The 2nd Competition: Kinston: Friday Night

So here we go, the Kinston Competition.  There is so much to say about this past weekend.  DJ and Hunter arrived in Kinston on Friday afternoon and set everything up.  Then the rain started, our tent leaked and the boys were soaking wet.  Not a good way to start out the weekend.  DJ ran to Goldsboro to get a new tent (one that they wanted anyway).  The new tent is definitely the "Cadillac" of tents.  When I asked DJ and Hunter why they didn't just sit in the car until the rain passed so they didn't have to get so wet, they both looked at me with this innocent look and you could tell what they were thinking.  They hadn't thought of that...but it was a great reason to get a new tent now instead of waiting until the next event to get one!!  The other cooks around us helped put up our new tent.  At that moment, cooks helping cooks, we knew that Kinston would be so different than Newport.  In Newport, everyone kept to themselves for the most part.  We did meet a few of the other teams, but not many. Kinston was a whole different story.  Everyone was friendly and going from tent to tent chatting with everyone.  It was definitely one big party on Friday night!  There was a huge fireworks display and the Embers played beach music.  Despite the rough start and the muddy mess around us, we were having a great time meeting new people! Unfortunately, that was the best thing I have to write about Kinston….meeting people and having a great time.  The pig was a TOTALLY different story.

 Our Pig, Ricky Bobby, was one HUGE pig, weighing in at a whopping 142 pounds. For those who know little about pig cooking, the “perfect” pig is between 100 and 125 pounds.  When Ashley and I walked up to the tent Friday night, the boys were not happy to say the least.  But they made the best of it.  Hunter’s dad was there throughout the whole competition and he helped Hunter and DJ get the pig ready to go on the grill.  There was no waiting around this time.  We had to get that pig on the grill fast, so it would have enough time to cook.  I don’t know everything that is involved in getting the pig ready….all I know is Ricky Bobby got one big slap on the butt before the cooker was closed.  We would not see our pig again until the next morning.  No Peeking!!

The night was filled with lots of laughter and storytelling.  As usual, we had the time of our lives just sitting and enjoying each others company.  There was a “local celebrity” cook team at this competition.  They have a TV show on the Discovery Channel called Swamp Loggers and man was their cooker nice!  It was neat to walk around to the different tents to see people’s cookers and their décor.  As always, we got lots of ideas for the next competition. 

We all got about the same amount of sleep….three hours or less…which has become normal for all of us on a competition weekend.   Check back tomorrow to read about the rest of the competition and how we did!!

What's Next?

Now that we have gotten over the anxiety of our first competition, we are on to the next one!  Our second competition will be at the BBQ Festival on the Neuse in Kinston, NC on May 7th.  We hope to see lots of familliar faces there! 

We are also in the works of discussing catering for events.  Our first catering job is in a few weeks and we are very excited to start getting our name out there....so let us know how we can help you with your event!!

Part 2: The First Competition-Saturday

We finally made it to the judging of our first competition!  The morning was spent cleaning up our cooking site and putting the finishing touches on the pig.  John and Gloria had arrived with breakfast for Hunter and DJ.  Ashley and I were making our way to the competition with hot coffees in hand.  We were definitely not our usual selves this morning, which was not due to the fact we were all going on less than three hours of sleep, it was nerves.  We had no idea what to expect, how the judges would react and most importantly how our pig would turn out.  We had a lot of this riding on this very important day.

You are judged on every aspect of the pig and the presentation that you have for the judges. You have to provide plates, bowls for the barbecue sauce, knives, water and a few other thing.  The goal (which we know now) is to have the table set up with place settings to present to the judges.  Ashley and I looked around at other tents to get an idea of how people were setting up their judges table.  Some people had china, cloth napkins and flowers for the judges.   We had bottled water, paper plates, huge bowls for the sauce and the wrong size knives.  Panic started to set in to all of us because we were not as prepared as we thought we were.  Ashley and I ran out to get the proper knives and bowls at Walmart, racing back to try to beat the judges to our tent. Talk about another adrenaline rush!

As a major rule for pig competitions, you are not allowed to taste your pig before the judges come around.  Once they make their rounds, another crew comes and takes what they want of the pig to make barbecue and you can have what is left behind.  So you have no idea how your pig turned out until after everyone else has tasted it first.

The judges flooded our tent around 10:30, there seemed to be so many of them.  When they cracked open that pig (literally), we all knew once thing for certain, which was the skin was perfect!  The judges gave a few comments on improving our set up, which was most helpful to us.  I made a cake, which turned out to be a favorite with the judges!  (Anything helps!)  All in all, we felt hopeful we may have a chance at placing in this competition based the positive reaction we received from the judges.  The "cleaning crew" left very little of the pig for us to eat, and kept commenting about how great it was.  We were overjoyed by the response from our pig, especially since these guys had also tried most everyone's barbecue.

After the judging rapped up, we took a deep breath and started to relax and just take in the whole experience.  People were stopping by our tent to taste the remnants of our pig and just to chat about the competition and our bright red cooker!  We talked to so many people!  We were all smiles for the rest of the afternoon and felt hopeful going to the awards ceremony to await our results.

It felt like an eternity, while other awards were given and introductions were made during the awards ceremony...but they finally got to it and we had knots in our stomachs.  The announcer started with 10th place...AND OUR NAMES WERE CALLED!!!  There were so many squeals and shouts of excitement from our group as Hunter headed towards the stage to accept our award.  We were beyond thrilled with the results!  As Hunter was standing on stage, the 9th place finisher was a cook who has been on the Food Network cooking at barbecue competitions.  As amazing as it is to place in our first competition, standing next to someone who is nationally known for his barbecue put things in perceptive....our pig REALLY was that good!

The excitement of this competition and "Two Guys and a Big Barbecue" has definitely led to many future plans.  The four of us aren't exactly sure of where this all may end up leading, but we have high hopes and big dreams!  We will see were this takes us!

We really do appreciate everyone's support, especially all the help that Hunter's dad and Stepmother gave us during the weekend of the competition.  We couldn't have done it without them, thats for sure!

Part 1: The First Competition-Friday Night

The first competition we registered for was held in Newport, NC on the first weekend in April.  Apex Propane (my company) sponsored us for this event.  This was not just any little competition.  There were 88 teams of cooks, all with the same goal of winning first place.  This competition was said to be the largest whole-hog cooking contest in the country.  There were teams that who were there for the first time and there were other teams who had been cooking at this same competition for many, many years.  Since the competition was so fierce, we just chalked it up to be a learning experience and had little hope that we would even win a trophy.

DJ and Hunter left out Friday afternoon, in order to have everything set up and ready for the cooks meeting at 7:00.  We had an idea of what to expect going into this first competition, but there are always things that you don't know to plan for. There is so much more to the competition than just slapping a pig on the grill and letting him cook! 

A truck comes by to drop off the pigs at each cooking site, but that doesn't mean you start cooking right away.  Our pig for this event was named Elvis, because he was back to rock that competition and people would be beside themselves to stop by and see him!  (Yes, I will admit the naming of the pig was definitely my idea)!  There is a schedule of when the judges will start to come around to your group, some groups were judged starting at 8AM and the second group (where we were places) were scheduled to be judged starting at 10AM.  Timing is everything to cooking the perfect pig, so the time our group was scheduled to be judged determined the time that the pig would begin cooking.  Hunter's dad was there on Friday night to give advice and help with the timing aspect of everything, and Gloria was there to take pictures of anything and everything! 

 The pig is delivered...

and being prepared...

and he is ready to cook all night long!

Ashley and I arrived around 9:00 Friday night to help with the competition.  We walked up to our site and the overwhelming sense of excitement came over all of us!  We were finally here, after all the hard work and preparations, to show North Carolina that we knew how to cook one awesome pig!  Ashley and I were and are so proud of our husbands. The tent was up, the table was full of food, the pig was getting ready to start cooking, a band was playing and there were so many people stopping by and chatting with us.  We were having the time of our lives and we hadn't even been judged yet!  Hunter's dad and stepmom where there and Ashley's family stopped by to show their support.  The Cha-Cha slide came over the loudspeaker, so we used some of that energy to shake what our mamma’s gave us! Around midnight, things started quieting down, the music stopped, the crowd was thinning and there was not much to do but watch the cooker.  Of course, we chatted amongst the four us and had a great time just taking everything in and spending time with each other.  (Corny, I know)!! 

(This picture makes me giggle; we were very cold, so please excuse our attire)



The later it got, the colder it became and we realized that we were definitely unprepared with our selection of clothing or lack thereof.  Ashley and I made a trip to Wal-Mart (which has become a normal place to stop for us) so we could get more clothes for the guys to wear during the night so they could stay at least a little warm.  Ashley and I watched the pig so that Hunter and DJ could go catch a nap and warm up in the car.  We were given specific instructions on when they needed to be woken up!  Around 3:00 in the morning, Ashley and I headed to the hotel to catch a nap ourselves in order to be a little rested for the big day we had coming up!  Hunter and DJ stuck it out all night, watching the pig in the frigid weather to make sure they had done everything necessary to make Elvis turn out to be the perfect pig!


Check back tomorrow to read about how the judging went and Saturday's happenings!

It's T-Shirt Time!

The title says it all...we are getting a t-shirt order together!  We have heard from a few people that they were interested in having one of our shirts, so we are putting the offer out there for everyone!  Please get in contact with us within the next week, if you want a shirt with our fabulous logo!  The shirts start at $12 and go up from there depending on size and color.  Our email address is:
twoguysandapigbarbecue@gmail.com.  We hope to hear from you soon!

We thank everyone for their support!

Its Party Time!

Now we were putting everything to the test, we were going to have a party with our first pig and our first batch of barbecue sauce.  The date was set for March 12th and we got what we were hoping for- a warm, beautiful day for our party.  We invited all of our friends and family to the debut cook off of "Two Guys and a Pig Barbecue".  All four of us were so excited!  We had volunteers bring the side dishes, and the boys sat outside all afternoon making sure the pig was perfect.  We had a great turn out and to our delight we had just as many wonderful compliments on the barbecue.  This was the one chance for the guys to work together in cooking the pig before the competition.  Ashley and I surprised everyone with a custom made (huge!) cake with their logo.  The night was definitely full of surprises and excitement!  After the party, we felt so much love and support from family and friends!  We were  also becoming that much more excited for the big competition that was quickly approaching!

The Sauce

The next part of the process was to make our first batch of barbecue sauce.  The recipe is one that has been in Hunter's family for many years.  So there again, we lucked out and had some guidance!  There is not much I can say about the sauce, since so much of it is a great big secret.  Its definitely a part of what makes the barbecue so good.  I can say that wherever they make the sauce, the house smells like vinegar for days afterwards.  I guess thats another way to make the sauce unforgettable!  Here are pictures of making the first batch and the toast we had afterwards!