Page 19 - April 2022 Barbecue News Magazine

THANK GOD FOR BBQ!
Dana “big papa” Hillis
BBQ From Florida
lighthousepointe@ hotmail.com
n this world of turmoil let's pray for peace and some good deci- sions from the folks in charge. Let's all keep cooking BBQ and feeding folks!
We have recently purchased a Green Mountain Grill, Daniel Boone series pellet grill that came with a pizza oven attachment. It was a little rusty and needed some tlc, but a few hours of elbow grease and some high heat paint made her look like new! We have gotten hooked on making pizzas in three minutes. We have experi- mented with some crusts and toppings and the grandkids gave me the thumbs-up, so things are good at the country kitchen!
We recently had another BBQ class and one of the side dishes we cooked up has become one of our favorites.
Mawws Buffalo Chicken & Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients
3 cups of cooked chicken chopped (boneless skinless thighs sug- gested)
16 ounces sour cream
1/4 cup Frank's red-hot sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups shredded cheese- cheddar or 4 cheese blend 32 ounces frozen tater tots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon Big Papas all-purpose rub
Directions
Get smoker set at 350. Pellet grill works great or regular oven works on rainy days too. Coat a half pan with Pam spray.
In a separate bowl mix chicken, sour cream, soup, hot sauce and cheese. Mix in frozen tater tots. Put mixture in half pan and sprinkle celery on top. Cook for about 45 minutes or until it bub- bles. Enjoy. Simple and delicious!
We sure missed going to Texas this year for the SCA World Cham- pionship. All our SCA family made it there and back safely from what I heard and congrats to everyone that had their numbers called. We hope to cook some steak contests soon and be lucky enough to earn our way back to Fort Worth next year.
It looks like inflation, fuel costs, meat and food costs and basi- cally everything is more expensive than it's ever been. We are going to slow way down on our catering business. We have been busier then we have ever been but cannot raise our prices as high as they need to be to try and make a profit. We are watching our friends in all kinds of buisness’ going thru the same financial is- sues. We plan to stay home and fix things for a while and Janet has me a long list!
A year ago we planned a short trip to Venice, to go hang out at The British Open Pub and celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my dear friend Kelly. My good friends Rich and Wendy Eames will be join- ing us along with my favorite in-laws Matt and Lidya Sellers. We are going to definitely have some check cheese, fine bourbon and whatever Kelly recommends. We are going to stay for a couple days while seeing the sites and just relax and enjoy some good friends. If you are ever in the Venice area you have to hit the British Open Pub. Great food and great atmosphere and say hi to Kelly!
We are getting ready for our big event in Grant Florida and I rec- ommend if you’re on the east coast stop in and get some food that supports a good cause. The event is April 1st, 2nd and 3rd and we will have our full menu of awesome BBQ. Timmy Vee puts his heart and soul into this event raising money for Christmas pres- ents for kids. We have been proud to support this event for the last 15 years and are looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends while enjoying some fantastic music. Come see us!
My son is a wrestling coach and every year at the state tourna- ment I promise any one that does well a slab of ribs to celebrate their accomplishments. Christian Moder won the State title and earned a slab. Several other kids placed in the tournament and will get fed too. First Baptist Academy placed 2nd in State and that was quite an accomplishment for a first-year wrestling pro- gram.
Best wishes to all competing in the cooking competition world these days. My old friends from Accutech BBQ got there chicken back to perfection and has won two contests in row! My good friend Todd Bender and his Sloppy Hawgs BBQ team has a grand, third, and Reserve in their last three contests and they’re getting better every time out!
See everyone sometime this fall and just keep feeding people BBQ. It makes them happy!
APRIL 2022
BarbecueNews.com - 19