H*QUE made it over to Columbia, MO this weekend for the 19th Annual Boone’s Lick Trail BBQ Contest. We attended this contest last year and had a great time. It’s a well organized contest and we wanted to come back. The heat was almost unbearable but we hung right in there with the big boys and came out slugging!

This time around it was myself, Jen and a co-worked from my office, James Fang. We showed up with a brand new pit made by D Tillery and even seasoned it on site! The pit did great once I got it figured out – did I ever mention D Tillery builds one helluva pit – because he sure does!

Anyway – We had a great run overall with a new pit, some new tricks up our sleeves for pork (Thanks OkieJay!!!) and I think we came out great! Thanks to my wife (who was competing there on our 6th wedding anniversary) and James who got his first taste of competitive BBQ ever – this was his first time at a comp – for hanging right in there with me. Everyone did a great job and I think we all worked well together.

Here’s the scores:
Chicken – 12th
Ribs – 7th
Pork – 11th
Brisket – 8th
Overall – 6th out of 43 teams!!!!!!!! Our highest score yet!!

We’ll see everyone at Pacific, MO on the next go ’round!

Well, H*QUE hit the road this weekend and competed at Smokin’ on the River at Glasgow, MO. This is the 2nd time we’ve competed here. The reason for the title you ask…LOL – follow along…

So we arrived at the comp and in less that 5 min after arrival as I’m working to get our setup parked in our spot – I bury the Tundra and our new travel trailer axle deep in the nice soft sand/dirt (the park had been underwater up until about 2 weeks ago) – $#%^!! See pics in the photos section for all the glory. What a way to start the comp! Although credit to the new 2010 tundra – it was still pulling that 7000 pound toy hauler trailer in the sand albeit while burying itself at the same time – LOL! Funny now – not so much while happening. They had to get a tractor to pull me out – thanks to them and York from Beam Boys BBQ for the tow strap! 10 min later – we were parked…on gravel – LOL!

We got parked, setup and got rolling. The new setup worked well overall. We had plenty of sleeping space, were comfortable and all in all – everything went well. Until…

2 AM – when the storms/rain hit. What a mess – the park was not really ready for more rain and everyone in the area where we were got flooded with rain water and of course…MUD. WOW – the whole park disentigrated asap. Although hats off to the organizers for bringing straw around to us all to try and help – and it did.

Then our generator ran out of fuel about 5 am – just when we’re putting ribs on – and so now the whole Cyber Q setup is dead in the water. We refilled the generator – but it would not fire. We scrambled to move the 30 amp shore cord from the generator to the camp site 30A plugin…guess what….2′ short!!! ARRGGHHH!!!! So we had to get that generator going…and we finally did. WHEW. What else could happen??? Read on – LOL!

So then Sparks and his son Gabe entered Kids’ Q – I don’t carry a grill any longer – so we improvised with WSM and got him going. The problem you ask – his turn in was so close to when I start chicken on the WSM – I couldn’t get the WSM up to temp fast enough to get the chicken cooked in time. As usual – improvise, adapt and overcome right?!? So the WSM got setup once again as a grill – and burnt the chicken nicely..and we still took 18th – ROFL!

So the heat and elements took their toll on H*QUE but we persevered and came though in flying colors. The team did great and we all stuck together even though it was hot, muggy, muddy and we had all kinds of trouble. Great job team!!!

Here’s the scores…

Kids Q’ – Gabe – 1st place!!!!!!! Congrats Gabe – 1st time out and 1st place…oh yeah did I mention that Gabe took home more prize money that I did?!?! LOL – awesome time for Sparks and his son!

Chicken – 18th (Judges – were you awake?)
Ribs – 21st – (Judges were you awake?!!? Best racks of ribs all year and my burnt chicken did better…c’mon?!!)
Pork – 14th
Brisket – 6th
Overall – 8th PLACE!!! AWESOME!!!!!

Well – H*QUE made it back for a third run at the Jakey in June contest in St. Jacob, IL. It’s a non-sanctioned event that we’ve been involved with since it started. Richard and Susan Schmidt put on quite a contest and from a competitor’s viewpoint, you couldn’t ask for a better equipped contest to attend.

Joe, Stel and myself arrived on Friday night with everthing we needed vend and compete – so our new toy hauler setup got quite a test and a workout on the first go around with us. We cooked off a total of 32 pork butts this last weekend for vending and luckily sold out of just about everything we brought! WOO HOO! We vended pulled pork sandwiches, bbq nachos and cowboy cocktails. Thanks to my family (Mom, Dad and Sis) for working so hard and helping us vend. Couldn’t have done it without you!! We were glad to have you there. Thanks to Jen for helping on both sides of the table with both vending and competing – it sure was a lot of work wasn’t it, but ya did great! And of course thanks to my team members Stel and Joe for all of their VERY hard work all weekend long with vending and competing – you guys hung right in there with me and I sure appreciated it. Enjoy your rest this week – y’all earned it!

We’ve had better years in the past as far as calls for this contest go.  1st year was G.C., last year was R.G.C. and this year…well..

Anything But – 3rd (Thanks to Brian Harris, my good friend who showed up to say hi and got put to work making the glaze for the beef tenderloin – you really helped me out on this one!)
Dessert – 1st!!  Way to go Stel and Kate!!
Ribs – 3rd

So we didn’t come out like gangbusters, but I always say – 1 call and we’re happy – we took 3 calls – so can’t complain. I’m not 100% sure but I think we came in 8th overall out of 17 teams – so a middle of the pack run for us. But we had fun vending and enjoyed the venue.

One final note – A HUGE CONGRATS to Michael True for his first ever call at a contest – 2nd in ribs!! We were cheering ya on!! We’ll done sir!!! And congrats to his son Hayden as well who got a ribbon in the kids Q!!

We made it over to Columbia, MO this weekend for the Elks Lodge contest. Our first time here – the venue was nice. We had plenty of space, electricity and it was a well ran comp overall. Even with the crazy wind shear going on all weekend and the frosty temps on overnight fire watch, H*QUE came out sluggin at award time. 41 teams were there, with quite a few serious heavy hitters in the mix. We took 9th in ribs and our highest ever brisket call at 3rd place! In fact – according to the score sheet we tied for 2nd place – so AWESOME!! We took 9th out of 41 overall – WOO HOO!!!!! So we achieved our goals for the weekend by moving chicken up – FINALLY!!! More work to do but we’ll get that chicken figured out – lol!

Now for the bad – H*QUE was having a pretty good day with the awards – everyone was feeling good – time to head it home – unload and relax. That was not to be had. The H*QUE mobile command unit, read that as our 30′ RV, decided to throw a rod or something and we blew the engine on the highway not more than about 15 min into the ride going home. Oil spray all over the highway petty much put the nail in the coffin of the H*QUE mobile command unit. May she rest in peace. She treated us pretty well over the last year.

I’d like to take a minute and put up a special thanks to those who stopped and helped us out on the side of the road.

Double Smoked saw us and stopped in and gave us a hand in helping to find a tow truck and help out with phone calls and brainstorming. Thanks so much Double Smoked bbq team – we owe you one!

Que’s Your Daddy swung out and stopped by – allowed us to offload our extra stuff into their trailer and followed us home to let us unload.

The bbq community is a tight one and it showed in the moments to follow the competition with teams stopping to help us out. We can’t say thanks enough to those teams for the help and we’re indebted.

Thanks to my team once again for a job well done – I’m proud of us! We all worked well together again – and thanks for all the help with the aftermath of the RV hell that ensued.

Here’s The Scores:
Chicken – 18th
Ribs – 9th
Pork – 28th
Brisket – 3rd
Overall – 9th

H*QUE had a pretty good weekend at the 2010 Kick-Off Cook-Off in Hazelwood, MO. This was the 3rd time H*QUE has attended this contest. A fun local contest we’ve supported since it began. 59 teams this year – lots of heavy hitters! We kept those rib scores rolling from last weekend – took 3rd in ribs again. We also took 3rd in dessert – a first for H*QUE!

However, if you want chicken – don’t call us – we apparently can’t cook it to save our lives. 51st…ACK! Brisket was dead on but didn’t place as well this weekend unfortunately.

A big shout out to my team for their hard work and dedication. Even with the crazy rain, wind and storms that rolled through – Sztukowski and Sparks kept us even on temps and Stel (who apparently made those ribs right – thanks for the work on those!), Michael and Michael’s son Hayden were excellent help! Tillery got that brisket prepped beautifully as always.  Jen got those boxes looking awesome as usual and I ran around trying to keep it all in order LOL!

We’ll see y’all in 2 weeks at Elk’s Lodge – Columbia, MO – with Popeye’s chicken for turn in…LOL!

Here’s The Scores:
Chicken – 51st
Ribs – 3rd
Pork – 14th
Brisket – 19th
Overall – 20th