Our second year

Our second year began with an unsanctioned event called the Winter Burnoff. This is a mostly for fun event, but it also raises money for the organizers charity, NOAH (the National Organization for Albinism and Hyperpigmentation) It's held in the parking lot of a bowling alley in Des Plaines, IL. Rather than the normal chicken, ribs, pork butt, and brisket categories of KCBS, given that it's only a one day event, they change the categories to chicken, ribs, sausage, and pork loin or tenderloin. We managed to take 2nd place pork, and our year was off to a good start! We cooked 6 competitions in 2008, and had calls in 4 of them. We took 5th place ribs in Elk Grove, 3rd place ribs and 6th place brisket in Lowell, MI, 3rd place brisket in Milwaukee, WI,(see photo!) and in Arthur, IL, at the Central Illinois Bragging rights state championship, we took 5th place chicken and 6th place brisket! So a total of 6 calls for 6 comps. A good improvement from the year before. We made many more new freinds over the season, and got to visit a lot with old ones. We've upped our game a bit, we no longer use a tent, we opted for a used pop-up camper last July, which made shelter better, and made the task of packing and unpacking for comps far easier!

So now, it's April of 2010. Time to start prepping the trailer, doing practice cooks, and getting ready for a new season. Given the economy, we're really not sure which comps we'll do this year. We've paid the entry for Westmont, IL in May, and we definitely want to go to the UP Hog Wild comp in Kingsford, MI in July, and Arthur in the fall. Beyond that, we just don't know yet. For now, looking forward to and getting ready for Westmont on Memorial weekend!