A Pleasant Weekend in Pleasant Hill, MO

Our last competition was held in Pleasant Hill, Missouri on the Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend. You may be wondering where Pleasant Hill, MO is located. Well it is a smaller town just southeast of the Greater Kansas City area. While many may not know where this town is located, many of the best bbq'ers in the country do. This relatively small contest featured over 60 teams, many of whom are favorites at any competition they attend.

One of cool things about this contest is that it is a fundraiser for March of Dimes. It was nice to be a part of such a great cause. Another cool thing about this contest was the organizers. Jeff and Stu roll out the proverbial red carpet and go way out of their way to make teams comfortable. Due to the fact that I am a relative newbie when it comes to campers, I have absolutely no idea how to back the things up. This was one of the few times this year when Dr. Dan, my father-in-law, would be unable to pull the camper, so I asked for a pull-through spot. I get there hoping that at least someone I knew (and knew wouldn't make too much fun of me) was there to help back me in. Come to find out the guys had reserved a special spot just for me so I could easily pull-in with no problem. Crises averted. I know, I know, I need to learn to back, and I will with time, but I am a cook darn it and have other redeeming skills, unfortunately trailer backing isn't one of them.

Anyway, I got settled in all by myself, thanks to the organizers. Before I knew it the butts were on and it was off to The Slabs.com spot for the Friday night potluck. I had a great time meeting all sorts of new people, thanks to Kim Groneman from Smoke on wheels. So much so, that I I had to head back to our spot to get the briskets on before I was able to eat anything!

Dave Compton, one of my BBQ friends from Iowa, was down to Pleasant Hill to judge his 30th contest. This is significant as after thirty contests, judges are eligible to take the Master Judge's exam and become a Certified Master Judge. At 10:00 a bunch of guys from the BBQ Brethren had put together a little ceremony for Dave to celebrate his achievement. That was way cool. It was also an opportunity for me to get to know some of the people face to face on that great forum. While in that area, I also got invited over to The Pork Pullin' Plowboys site for a shot to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Todd Johns and his wife Audrey, which was also a special moment of the weekend.

Our cooking spot was next to a group of younger guys who were cooking their first contest. They also happened to be cooking on Weber Smokey Mountains, so I was up late talking to them, giving them pointers, and remembering when I was in their shoes not long ago.

The morning came very quickly and we managed to get everything in on time, but not without a few hiccups along the way. Overall we ended up 20th overall, which could have been better, but with the things we had to deal with along the way I was happy with. Huge congrats to our friends Andy and Kim Groneman from Smoke on Wheels for getting called for their first Grand Championship of 2010! They also received a perfect score for their chicken, which was out of this world! Way to go guys! We got a call for 7th place for our ribs, which in that field I was very very pleased with. We have also got a call in ribs in our past two contests, which is one less than we received in all twelve of our contests last year. It seems we have that on track.

Unfortunately, our pork and brisket were not well received. This was due to several factors, many of which I believe I have figured out and hopefully will have corrected by our next contest. On the other hand, to paraphrase a quote from one of my favorite movies, "Sometimes you eat the brisket, and sometimes, well, he eats you!"

This weekend we are back at it again cooking at the Capital City Cookoff in Jefferson City, MO. We will try to post results as soon as we get them, otherwise you are always welcome to stop by and say hello!