Kelly Says

Most of the people who visit this website have been to at least one cookoff, and most of us have been to many more. We all have our own traditions, superstitions and habits we stick to, and most of us have forgotten the thrill and fear we felt at our first cookoff. No matter how good your friends and neighbors thought your BBQ was, when you pulled your pit up to that first competition you had butterflies in your stomach.

We recently went to Amarillo for a cookoff, and had the privilege of having a couple of friends join us. Marcie has cooked in a few cookoffs, but Toni has never had the exposure we have taken for granted. Although she wasn’t cooking in her first competition, she was kind enough to write about a cookoff from a first-timers point of view.

The following was written by Toni Matlock, cooker-in-training and bloody-mary drinking pro!

  This being my first cook off to ever attend in my life, I was extremely excited to be going with Kim & Kelly. I, along with our friend Marcie joined Kim and Kelly. We all met up around noon and made our way slowly to Amarillo to the Flint Robins Memorial Cook Off.  I, not realizing how much work getting ready for a cook could be, was surprised by the several stops we had to make before even getting out of town, and with my anxiety just to get on the road it seemed to take forever. I had a brilliant idea of taking a couple of walkie talkies to make the trip down a fun and entertaining one. Kelly and his witty comments kept us laughing in our vehicles. Thanks Kelly.

We arrived in Amarillo ready to get the ball rolling on the set up of things. I became quickly aware that I had no clue what I was doing. So I decided to get a chair and fix a drink, kick back and relax. Being the early part of March we should have all realized that the weather was going to be unpredictable. The wind began to blow and the temperature began dropping, and it quickly became, well, VERY COLD. Almost immediately we finished setting up and a small amount of chit chat around the cook site, we made our way into the 5^th wheel for warmth. After the cold set in for the entire weekend, we spent most of the rest our time in Amarillo inside the 5^th wheel,  going outside for dire necessity.  Thank god for beer and bloody mary’s.  Somewhere around 3 a.m. Kelly started cooking, and that is strange because the only time I get up and cook in the middle of the night is Christmas.  Another friend, Andy, had parked his horse trailer next to us and was planning on borrowing the use of our generator but after return from a drink at the bar he found the generator was turned off. Quickly after his return Marcie’s cell phone rang and Andy informed us he was going home to his warm bed. Somewhere around 6 a.m.,  Marcie and I were awakened by the worst clattering noise of my life! Andy, along with his truck and trailer, had returned somewhere in the middle of the night and upon his return he brought back his own generator that he had placed in the back of the trailer to make a horrific noise banging on the metal in the trailer. Marcie, being as polite as she is, dressed herself to go outside and inspect the situation.  Discovering what the noise was she flipped the switch and stopped it. Poor Andy he slept for another 4 hours freezing himself to death. That will teach him to put his generator outside on the ground so it doesn’t wake people. At least I hope it does.

At 9 a.m. we found ourselves making our way to the cooks meeting where Kim reminded everyone of the rules of the cookoff. She was very informative to me since I had not a clue on any of it.  Of course the bloody mary that I sucked down in the meeting made it very enjoyable. The 4 more after it were just as good as the first one. Anyone who is looking for a good bloody mary, try one of Kelly’s. They are very tasty. Kelly and I learned not to mix bloody mary’s in the tomato juice container, or at least until you know the correct mixture. The last few were REALLY hot.

Back to the 5^th wheel we go to start cooking and preparing. I learned a lot about how to be very sanitary and how to prepare Kelly style chili and ribs and chicken.  I don’t want to write too much about that, someone might get Kelly’s winning recipes.  All I can say is after sampling what was cooking all night I soon realized that the long slow cooking was a good thing. The food was delicious. Way to go Kelly.

Finally, Saturday evening rolled around and the judges had made there decisions. Kelly did an awesome job with everything and got 4^th place with his Chili. The band that played after the judging was great as well, not to mention the open bar and BBQ to eat.  Good food and great company.

I

The opinions listed here are those of Kelly Draper, and may not reflect the opinions of any other LSBS officers or members.