatever we might need at events which also doubles as a nice holding oven for all our meat samples.

Speaking of meat samples, we will be feeding the masses again this year and need the extra holding space for all the good eats. Tyson chicken wings are on the menu with three varieties – Buffalo Hot, Honey BBQ and Tequila Lime, Cavanaugh Sausages brings a nice smoked sausage, Kielbasa and spicy smoked sausage to the party along with Weber Gourmet Burgers! Nobody should go away hungry from one of our demonstrations!

Master of Mixes is along for the party again this year and we are really excited to help promote their Margarita Lite Big Bucket! We had two cases shipped into the hotel and on Thursday night when we got in, I called down to the front desk to ask if our margaritas had been delivered. The front desk clerk thought I was pulling a prank on her until I explained that the shipping confirmation said it was delivered to the front desk. The next morning, we did find our margarita’s next door at a different hotel. Personally, I think the Fedex guy was splitting the “booty” with their staff if nobody claimed it…

Columbus was also the first stop that Redwood Creek Wine would be joining us so we prepared a special Malbec marinated flank steak for our Saturday demonstration which came out beautifully and was the tastiest dish of the day!

I would like to mention the beautiful weather that we experienced in Columbus but that isn’t the whole truth. There was no rain but the temperatures rose to 90 degrees which would not have been so bad had the humidity not been close to 90 percent. Holy cow it was HOT! Not used to that type of weather, especially for our first stop out on the tour but it sure beat rain or cold.

At every event, we have folks come out to help us pass out samples and interact with the crowds. Harvey Myrick, the event organizer lined us up with students from East Mississippi Community College who were in the schools culinary program. They were fantastic and even came out Friday in their chef jackets and long pants. After setting them up with t-shirts and explaining that Saturdays attire was shorts, they settled in quite well and helped pass our Margarita Lite samples, Reser’s Potato Salad samples and all the other sponsor samples that we pass out at each event!

Congrats to Mike & Beth with Quau on their Grand Champion and Kingsford win! Late Night Whiskey Smokers from Lynchburg won Reserve Grand while 2 Men and a Pig, Heavenly Manna, Wild Bunch Butt Burners and Quau had category wins in Chicken, Ribs, Pork and Brisket.

Next stop is our home event in Springfield, MO for the 12^th Annual Rock’n Ribs event. This is their “Million Dollar” year where we hope to top the $1,000,000 mark for total donations over the 12 year run of the event all going towards Childrens Charities of the Ozarks!

Getting ready to hit the road!

I gave a lot of thought into how to "brand" the BBQ life that Christine and I live. While I guess I could be considered a "pitmaster", I am not a trained Chef. When I think of Billie Mays, the "original" pitchman, he could sell just about anything. Each year we have new and additional sponsors and I get the pleasure of selling their product to the masses. BBQ Pitchman just makes sense...

Columbus, Mississippi is the first stop on the Great American BBQ Tour this year. If you look at our schedule kcbs.us, you will notice some new stops and four fewer than years past. Christine and I will be going to 21 stops with the flexibility to add new locations. Along with these 21 stops, we will do retail stops between the events. The plan this year is to not only recap events but gather more information for a book about the tour. My vision is part travel book and part recipe book. I want to highlight the cities that these events occur in, the history behind the BBQ competition, BBQ joint reviews along the road and asking winners to contribute recipes. Not only looking for chicken, ribs, pork and brisket recipes but since there is sauce, dessert, drink and side contests, I would like to include some of them all with the only criteria is the recipe must come from a 1st place category win team or Reserve or Grand Champion.

I hope you come back often and I will share tidbits along the road.
Mike