Monday, December 11, 2006 

Surprise!

This weekend was a lot of fun!

When the Old Bull and I went south to buy my Backwoods Smoker from our NE distributer, Seabrisket, he fell in love with the little "patio" smoker those folks use. That's where I hatched the idea to buy him one.

So, with the help of his wife Mame and many family and friends, we pooled the dough to buy a "patio" smoker for him for his birthday at the end of November. It didn't quite come together in time, but this weekend it did.

On Saturday me and two buddies drove the two hours south to Seabrook, NH, to meet up with Rick Surrette and his wife DJ so we could purchase the new pit. As always, Rick and DJ were a blast to visit with! It was an easy road trip with a good lunch and a lot of laughs.

The week prior, Mame and I had exchanged a furious flurry of emails about how we could present the pit to the Old Man. Fortunately, I was able to schedule an afternoon of watching football with my #2 pit man because his usual work commitments had evaporated. At the same time, we were able to arrange for most of the contributers to mysteriously appear at casa de Old Bull and Mame just in time for the ceremony.

While he was occupied with the guests, I was able to bring the little pit onto his deck (near the grilling pavilion). I covered it with a sleeping bag and asked everyone to come out on the deck. Then, without any more suspense, I asked the Old Man to unveil the unit himself. As he peeled back the cover, there were repeated exclamations of "NO WAY!" . Followed by fist pumping and I'm pretty sure there was some dancing in there too!

It was a complete success! The Old Bull couldn't have been more surprised. Check out the pictures...


Revealing the smoker!


Doin' the bull dance. Feeling the flow.


Checking the doors and kicking the tires.


Admiring his new baby.

Thanks so much to the family and friends who contributed to pulling this coup off! It was a dandy surprise and I couldn't have made it possible without everyone's help!

Congrats, Old Bull. Time to dial it in.

C.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006 

Wow! Go New England Barbecue!

I just happened to be on the Wicked Good Charcoal site pricing out a future purchase of charcoal, and saw that two of our fine New England Barbecue teams have placed very well at the American Royal competition.

The Royal is a HUGE event, with two contests, an invitational and an open.

A round of applause should go to the Harpoon team, IQUE for their 4th overall placement at the invitational - which had a total of 87 teams! Team I Smell Smoke also placed well at 15th.

In the Open, the I Smell Smoke folks took 4th overall out of a field of - get this - 486 teams!

Congratulations to two of New England's finest teams! Way to show those Southerners that we know what we're doing up here!

C.