BBQ’s Tasty Bits

   Saturday morning I woke to a fairly boring breakfast, toast and coffee. While the coffee part of my day is always a joy, I knew the food would get better as the day wore on. Later in the day I would attend a family picnic with  my Fathers side of the family, cousins who are really good cooks. We learned from our Grandmother and Mothers how to serve the best picnic food and still make it like a homemade sit down dinner, only outside. But first, I had one stop to make…

  My stop was the BBQ Championship 2008. The Smokin’ Eagles Championship at the Summit Park Mall was sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie/Auxiliary 1411 in NT. When I first entered the parking lot I got a whiff of that BBQ smell and knew I was in the right place .  The trailers and tables were filled with eager and excited BBQ chefs to share their love of all that is served at a BBQ and to compete with others.

  The line wasn’t too long at 11:50 when I arrived, I paid five dollars.   Volunteers gave me a program and I wandered around, circling the trailers and checking out what was happening in this yummy part of the usually sparse lot.  A big fan of Bobby Flay, my only experience watching BBQ competitions had been the Throw-down shows where Bobby shows up and challenges some unsuspecting cook to a duel of the grills. 

This was definately a friendly competition.   I didn’t see a lot of chatting between the camps but they were busy folks. Some of the places sold their items to visitors and some of the grill masters did not sell, they were there strickly for competition purposes.

There was a band playing  called EVENODDS and other tents had BBQ sauces, bibs,cookbooks, aprons and even an AVON tent where I won a makeup bag.

  I found a delicious place to eat a chicken snack for $5.oo. That was the name of it, chicken snack. It was a large well seasoned BBQ drumstick and a piece of thigh BBQ with a generous piece of cornbread.   The booth was the Formal BBQ and Event Catering, the menu stated the place is in Niagara Falls. 

      They had a pretty little wooden fence around the area, and small tables with informal blue vinyl tablecloths, mirrors with little flowerpots and pretty little S/P shakers. It was like eating a little romantic dinner outside. Well, who cares that I was by myself.

    Just as I was feeling sorry for myself for not being able to sign up for the Judging contest on Friday night (it was the REO Speedwagon concert) , one of the volunteers was selling 5 samples for $5. and you could be a People’s Choice Award Judge. So, of course I signed up and went over to the yellow and white tent where I met some other “Judges” that were also interested in the sampling. We tasted our three samples and voted. 

   Before I left I picked up a t-shirt for my son Vincent. It says “I survived the BBQ in Wheatfield” and listed sponsors names. Not only did I enjoy the event, I wish I could have stayed longer.   This is definitely an event I would attend again, I hope it comes back each year. Thanks to the Fraternal Order of Eagles and many other sponsors that worked so hard to put it on.

  When I stopped to see my cousins we sat around talking and eating a great dinner and visiting, outside on a lovely table. I had enjoyed my special chicken snack in my little BBQ bistro table, but this time it was fun to eat with those I love. Counting calories aside, I got the best of both worlds on Saturday.