First KCBS contest

Check out a great write up from Dave who helped me out at New Holland this past weekend. His first contest experience:

http://coalcrackerbbq.blogspot.com/2009/08/epiphany-my-bbq-sucks.html?showComment=1251665689583#c5321070977034955640

Don't let him fool you. He did a bang up job and never complained. Watch out for him once he gets his team cranking.

Mom's Christmas Cookies

OK, so a couple months back I told my Mom I should enter her Christmas Cookies in an anything but turn in so she can say she has award winning cookies. Thought the perfect opportunity would have been the on site judging at Louisa, VA in July so I could do a Christmas in July type theme. Well, had to cancel the aux categories then as we had a film crew following us and thought it would be too much trouble. SO, I decided to enter them this week at New Holland.

The pic above is the box. Those are her cookies, baked in a Backwoods Smoker by me of course.

And that is also a pic of my first ever Dead Ass Last (DAL) in a contest category. 40th out of 40. You've got to be kidding me, the worst possible scenario.

The best part? When I broke the news to her on the way home, she reacted the way any of us cooks would be proud of. SHE BLAMED THE JUDGES. LOL, that was awesome........

For those following along at home, don't role the dice like this. Just leave well enough alone and submit your own recipes! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

RGC!

Moving along

Butts are at 160 and moving along. A little extra fuel and a stir and back to bed. Thinking of my friends at New Holland and hoping it's going well for all.

Dan - you awake???!!


-- Jason 3 Eyz

Wow the rain.Its really coming down. We managed to acquire hay and mulch to help with the ponding water.Having fun though and the cooker is on point so no prob.

New Holland-Friday Evening

Its wet. Prep is done, Anything butt is cooked for tomorrow and just chillin in the car taking a break. Pretty peaceful actually..

How wet?

Well we'll see. Looks like about an inch of rain. When all is said and done, that shouldn't be a big deal, we have survived FAR worse than that. But, should put a damper (get it?) on the festivities.

I am just wrapping things up at work then have to hit the store. Pretty much everything in place right now and planning on arriving around noon. Tom Adams of VA BBQ Pirates fame will be cooking the sausage category and Mom's Christmas cookies are entering the anything butt category. Other than that, business as usual.

I'll try and post an update from the field too......

Tropical Storm Danny

A direct hit on New Holland? Probably not, but it'll be wet.........

Birthdays and Sleep Studies

Well, I just got home a little while ago from getting a sleep study done. What a weird experience. They hook you up to about 20 sensors, stick an airflow sensor up your nose, hook a pulse-ox to your finger, and tell you to sleep normal. Yeah right! I felt like Neo from the Matrix when they unhook him from the machines. THey did have a nice bed, sleep number. So, the sleep wasn't terrible, just not the normal. We'll see what they have to say.

On another note, my little boy turns 2 today!!! I can't believe it's been two years already. Time flies with a little one, even though some of the moments seem to drag on forever!!! Party planning is in full effect for Saturday, including a monster truck moonbounce. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make New Holland this year, but I will be there in spirit pulling for Dan and the rest of the team. If you are in the area, stop by and say hi to the gang.

FW 190

Can't ALWAYS post BBQ pics right? This is a pic I took a couple weeks back at the Air & Space museum near Dulles airport. This is a FW 190. Nasty, nasty German WWII fighter.

Bel Air Dinner

Pic I took of the Bel Air, MD dinner. Great job organizing this by Pork & Deans!

I'm under attack.....

Carpenter ants. Big, black, ugly ants have been sighted in my kitchen. The kitchen no less! This means war. I've broken out the variety of poisons and sprays around the house, shot crevises between the house and the deck, strategically placed baits and cleaned just about everything in the kitchen. The battle plan is to deprive them of any food, while slowly killing them with the poisons. And later.....some insurance is needed too. Going to get some Boric acid and mix with some honey and place that around too. Oh, and later, going on a search and destroy mission for an outdoor colony.

Overkill? Maybe, but I have no competition this weekend, so I have to stress about something!

Just thinking

Sitting in my office on a Saturday morning trying to catch up on work, so I can chill at New Holland on Friday. Its muggy and wet outside. But the forecast......PLEASE hold the forecast, as its for 78 degrees and sun next Friday.

Please remind me of this post when I'm at New Holland next week and its 98 degrees with a thunderstorm ;) Oh well, back to what pays the bills!

more youtube

Added some more videos. Our GC and 1st place chicken call in Stevensville 2007 and a video of Dan discussing the Backwoods smoker and the WSM cooker at Louisa, VA this past July. Enjoy!!

You can find them by searching for 3eyzbbq on

http://www.youtube.com

Or go here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/3eyzbbq#grid/all

Youtube

I took a video of us getting our 1st place rib call. Well, actually I took several videos of all the chicken and ribs calls. This one just happens to be for 2nd and 1st place in ribs. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7wIhtnnYvk

I would have taken more of our pork call and reserve GC, but I was so excited about the rib call, I forgot!!!

New Holland

New Holland is the next comp for us. Figured I'd post a pic that Jason took a couple years ago of the park where its held. Notice the open areas, grass, tall trees that provide shade. Just a wonderful setting for a BBQ comp!

Of course, we won't be set up anywhere near here. Our space is still on grass but on the far eastern side of the park. Inconvenient for bathrooms, the judges area and even most of our friends. And NO sun protection other than our canopies. Disgruntled? Hardly! I can pull in easy, get out easy, park nearby. Setup my cookers on a level basketball court and have some quite time. I actually like the spot.

I'll be cooking with a new competitor, a MABA cook by the name of Dave (Smokin_geek on the MABA forum) and Tom from the VA BBQ Pirates has offered to come help on Saturday. Always good to have an experienced set of hands there to help out. AND, Tom is the best damn rub salesperson I have ever seen!

I won't have Mutha Chicken around for this one, so we'll have to pull out of whole hog :(

Oh well, maybe next time.

I'm sure I'll post more before the comp!

Bel Air ReCap

Ouch. I always feel like crap after a contest, but this one was even better given it was the first hot contest of the season. Hard to complain though, since it could have been far worse.

Ever go into a port a potty at 90 degrees in the sun? Well next time I'm bringing my thermo pen since it had to be 130 degrees inside. BUT, they were clean most of the time and had to be the best smelling ones I've ever seen. So, cudos to the organizers!

Sorry, tangent there..... We set up this year in practically the same site as last year, close to both the BBQ Guru and Dizzy Pigs which really made the time fly. Its great to spend time with our friends but in hind site we really should have changed things around. You see, the BBG Guru won last year and I'm sure it had to do with their proximety to 3eyz. We proven that, by them winning the event for the second year in a row. See, isn;t that proof enough? We setup next to each other 2 years in a row and they won 2 years in a row. Clearly its a pattern :)

Seriously though, a hearty atta boy to them for pulling it out. That makes 4 GC's at Bel Air that Kenny has been a part of. Very impressive!

For maybe the first time ever, I actually correctly *well almost) guessed how good/bad my entries were. You see, at contests, usually when you say, "my ribs were good" they actually tanked and vs versa. This time I said the chicken and ribs were pretty good and I wasn't as excited with the pork and brisket. What we ended up with was 1st place ribs, 7th place pork, 11th chicken and a 16th in brisket. That was good enough for a RGC. We are very, very happy!

So, time to start planning for New Holland in 2 weeks. That contest has been a rough one for us historically so we'll certainly have to bring our A game. See you all there!

Reserve GC

3 Eyz wins reserve grand champion (2nd place overall out of 52 teams)!!!


Congrats to BBQ Guru on grand champion!!


-- Jason 3 Eyz

Turn in time


-- Jason 3 Eyz

Sat morning

Sat morning. 9:42. From his commanders chair, Dan utters the words F parsley

-- Jason 3 Eyz

Bob prepping some test ribs with 3 Eyz rub




Big Ugly's camp




Who Are Those Guys camp nice sponsor banner


Jason 3 Eyz

BBQ Bob. Last year


-- Jason 3 Eyz

-- Jason 3 Eyz

We're

Mostly finished setting up. Said hi to some of our friends and getting ready to relax a bit before the cooks meeting. Nice and warm here with some decent humidity. Pretty standard stuff for Bel Air.

mostly set up

So, we are mostly set up at BelAir, it's a nice night just hanging out with the Guru guys and Dizzy Pigs.Woodchix also just pulled up (just met Leann for the first time, seems very nice!) Hopefully this early setup will help with meat prep tomorrow, as Dan has to work tomorrow am and will be out after followed by me and Jason. Temps supposed to be in the low to mid 80's this weeeknd so hopefully the meat will be the only thing cooking...:). Hopefully I can post some pre game pics tomorrow as it's too dark to take any tonight!

The Jack

Well, for the 1st time I just received the confirmation email and application for the Jack draw. As of the time of this blog entry, we have a 50/50 chance of going as it will be between us and who wins Bel Air, MD on Saturday. If we win it, we are going. If we lose, we can only hope that somebody already in the draw wins so that will increase our chances. OR, we can just win New Holland which is also an auto. I feel the nerves already, but all we can do is cook our best food. I'll be heading down to Bel Air with Tracy in a few hours to setup!

With Bel Air coming up I just had to post the pic that Nature Boy took of me last year at this comp. I had some water pan issues and wasn't too happy at the time. Chris calls it my "game face". Is it Friday yet?

Retailers!!

Hey gang,

Just wanted to post a note to let everyone know that 3 Eyz rub is available at a number of retailers, both physical stores and online. A list of these retailers will be kept up to date on the website, but I wanted to let everyone know of some recent retailers that have picked up the rub. In addition to the ones listed on our site, you can now purchase the award-winning rub at:

BBQ Addicts
http://www.bbqaddicts.com/

Great Lakes BBQ Supply Co.
http://www.greatlakesbbqsupply.com/

Doc's Meat Market
http://www.docsmeatmarket.com/WebSite7/
7288 Lancaster Pike
Hockessin, DE 19707

Thanks to the retailers currently carrying our rub!

Have a suggestion of a retailer than might be a good fit for carrying the rub? Let us know!

Greetings

Dan H posting here for the first time. What a treat, our very own blog. And what, it only took us about 5 years? Not bad, eh?

Planning is underway for Bel Air next Friday (8/14). No meat yet, but everything is packed and in order. Contacted Jon from Widespread to bum a canopy, planning on setting up with Tracy on our very first Thursday night. It will be terrible if I have to grab a beer with the Dizzy Pigs or BBQ Guru before heading home though :)

More to post later....

Jason checking in...

Woo hoo!! 3 Eyz has entered the world of blogging!!! Thanks Tracy for setting this up. As some of you know, updating a website can be a little time consuming, so this will hopefully serve as a way to let you know real-time (or as close as we can) what is happening with us. I am way past due for updating the website. My little 2 year old has been keeping me busy. He has decided that bedtime is no longer 7:30, but more like 9-9:30!!

Bel Air contest is coming up in a week (Aug 14th-15th)! Looking forward to the "hometown" event. Alot of people show up and there are usually some good bands there, beer garden, and plemnty of vendors. Send us a note if you are going to stop by. We'll hopefully be updating pictures and notes throughout the weekend there.

More to come soon...

action photos!

Xavier's first BBQ Event!! (above)

Dan & Jason

Me and Dan at Que and Cruz... check the shirt, another Tracy creation!!


This is a scary pic of Dan Mc..lol!

Looking to the future... 7 comps left!!!

Let the FUN Begin!!!!!

So we are now in early August, and have 7 comps left this year!!!

Bel Air is coming at us 8/14 and 8/15, I can't wait for this one as I didn't get to go last year:(

New Holland Summer Fest in New Holland, PA is next up, followed by;

King Pig at Bridgeton, NJ (conveniently scheduled on my Bday this year:( , Pickin in the Panhandle in Hedgesville (it fell on my Bday last year), Valley Smokin Festival in Front Royal, VA (close to home again:) , Diamond State BBQ Championship in Dover, DE (Dress in layers... you never know what the temps will be like...lol ), and winding down in Lumberton, NC at the Carolina Smokin Fall Fling!!!

I wouldn't be surprised if Dan sneaks another one in there..LOL :)

2009 in retrospect....

Hard to believe the year is over halfway over!!! Looking back to how we've done this year!

Started out in March 09' Dan and Dan Mc headed down to Little Rock, Arkansas to compete in Smoke on the water! They finished 10th overall!!!

Next on the agenda for April o9' was Pork in the Park in Salisbury, MD. We finished 13th overall!!This was our first comp 4 years ago!!

Dan and Dan Mc teamed up again to go to Galvinell's in May of this year! They finished 3rd overall!!!

Charter Tech's Art of BBQ in NJ, came in June 09' with a Reserve Grand finish!!!!

Beltway BBQ Showdown in Upper Marlboro, MD came later in June, with a Grand Champion Finish!!! (Gotta love how they paid in Visa Giftcards...)

I think maybe the most memorable event was the Safeway BBQ Battle in DC!! It was at the end of June 09' and the weather was better than could be expected! Had a little rain but it didn't dampen our spirits!!

Que and Cruz was a different story!!! Close to my hometown of Harrisonburg, Va in Louisa it proved to be a HOT day!!! We had a 5th place finish!! Dan's parents came to cheer us on, and we even had a film crew hanging around with us and a few other teams!!

Some of the team...

First Post!

Greetings All...

My first priority is thanking all who have mentored, assisted, competed with and/or against us. We could not be who we are today without all of the friendships we have made in our fellow teams. Nor would we have achieved all we have without our teammates... (the ones who always came and helped out in a pinch!) Michelle and Will Cannady, Wayne Tucker, Rick.... and many others I want to say THANKS to!!

The idea of creating a blog was the sheer genius of the "Man" behind it all... my wonderful husband, Dan Hixon! It gives me the opportunity to tell our story, and also a chance to exercise my creative noodle..lol.

I love to take pics, and will post a ton!

I was told by a certain someone I needed to post this pic for all of BBQdom to enjoy.... and while I could have made some great coffee mugs or something to that effect, I am sharing it with all of you!!!!

Enjoy!