Practice Run before BBQ contest

The Team was able to have a practice run before the BBQ. The team had a lot of items to work thru before the practice run:

1. Work on T-shirts and aprons with our names
2. Needed a Tent at least 10X10 -really needed two - one with side walls-use to relax. Sam's has a great deal on tent
3. Needed tables to prepare food - FYI - Use PVC pipe cut at 13" to increase the height of the table - tables from Sam's plastic top rectangle and pvc from Lowes with cap on end.
4. Buckets - used for storage, clean water, bleach water. We used Home Depot buckets and glanvized buckets with large mouths for cleaning our cutting boards and knives
5. Grill - Needed three smokers - 2 650sq cooking briskets,butts, and ribs. 1 used one for chicken. then we had a weber round grill for lighting fires and dinner
6. Lights- couple lights -Nice big spot light that can be hung- like a shop light and flashlights
7. Need something for ashes - ash bucket and shovel
8. Water hoses and electrical cords
9. Need something that you can level your grills in case ground unlevel
10. Knives and scissors
11. Weights for tents in case your on Asphalt or concrete
12. Fan or Heat depending on temp.
13. Nice large cutting boards - Sams or Academy Sports
14. Determining wood - Academy Sports
13. Create a schedule- see example
5:30:00 PM Wednesday Pick-up grilles at Page's
8:00:00 PM Wednesday Complete Rubs
8:00:00 PM Wednesday Complete Sauce

5:30:00 PM Thursday Butcher Block meats
8:30 PM Thursday Complete Mops

9:00:00 AM Friday Load Ken's truck -Ken's House
10:00:00 AM Friday Load Robert's grill
11:00:00 AM Friday Grab Lunch
12:00:00 PM Friday Arrive at Gate for event
1:00:00 PM Friday Meat Approval
2:30:00 PM Friday Area Set-up
3:00:00 PM Friday
3:15:00 AM Friday Rub down Butt and inject
3:30:00 AM Friday Rub Down Brisket and inject
3:45:00 AM Friday Ribs in Cider and Lemon
4:00:00 PM Friday Chicken in Italian Dressing
4:00:00 PM Friday Cook Meeting/add table cloth after clean-up
5:00:00 PM Friday Regroup/after cook meeting
6:00:00 PM Friday
7:00:00 PM Friday Start Fire one grill and Weber/Gates open
7:30:00 PM Friday Mickey and Motorcars
8:00:00 PM Friday Start Butt and Brisket -one grill/cook hamburger
8:10:00 PM Friday Dinner Hamburgers
9:00:00 PM Friday Cross Canadian Ragweed
10:00:00 PM Friday
11:00:00 PM Friday
12:00:00 AM Friday Mop

1:00:00 AM Saturday Start fire for Ribs -other grill/Mop
2:00:00 AM Saturday Rub Ribs and mustard binder and add to grill/Mop
3:00:00 AM Saturday Mop
4:00:00 AM Saturday Mop
5:00:00 AM Saturday Start fire for Chicken/soak chips/prep smoker/Rub Chicken/ Mop
6:00:00 AM Saturday Breakfast/Mop/chicken to grill
7:00:00 AM Saturday Mop
7:45:00 AM Saturday Start Chicken chimney
8:00:00 AM Saturday wrap ribs in foil with mop/wrap brisket in foil mop
8:30:00 AM Saturday Add chicken chimney
9:00:00 AM Saturday Mop
10:00:00 AM Saturday Remove all meats and start fire in Weber for finishing needs
11:00:00 AM Saturday regroup/crisp skin
11:30:00 AM Saturday START PLATING CHICKEN
12:00:00 PM Saturday Chicken turn in/Gates Open
12:10:00 PM Saturday START PLATING RIBS
12:30:00 PM Saturday Rib turn in
12:40:00 PM Saturday START PLATING PORK
1:00:00 PM Saturday Pork turn in
1:10:00 PM Saturday START PLATING BRISKET
1:30:00 PM Saturday Brisket turn in
3:00:00 PM Saturday Bobby Flay Demo
5:00:00 PM Saturday Awards


Items we learned at the practice run:
1. We didnt want to be worrying about breakfast on turn in day. So we just had breakfast bars.
2. We couldnt use all of the cooking area and need to do somethign with the opening for smoker box to food box. We used a alum pan to keep flames from reaching the food.
3. We couldn't use the split wood at Academy sports because we couldn't control the temp. in the food box. The big piece caused temp to soar into the 400 degree range.
4. It rained during the practice run and we lost about 30 degrees during the rain. Also you need your items off the ground because alot of items got really wet.

5. We practice our turn in process. 30 minutes flys during turn in. We had one person preparing the turn in boxes and two people cutting and determining what to tpieces to turn in. Also the team gets a little tipsy at this point in the process so be sure to have this defined.

6. We really struggled with ribs. We just had no idea what to do with them.



Here are some pictures






Example of our practice turn in box:

How The Thillerz on the Grillerz was created summer of 2007

All,

I had worked with Robert Guisinger and Page Thompson for at least 7 years. We had attended cooking classes at Viking in Franklin over the years and had a great time. We all love to cook from gourmet to simple open fire cooking. I had noticed an Ad for a BBQ contest at the Gaylord Hotel in Nashville for last weekend in September and I guess it was around May. At the time only Page owned a smoker and it was a very small upright water smoker. We all agreed that this was something we wanted to try even thought we really had no experience in smoking meat in a real wood smoker.

So over the next couple of months, Robert and me bought barrel smokers from Academy Sports and started using them to cook butts, ribs, and brisket. Page was working on the chicken using his smoker. We researched on to cook using smokers and what a BBQ contest would be like for beginners. They had a backyard classification but we decided that if we were going then we would do all four meats (butt, ribs, brisket, and chicken).

Picture attached is my first fire in smoker box -Too hot and burned box

Memorial Day

Memorial beach trip

March 10th Friday

I went with Kris's group for dinner on Friday night before catching the plane back.. The place was a theme type dinner palace... IT was very neat place to go... Just don't drink the water.. Kris made the mistake and ended up sick..
picture of kris

I had three people on the other side of the see saw....
My dancing skills
Getting my mark...

March 9th Thursday

Went out with my group the night before returning home.. The group gave me a gift. The gift is the God of Good Luck...

March 8th Wednesday

Picture of KVR and me.. KVR is the gentleman who took me around Hyderabad during my trip..

March 7th Tuesday

The bed looked like it was normal size but I actually had to lay across the bed to sleep

Monday March 6th

Ok....I'm just laughing.... Two pictures from the water park .... Can you find me in the pictures....I can't stop laughing.... No more tonight........

Sunday Mar. 5th

This pictures is taken at a card reader stand... He has a parrot and he lets the parrot out of a cage to pick a card. He will read the results from the card to you in Hindu language.... A couple of people went and then everyone wanted me to take a turn... So, I agreed the card was of the greatest Hindu god .... The whole group took a deep breath..... So the card said I was very independent, financial successful after March 15th, and was a great leader...... Man--nailed it.....
This poor kid had to ride the Ferris wheel with me.... He was a nervous wreck....
I took this picture because if a truck breaks down outside of town then they leave the truck in the middle of the road and work on the truck... In the morning the truck was in the road and in the afternoon was still in the middle of the road but people were working on the truck.... I saw others jacked up and I guess they were waiting on parts to fix...

Sat March 4th

The entrance to Mount Opera from the bottom of the hill
The view from the top of the Ferris wheel
The team left to Srinavas,Wenkat,Seeresha,Chandini,Sarvani, Kdub,Ashwini,Anjaiah, and Praveen
The ladies in the grounds of Mount Opera
Views from the Ferris Wheel
Pictures of the Water park -wave pool and boat ride and you can't see the water slide is the right.
Sarvani and Praveen posing...
More group pictures at the go karts.
Another wreck........Sarvani wrecking
Bumper cars...
Wenkat on top of the big mushroom..
more bumper cars
Sliding chair.
Sliding chair..... I had to past on this ride ---I wasn't sure about the weight limit..
We couldn't get the planes to start.. I think they had sometype of power issue.
Pictures from the Columbus ride.

I took the group to a amusement park called Mount Opera.

We had a fun day.... The park reminds me of the old fairgrounds amusement park. The best part of the day was watching the group drive the go karts. Most of the group don't drive. I don't believe anyone drove the go karts without crashing and almost rolled one of the karts....

After lunch we went to the water park.... OK OK here we go.....No one swims in India so this was a real treat for Anji and Praveen. The rest of the group just set in the stand while we went swimming.

First thing - No one owns swim trunks so they give you these old nylon shorts that look like gym shorts. I had included my swim trunks so it wasn't a problem but I can tell you that they didn't have shorts that would have fit me....and I'm not sure I would've wanted to wear them..

So, I go into the changing room, showers,and restroom area. I guess they all freaked out. I could here everyone leaving and shouting American... I changed and everyone was standing outside the door and the manager came down but no one said anything to me.... So anyone we changed an went out into the park.......

I will have to load a picture that shows me in the pool with everyone because it is ease to pick me out in the crowd....

So, When I was at the pool I was like a celebrity everyone wanted to talk with me and get pictures of me with their kids.....

Here is the picture for swim wear--- Men wear shorts with no shirt... Woman wear their full clothes then switch back into another set.. The women didn't ride the slides but they did get into the wave pool and this thing called RainDance --- Dancing is very big in India ---SO it is water spraying from the ceiling and loud music and everyone is dancing around....

Friday March 3rd

Pictures from bottom up--The storage for guns, cannons, and etc.... In the first picture you can see the holes in the wall to put your weapon...

Lot of talk about Bush coming thru town. He had three blackhawks over Hyderabad traveling at a high rate of speed. I scanned thru the papers about his trip. I think in general it was good reviews. They have a couple of parties that don't like the U.S. but for the most part everything is good. I know the news was talking about all of the riots happening in town but I walked around the city out in the opening with out any problems.

I got refitted for my suits. We made a few adjustments and I ordered some custom cotton shirts at $15 US dollars a piece. We got a late start for the stores so we had late dinner and I didn't get into bed until about 2am and I have a trip planned at 8:30 for a outdoor outing..