Dreams, coming true

Well well. Thank you for stopping by and checking out a dream of mine that has come to reality.

The truth is that I wanted a barbecue team before I even knew. I started cooking Que around 7-8 years ago. Rub some meat. Plug the smoker in. Wait 9 hours. Consume. And that was working great. But there was always something more. Something new to try.

One day my wife came home from her job saying that she had a coworker who’s husband had a competitive BBQ team, and that they were looking for someone. I jumped at the chance. I arranged to have lunch with Kirk and started reading everything that I could about competitive BBQ and how it works.

There was a large problem. I had never cooked on charcoal before.

And I mean never. We grew up with gas grills. I was on my second electric smoker. Sure, people had criticized. But I was making good meat. I didn’t see the need for the mess.

I figured I had to tell Kirk about this during our meeting and I wanted to demonstrate my commitment to doing it. So on the day of our meeting, I purchased and picked up my Weber Smokey Mountain on my way. We talked, and I explained how I had never cooked with charcoal, but told him I was committed to doing so. Then I showed him what I had bought.

What happened then was a complete love affair with charcoal.

(Sidenote – I have not become a BBQ snob. Cook it however you want. Electric…gas…wood…charcoal…pellet. As long as it is outside and flavors the meat…yum. I am, however, a liquid smoke snob.)

At Kirk’s, Eric’s, Michael’s and Dwayne’s sides, I cooked for two years. Learning the ins and outs of competitive barbecue. Yet the feeling kept growing that I wanted to do it myself. Which leads us to this winter…

During a day of band practice with Leigh Anne, we were shooting the stuff about BBQ and things, and both Leigh Anne and Kim said, “You really ought to start your own team. See how good you are…”

So I thought about it for a month and decided, why the hell not. Then the wife gave me some resources to begin the journey, and here we are. 2.5 months away from our first competition.

It wouldn’t be possible without the support of my family and friends, particularly James, Leigh Anne, my brother MJD for creating this fabulous site, and of course the biggest teammate and cheerleader, my wife Kim. Barbecue has already brought us closer together.

Which is what barbecue is all about.