Talking Brisket on AM Northwest

I headed to Portland this week to appear on AM Northwest. It was my first TV experience and I found I was calmer for live TV than live radio interviews. I think it's because I was actually doing something with the hosts and didn't have time to be nervous. In case you missed it, see it here!

Eric was my head lackey, thank goodness, because loading two cooked briskets, one raw, and all the many little bowls of ingredients to make sauce was quite a haul. My friend Russ graciously babysat the kids at his place while we went to the show. He promised our son "Candy and TV!" so Xander barely gave us a wave as we headed out at 7:45am.

I set up everything on a set counter and stove, which they then moved offstage for the first part of the show. Then we went to the green room, which was remarkably lacking in coffee. I think of morning shows and great big mugs of coffee, no? It didn't matter.

The show hosts Helen and Dave came in and we all put on our make up in the same dressing room. Helen let me use her lipstick because I'd forgotten to bring some. I was struck how genuinely kind and jovial they both were. They put me immediately at ease.

I had two briskets and didn't know which one I was going to use until the last minute. One was smokier, had a better smoke ring, but the other was juicier. We had only a few minutes in between commercial breaks to do the final set. The counter was rolled in, I was miked, and Eric made the call which brisket to use. I didn't even know which one it was until I opened the oven!

The show went great. I was a little stiff at the beginning, but loosened up toward the end. (Dave gave me a few opportunities to crack some jokes, most of which I missed, but I had less than 6 minutes to get through two recipes!). After dry rubbing the brisket, we made my Texas All-Nighter Barbecue Sauce. I carved up the rest of the brisket while they taped the next segment of the show next to me (you couldn't see me), and we fed it to the crew. They were happy!