Looking Ahead

First, I wanted to thank Greg Rempe for having me on his BBQ Central Radio Show last Tuesday (1/19). We discussed our teams' experience with being on "BBQ Pitmasters," our teams' background and feelings about Myron Mixon . I enjoyed giving the amateur team perspective on things. Thanks again Greg!

All the snow has melted in the Kansas City area. It has taken a month to get rid of it but it's gone! Hopefully for good! Temperatures have rebounded from highs around 0 degrees to what feels like tropical highs in the 30's! The warm-up in the weather really gets the competition juices flowing.

Darrin, Brant and myself met at Darrin's house to have our preseason game plan discussion last weekend (Corey was busy cooking and couldn't attend. We'll forgive him as it was bbq related.) This is a good strategy session for us as we can lay out our competition schedule for 2010, address any cooking related issues or adjustments we want to make, discuss marketing/sponsorship items and hash out any issues from the previous year.

Contest selection is what drives the bus for us and it is important that we choose wisely. We decided to kick off the cook season with the Smoke on the Water contest in Little Rock, AR. The total prize package is a staggering $100k and they are paying out 1st through 40th place in each category. It is a great opportunity to compete with many of the top teams from across the country early on in the BBQ season and to capitalize on our success at the American Royal. This will be the first time that we step out of the Kansas City area to compete.

In addition to Little Rock, we are looking at the Springfield, MO contest in mid April, Great American in May and the American Royal in October. We will also look at adding an additional 2 to 4 contests dispersed across late April through September. I'm really looking forward to the 2010 season. Hurry up and get here March!

Darrin also is organizing a practice cook at his house in February. After I attended the JOS cook school this past November, we decided that we need to incorporate the brisket and pork butt techniques into our cook process. This will give everyone a chance to work through these techniques together after having practiced them separately. Also another area we will explore will be our rib process. We've been happy with our ribs but want to give the JOS process a try as well. It is nice to know that we have 2 solid rib techniques to utilize. For now, the chicken process will remain the same but I feel we can make 2 minor changes and still attain the same solid finished product.

I'm ready to cook!