BBQ Cook-Off

We survived another cook-off!!  I'm always excited when it arrives but equally happy to see it go come Sunday morning.  Participating in the cook-off is a lot of hard work. Cheers to my brothers for hanging in there through it all.  Of course I can't forget Mike, Alex and Sue for all their hard work but the boys start on Thursday (Wednesday really) setting it all up and tear it all down on Sunday morning. This year was extra special to me because it truly was a family affair.  It took us 12 years but my sister and I FINALLY became official members of Berger's Bums.  It dawned on me Sunday afternoon that I didn't get a picture of our banner (for proof) with our names on it or the front of our camp.  Guess I'll have to do that next year.  Sue and I are already working on changing the name of the team to Berger's Bums and Divas.  The guys weren't crazy about it...but they didn't dismiss the idea either so there is hope!  We have a whole year to wear them down.  Ha!

When I say its a family affair, I mean this in every respect...we make our kids work too!  No really...the kids WANT to help out.  I think all of them inherited the "love to cook" gene. 

Here we have Makenna, Brandon (Sue's kids) and Christopher (mine) prepping chickens and I think ribs. 

   
While the adults sit back, relax, watch...and critique...

The Chief's in Charge...well, they like to think they are in charge.  :)  My brothers...Tony & Bryan.  You can feel sorry for me now.  No really...FEEL SORRY FOR ME.  They torture me all the time.  Even at 38 I still get poked, prodded, tripped, teased....but they claim its all out of love...and their brotherly duty to torture me.   

Wow...now that's a crew!!  Here we are waiting on the awards ceremony to start.  From the left we have...
Mike, Cindy, Brady, Alex, Bryan, Makenna, Me, Brandon, Tony and Isabella.  Brady and Isabella were all tuckered out...the rest of us weren't far behind them!  Kinda wishing someone would hold us while we took a nap at that point!  Ha!

We have fun every year and every year we have tons of food and cold beverages.  This year we added fajitas to the table.  We only placed in the top ten in one event and that was Friday Night Feast (8th place). Tony was happy about that but is still determined to reworked his creation for next year and push it to the top six.  We also participated in beans, chicken, ribs and brisket.  Last year we placed 3rd in chicken and a few years back we were 10th in brisket.  A few wins here and there but enough to come back for more.  We really do have a lot of fun doing this...the kids enjoy it and it gets the family and friends together for a few days.  I do know one thing for sure...none of us care to much to see or eat bbq for a very long time when its all said and done.