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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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Showing posts with label ribfests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ribfests. Show all posts

Monday, September 03, 2007

A Food Filled Labour Day Weekend 2007


Waterside Entertainment
Sept. 1, 2007

As many of you already know we go to as many ribfests as possible. Canada's largest ribfest is held in Spencer Smith Park, Burlington, Ontario on the Labour Day Weekend. This is a family event for us each year. We left Thursday night so we could spend a whole day with our grandbaby while her Dad was at work and her Mom was getting her classroom ready for the new school year. That meant we got to spoil her a lot. In the early afternoon we took her shopping at IKEA. We saw a kitchen in their catalogue we liked so was considering it for our remodel. Then we stopped at Fortino's to get the ingredients for a homecooked dinner to surprise them when they got home. We bought rib steaks, baking potatoes, salad fixing and a few other goodies for a nice barbeque. Our grandbaby is now 8 months old and eats directly from her parents plates, steak included! The following morning our mouths were already watering in anticipation of sights and smells of the ribfest.

The smell of the ribfest hits you well before entering the enclosed area. The smokey aroma from wood fires intertwines with the sweet tang of sauces and rubs. From there it is sensory overload! The lines are long, the sun is hot and the people are friendly. The smells continue to entice along with the sights and sounds. The anticipation builds as you watch the ribbers in action. The ribs all look wonderful promising a lip smacking, finger licking culinary delight!

There were 16 ribbers at this year's ribfest:
Camp 31
Gator BBQ
Uncle Sam's BBQ
Bibb's BBQ
Turtle Jack's
Carolina Rub King
Hog's Gone Wild
Kentucky Smokehouse
Memphis BBQ
Billy Bones BBQ
Blazin BBQ
Howling Coyote BBQ
Jack on the Bone
Bone Daddy's
Silver Bullet
Toney Romas

Some ribbers were barbequing chicken and beef ribs this year so of course we just had to get some of those. Saturday was people's choice voting so some of the ribbers decorated their take-out packages. As per our normal quest at ribfests each family member gets $20 from my husband to go off, stand in line and bring back a rack of ribs except the designated ones to get corn, a blooming onion, fried vegetables and beverages. I had to get the blooming onion and fried vegetables this year.

We settled around a picnic table in the shade to enjoy six full racks of ribs from various ribbers, a blooming onion platter with fried vegetables and all dressed fried potatoes. With the exception of our grandbaby and daughter-in-law who expecting, the drink of choice was beer. The little one happy munched with as much gusto as the rest of us. Afterwards we chose the ribs we liked best and filled in our ballots. Camp31, Bone Daddy's and Hog's Gone Wild were our favourites. Sufficiently stuffed we packed up the left overs then headed to the ice cream stand. With treats in hand, we wandered through the rest of the ribbers and booths then strolled leisurely along the waterfront.

Part of the fun is finding sauces that made the "best of the previous year" all for sale for $6 each or 2 for $10. What we normally do is bring a list of the sauces that won best last year and we liked the ribs as well as picking up a bottle or two of sauce from the favourite ribbers of this year. I picked up two bottles of sauce from Uncle Sam's Albuquerque Style BBQ Sauce while my husband picked up Rib Rub from Blazin BBQ. He really liked the flavour of those ribs! Unfortunately their sauce is not available yet but should be soon. I was disappointed that Smokin' Joes wasn't there as I had wanted to buy more of their sauce. I was also disappointed that the Jet Set Spice Co. booth wasn't there either.


Our son and daughter-in-law took us to Whole Foods Markets in Oakville, Ontario. This supermarket specializes in organic and fair trade foods. The market is huge, a visual culinary delight! I could have stayed there for a few hours slowly going up and down the isles seeing many things that I can't easily get here. I bought Dabur Red Rose Water, Turtle Reef Alca Hawaiian Sea Salt and Organic GD Herbes de Provence. Unfortunately I was not able to buy much in the way of perishables because we had plans to stop at the Charity Casino in Brantford on the way home but the next trip I will be stocking up on a few items.

We arrived home in the early Monday morning hours yet I was up by 6:30 am ready to get the car unpacked and laundry done so I could get a bit of canning done. When I canned the caramelized onions, the canner had lost almost all of the water even though it had maintained pressure. While I hadn't noticed it in the rush to get ready to leave, I discovered the canner bottom had just slightly warped. Now I'm likely the only one who would have noticed this but it was cause for concern so I put the canner through the paces yesterday canning water. This is a standard canner test. Then as if we had not had enough ribs over the weekend, I put a rack of ribs on the grill for dinner much to my husband's delight.


Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dishwasher Installed & Grilled Pork Chops

The kitchen remodel is a little behind but we are still hoping to have it ready by August 6. We have made arrangements for the pig roaster as well as the pig.

Bosch SHE44C02UC

Saturday my husband and son-in-law installed our new dishwasher (1). It is a Bosch! Why we chose this model and details of the installation are on my homemaking blog. After much debate we installed it in the same location as the old dishwasher instead of where the built-in oven was (2). We plan to convert the built-in oven area into either open shelves or drawers. So far the drawer idea is winning.

The only painted wall in the kitchen surrounds the patio above the wood wainscotting. A shadow effect taking advantage of almost one foot thick walls was created using a darker paint (3) for the patio and windowsill. Arrangements have been made for the countertop measurements so hopefully I will be able to report on that soon.


Grilled Pork Chops

Thick-cut boneless pork chops are delightful grilled. The chops should be one inch thick and boneless although the same method will work with bone-in pork chops. The trick to grilling these like all meats is to not overcook. Plan on one pork chop per person then do a couple extra to be sliced for sandwiches or stir fried rice.

We grilled six thick-cut boneless pork chops. It was a toss up as to using a rub or a sauce. Since we had bought Rusty's Ribs Original BBQ Sauce judged to be the World's best sauce at the Sarnia Ribfest the decision was fairly easy. This is a rich, full bodied sauce with a nice balance of sweet, tang and heat. The sauce is available online here or you can email them at sauces@ibm.net

Method: Place the chops on a hot grill. Turn when meat moves if pushed slightly. Use tongs when turning to prevent puncturing the meat. This keeps the juices inside the meat where you want them. We brush on the barbeque sauce after the first turn but only if it is not a high sugar content sauce. The higher the sugar content the greater the chance of charring instead of carmelization. Turn the meat once after brushing with sauce so both sides are evenly coated. Remove from the grill when sauce is lightly carmelized.

Serve with grilled or steamed corn on the cob and grilled potatoes.


Monday, July 23, 2007

Sarnia, Ontario Ribfest


Sarnia, Ontario Ribfest
July 12-15, 2007

We are very fortunate to live in an area where there are many food related summer activities. These range from maple syrup and berry festivals and socials to full fledged food fests. A few years ago we started making the ribfest circuit with Burlington, Ontario being the first. We were hooked! The sights, sounds and food had us wanting more.

We have a game plan when we go to ribfests. We divide ourselves so each is responsible for one item usually with four to five getting a rack of ribs ($20 each), one getting corn on the cob ($3 per cob) and one getting drinks (varies depending on whether alcoholic or not). Remember the focus is on the ribs not the extras but the entertainment, atmosphere and enjoying family together is what really counts. Afterwards we wander stopping to pick-up our favourite barbeque sauces or stopping at other booths for spices more often than not licking a huge ice cream cone.

Sarnia is the Ontario point between Ontario, Canada and Michigan, USA, at the southern point of Lake Huron. It connects to the USA via the Bluewater Bridge. The weather was on the warmish side but since it was evening when we arrived it was rather pleasant with a coolish breeze off the lake. The mouthwatering smells filled the air as we neared the ribfest. This was a smallish ribfest with 8 teams competing.

The ribs we enjoyed the most were from Smokin' Joe's Ribs operated by Sarnian Terry Slowka. These were lip smacking ribs leaving that after "I need more of these" taste! They were awarded people choice awards for this ribfest. It's nice to see a Canadian ribber win this accolade. The Ontario Ribfest schedule follows if you are interested. Perhaps I will see you there!


2007 Ontario Ribfest Schedule

Sarnia July 12-15th
Niagara Falls June 15-17
Timmins June 30-July 1
Markham July 6-8
Toronto (Etobicoke) June 20-July 2
Mississauga July 20-22
London Aug 2-6
St. Catharines Aug 3-6
Scarborough Aug 3-7
Brockville Aug 10-12
Guelph Aug 24-26
Burlington Aug 31-Sept 3
Oshawa Sept 7-9

Enjoy!

Garden Gnome
©2007


Friday, September 08, 2006

Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest 2006

Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest 2006


Ribs

We have made it a family tradition to attend the Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest held on Labour Day Weekend. This year was the 11th Annual Ribfest. It is Canada's largest ribfest with this year's attendance expected to be 150,000. There were fifty vendors, twenty-five food vendors and twenty-two musical artists. The most important attraction are the premium Rib teams from across North America. The Rib teams are affectionately known as ribbers. This year there were fifteen ribbers, listed below. The ribbers are in competition for the best ribs. In the past eleven years Ribfest has raised more than $1.5 million dollars for the various charitable endeavours of the Rotary Club of Burlington Lakshore and their partner charities. The ribfest was held in Spencer Smith Park at Burlington's downtown waterfront.

If you have never been to a ribfest, you really are missing a delightful experience. If you attend the various ribfests you get to know some of the ribbers. A couple of family members had attended a smaller ribfest the weekend before. They raved and raved about one of the ribbers so they were very happy to see that ribber was here. Now a ribfest is all about food and that is quite apparent even before you get anywhere near the event gates.

We park a block or two from the ribfest yet the wonderfu aroma of barbeque ribs fills the air tantalizing every taste bud. The pace picked up as we near the gated areas. Once inside the gate we decide who is getting which ribs or other foods. Then one by one we head off to stand in fairly long lines. Anticipation of the mouth water ribs grows and grows! A full rack of ribs is $20. This year our family went through six full racks, eight cobs of corn, a blooming onion/fried vegetable tray, and a few pints of beer while we sat in the shade listening to the music. With fully stuffed tummies (so I though) I decided to take a few pictures while the rest got huge soft ice cream cones dipped in chocolate. My son in law bought cotton candy for him and myself. Then we walked along admiring the ribbers, through the vendors and finally down along the waterfront.

Most of the ribbers have bottles of their secret sauce for sale. This year I got a bottle of Zestferno Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce instead of rib sauce. The Jet Set Spice Company had a booth so I just had to buy a package of their Herbs De Provence! This is a lovely all natural spice combination.

Well that was our 2006 experience at the Burlington Lakeshore Rotary Ribfest. Here is a list of the premium Rib teams aka ribbers:
Turtle Jack's (Burlington)
Gator BBQ (Florida)
Carolina Rib King (South Carolina)
Howling Coyote BBQ (Chicago)
Bibb's BBQ (Florida) - voted best by our family this year
Jack on the Bone (Ohio)
Blazin' BBQ (Chatham, Ontario) - voted second best by our family
Billy Bones (Fort Erie, Ontario)
Kentucky Smokehouse (London, Ontario)
Purple Pig (Toronto, Ontario)
Bone Daddy's (Michigan)
Uncle Sam's BBQ (New Mexico
Silver Bullet BBQ (Fort Erie, Ontario)
Camp 31 (Alabama)
Porky 'n' Beans (Ohio/Florida)

Best Food vender:
Gary's World Famous - best blooming onion ever!