March Madness Draws to a Close

Well March Madness wraps up with some pretty boring meals. Nothing on Friday Night. I worked late and knew that I'd be eating like a pig on Saturday when I judged the Snowshoe (a very well fed pig, more about that later) so I skipped dinner. Saturday's dinner was a single cheeseburger from Wendy's and Sunday dinner was a stop in at Wheeler's (No sushi) in the Bay. I had Buffalo wings and nachos. I know, very healthy.

So March Madness leaves the building. I thought that forcing myself to eat/cook a different entree every night would cause me to take a look at my cooking habits and recipes and discover something new. Unfortunately with the flu taking out so much of the month, it didn't happen. Maybe I'll try it again later in the year.

But now, it's April and time to start refocusing on barbecue (Thanks, Donna!)

After sleeping for an hour and a half, I was up and on the road Saturday morning heading up to the outskirts of Boston to judge at The Snow Shoe Challenge. The Taft's run a great event that really should be a lot bigger then it is. 18 teams compete each year in the traditional kick off to the NEBS barbecue season here in the Northeast.

The Snow Shoe Challenge was/is the model on which Matt and I based Grillin' On The Bay. Gary and Michelle run a great show that is enjoyed by both the teams and the judges. We hoped we could run a contest half as well as they run The Snow Shoe.

For those of you who are not familiar with The Snow Shoe, it's rules and food submissions are based on the guidelines of a bbq as governed by KCBS. That means four categories of food with six judges judging your food submission. For a cook, that means a lot of work. For a judge, that means sampling and possibly consuming over 2lbs of food.

I'll get into the judging experience later in the week, but let me tell you this; if you weren't there you missed one of the best contests in the Northeast. Congratulations to Dirty Dick and the Legless Wonders; the Grand Champions of 2008!

Thanks to the fine folks over at The New England BBQ Society for the fine collage of The Snow Shoe. There's some legendary cooks in that photo.

BaaaaaaaaaaaaR-Beeeeeee-Quuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeee!