Monthly Archives: October 2006

Fall means apple pie!

I love the fall season. The colors are great, the weather turns cooler, and it just feels good to be alive! I know Washington state is well known for apples, but Ohio has a really good apple season, too, with locally grown varieties and locally made cider (not hard cider, for our British friends).

One of our fall traditions is having homemade apple pie. Other than homemade, apple pie isn’t worth the trouble of ordering, let alone worth the money. The only way around this issue is to make it myself. My mom taught me a great way to make crust, and it’s never failed me. I only make pie once a year, so I always end up calling her to confirm temps and cooking times, and she never fails to give me the right answers! Continue reading →

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Wine Party 2006

Saturday, October 28, 2006, was the date of the 4th annual McAdams Wine Party! The party has evolved a bit over the 4 years. The first year, we had 6 people, then just 4 the next. Last year, we had 12, and this year 10. We’d go bigger, but this time of year is tough to get on people’s schedules. The group we had were all friends from church, and we had a great time!

When “wine party” is mentioned, ideas of pretentious terms, snobby reviews and tedious guests can come to mind. We try to stay away from that; our idea is to have fun and try something new. We start with a theme and move on from there. Continue reading →

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October’s almost gone

Here I am at the end of October. This is the month I tell people shows why Ohio is a great place to live… The fall colors are great! Living in the woods means I get to see a lot of color, and this year is one of the best recent years to do some leaf viewing.

October is also really busy for us. It’s great weather to be out, so we do a lot. Every weekend seems to fill up, almost too much. Luckily, we have a couple of weekends to relax between now and the holidays starting. It’s also been a tough October for me, with Woody gone. He always liked the turn in weather, and I just have great memories of spending time with him at this time of the year. If anyone reading this has a dog, especially a lab, make sure to spoil them a little extra for me this week! Continue reading →

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Ohio Smoked Meat and BBQ Festvial

Last weekend was our 5th competition, in Nelsonville, Ohio… The Ohio Smoked Meat and BBQ Festival. This was our latest competition season-wise, and Friday night was COLD!!! We made due, though, and got through the night to end up with a great Saturday with 60+ degree temps and gorgeous fall colors everywhere around.

One thing that’s different about this comp is that there’s no other festival going along with it, so it’s nothing but teams that show up to cook. And our biggest contribution was to be the 25th team to allow the winner to be eligible for next year’s Jack Daniels competition. Other than that, we pretty much blew it, but, most importantly, we had a great time cooking bad food! :) Continue reading →

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One more comp!

Tomorrow morning we take off for Nelsonville, Ohio, for the Ohio Smoke Meat Festival!!!

It’s possibly going to be raining, so we’re not leaving until about 10:00 am, which should get us there about 12:30. We’ll have time to set up and prep well before the 6:00 PM Cook’s Meeting.

After last weekend, this cook should be a breeze! Just joking, really. Continue reading →

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Into October

We just finished with the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival. I haven’t heard how many people were there, but it was pretty packed, and the weather was PERFECT for a festival! I got there on Saturday at 7:00 AM, and it was crowded by 8:00.

We didn’t do as much business as we’d hoped, but we did at least cover our costs and then some. Mostly, we learned a lot. For instance, we now know that we can get over 400 lbs of meat on our cooker at one time! We did most of the cook using nothing but wood, which was also a great learning experience. Regulating temps with wood is a bit different than with charcoal, I think. Continue reading →

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Our first REALLY big cook!

On Saturday, October 14, and Sunday, October 15, Bucky McOinkum’s Barbecue will be cooking the most meat we’ve ever done for one event! The Ohio Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville, Ohio, is this coming weekend, and it’s the largest festival in the state. Continue reading →

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