Last year we cooked these two contests just to say that we did it once. But we had so much fun we decided to try again this year. Waterloo, Ia has a contest on Saturday and La Porte City, 15 miles south, has a contest on Sunday. So you cook Waterloo on Saturday pack everything up and cook again on Sunday … then try to work on Monday. We are pretty tired after the cooks but do enjoy the challenge.

Because of this extra challenge Smokers Purgatory was proud to have a guest cook in our camp for the back to back cooks. Having an open weekend and having never cooked back to back contests before, Pat with Dirty Pig volunteered to join the team for a weekend. Pat is a great cook who lives and caters in Des Moines and we were thankful to have him.

Our first challenge was the Friday night chili contest in Waterloo. Last year we claimed second place by 12 votes and vowed to win this year by bringing more chili as we ran out and lost votes last year. So this year we brought 6 gal and had our prettiest girls, Kathy and T, hading out the samples. By the end of the evening we again placed second by 6 votes. Oh well “Always a bride’s maid …”

The cooks went well as we had overall scores of 654 at Waterloo and 651 in La Porte City which placed us 13th and 8th overall at the two contests. Pat had brought a double secret rub and sauce and deserves the credit for both of our calls in chicken with a 7th and 4th. Our other call was a 7th place brisket call at La Porte City. There is definitely more tweaking to do but we were pretty happy with the food we turned in.

Waterloo Pics / La Porte City Pics

Next contest is in El Dorado