Kan't Smoke Us

Tony competed in a BBQ competition this past weekend.  Besides it being 95 degrees out and surrounded by smokers to bump it up to about 105 degrees, and sweating through my skirt all day, it was so much fun!  The boys did this last year too but I was in Nashville so I missed out.  The team name was going to be Jacob Pullen pork for the Wally Judges.  Good thing they switched it to Kan't Smoke Us (get it? KSU), since both are long gone from our bball team now. 

We got there on Friday afternoon to set stuff up.  Thinking we were going to be the last ones there, I was pushing Tony out the door.  We pulled up to Andy standing alone in the parking lot holding a 12 pack.  He also thought he would be the last one there.  I didn't do much 'setting up' besides my chair and cooler, but I observed quite well. 

Powercats.  I wish Connie would figure out a way to make them actually look like Powercats.

This is Tony's smoker.  He's a cutie.  I'm thinking Tony might have to upgrade for next year, everyone else's big guys showed his up.

Notice the astroturf?

Tony's smoked sausage.  That joke never gets old. 

 Seriously, you would be surprised at how many inappropriate comments you can make about meat.  I think we hit them all, especially after a few hours of drinking.  They just kept coming...

Some teams were serious business.  Trophy's, beer pong tables, tiki bars and all.  Heath's dad and brother decided that the guys needed a trophy too.  So they went out and bought these.  One said 'Annual BBQ champions'.  We decided if people asked we'd just say, yep we won the Memphis BBQ competition.  What year?  Oh ya know, annually.  Every single year.   

Boys in action.

Drinking Action

 Heath was in the parking lot at 2 am to put his brisket on.  Andy had to put the pork on at 4 am.  And John and Tony didn't have to put their's on until mid morning, but they were there for moral support.  I showed up at 10:30.  I'm not crazy.  At least I made it there in time to see this:

This little man was there all stinkin' day.  How cute is he in his KSU gear?!

Wally hearts KSU

Here I am blogging about your baby again, Erin.

Family pic.  Christmas card?

And here's an abundance of meat pictures.  Vegetarians, you may want to by-pass this part. 

Tony's smoked sausage.  Har har.

Johnny's ribs.  Winning. (we'll get to that later)

Andy's pulled pork.  That was a fun subject too. 'gotta go pull my pork' 'Andy's pulling his pork'

Heath's brisket.  Not quite as funny as pulled pork & smoked sausage.

The spread.  We had A LOT of food.

Precious sleeping Wally baby

Supporting wives. 

My (pledge) mom and I

 The back of our shirts are my fav...

Pork butts, and bbq racks.... not ours :)

Mom, Dad, and I.  I loved saying this in college and unfortunately it still comes out from time to time.  They were good parents, really.  Even if Heath did try to set me up with a guy who is now gay.  I also like talking about that story from time to time. 



The crew

Wally was in Erin's tummy in last years picture.  He looks so different now :)

And a final picture of the boys.  With their legit trophy.

Now I could let you all believe that they got first place, but I would be lying.  We all went in for the awards ceremony and they announce the top 5 teams in each category.  I'm positively sure that they all had their speeches ready.  After the team 'What Would Jesus Que?' had won 3 categories in a row.  Andy quietly said 'Jesus would share.'  I might have peed my pants.  So after nobody's name was announced we were certain they all got 6th place. 

Fast forward to 4 drunk guys trying to read a spreadsheet... 

Heath's brisket got 14th

Andy's pork got 17th

Tony's sausage got 24th

John's ribs got 34th ... out of 38th

That's still a fun subject to talk about.  Erin told me they were invited to a bbq on Sunday and looked in their fridge for what to bring.  The ribs of coarse!  The almost last 34th place ribs.  I bet they were a hit. 

Overall the boys got 22nd which is pretty good for a day full of fun!

Oh, that's right, we got 2nd in the spirit award!!!!!!!! (totally deserving of multiple exclaimation points) Only to be beat out by a tent full of taxidermied stuffed animals.  Vom.

Maybe the wives should do the cooking next year.

I should have let Erin do the guest post on this.  Her summary = John's selling his smoker, Sally's last name is back to Crabb, and Tony would still be sitting in the parking lot waiting on our name to be called. 

Sullivan's HH

My aunt Tracy's birthday was on last Saturday.  She's like the rest of my family, including me, that tends to celebrate a few times before and after our actual birthdays, so last Thursday we all met at Sullivan's for their happy hour. 
If you are ever wanting to try a new place for happy hour on a Thursday, go here.  It lasts all night.  Do you need another reason?  Probably not, but if you do I'll tell them to you. 

All martini's and wine glasses are $5.  All of the bar menu is $5. 

The bar menu is small but has some good options:
Blue Cheese Chips
The Best Burger In Town (it looked good, but Tony would have to disagree that it was the best)
BBQ Beef Stack
Gnocchi - artichoke and parmesan
Crab & Artichoke dip

Tony (and almost everyone else at our table) had the burg

My mom and I had the BBQ stack.  It was GOOD.

We also had some martini's.  I went with the dirty again.  I think I'm converted.  Loving them!

The service was a bit slow for my liking, but I guess there were 10 of us...

Birthday girl is in the middle with the halo over her head.  How fitting!

Fun night with a fun family and I would recommend checking it out on a Thursday for some cheap dinner and drinks!

P.S. Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!  Bring on the margaritas! 

Crock Pot Potato Soup

Weather.com lied to me this week with talks of storms, rain, and tornado warnings (well, they might have been close with that one).  I have been wanting to make this recipe I came across in Taste of Home...crock pot potato soup.  What better way to get over an annoyingly rainy day than to come home to potato soup??  Fail.  It was gorgeous yesterday.  Hot and sunny.  After tasting the soup though, I didn't regret it one bit.  It was delish.  I'm a sucker for potato soup and this easy peasy recipe, compared to Panera... in my opinion (and my husbands).  Thick and cheesy.  Yum. 

Here it is:

1 bag (32 oz) frozen southern-style diced hash brown potatoes, thawed - (mine were frozen b/c I forgot to take them out of the freezer...)

1 cup frozen chopped onion (from 12-oz bag), thawed (see frozen potato comment)

1 medium stalk celery, diced (1/2 cup)

1 carton (32-oz) Progresso® chicken broth

1 cup water

S&P to taste

3 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 bag (8 oz) shredded American-Cheddar cheese blend - I used a ColbyJack blend

1/4 cup real bacon pieces (from 2.8-oz package) - optional for topping

4 medium green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)  - optional for topping

In 3- to 4-quart slow cooker, mix potatoes, onion, celery, broth and water. Add salt and pepper to taste. I added a lot. It's my thing.

Cover; cook on Low heat setting 6 to 8 hours.  Add more S&P if you wish.  I did.

In small bowl, mix flour into milk; stir into potato mixture. Increase heat setting to High. Cover; cook 20 to 30 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir in cheese until melted. Garnish individual servings with bacon and green onions. Sprinkle with pepper if desired.

Serve in a bread bowl if you wish

With a salad and some vino

So next time it gets cold out, which I hear might be this weekend (wtf!), or if you're like me - on any nice and sunny day, whip this up.  You won't regret it. 

Oh and it makes enough for leftovers... one batch is probably enough for 6 people.  I'm totally guessing on that by the way, but that's what I'm thinking.

Restaurant.com

I love me some restaurant.com.  You can get a $25 gift certificate for $10.  Or a $50 gc for $20.  In some cases they will send out promo codes and you can get them much cheaper.  That's where I come in :)

Right now if you enter the promo code SPRING at checkout, you will get 70% off.  So you'll be getting a $25 gift cert. for only $3.  $50 gc for $6 and so on.

You can enter in any zip code and it will bring up the restaurants that participate in your area.  Here are my fav restaurants that are listed in the KC area.

Waldo Pizza
Willie's
Kennedy's
Maya's
Twin City Tavern

And some more upscale ones that would be for a special occassion and nice to have a gift cert:
The Majestic
Peppercorn Duck Club
Pierpont's
The Skies
Melting Pot

Also a ton more that I'd like to try...  check it out here! 

Make sure to read the restrictions for each.  Some you have to have a minimum purchase, some are good with booze, some not (I'm not a fan of these), and some are only valid Sun-Thurs.  All of them either expire in one year from purchase or do not expire at all. 

Happy Eating!

OP Pub Crawl

This past Saturday Tony and I went out with some of my Chi-O friends in the new area of Town Center.  I'm kind of in love with it, great food, great happy hours, an overly priced but super cool fish tank store, and my favorite cupcake place ever. 
So it wasn't really a 'pub-crawl' but we did hit up a few places throughout the night.
We met Krista and Brian at RA before dinner for their happy hour.  It might be one of my favorite happy hours in KC, because it lasts until 7.  Awesome.  We had a couple of apps and some drinks.  Krista had the RA'kn shrimp, Brian got a sushi roll, and Tony and I split the ahi tuna small plate.  Again, with the ahi tuna.  I'm addicted. 

Photos compliments of Krista.  Her camera is way better than my piece of crap.

Then we were off to Trezo Vino for dinner.  I've only been there for a work lunch and for happy hour (go figure) so I was excited to try it out for dinner.  Their menu isn't huge, but everything on it is wonderful.  I'm pretty sure everyone loved what they had including crab cakes, chicken thai flatbread, lobster mac & cheese, and sea bass.  I will also say that their selection of bruschetta is awesome, we ordered it when I went for lunch previously.  I'll give you one guess what I ordered...  did you say ahi tuna?  You are right.  I had the ahi tuna tacos and I swear I've been craving them every day since.  I also got the soup of the day which was a roasted red pepper bisque. DeLish.

Krista's chicken thai flatbread

Krista's meal came out super late and they brought her a whole bottle of wine for free.  What?  Don't worry we helped her drink it. :)  We were pretty confused on why they were so generous, until we were leaving and the manager stopped her and told her thanks for writing the article in the Business Journal.  Huh?  Evidently she had mentioned the article when she made the reservation.  The girl who wrote the article name was Krista Klaus.  Similar to Krista Kutter.  So the question remains... would she have gotten the free bottle-o-wine if he didn't think she was the one who wrote the article??  We'll never know.  But we'll take the bottle and drink it.  Thank you.

The girls sat on one side and the boys on the other.  It just works out better that way.  Our side of the table might have been a little louder than theirs, but what do you expect?

After dinner we decided to treck it up to the A Loft bar that was next door.  I've heard good things but never been.  It's a funky little place complete with an awesome outdoor space (if only it would have been a little warmer).  They had $3 draws. On a Saturday night?  I was overly happy about that.  You can tell in the pictures to come.

And then the unnecessary photo shoot begins...

Yep, should have stopped snapping pics a little sooner

 

Great night out!  And I recommend everyone to go check out the area!