Tag Archive: West Virginia

  1. Contests, Cookers, BBQ Prizes, and TOY Awards Headline 2019 MABA Annual Banquet

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    Over 30 contests, three awesome cookers,  and dozens of other top-notch barbecue  products to be raffled off at the MABA Annual Meeting February 23rd in Charles Town, West Virginia!  

    There’s still time to sign upfor the MABA Annual Banquet, but time is running out.  Be in attendance for your chance to win free contest entries and fabulous barbecue prizes.  See who will walk away with Tier 1 and 2 trophies and checks in all four meat categories and overall for the 2018 season.  Find out who you, members of MABA, selected to represent you on the board of directors for 2019 – 2020, and much, much more!

    Here’s a list confirmed list of the contests that have graciously donated an entry into the raffle!  Remember, you must attend the MABA Annual Banquet to win!

    Boo-B-Que
    New Castle Colonial BBQ
    MD State BBQ Festival
    Beltway BBQ Showdown
    Interstate BBQ Festival
    Smokin on the Dock of the Bay
    Eastern Carolina BBQ Throwdown
    Kings of Q
    BBQ Capital Cookoff
    Currituck Heritage Festival
    Butts & Beans BBQ Challenge
    Jiggy with the Piggy
    Mountain High BBQ Festival
    Polar Pig BBQ Cook Off
    Smoking in the Foothills BBQ Festival
    Tilley Biker Blues & BBQ Rally
    I Love BBQ & Music Festival
    Ribs and Rhythm & Blues
    Smoke in the Grove
    Smoke in the Park
    York County BBQ Festival
    Gettysburg BBQ Festival
    Twin Valley Fire & Smoke
    Mohegan Sun
    Que & Cruz
    BBQ Gives Back
    BBQ Jamboree
    Chesapeake Jubilee
    Chillin & Grillin in the Glades
    Covington Cork & Pork
    Almost Heaven BBQ Bash
    Smokin on the Buffalo
    Lancaster BBQ Supply SCA

    Also donated for the banquet raffle are the following great barbecue products/companies:

    Aporkalypse Now BBQ & Steak Class March 2-3, 2019

    Aporkalypse Now BBQ & Steak Class April 13-14, 2019

    Threadzone team shirt coupon

    Flameboss WiFi temp controller with universal adapter

    GrillGrate set (3 panel 16.25”)

    Tub o’ Towels

    Monolith Classic Cooker

    Char-Griller Akorn Kamado Kookers

    Killer Hogs Rubs and Sauce Basket

    BBQ Bob’s rubs and sauces

    Stubb’s BBQ Sauces

    And More!!!

    The Mid-Atlantic Barbecue Associationis pleased to be able to raffle off THREE cookers at the 2019 MABA Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet:

    BBQ Guru

    The first cooker is a Monolith Classic with DigiQ DX2 donated by  .

    Monolith BBQ Guru Edition Classic with DigiQ DX2 with 1 Food Probe - FREE SHIPPING
    Lancaster BBQ Supply
    Gateway Drum Smoker

    The second cooker is a Gateway Drum Smoker courtesy of .

    The Grill Center
    PK Grill

    The third cooker is an Original PK Grill & Smoker donated by .

    Tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20.

    Tickets will be sold on the web until Thursday, February 21, 2019, and in person at the Annual Meeting. You DO NOT need to be present to win.

    Your ticket numbers will be generated at random. Your tickets will be input into the drawing which will be held during the annual meeting on February 23, 2019.

    Cookers or cooker gift certificates will be available to pick up at the annual meeting. If not present, arrangements will need to be made with the supplier for pickup/shipping. Any costs for customization or upgrades to the models donated, taxes, shipping costs, and/or other crating costs are the sole responsibility of the winner. Limit one win per person.

    Again, you DO NOT need to be present to win this drawing.

    CLICK HERETO PURCHASE TICKETS!

  2. WV BBQ Bash Planning a “Heavenly Cookbook”

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    Every year, most event organizers struggle to secure adequate funds to produce a great event.  Some are blessed with a gate admission to help cover infrastructure and other costs that business sponsors don’t normally want to cover (event insurance, porta-johns, power, and so on).  With a free admission event, however, the struggle often becomes even more difficult, so we have to get creative (beyond elimination dinners, Bingo games, and gun bashes).

    This year, the Almost Heaven BBQ Bash is excited to announce a great new project … the 2019 WV BBQ Bash Cookbook, with delicious recipes from some of the top BBQ Pitmasters and Judges in the Mid Atlantic Region … and beyond!  So far, we’ve not heard of one being done in MABA Land (as Luke refers to it), so we’re excited to kick off the first one (to our knowledge) in the area, and hope you ALL will help make it a success and a great souvenir – the public will love having a collection of recipes from top BBQ teams and judges across the US.

    As BBQ pitmasters, Restaurant Owners, Chefs, and others in our BBQ family who just love to cook, each of you has that favorite recipe (or several), to help fill this cookbook with ALL kinds of great recipes (not just BBQ) contributed by “YOU” and your fellow BBQ lovers.  We’re inviting ALL of our current and prior BBQ teams and judges, and others who’ve perhaps not been able to come to our event, to submit your favorite recipe(s).  Feel free to submit as many as you wish … in any category you wish.  Think Poppy Seed Nut Rolls, Venison Backstrap with a Cognac Mushroom Sauce, or Baylie’s Special Christmas Fudge … yep, we’ve already received these and others.

    Recipes will be categorized as follows, so pick your favorite(s) and share away:

    ~  Appetizers & Beverages ~  Bakery & Breads

    ~  Sauces, Soups, & Salads ~  Main Dishes

    ~  Sides & Veggies ~  Desserts & Sweet Stuff

    ~  Smokin’ & Grillin’ Goodies ~  Everything Else

    Submitting your recipe(s) is quick & simple by entering them directly into our online account (directions follow) OR  emailing to our special email (for recipes only) at:   wvbbqbashrecipes@gmail.com  Please include your name, team name or Judge information, and location (city, state).

    ~  You can also visit our WV Bash Cookbook account at  www.typensave.com  and Click “Log In”

    Enter User Name:  WV BBQ Bash

    Password: dishes768

    Add your name, BBQ Team name, Judge Info, click “continue”, then “Add Recipes” … and off you go.

    Recipe Writing Tips: (more details are available on the site under “Recipe Tips”)

    • When adding recipes, please preview the “Recipe Tips” for additional information.
    • Enter ONLY 1 ingredient per ingredient line using standard abbreviations
    • List ingredients in order of use in the ingredients list and directions.
    • Include container sizes, e.g., (16-oz.) pkg., (24-oz.) can.
    • Write directions in paragraph form, not in steps.
    • Use names of ingredients in the directions, e.g., “Combine flour and sugar.”  DO NOT use statements like, “Combine first three ingredients.”
    • Include temperatures and cooking, chilling, baking, and/or freezing times.
    • Remember to click “Preview” to view your entry “before” clicking “save” and logging out.

    **  If you have problems adding recipe, please call Morris Press Cookbooks at 800 / 445-6621 (Monday-Friday -8AM – 5 PM Central Time).  Mention you’re working on the WV BBQ Bash cookbook, and they’ll gladly help you!

    We really need your recipes by February 15th(gives you something to do before BBQ season kicks into high gear), to have books available by early May.  Retail price depends on the total number of recipes & other factors, but we should have a price in the next few weeks.   If you’d like to reserve a copy (or more)  let us know at wvbbqbashrecipes@gmail.com.

    We REALLY hope ALL of you will participate by sharing a recipe or two.  Net proceeds from cookbook sales will  help defray some of our event costs since the event is free to the public. Thanks in advance for helping make the 2019 WV BBQ Bash Cookbooka truly unique souvenir.

    Jody Light
    Almost Heaven BBQ Bash

  3. MABA Awards Banquet at Charles Town Races and Slots Shaping Up to Be Epic!

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    Over 30 (and counting) Contest Giveaways, Dozens of BBQ Prizes, and Multiple Great Cookers To Be Raffled Off at the MABA Annual Meeting February 23, 2019.


    That’s right – We’re giving away more contests, prizes, and smokers at the MABA Annual Meeting than ever before! MABA members can attend for FREE and their guests are only $10 per person.

    To win the contest entries and other various prizes, you must attend the MABA Annual Meeting. However, we will be selling online raffle tickets for the separate drawing of not one, but multiple cookers this year and you don’t have to be present to win one of those (cookers to be raffled will be announced soon)!

    Please note that with the new venue we have to have an accurate count for food and beverage! So, please register for the annual meeting here. Guest tickets can also be purchased at that link. Only pre-registered MABA members and their paid guests may attend the annual meeting.

    You’ll also not want to miss the announcement of new board members elected by you, the members of MABA. We’ll also be giving away awards for the Team of Year chase, Tier I and Tier II. You won’t want to miss seeing who finished in the top ten in each category and overall!

    Click herefor all of the information about the Annual Meeting and local hotel information!  Current contests that have donated a free registration for the banquet raffle:

    Boo-B-Que
    New Castle Colonial BBQ
    MD State BBQ Festival
    Beltway BBQ Showdown
    Interstate BBQ Festival
    Smokin on the Dock of the Bay
    Eastern Carolina BBQ Throwdown
    Kings of Q
    BBQ Capital Cookoff
    Currituck Heritage Festival
    Butts & Beans BBQ Challenge
    Jiggy with the Piggy
    Mountain High BBQ Festival
    Polar Pig BBQ Cook Off
    Smoking in the Foothills BBQ Festival
    Tilley Biker Blues & BBQ Rally
    I Love BBQ & Music Festival
    Ribs and Rhythm & Blues
    Smoke in the Grove
    Smoke in the Park
    York County BBQ Festival
    Gettysburg BBQ Festival
    Twin Valley Fire & Smoke
    Pigs in the Pit
    Que & Cruz
    BBQ Gives Back
    BBQ Jamboree
    Chesapeake Jubilee
    Chillin & Grillin in the Glades
    Covington Cork & Pork
    Almost Heaven BBQ Bash
    Smokin on the Buffalo
    Mohegan Sun
    Lancaster BBQ Supply SCA

  4. Almost Heaven BBQ Bash Weston, WV

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    By Howard Poole, MABA Board Member and Pitmaster for Plum Crazy BBQ

    If you were to look up the state slogan of West Virginia, you would find three words, “Wild and Wonderful”. After spending the weekend in beautiful Weston, West Virginia at the 4th Annual Almost Heaven BBQ Bash, you’d understand the state chose those three words.

    Serving as Host to the West Virginia MABA Cup and State Championship, the stakes were high for competitors from near and far. Not only did Almost Heaven have their annual KCBS BBQ competition, but, they also hosted the first ever SCA (steak cook-off association) comp to be held in West Virginia. If that wasn’t wild enough, you should check out its location. For the past three years, the entire event has been held at the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum. Tours were offered throughout Friday and Saturday, even late into the night. Although I haven’t taken a hard count, I am fairly confident that none of the BBQ teams were kept for further psych evaluations. Not only did the Asylum act as a great backdrop for the event, but it also pleased the historical and science fiction fans in us all.

    For the competition portion of the event, we couldn’t have asked for much more. The staff was courteous and fun, the weather was fantastic, and the crowds were excited. Things started off strong on Friday with the wing competition and the SCA Cook-off. Congratulations to Convicted Pigs BBQ on their 1st place wings. And congratulations to Chiles Cridlin, of Wolfes Revenge, for 1st place in the SCA Comp. Chiles win qualifies him to compete in the SCA World Championship in Fort Worth, Texas. If I had to guess what got him first place, I’d guess he snuck a few of those world famous scotch eggs in the box. Those are winners for sure!!!

    After all that excitement Friday night, it was time to focus on the big four meats. From the looks of the scores, it looks like a lot of teams had some fantastic cooks. Maybe there were a few BBQ spirits in the old Asylum that gave us all such good luck. At the end of the day though, it all comes down to who’s called last. That honor goes to Spittin Feathers BBQ. Congratulations to them on not only getting Grand Champion, but also getting an Auto Qualifier to the Jack Daniels Invitational Championship. A congratulations should also be given to Wolfes Revenge BBQ on receiving RGC. And finally, congratulations to WV Loc-N-Loaded BBQ for winning the West Virginia MABA Cup, you represented your home state well.

    For all the teams that made it to Weston: I hope you had a geat time, and congratulations to all who heard their names called. To those who couldn’t make it this year: Make sure you add it to your list for next year, then maybe you could see why West Virginia is so “Wild and Wonderful”.

    Full KCBS Results here.

  5. Operation Barbecue Relief Serves One Millionth Meal!

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    By Bill Jones, MABA Board Member and KCBS Master Judge, Table Captain, & Life Member

    We are going to take a break from the articles of What’s In The Box for this edition to announce a very important number…

    One Million!

    screen-shot-2016-09-15-at-1-06-56-pm

    Recently Operation BBQ Relief reached this very lofty number by serving their one millionth meal to disaster survivors in Hammond, LA.  One million is a number never envisioned when OBR set it stakes at their first disaster in 2011 in Joplin, Missouri.  No one wants a disaster to occur. But OBR has been there to give a person a meal prepared by some of the great cooks in the BBQ world. Since those meager beginnings of, “Let’s go help these people who have lost everything”, to Hammond, LA and the devastating flooding that occured, OBR has branched out to numerous locations. From New York to Florida, West Virginia to Louisiana, Oklahoma to Illinois, Texas, and numerous stops in between,  OBR has been there to feed victims and first responders.

    screen-shot-2016-09-15-at-1-07-54-pmSo who or what is Operaton Barbecue Relief?   OBR is the brain child of Stan Hayes and Will Cleaver.  When the tornado hit Joplin, MO that fateful day in May of 2011, Will and Stan both realized, separately, that there was going to be a need for food. They knew each other as competitors from the BBQ circuit, and quickly found they both had the same thought.  Competition barbecue team cooks are some of the best cooks and people out there. They also own equipment that can cook large quantities of food at a time, can respond, and be self-sufficient upon arrival. Add this all together and you have the foundation of a BBQ relief team that could be nationwide and respond quickly when called.  And as we all know, barbecue teams LOVE to help and give back.

    In recent years, OBR has really taken off. As time has passed, staffing has grown and now includes state leads who will help coordinate and advise the OBR home office of the needs in their respective locations. We also have begun adapting to disaster plans on a national level with FEMA, USFA, NFA, etc.  OBR has warehouse locations and trailers to deploy with needed start-up materials like tables, chairs, pans, utensils, lights, etc.  The cook teams arrive with their cookers and food is ready to be cooked and prepped.

    Coming from an Incident Management Team perspective for a disaster, I kind of knew what I was getting myself into by being assigned the lead role for Virginia. Disasters are nothing pretty. Ever. For those of you lucky to have never looked into the face of a person who has lost everything, short of the clothes they have on, you will never forget the joy of receiving food cooked and given to them and their reaction to someone caring enough to provide it. The destruction from a tornado, hurricane, flood, earthquake, even a man made disaster, can overwhelm a community. OBR’s arrival to provide meals is a welcome break from the disaster.

    Recently I was asked to take the lead in the floods of West Virginia. This happened to occur on the same weekend as the Covington, VA BBQ Contest. Covington teams all donated left over BBQ pork to me to take to White Sulphur Springs and get a small team up there to start with feeding Saturday evening and Sunday until additional resources could arrive. Tommy Houston of Checkered Pig heard my comments at the contest, drove all the way home to Martinsville Va, loaded his trailer back up with 80 pork butts and several cases of loins and drove all the way back past Covington Monday to begin cooking. I returned with a pick up load of butts and chicken and additional supplies.  Kenny Nadeau of Uncle Kenny’s BBQ Team drove to Nitro, WV to set up so we had two operations going at the same time. Our White Sulphur team included several other barbecue cooks along with a great team of volunteers headed up by Buchannan, WV contest organizer Jody Light.  She and her team were a tremendous help to give back to a community flat out washed out.

    In White Sulphur Springs we got to meet many people whose lives have been turned upside down. One young couple came with their two small children who had with them what could best be described as a stuffed bunny. It was hard to tell for sure as it was torn up and dirty and had seen much better days. The parents told us their story of being away from home when the storm hit, to when they finally were able to make it home the next day to find their home and parents home both gone. They have found pieces of furniture and clothes up to three miles downstream of their two homes. But at that time, three days after the storm, they still did not know where his parents were.  It was tough listening to their story and countless others. But as warm as the food Kenny and Tommy were cooking, it was warming our hearts to know in some small way we were helping.

    We are very happy with our teams and volunteers responders when a call out is made. If you have never been before and wish to go, please remember you must sign up and be assigned, so please visit Operation BBQ Relief’s web site.  You do not need to own a large volume cooker. Hands and feet are also needed to make this happen. And sometimes a shoulder to cry on.  Please consider volunteering your time to go on a disaster to help or perhaps lend your support financially. Unlike many other organizations, the money donated to OBR goes 100% for food, utensils, etc…  About every $1 donated will feed a meal to a person in need.

    I am pleased to be the VA lead for OBR and one of the committee members for planning the BBQ Gives Back Contest in March, 2017.  The committee chose to make our beneficiary, Operation BBQ Relief, and as a fund raiser to help in the future of a disaster, whether it be here locally or elsewhere. Please consider signing up for the contest or making a donation to OBR or attending a disaster in the future.

    ‘til next time,
    Bill Jones