Crispy Critters

Memphis, Tennessee

The Crispy Critters are a Memphis based team that is one of the oldest on the M-I-M tour, having been in competitive cooking for 27 years, including 26 Memphis In May World Championships. The team is made up of 14 members from all over the country along with the talented and able assistance of our wives and children. Most of the Crispy Critters started in Memphis, but we now represent 10 different states. We come together for competitive cooks 7-8 times a year and try to cover a wide range of locations across the country. The Crispy Critters are predominately a Whole Hog team, but have been known to delve successfully into what ever categories are available. In recent years we have become quite active on the K.C.B.S. circuit and are really excited about returning to Dillon to cook and see old friends.

Golden Toad

With a little over two years under its belt, Golden Toad, Inc. takes pride in producing the finest gourmet sauces and spice blends available. Our products are produced in very small batches using exceptional ingredients, assuring you of the highest quality and consistency. We offer a Chipotle Pepper Sauce, Habanero Pepper Sauce, Prime Steak Rub, Cajun/ Creole Seasoning, and a Chipotle BBQ Finishing Sauce. We use only the freshest ingredients because we know that you will notice the difference.

Our company name originates from a species that was once endemic to a cloud forest in Monteverde, Costa Rica. The Golden Toad is feared to be the first species to have gone extinct due to our planet’s current global warming trend. We are committed to donating a portion of our proceeds to habitat conservation efforts, hence our tag line: Saving the Planet One Tongue at a Time.^TM We donate a portion of our proceeds to wildlife conservation efforts. This has become a very popular aspect of our company to many customers. We are currently working with the Denver Zoo and the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s conservation arm, the Colorado Wildlife Heritage Foundation. All of our products are available at all Whole Foods Markets in Colorado, New Mexico and Kansas.

Golden Toad Shrimp Bombs

Ingredients

 

• 31-40 count shrimp (peeled, de-veined & de-tailed) (don’t use any smaller, they won’t skewer or grill well)
• A good precooked Kielbasa Sausage (cut the sausage into ½” thick discs)
• Golden Toad’s Prime Steak Rub
• Golden Toad’s Chipotle BBQ Finishing Sauce
• 10-12 bamboo skewers (soak them for at least 30 min. in water before using to help prevent burning)

   

1. Defrost the shrimp and pat them dry – season liberally with Golden Toad’s Prime Steak Rub
2. Start skewering sausage and shrimp alternating on skewers
3. Heat grill to high Place skewers on grill and brush with GT Chipotle BBQ Finishing Sauce
4. Turn approximately every 3 minutes brushing with GT Chipotle BBQ Finishing Sauce each time you turn
5. Cook until the shrimp are just done (about 9 minutes depending upon your grill heat)
6. Enjoy!

Los Nerds

Chief Cooks: Rudy & Andrea Duran
Parker, Colorado

Nerd is the word! ... Los Nerds consists of mainly computer nerds and BBQ nerds.

Los Nerds BBQ team of Parker, Colorado, was formed by the late Dana Nagy and Rudy Durán in 2002 when they competed in the Denver Blues and Bones Backyard BBQ competition using a homemade 50 gal. double barrel smoker.

Since then, Los Nerds BBQ team has grown to include members of Dana's and Rudy's family and friends.

The present Nerd team members are:

• Rudy Durán, wife, Andrea, daughters, Olivia, Gabbie and Emma
• Wendi Nagy, and, her daughter, and son, Taylor and Nic
• Mel and Jerry Johnston
• Paul and Lynne Garcia
• Dan and Jedidah Frederick

The 2007 BBQ season is dedicated to our wonderful friend and fellow Nerd, Dana, who passed away in November, 2006. We've missed him tremendously but Dana's inspiration and warm memory has encouraged the Nerds to continue competing and keep smiling like he always did. Dana was known as the "man with the million dollar smile".

Los Nerds sends a hearty good luck to all of our competitors and we "hope you win a prize, man"!

Pink Flamingo BBQ

Chief Cook: Ralph Taylor
Ft. Smith, Arkansas

Summit County, CO is the best place on earth for the Pink Flamingo BBQ team. The competition success we have had up here is simply unbelievable. We have cooked in Summit County 6 times and come home with 3 Grand Championships and 2 Reserve grand Championships. If I had a brain in my head I would move to summit County and open a rib joint.

Yes, team Flamingo will be selling our famous 1st place sausage from the American Royal. We might even branch out and sell some other stuff this year too. But, don’t be late, because we sell out every year.

2006 was another banner year for the Flamingos. We won two Grand Championships, two Reserve Grand Championships and finished 11th overall in the KCBS 2006 year end results.

Thank you for supporting this wonderful BBQ event. Because without all of you wonderful people…The Rotary Club of Summit County wouldn’t be able to afford to do all of the good things it does. And we couldn’t have this much fun without you.

Rini's Bar & Grill

Aurora, CO

Cheers from Rini's Bar & Grill!!!

We are a virtual bar & grill existing in the back yard (and in the minds) of Ken and Dawn Rini in Aurora, CO. With the help of our family and friends, Don, Beth, Amanda and Jason, we are happy to bring the bar back one more time to the beautiful town of Dillon.

Rini's Bar & Grill is open to family and friends year-round, but exists as you see it here on rare occasions.

We have been competing in BBQ events since 1999. Previous competitions include the Denver Blues and Bones; the Boats, Blues and BBQ festival in Pueblo; Frisco BBQ Challenge; The Kansas City Royal, and BBQ at the Summit. Each year we seem to add “just one more” to the schedule.

It's always great to catch up with the rest of our BBQ family at these events. When award time comes around, we hope to hear our name called along with the other teams who produce some of the finest BBQ around.

We hope you'll drop by.

Rini's Bar & Grill, where every hour is happy hour!

Rub This

Carolyn Patterson
Kansas City, MO

If you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen (and Kansas City) in August. That's what the Rub This gals will be doing when we compete in Dillon for the fifth year in a row. Our all-girl team includes Carolyn, Barb and Maggie (yes, we're really sisters!), daughters-in-law Ali and Kristin, granddaughters Lucy and Elie and friend Laura. We'll be smokin' the best pork there is from Kansas City, some chickens from Arkansas and beef we picked up along I-70 on the trip out.

We had our best year ever in ’07, placing 5th in pork and 10th in chicken—from our cranky, unpredictable, non-computer-controlled little Kingfisher! Our goal this year is to break the curse of our perennial 4th place finish in dessert. Judges need to be prepared for what we’re turning in this year! Stop by our booth and sample some delicious pulled pork, award-winning Smoky Smackies and other tasty competition leftovers along with our “top ten” Jayhawk sauce.

Smoke and Bones BBQ

Highlands Ranch, CO

The Smoke and Bones BBQ team consists business partners Gregory K. Brill, Jeremy C. Schwab, and Dean Schwab. We are also joined by Big Bear Brookshire and his son, who bring over 40 years of competition experience to our little family. This will be the first KCBS sanctioned event for Smoke and Bones BBQ. Our team has over 150 years of combined BBQ experience, but this will be the first major competition that we have entered.

If you had to choose one word to describe our "Que" and the men on our team it would be "True". We strive to give our guest authentic barbeque that represents the various regions of influence upon the cuisine. We are loyal to preserving the regional styles and opening up our guests horizons to the amazing variety and choices of American Barbeque.

We are honored to be competing with the other teams and we look forward to sharing and learning as much as we can about the competition circuit. Please stop by our log cabin smoker and say hello, we cant wait to meet you!!!

Sweetgrass Barbecue Team

Chief Cook: Bill Frantz
Co-captain: Matt Butler

Come n' git a lil south n' yur mouth with Sweetgrass Barbecue!

Sweetgrass Barbecue Team was originated by Chef Bill Frantz of Colorado Springs, CO and was created to express great food and barbecue while getting to hang out with amazing friends, new and old. Barbecue at Sweetgrass is all about testing boundaries. We do not derive our style from one region, but from all of our different tastes and experiences. Our team consists of members that come from all over the country, but now reside in Colorado: Bill and Carin Frantz, Matt Butler, David Justice, The Matuzak/Rice Family, The Thomas Family, Heather Desisto and whoever else wants to cook and party with the Sweetgrass Barbecue Team.

2007 was our first ever competition, and we were so proud to place 4th in Chicken and 9th in Ribs at BBQ at the Summit in Dillon, CO. We are more prepared this year, and can't wait to compete again in beautiful Dillon, CO. We had such a great time at this competition, that it immediately became a tradition before the weekend was over, good luck to all the "Q" teams and attendees that make this event so much fun. Be sure to check out Sweetgrassbarbecue.com for upcoming events and info on products, gear and apparel.

The Sweet Mama Cooking Team

Westminster, Colorado

Sweet Mama personifies a sassy, sweet and saucy sow. Sweet Mama has no secret recipe; she mixes slow smoke and low heat with country blues. Sweet Mama harmoniously blends food and music savored from Kansas City to Memphis and relished from Chicago to New Orleans. Swinging her hams to bluesman Taj Mahal hula blues, Sweet Mama lays on a barbecue taste so good makes you wanna holler, “Ooooohhh, Sweet Mama”! Surrounded by the excitement of people coming together, Sweet Mama delights in competition and cooking Americana style barbecue. All chefs on the Sweet Mama BBQ cooking team have spent years honing their culinary skills on backyard grills, at beach side fire pits and parking lot tailgates.

The Sweet mama cooking team enters 2006 in their second year of competition. 2005 was generous to Sweet Mama in her rookie year. Sweet Mama captured first place popoints behind the BBQ Challenge Reserve Grand Champion among 51 teams from 10 states. Sweet Mama placed in the Peoples Choice Award at Great Bend, KS among the nation's best brisket cookers competing in the Chest to Chest National Brisket Championship. Further, Sweet Mama distinguished herself by winning third place salsa at last year's BBQ at the Summit proving she can take vegetables to a BBQ contest and still be a winner. And at Sweet Mama's first competition ever, her brisket won third place at Pueblo's Boats, Blues and BBQ.

Sweet Mama has produced competition award winning rubs through the spice sponsorship of Savory Spice Shop in Denver, CO. And sauces from the sponsorship of Sweet Mama Janice in Eureka, California have added the winning edge to our salsas and sauces. These items are available at our contests as well as through Sweet Mama's sponsors' website at www.savoryspiceshop.com and www.sweetmamajanisse.com

We have amazingly enthusiastic support from our family, sponsors, friends, blues music artists, fans and lots of hungry people that we pick up along the way. Heck even our generous competitors want us to win...

Oooohh, Sweet Mama!

Tom & Josh's Orgasmic Slabs

Chief Cooks: Steph Wilson and Kyle Laval
Kansas City, MO

Summit County has been very, very good to us. We were the Grand Champions at the Frisco contest in 2003 and the Dillon BBQ at the Summit contest in 2004. Also in 2004, The Slabs also took Grand Champion honors at the Blue Devil/Sunflower State cook-off in Kansas City, Kansas; Taste of Grand Rapids BBQ Championship in Grand Rapids, Michigan and we were the Colorado Triple Crown Champions!

The Slabs have produced a competition rub and competition sauce, Kyle Style Perk Up Your Pork Competition Quality Rub and Kyle Style Complete Your Meat BBQ Sauce. The sauce received 2nd place honors in the Mild Tomato category at the American Royal in 2004 as well as 5th place Mild Tomato at the NBBQA Awards of Excellence in Houston, TX February 2005. Kyle Style Rub earned 1st Place in the All Purpose Rub at the NBBQA convention Awards of Excellence. These items are available on our website www.TheSlabs.com

Swing by the “Slab Camp” this August and prepare yourself for BBQ at the Summit Grand Champion quality barbeque! We'll vend Tom & Josh's Orgasmic Ribs, skewered shrimp, steak and chicken on Friday as well as all of our leftover competition meat on Saturday!