Page 34 - Barbecue News DEC 2020 Digital Issue

bbq addict
THOUGHTS FROM AN ADDICTED BBQ GUY
Dana “big papa” Hillis
BBQ From Florida
lighthousepointe@ hotmail.com
My good friends John and Chris Sweeney came back to Florida for the winter so there will be a lot more smoke in the air in south west Florida the next 6 months. We do a lot of recipes and feed a lot of people while John is in town.
I have created a BBQ monster in my friend Rich Galvano. His son Leo has cooked with me a lot in the past and now his dad has become quite the cook. He has chicken flippers, kamados, and has GrillGrates to cook a great steak. I get a lot of pictures and am proud to see his love for cooking. I sure miss my buddy Leo.
I have awesome neighbors Steve and Dee. Steve may be one of the smartest guys I know. He brought his wife to some of our BBQ classes, talked her into getting rid of her gas grill, and got her a chicken flipper, with a steak grate and GrillGrates. She now cooks competition quality steaks, the best chicken wings ever, and pork loin chops to die for. Great neighbors and they help me keep the neighborhood smelling good.
We were lucky to be invited to the Galvano 24th annual
Golf Classic. We gave away sliders to all the golfers. The brisket sliders were a big hit with that crowd and we will be back next year. This event has generated a lot of funding for kids programs and we were honored to be a part of it. Steve and Dee helped us and we got to meet a living legend Mr. Nick Wallenda. I have watched this guy do some of his high wire adventures and I had just watched him walk across a volcano. A true gentleman and classy guy. Best of all, he loved the brisket!
We feed a lot of people Thanksgiving dinners. We are al- ways proud of our cooking family that feeds so many peo- ple this time of year. Check into Casey Jones with Miracle in the Kitchen and see all the turkeys he cooks for folks. It’s amazing!
COVID-19 and the elections have taken up a lot of Face- book, Twitter, and all of the news channels. I am sure everyone is as tired of all this as I am. Let all our politicians and people in charge of all that’s going on do their jobs or lets replace them with someone who can. Let’s get people healthy. Let’s keep our economy on track and not raise our cost of living. No new taxes on our homes, no raise on our taxes period, and definitely don’t raise our meat prices. How anyone could vote for someone that wants to control our brisket consumption is beyond me!
Meat prices have been steady on pork, brisket, and chicken but rib prices have spiked. That’s not fair to our rib lovers!
I think smoke in the air has something to do with control of spreading the corona virus. We have been to several steak contests and have not heard of anyone having or spreading the virus. Maybe good steaks, awesome charcoal, and wood fires are good for us!
I stumbled across an old PK grill for sale at a bargain price and can’t wait to cook a contest on it. It has a small metal table and a tabletop stand and can’t wait to put it to the test. I have mastered my steak blend seasoning called the FloriTenneMichiTuckyBama blend. It’s amazing even
BarbecueNews.com - 34
DECEMBER 2020