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KCBS BBQ Cook-Off Info
Recipes,
Smoking Meats
Recipes, Grilling
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Q-Fest East Shore RV Park |
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Beautiful weather, day, and view from
Q-Fest Campsite |
Beautiful weather, day, and view from Q-Fest Campsite |
Dr. Don Seminar on making Beans from
scratch and Stir Fry |
Dr. Don Seminar on making Beans from
scratch and Stir Fry * |
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| Bentley Meredith and Folks relaxing |
Kelley, Brent & Kim Walton &
Hayward Harris |
Eva Harris & Grant Ford |
Jack Lester & Dr. Don Iverson |
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| Kelley & Brent Walton |
Brent Walton & Eva Harris using Todd Eves' BBQ Pit * |
Todd Eves & Hayward Harris |
Some new CBBQA board members, Kristin
Meredith, Grant Ford, Pam Gram, John Ross, & Jeni Ford * |
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$7000 Check given to
the |
Grant Ford, Brent &
Kim Walton (TEAM QN4U) taking many of the "Team of the Year" trophies |
Folks just sitting around and socializing |
The Saturday afternoon Potluck just opened | |
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The Saturday afternoon Potluck just
opened |
Potluck participants | Potluck participants | Texas Hold'em Poker game | |
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| Folks around the Campfire later in the evening | Folks around the Campfire later in the evening | Folks around the Campfire later in the evening |
Folks around the Campfire later in the
evening |
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Folks around the Campfire later in the
evening |
Bill Wight and his Brother helping me
make the Dirty Rice * |
Bill Wight and his Brother helping me
make the Dirty Rice * |
Dr. Don Iverson, Bentley Meredith, and Marcel discussing food? | |
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Noel Van Herk helping Todd man his pit
and keep everything available |
Just one week later it is
SNOWING! These are pictures out my front yard. Most of the
show has already melted! |
Yes, as I say below, we sure got lucky we had warm beautiful weather the week before at the Q-Fest. | ||
| * = Picture provided by Bill Stadler & friend Diane. Thanks. | ||||
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PERFECT WEATHER AND VENUE I have to breathe a GREAT sigh of relief every year. Todd and I make the reservations for this event one full year in advance and start planning from that point. Albeit true, there is not too much to do until the last 90 days. However, one of my great worries, all year long, is the weather. Everybody knows that the end of January or first of February can be tough to predict. In fact it could just as easily turn out cold, windy, and rainy as it could turn out nice. However, we were again having a warm winter and had great weather. It was 85 degrees in Los Angeles the weekend of the event. It was probably 75, clear, and calm at the Q-Fest the entire weekend. That really makes the event so much more enjoyable. In fact we have had perfect weather for the last four years. As an FYI, one week after the Q-Fest it was snowing here in Southern California at my house as the 3 pictures above show. As is every year the venue was perfect. We had great camp sites, on a hillside overlooking Lake Puddingstone, onto the beautiful Southern California Mountains. There was power, cable TV, sewer, and water hook-ups at each campsite. We had the entire pull-thru row thus we could use that specific exit road entirely for guest parking. Everything worked out perfect. EVENING POTLUCK AND SEMINARS I arrived around 13:30 and there were a few folks there already. I remember Jack Lester was there and maybe Steve and Vince Madaule and their family (BBQ Team All Hogs go to Heaven). I basically assisted as necessary as everybody arrived and got placed in their spots. Around 17:00 we started thinking and prepping for the potluck dinner. Everybody was working on, or had already prepared, their entrées. Joe Miles, Patty, Linda Burke, Dr. Don Iverson, Pete, and Pam Gram assisted with the large job of preparing the Tritip (that Bristol Farms contributed through sponsoring Todd Eves), Joe's legendary Beans, and the Garlic Bread. It was a big task and the above mentioned team pulled it off perfectly. Dinner was fantastic. We had lots of contributed sides and desserts available for all participants. After dinner it was decided (by Dr. Don since we were running late) that Dr. Don Iverson would give his Bean Seminary and Stir Fry Seminar the next morning. That allowed us to move forward with the Beef Industry talk by Pete, the Executive Director of Beef and Seafood at Bristol Farms, and after that on to the sausage making seminar. The talk by Pete was very informative as usual. He talked about the specific type of program that the Bristol Farms cattle are on, the different types of cattle used in the industry, what they are used for (male/female), how they are fed, and how long on the "plan" to receive the perfect meat product enjoyed by Bristol Farms customers. Many did participate and enjoy the discussion. By the way Pete also brought some Apple Basil pre-cooked sausages that Todd put in his pit to heat up and smoke for the discussion snacks. They were great! While busily getting everything coordinated for dinner I noticed a car pull up and a person get out that I thought I knew. But, I knew that could not could be, or so I thought. What a pleasant surprise to see John Ross show up unexpectedly! That level of support and participation for the CBBQA activities takes a lot of commitment, determination, or desire to party! After all, who comes all the way from Kansas City to our Q-Fests? Well, in answer to that question it is not the first such visit. Several years back on a couple of occasions we had John and Claran Romachuk from Kansas City come out as well. Just goes to show that the California BBQ community is somewhat connected to the Kansas City BBQ community. Todd must have forgot his checklist as he neglected to bring the medium sized hog casings for the sausage seminar. Well, never to be deterred it was quickly decided to just make sausage loaves. Todd and I quickly unpackaged the 6 pork butts and ground them up through Todd's large Hobart grinder. Then we took the 4 different seasoning packets that Todd contributed to the seminar (each capable of seasoning 25 lbs of meat) and measured the right amount for each grouping of ground pork. We ended up with Pizza, Beer Brat, Breakfast, and Italian flavor packets. We divided the sausages up into 10 lb groupings, seasoned each individually, then put the Breakfast sausage away to be cooked the next morning for sausage gravy and biscuits. The rest were wrapped in food film (to harden) and put in Todd's pit to firm up. After 45 minutes they were removed, unwrapped, and put back in the pit to finish up. About two hours later we pulled all loaves, sliced, and had wonderful home-made sausage snacks around the campfire for everybody to enjoy. Afterwards everybody sat around the fire till late in the evening enjoying the ambiance and company. MORNING POTLUCK We were targeting 08:00 for breakfast. We ended up keeping to our schedule perfectly. I got up at 07:00 and started the sausage gravy and biscuits. I finished at just a few minutes prior to 08:00. Jack Lester has his great corn beef hash ready and on the serving table. BBQ Team "All Hogs go to Heaven" Steve, (Vince, Toni, Ron, Ted, and Ardith) were kind enough to also provide eggs and sausage, Brent and Kim Walton (QN4U) brought breakfast burritos, and everybody that participated brought something great. It was a fantastic breakfast overall that everybody enjoyed. AFTERNOON CBBQA MEETING Grant Ford had a couple of CBBQA business meetings prior to the afternoon dinner. The first in the East Shore meeting room where he and Caz discussed www.cbbqa.com usage techniques and user applications. Very informational and helpful. The second was a larger member meeting in the camp ground where several issues were discussed, as in: - The fantastic $7000 contribution the CBBQA made to the "Make a Wish Foundation". - The announcement of the election results. The new board consists of: Grant Ford= President; Gene Goycochea= Executive Vice President; John Ross= Vice President No. Calif.; Randy Gille= Vice President So. Calif.; Kristin Meredith= Treasurer ; Jeni ford= Secretary; Pam Gram= Marketing, Promotions, & PR - The presentation by Brent and Kim Walton of the "financial books" of the CBBQA to the membership. All the above were well received and professionally done. The folks from "Make a Wish" were especially appreciative of the CBBQA's great contribution and support. AFTERNOON POTLUCK After the above meetings were complete everybody had to buckle down and get their Pot Luck entries ready and brought to the serving area. Kristin Meredith, Jenny, and other volunteers were kind enough to assist in the food reception and setup. There sure were a lot of great entrées provided by all the attendees. Way too many to mention. We started serving at 14:00 and as usual, there was WAY more food than we all could eat. We then paid our customary bribe to East Shore for treating us so well and invited the security and reservations staff to come by and obtain a great BBQ dinner. They all did that and were certainly appreciative. The Pot Luck was FANTASTIC. Everybody's entry was GREAT!!! What more can one ask for. There was every kind of meat (sausage, ribs, butt, brisket, chicken, ...) every kind of side (beans, macaroni and cheese, rice, bread, ...) and all kinds of desserts (cheesecake, chocolate cakes, pies, ...). Thanks to everybody who participated and contributed to the Pot Lucks. Without everybody's support this could not have happened. Also, I want to mention that BBQ Team "All Hogs go to Heaven" pretty much personally supplied all the wood for the campfires both Friday and Saturday night. Not to mention the great Texas Holdem Poker tournaments that were also occurring simultaneously. Todd and Tana also brought a truck of wood to use at the fire but I don't know if we ever got into it. Todd was also kind enough to bring his pit that was a big help to a lot of people in preparing much of the meats. Todd also brought all his Sausage Making equipment as well which makes the Sausage Making seminars possible. SATURDAY EVENING & SUNDAY MORNING Most everybody with an RV stayed for Saturday night. It was great to just relax and chill out from the weekend without any jobs to do. We sat around the fire, played poker, and chit-chatted till late. Yikes, we finally went to bed at 01:30 am. I hate it when I stay up that late and need to be up early! Anyway, we all got up Sunday, relaxed in the 80 degrees weather, snacked on munchies, and perused Brent and Kim Walton's Forschner / Victronix booth. Finally around noon folks started packing up and leaving. I was the last to leave around 13:15. Another GREAT and well SUPPORTED CBBQA Q-Fest. Thanks to everybody that participated and contributed (work, food, time) to make it such a special event enjoyed by all who came out. Dan Cannon Dan@BBQbyDan.com
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