Well Seasoned Blog

Last year (2008) the House of Q won the grand championship at the BBQ on the By Pass (our event in Langley) because of that win, their name went into the Canadian draw for a chance to be invited to “the Jack” – the 2009 Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championship in Lynchburg, Tennessee. I thought Brian was going to die of anticipation waiting for the draw to be made…there were a couple of unforeseen circumstances that delayed the draw and had it taken much longer I am absolutely certain Brian would have been institutionalized. Well, they made the draw and the House of Q invitation was in the mail. (thank god!) I was super stoked for them – the Jack is the super bowl of BBQ, the Holy Grail…it is what every competitive BBQ’er dreams of visiting – Lynchburg, Tennessee is BBQ Mecca. Now, I have been guest cheffing with House of Q for about 4 years – filling in, pitching in, sharing ideas, brain storming and being an all purpose bbq bitch so they invited Dennis and I to tag along. What a great opportunity to see, experience and learn all about an event I would one day like to be invited to myself. So happily we agreed to do what we could to help out…tickets were booked, prep lists were made and re-made, meat was ordered, a cooking plan was devised and we were almost set to go. A few weeks and several hundred pounds of meat were sacrificed in the name of “practice” – we worked on sauces, rubs, technique and timing…in the contests we participate in regularly the time between categories is a full hour – at the Jack, it is only 30 minutes. WTF? 30 minutes…that is fast. Meat off, slice, pack, present, travel to the turn in point, clean and get ready for the next. Sometimes an hour feels like a long time but wow 30 minutes sure goes fast! So we were concerned about our timing and practiced with the presentation as well as our recipes. A couple of long phone calls with my good pal Danielle – Diva Q from Barrie, Ont. helped us sort out some of what we thought would be the challenges…she has been to the Jack before and shared some good advice and some words of wisdom. Turns out the help she gave was invaluable. In addition to the 4 main meats – pork butt, brisket, chicken and ribs there are 3 fun categories; sauce, chef’s choice & dessert. We decided to do them all….we must have rocks in our heads.
So we went back and forth a ton of times contemplating the dishes we would turn in for chef’s choice and dessert – considering the timing, the prep and our cooking ability we were kind of limited to what we could do. We were staying on site at the Jack in a motor home (did I mention there were 6 of us…yes the Misko’s Brian & Cori, the Erho’s Michelle and Glen, Dennis and me) – in a motor home and we had limited space in the “kitchen” to do anything never mind rely on the quality of the stove or the oven when we even got it. We narrowed our choices down to a couple, Brian wanted to do a game hen he had done well with in Trail at a previous competition but that was ruled out because of the 30 minute window, space on the cookers and it’s slightly labour intensive nature. We talked (well, I talked) planked salmon…tried hard to sell it but Brian was over it…it would after all speak to where we were from, it was easy to do, presented well and we had all done it a hundred times and were super confident with our ability to deliver. As I said, Brian was over it…so after much deliberation and a great suggestion from Dennis we settled on a seafood chowder, how very west coast of us. Dennis contributed the salmon and halibut he had caught on a recent trip to the north island, we pearled out a gem of a recipe from Chef Karen Barnaby, added bacon, corn, fresh crab and all of our other seafood – lots of heavy cream, some fresh herbs and a spicy kick – we were in business. A garnish of oyster crackers on the Jack turn in trays Dennis built and we were off to the races… a 4th place finish for Chef’s Choice…a very west coast smoked seafood chowder. It was freaking delicious…now, they only give trophies in this category for the top 3 finishes so we missed out on the bling…and boy did we miss out – by 2/100th’s of a point. Dammit…so close. A 4th place finish at the Jack is super respectable – it was a great dish, one that all of us will probably make again…
The big 4 meats are in…the chowder is in and now it is time for dessert. 2 of my dessert dishes broke on the way down… in fact I was so frustrated with the lack of proper baking dishes I almost scrapped the whole thing. What a piss off…all that work, practicing (the endless practicing) and prepping to get all the way there cinnamon buns in hand only to have nothing to cook in. So we decided that if we hustled we could get the soup bowls back right away and use them for the dessert….well hustle they did. Cori, Michelle and Dennis tracked those bowls down right after the judges were done with them…I am pretty sure the judges had licked them clean so there was very little washing up to do. In goes the bread pudding mixture and onto the Primo grills to cook. By this time – we were finished the competition…the desserts were on the cooker but we were done with everything else. Brian & Glen were chatting with folks and visiting with other teams….Smoke & Bones were in the pit for a visit and things were winding down. The desserts came off the cooker with just a few minutes to spare – they needed to be served warm, not piping hot so we let them rest a little while Cori & I prepped the whipped cream and the pecan praline topping. The desserts had cooled sufficiently and the window was closing…off they go – the same dishes and the same tray the soup went in on…hopefully there were going to a different table of judges…in they went. The bowls and the tray came back reasonably clean…we sent in 7 dishes (6 were required) and the 7th one had barely been touched…I guess they were finally getting full in there ! Dishes are back. Contest is over…all that’s left is the awards….
Now my buddy Danielle had been texting and calling me all weekend, not just for moral support but to check in and see how things were going. A couple of times – her BBQ spidey senses must have been tingling, she new I was in trouble….8pm the night before the competition Dennis and I were driving around Tennessee looking for parsley to garnish our turn in boxes. We were told that it was being provided to us…when we went to track it down, turns out it wasn’t. Shit….this is going to be interesting. I had already been to 4 grocery stores and a super wal mart on the parsley trek to no avail…Danielle texted and I wrote back with a parsley 911….within minutes she was texting back to tell me that 2 of her friends at the competition Kelly at 4 legs Up and Tommy at Checkered Pig had parsley for me…I just needed to go get it. What a lifesaver…Kelly and Tommy came to the parsley rescue on Diva’s request. I cannot think of another competition where you can ask a competitor for help at the 11th hour and they will put out their hand to help like that – BBQ people rock. So we sorted out our parsley situation, shared a bottle of wine and prepared our boxes for the next morning – there would be no time for that kind of nonsense on game day!
So, as I said – we get through the competition…the meat is in, the chowder, the sauce and the dessert is long gone. I get a text from D – asking me if we have seats at the awards yet…another great tip – she says it gets really full really fast and if you aren’t there early you aren’t getting in and we didn’t come all this way not to see anything so we head on over. Not 10 minutes into the awards I can feel someone walking up behind me…I am sitting on the top shelf of the bleachers – I turn around to see my buddy Danielle coming down the hill…kids and husband in tow. OMG – I knew it! She had driven for 2 days straight to get to the Jack in time for the awards ceremony. It was killing her that she wasn’t there. How bloody awesome is that!
So they do the optional stuff first, the sauce, the chef’s choice and the dessert…watching people’s excitement as their names were called was pretty cool…finally for desserts they give trophies to the top 5 and the first name the call is that of an international team – the House of Q….well, we just about jumped out of our skin, all of us – Danielle, Vlado & the kids were so happy they had arrived just in time to play along. This was it…a shout out – a call to the “dance floor” as Rockin’ Ronnie puts it…a bit of BBQ bling from the Jack.
Truthfully – from the time they called my name until later the next day everything that happened was a blur ! There were so many people, good BBQ friends, phone calls, text messages, so many cool things and so much Jack Daniels. We didn’t get another call that day but we did well. We got “the call”. What an experience, one that I hope we will get to do again one day.
Thanks a million to House of Q for inviting us to play long – we had a blast. Thank you to everyone that helped along the way, we really couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks to Kelly from 4 Legs Up for the great meat (and the parsley). And thanks to Danielle for your help in advance, your late night chit chats about my stupid dessert ideas and for showing up – I will never forget that vision of you coming down the hill. Thanks to Karen Barnaby for recipe inspiration, Lynnae Oxley for her dessert inspiration and to the crew at Well Seasoned who let me take off to play like this anytime I want. I get to do the coolest stuff in the whole wide world.
(there are a ton of photos and a video of the big win on the facebook page)

http://www.facebook.com/angiequaale

Jack Daniels Maple Pecan Pie Cinnamon Bun Bread Pudding

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the bread pudding part;
2 extra-large whole eggs
6 extra-large egg yolks
3 cups half-and-half
1 ½ cups turbinado or light brown sugar
2 tbsp Jack Daniels
8 day old cinnamon buns roughly chopped (depending on the size of your buns you might only need 6)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half, sugar, and Jack Daniels. Set the custard mixture aside. Cut the cinnamon into rough chunks and in a 9×13 baking dish, distribute the chunks in an even layer. Pour the custard mixture over the cinnamon buns and allow them to soak for 10 minutes, pressing them down gently to ensure they are all getting wet.

Meanwhile…prepare the next layer…

For the pecan pie part;
1 cup pecans roughly chopped
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp Jack Daniels
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Whisk the melted butter, eggs, brown sugar, Jack Daniels & maple syrup until well blended – stir in the pecans & set aside.

Once the cinnamon bun chunks have had an opportunity to soak up the custard evenly give the pecan pie filling another quick stir and pour the whole thing over bread pudding mixture…it might look a little sloppy but the buns will soak it all up.
Place the baking pan in a larger one ( or large sheet pan) with 1-inch of hot water at the bottom. Cover the larger pan with aluminum foil, tenting the foil so it doesn’t touch the pudding – allowing the pudding room to grow; it is going to puff up considerably during the first 30 minutes. Poke a few holes in the foil to allow the steam to escape. Bake the pudding for 45 minutes and then remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until the pudding is golden brown, the topping has caramelized and the custard is set. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Serve warm whipped cream.

Cooks notes; when I made this dessert at the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championship in October 2009, I followed the same plan but made them in individual dishes – I scaled back the cooking time and on top of the whipping cream added some chopped pecan pralines for more garnish. This recipe won the 5th place trophy – the judges loved it.