Abita Update

Good evening Piglicians,

I've told a handful of people and think it's time to officially unleash the news to the team. As many of you know, I have been trying basically for two years to get a little liquid supplementation for the team courtesy of Abita Brewery in Louisiana. I've sent numerous emails trying to sell our ability to provide them a little advertising in exchange for just a keg or two of beer. After about a month without any real contact, I got a call from the brewery and have learned that we are approved for 4 kegs of beer for bbq fest.

I got caught a little off guard by the call and I was cruising through the Lower 9th Ward at the time so when she asked what kinds we wanted I didn't really put in much of a request. Meaning it won't be anything overly extravagant, but hey; who's complaining about getting a few hundred bucks worth of beer for free? (yeah, these ain't the 50 dollar kegs of Beast. These are considered premium beers and typically run pretty high)

Hope y'all like Abita Golden and Amber because that's what's coming (2 kegs each). As a side note, I did subtly ask about getting Andy Gator, but was kindly steered off of that. It's probably for the best anyway, since The Gator will put even a grown ass man's dick in the dirt, and we still have to compete.

There is one important condition that I've already told Jen about. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but being a man of my word, I'd like to include their logo on our shirt somewhere since that was a selling point in my initial request. I have received a picture file so it shouldn't be hard to make it happen. It's entirely up to us as to the location and size of the logo, but I figure on the sleeve in place of the joint logo, or even a small logo on the top middle of the back, kinda like those life is good shirts would be nice. I'll leave it up to whoever is designing the shirts to take care of that, but please just make sure it happens and we make it reasonably visible. I don't wanna be a cheese dick about it since they are hooking us up with some good beer.

Lastly, and this is CRUCIAL: when I bring these kegs, they must go back to the distributor where I got them, otherwise, I'm getting killed by the deposit. If they make it back to their home, my card will never be charged and we will have dranked for free. I would like to get a chain and a lock for these bitches just in case some well intentioned, but overly inebriated plebeian goes on a beer run and tries to take my shells to exchange. I also don't wanna end up with one being snatched after hours either.

So there you have it, a keg of abita for every day of the fest. Who's house? Run's House.

Viva La Coola

A Gentle Reminder

Please call/email John Stephany soon to RSVP for the fest. Also let him know of any potential new members, and have those potential members also call or email. Make sure to let them know that the initiation is way easier than in years past - all they have to do is one shot in the coola!

J

Minutes for 27Jan 2010

Minutes for 27 Jan 2010 Meeting of Magically Piclicious VI

In attendance (in order from Danny going clockwise in the room):
P. Daniel Riederer
McNeil “Dad” Wells
Ben “New Guy”
Jen O’Bryan
Richard Wiggs
Stephen Wiggs
Johnny Reynolds
Dave Mekeel
Jack
Chris Niederer
John Stephany
Dan Gorline

I was drinking Stella (thanks Danny!). I know Stephany was drinking Bud Heavy and Dan High Life b/c I got them beers at some point. Chris was drinking Red Stripe which he brought along w/ Cool Ranch Doritos. Mekeel was drinking vodka and some kind of red Crystal Lite; he called it a “flour and sugar free diet”, but I call it an excuse to drink vodka on a Wednesday night. I don’t remember what everyone else was drinking.

The meeting was amorphous and filled with interruptions by McNeil as always, but here’s what happened, in no particular order:

1) Several former members (some of them longstanding) are leaving the team, either temporarily or permanently, for a variety of reasons. We will be sad to see you guys go. There has therefore been a shift in power, which has shaken out as follows:

a. Danny Riederer – de facto president. His duties will include being the Godfather of our group, supplying the beer and location for our meetings, and generally telling us what to do.

b. John Stephany – VP in charge of the roster and storage of our team equipment. There was some kind of convoluted story involving his condo downtown, some storage space, and a dead hooker, which means that our team “stuff” that has resided at E’s house up until now will now go into Stephany’s storage place downtown. We are going to subsidize the monthly fee w/ some team funds, to the tune of not very much (details were fuzzy). This will be better in the long run for several reasons, including but not limited to closer access to the park and not taking up E’s entire attic and garage.

c. Jen O’Bryan – Secretary/Treasurer. Will keep up with minutes (as you see) and the cash. I am now the “McNeil” of the group, but better looking. You should give/mail me any moneys you owe at any time. Receipts available upon request, for the low low price of a case of beer.

d. Jack Koban – Head Chef. Need I say more? He’s promised us a Top 20 finish, btw.

e. Dave Mekeel – Soux Chef. In other words, Jack’s Bitch.

f. Ashley Saucier – Presentation Coordinator. She will be in charge of our tent space for the presentation to the in-person judging. God help you if you track dirt in the tent after she’s picked it up.

g. Dan Gorline – Sergeant-at-arms (aka Team Bitch), he will be available during the day to do things that those of us w/ day jobs can’t get done. He claims he’s throwing boxes at FedEx, but I think he’s really stripping on the side.

2) Dues is $300. Everyone who has not paid needs to. Checks should be made out to Magically Piglicious and sent to me (Jen O’Bryan) at 2231 Madison Ave, Memphis, 38104. This needs to be done soon, certainly by the next meeting, which will be in about a month. You can just give me the checks at the meeting if you don’t like to use the USPS.

3) Membership is open. The rule for new members is: if they are your friend(s), you like them, and they can pay the dues, they can be members. An acceptable member would be your co-worker. An unacceptable member would be a friend of your co-worker that you don’t know but you heard was cool. It would also be nice if they can actually participate in team activities (meetings, set-up, cooking, tear down), but cold hard cash is always appreciated. Membership will include one 3-day wrist band (with the option to purchase additional @ a discount), some number of family tickets for Wednesday night (again, w/ option to buy more), one or two t-shirts (depending on if you are a “couple”), food all weekend at the fest, and all the freaking beer you can stand. If you know of someone who wants to be a team member, have them get in touch w/ John Stephany by the end of next week (john.stephany@gmail.com). Also, everyone who is a current member will need to email Stephany confirming his or her continued membership. This also needs to be done by the end of next week. The reason we need the numbers is that so we can set the budget. All you guys need to remember is more members = more beer.

4) The application will be sent in shortly. The “Big Hog” package is something we will pay for later, after we have gotten accepted (I spoke w/ MIM today about that). A big thank you to everyone who already paid so we could send in our application, and to our VP for fronting the difference.

5) Jack is getting a line on a smoker I think? Not too sure on this one. If anyone has a smoker, or knows a guy with a smoker, post to the blog or comment on this thread. Another idea we kicked around was purchasing a smoker to use from year to year; that will likely depend on what kind of budget we have.

6) We are not going to approach Pete and Jenny about cooking for us this year. Jack and the Daves did such a good job last year, that we didn’t see what the benefit would be to spend all the money on getting P&J up here – the hotel costs alone were almost two members’ worth of dues. If Pete contacts us about cooking, I don’t know if we decided exactly about what we would say, but it would be something along the lines of “come if you want but Jack is in charge of cooking and we aren’t paying for your hotel”.

7) We are entering in ribs, beans, and sauce.


The next meeting will be in late February. Items to be resolved @ that meeting: setting the budget; setting up teams and committees for the various jobs that will need to be done during the event; possibly starting on the menu (though this will likely get pushed to April’s meeting). I’d like to throw out here a suggestion that we have the meeting on a Saturday afternoon and have our cooks cook up the extra ribs from last year that McNeil has in his deep freezer. This will allow the cooks to practice together and try out some different techniques. We could do this later in the season if desired, or not at all if you guys are against eating good food.


Please post any questions or comments in the “comments” section. You can also email any team questions to the new team email magicallypiglicious@gmail.com If anyone wants author privileges for this blog, email me and I will add you. At some point I may make this blog private so only team members can view it; that was a suggestion made last night in case we start posting team info we don’t want our adoring fans to know. I can do this at anytime, you guys just let me know.


Yours in the Cooler,
JenO

The First Practice Run of the Year

Good Day Piglicious People. This weekend marked my first crack at ribs of 2010, and it was a great success. I used the rub that I mixed up shortly after last year's BBQ Fest and got great results in the flavor department. I can't say whether or not the flavor was exactly the same as what we got last year, but it was definitely close and it was damn good. The flavor isn't really the thing that was most impressive from yesterday's practice run though. We already knew that we had a good flavor; hell, when a judge comes to your tent after the event and tells you that flavor was a perfect 10 on the score card, you know there's at least one thing that needs no changes. What made yesterday such a success was that I was finally able to successfully implement some of the tenderizing techniques that the judge had recommended last year.

I spent a little time last May and june when everything was still fresh in my mind trying different methods of achieving a better texture, but with mixed results. Some attempts yeilded dry, overly tender meat. Others achieved decent texture but a greatly diluted flavor. Yesterday I used a number of methods, both new and old, which yeilded a stellar final product. The result was a rib that one of my test subjects called the best ribs she'd ever eaten. Sure, she doesn't have the badge of a MIM judge, but high praise nonetheless.

The flavor was fantastic; strong, but not overbearing, and the texture was as close to being the "winning" texture described at the cooks' meeting as I've ever been able to achieve. It was tender enough to pull apart 2 ribs without straining or having a bone just fall out. When you bit into the meat it was firm enough that you had to apply some jaw pressure, but it wasn't tough; It left a perfect bite mark, which as most top chefs will tell you on Pit Masters, is the ideal tenderness. I separated a rib from the rack using a knife to examine the smoke ring and it required no "sawing" whatsoever. Just a slight bit of downward force allowed the knife to cut through clealy leaving no frayed edges.

You'll have to pardon my gushing, but it's pretty exciting to finally get this close. All the times of attempting to get the texture right but to miss one way or the other; and now to finally have it go right. If we can just replicate these ribs in May, we could seriously see our team make a big jump up the rankings.

I hope that someone can post a little synopsis of the meeting this week for those of us that can't make it. Also, I'd like to be able to discuss the potential Abita sponsorship with some of the guys making business type decisions. I've got no real background in that stuff, and I'd love the input on the next steps. I will say that it looks like we have a real shot at getting a few kegs and if anyone can think of some fun ways to advertise for Abita using our team, that'll help us to get them on board. I've already offered their name on our shirts, using Abita cups, coasters, and a banner.

That's all for now.

Viva La Coola

Potential New Members

I just wanted to tell everyone that I've got some people lined up to join the team this year. 2 definites, one who's in unless he pusses out over the cost of dues, and one who has been trying to get in for 2 years and is planning to come but can't give me a solid yes just yet. I know there are some more people out there with people wanting to hop on board and I wouldlike to know if we have a cap? I know that more people means more ways of splitting the costs, but it also means higher costs on tentspace, food, beer, etc. Someone on the team that knows this economics crap find out what our ideal size is and let's set a target roster number. Time to get registered is running short and I'd like to nail down all this technical stuff so we can get focused on how we're gonna win a meat cleaver trophy this year. Damnit, it's gonna happen.

Viva La Coola

Update Numero Dos: Bugs and Brews

Billy's Crawfish Plug:
I just sent an email to my friend and crawfish supplier in the Memphis area, Bill Crumbly who runs Billy's Crawfish to let him know that we will be getting our bugs from him again this year and that I've been sending my friends his way when they need crawfish. Y'all don;t make me a liar. If you have a boil, call my man, Bill. You can also email him at billyscrawfish@gmail.com. He also has a webpage www.billyscrawfish.com. Call him, boil bugs, and tell him Jack from Magiacally Piglicious sent you.

His bugs are bigger, better purged, and generally less are dead than the competition. Also, his seasoning is the bomb-diggity. If that weren't enough, the main bug competition in Memphis (whom I shall not call out by name) went around a couple years ago trying to screw my buddy out of work by low balling his customers. Turns out the joke was on those restaurants because I heard from a lot of people that the taste and quality took a sharp decline afterward.

The other reason I emailed him was to inquire about the smoker. We'll see what comes of that, but it honestly may not fit in our tent space anyway. He had told me more than once he'd let me borrow it free of charge, but I'm not sure it that will still be possible. Again, we'll just have to see, and as I said if you or anyone you know is doing crawfish get them from Billy and drop my name and Magically Piglicious. This will only help us and Billy has hooke our asses up good in the last few years so we owe him some word of mouth advertising.

Last update:
I'm trying to get in touch with the right guy at Abita to see about a little beer. No luck so far, but I still have the email from the lady I spoke with last year. we'll see if I can't get the other guy's direct contact info from her (fingers crossed) I also would like to gauge how pissed people would be if we had to change the team name if that could land us a sponsorship from Abita. It's just a little thought that floated by and nothing to be overly concerned with at the moment, but if we could get a decent amount of liquid support, I wouldn't care if our team name was changed to the
name to Hogopheliacs.

Here's a list of a few that I rattled off to Ashley a little while ago. I understand that a lot of them are crap and not the kind of thing that a company would want to be associated with. I was on a rapid fire gmail text frenzy. Feel free to add to the list of names if you wish; something related to Abita, Louisiana, and pork. And remember this is 100% hypothetical. I just wanna be prepared in case by some miracle, Abita jumps up and says, "hell yeah, we'll sponsor you like Maker's Mark does for the Meat Makers team, y'all just need a team that relates to Abita somehow."

Here it goes:
Mardi Hogs
Hoggy Gras
Show your Tips (rib tips that is)
French Quarter Cooker
Bayou-Que
Pirate's Alley Porkers
Andy Hoggers
Abita Brew-B-Q
Abita Boarhogs
Porker Haze
Abita Brews and Barbeques (or just 'Ques)

That's all I got for now.
Viva La Coola!

First Post of the 2010 BBQ Year

Hey everybody. I don't know if anyone even rememebers that this blog is here, but I wanted to go ahead and pass along some info about this year's big competition. First, I spoke with McNeil on Saturday and it seems that he's is stepping down from the team as is Johnny. It seems they simply don't have the time to be involved to the extent which they have been in years past. I know that there are still a lot of people who want to keep this thing alive, but it's gonna take some people stepping up. If anyone has any potential recruits feel free to let me or Stephany know about it. You can use the comment thread below or send them via email chain. I personally have 2 new members that are interested in joining and I need to see about a couple more that have expressed at least a slight interest in being on the team. We need te dues and moreso we need the help.

I've already offered to pitch in with cooking again this year, whether it be as the head guy or just helping with one of the nightly dinners. I'm happy doing either, but would love the opportunity to be involved with the competition in some capacity once again.

Has anyone thought about any of the side competitions? I know we did pretty well in baked beans last year and I think it's in our best interest to at least take a stab at that again. Does anyone have a sauce recipe they'd like to try? might as well throw our name in the hat as much as possible. Who knows? We might just win something.

We're still planning on rocking the boil at the end of the festival this year, and I'm gonna try to get on Abita earlier this time around to see if there's any way we can get a few kegs for free. honestly, even one would be worth it. Another thing I'm going to look into is a cooker. I'm perfectly happy with someone finding a cooker like last year or even using the same one, but just in case that's not available, I'm going to contact my crawfish guy about getting his. it's a big SOB so I need to make sure that we A) can fit it into the tent space that we get this year, and B) we have someone with a truck that can pull it since there's not much chance of me making it to memphis before Wed night.

Lastly, in case y'all aren't aware, this year's feature country is Tunisia. I honestly don't know a ton about it other than what I found by taking a very brief look at www.tunisia.com. It's a mediterranean country in Africa, location of the ancient city of Carthage and home of Hannibal. It looks like there's more than enough cool stuff to make t-shirts, entry signs/facades/etc.

If y'all have any updates please feel free to post them here as a writer or in the comment threads. Jen took the time to make this blog as a resource and spare people the endless email chains. I like the idea and don't want it to go to waste.

Viva La Coola!