Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Great Food Shoot Out

What the hell is a Great Food Shoot Out??? That's what I thought as well. Well, let me explain. It's a food photo challenge. Food porn photographers are asked to upload their best food or cocktail photos to win some sort of prize. The contest is being run by Scripps Network. They own networks like Food Network, DIY, HGTV, etc. The winner is chosen based on online voting and/or a judging panel. I read the official rules and it didn't say what the prize was. I'm hopping it's a DSLR so winners can continue to take wonderful photos, but something in me is thinking it will be a signed cookbook by Rachel Ray. Lame.


I uploaded 10 photos so we'll see how I do. I checked out the competition and was not too impressed so far. Most were unimaginative and blurry. It didn't look like they had ever heard of macro digital. Photos are able to submitted for another 13 days. I have a trips to Orlando, Chicago, and DC this weekend and DC and Chicago again the weekend after. That's two weekends of trips and food porn shoots. I'm hoping to get a few more entries in before submission closes. Voting runs from July 1-13. I'll be asking for your help so I can win the Rachel Ray cookbook (which I'll recycle)!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Big Apple BBQ

My favorite holiday of the year has arrived!!! Nope, not Christmas or New Year's Eve. BIG APPLE BBQ!!! This is my third year going to the 7th Annual Big Apple BBQ. The country's top pitmasters come to Madison Square Park for a weekend of BBQing each June. They BBQ their wonderful delicious meats for us to enjoy. I always hit up Big Bob Gibson from Decatur, AL. Pitmaster Chris Lilly makes the best pulled pork I've ever had with this killer coleslaw. Mmmm!!! I dump on his Championship winning BBQ sauce and I'm in heaven!!!

My friend and I thought we were so smart and decided to go right when the event started at 11am to avoid the crowds. We were mistaken. The lines had already started and it seemed like everyone else had the same idea! Strange, because the past three years I've always gone mid day or later in the day and didn't experience such extreme lines. Looks like someone is bad luck... kidding! We ended up staying for about 4 hours there. We saw a ton of people we knew from college and chatted with them, stood on lines, ate, and had a great time. It drizzled for a tiny bit, but harm was done. Humans don't melt :)

My friend is obsessed with ribs and tried just about every rib stand. I don't think he was overly impressed with any of them. Probably because he himself makes killer ribs. It's true. I've had them. They are excellent. I knew better and basically only ate from the Big Bob Gibson tent. I was happy!


Pulling and chopping up the yummy pork at the Big Bob Gibson tent.

Pulling the pork from the pitmaster. The love of my life lives in that pitmaster. Mmmm pork....

He's pulling out the bone and excess fat.

So succulent and perfect. Smokey, meaty, flavorful wonderfulness. And the Championship sauce is to die for.

I was never a huge fan of cole slaw until I had Big Bob Gibson's mustard slaw 3 years ago. WOW! It's a bit spicy and packed with lots of flavor. I want more!!!

So many people!

Overall, another awesome year at Big Apple BBQ. I have just mentally added Decatur, AL to the itinerary for when I road trip across the US one day. Yum!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Poconos

After a long week of work, nothing sounds better than a weekend away with the girls. My girls and I headed up to the Pocono's where a friend had a house a short walk to a lake. Stocked with wine, beer, food to grill, and the movie Twilight, we were ready! Weekend of relaxing and girl time!

First thing's first, we need to crack open the wine! Only problem was we forgot a corkscrew. After some digging in the garage we found one of those things you can screw into a ceiling and hang plants from. With that and three strong girls we opened the wine! With our powers combined... we are... a corkscrew!

Romantic fondu dinner

Hello yummy cheesy goodness.
After a good night's sleep we walked over to the lake for some sun. We saw this guy on the walk. It was walking around the trees and we thought it was a turkey. Then it did bounded around and flew up on the roof. We realized it wasn't a turkey after all... I think we determined it was a vulture? I'm not sure....

The water was cold! But felt so good to dip our feet in. Yes, I know my legs are super pale. They have some color now I swear!

Water snake!

My friend's family kept old school Nintendo! Super Mario Brothers anyone?

Need I even say more?

BBQing for dinner! A fun weekend! Will be back before the summer ends!