Page 6 - August 2021 Barbecue News Magazine

Dana “big papa” Hillis
BBQ From Florida
lighthousepointe@ hotmail.com
With meat prices soaring thru the roof, we are eating a lot more peanut butter and jelly this summer! Seems the costs of every- thing is sky high but we just hope and pray things straighten out so we can afford to travel, eat, shop, and go cook some competi- tions somewhere! Keep an eye on your sale papers and shop where the sale prices are a little helpful with your budget.
We picked up a pork belly the other day that was on sale, but was still more expensive than it should have been. When a piece of meat is more valuable than gold you take special care in the cook- ing process, which I did. You also need to truly enjoy eating it, which I have. Nothing like fresh smoked pork belly nuggets!
We will be on our annual summer trip next month and we are hoping by the time prices may start coming back down and our prices won’t have to make a big jump. We will be heading to North Georgia for a steak contest in Cummings,
Georgia and are excited about hooking up
with my cousins and some old friends. We
plan to leave that contest and stop in Hender- sonville, North Carolina to see our great
friends Dave and Francine who just relocated
from Naples, Florida. They moved to be closer
to their kids and grandkids. They bought some property and they’re building a new home.
When they get it built, I am going to get them a
BBQ grill to meet their needs. Dave has been to several cooking classes with us and has decided he likes to cook on charcoal and wood. I have no doubt that plenty of good steaks will be cooked at their new home.
We are going to stay in Carolina for a couple days and then head to McMinnville, Tennessee as we get ready for the seventh annual dinner on the ground family reunion. We will run over to Algood, Tennessee for a steak cookoff and then come back to the old farm and as we prepare to cook and feed a great bunch of family and friends!
Every year my cousins Anthony and Kendall help me determine what will be on the menu. It’s pretty easy to determine what to cook because they decide to have what we had last year. Regard- less of that decision, we always add a little something extra. This year we plan on fixing stuffed pork loins, pork belly, brisket, ribs,
pulled pork, Big Papa baked beans, fresh deep-fried alligator, TI Nunnelys famous fried taters, and everyone brings their favorite side dish. All this great BBQ with added country cooking, from these great down-home cooks, will equal some all-time good eat- ing. Aunt Joyce makes homemade peach cobbler, my cousin Treva makes homemade banana pudding and Amanda makes mad cow cake that has been awarded a perfect score at the McMinnville BBQ contest. This year is going to be awesome!
Mayfield Music will be hosting karaoke and Nashville singing su- perstar Cecil Shields to sing for us. He may even bring a few other Nashville stars and the famous Black Betty Boys will make their annual appearance. The famous Singing Firefighters will perform also so we know it will be a great weekend of food and entertain- ment.
We miss our cooking family as we have been busy at home and not been able to compete much. The Coleman’s have been kicking butt as usual, the Pendray’s will do well everywhere they go, and
great cooks have continued their winning ways all over the country. Matt Overson just won with the first
perfect score in the history of the SCA and it could not have happened to a better guy. I am just sur-
prised his sister did not get a perfect score be- fore he did. That family sure can cook some
steaks!
I went to give a friend a hand the other day and he asked me if I like mangos and I sure do. He gave me a big bag of some of the best man- gos I ever had. I love fresh mangos so I ate some by cubing some and we made a little
batch of mango BBQ sauce too. Janet cubed up and froze them and them put them in little bag-
gies so we can take out six at a time. If you make a fruity cocktail these work awesome as ice cubes.
We are preparing a bunch of the mango pits and are going to plant them and see if we can grow some of our own. We have one mango tree but it is not ready to produce yet. We have planted a bunch of pineapple tops and grown some pineapples and can’t wait to grow some mangos.
Keep on smoking this summer. Do some serious shopping to keep your budget in check. Winn Dixie has been running sales on the weekends. The prices are still high but better than today’s regular prices. Publix stores are having some 2 for 1 sales that help a little bit too. If you shop wisely you can save a little bit and keep on cooking.
Always remember feed people BBQ - it makes them happy! Have a safe summer and see everyone at a cookoff soon!
BarbecueNews.com - 6
AUGUST 2021
WHATS COOKING THIS SUMMER!