Guest Post on Welcome to the Cookout and Why I'm So Short

If you haven't read Welcome to the Cookout, you should. It's a great site all about outdoor cooking full of information from novice to expert grilling by master "CB" Chef Barry. He's as awesome on the grill as he is tall. I come up to, like, his waist both figuratively and actually.

Of course I come up to a lot of people's waists, chests and armpits. Whenever I put on a hoodie in the rain the cottony touch and damp laundry scent reminds me of concerts I saw as a teen because I spent most of them with my nose smashed into the back of some tall person's sweaty outerwear. When I wasn't trapped into a stranger's armpit, I was able to see the stage only 50% of the time on the up part of the constant jumping I had to do to see around the giants that invariably muscled their way to the front row. Maybe that's why I didn't go to as many concerts as my classmates. You try jumping for three straight hours. Even with a teen body, concerts were marathon aerobic workouts that left me sore and spent the next day.

Grandma Alida, at 4 foot 9 is to blame. I think she started out at the towering zenith of 4 foot 11, but by her eighties her contents had settled a bit. She was cute as a button, though, as is my daughter whom I gave Alida as a middle name. (My pediatrician was startled when I jumped up and cheered after she'd said my kids were "average" height for their ages).

But enough about my shortcomings (snort, giggle) and back to Barry and grills and barbecue. Incidentally, Mr. Martin also created Our Community Table, a site all about our food system and how it's broken and how we can fix it, together, and who out there is walking the walk and who is stomping on us with their millions. I have meant to join in and contribute for a year, but I have so many irons in the fire, for now I have to simply be a fan. I'll get there, late as usual. Barry also wrote the bulk of these two books
  and , during his spokesman years with Char-broil so he has the creds to back up his on-line persona.

For a guest post on his site I wanted to write on a subject for beginners on the grill. I get a lot of questions about how to keep meat from sticking on the grill. This post takes on that question with an easy recipe for practicing the technique (while making dinner of course!)

The Mustard-Oregano Chicken Tenders recipe in the post is a great one for kids too. I see that Barry took his own, better photo for his website and watermarked my photos for me because he knows I can't figure out how to do that. And he has those nifty "PIN THIS" Pinterest button on all the photos. I've been meaning to Google "how to get pin this button on blog photos" to figure out what the deal is with THAT, but I'd have to get a day off for once in my life, people, so get off my back!

Whoa, didn't know I was going to get all tetchy on you, poor dearest reader (hi mom). Must be my Napoleon complex.

Just (please) go read the post on Welcome to the Cookout and say something nice, OK?

Come see Lynnae Oxley before her britches get too big

We've got a great class coming up this Sunday at Smokin' Pete's BBQ. Two of my favorite west coast barbecue people are joining me for a Backyard BBQ & Grilling Class. There still are a few spots open in the afternoon class, by the way, so if you are interested, sign up, why don't ya! It's only $100 for a fun-filled four hours of instruction, including dinner. You won't walk away hungry for food or inspiration, I promise you.

My fellow instructors are far beyond me but I'll enjoy basking in their limelight while humbly talking about rubs, meat prep, and mops. Barry "CB" Martin, aka Chef Barry is an amazing outdoor grillmaster. He's not too shabby cooking indoors either when the wife lets him in, but he's known for his outdoor chops on the barbie. He can grill and talk at the same time, for one, which is hard enough for me to do, but Barry can actually entertain you while grilling, on a TV show in a hurricane, for instance. He's that kind of guy.

Ms. Lynnae Oxley is the pitmaster of Sugar's Barbecue in OR, a competition team with plenty of ribbons and ridiculously large trophies. Seriously, the trophies barbecue comps are huge. They look like some male pre-teen with a lego fantasy designed them. I think there is some sort of formula in which the size of the trophy increases by a factor of 2.0795 to the average gut size of the competitors. But I digress...

Lynnae and I met through the writing of She-Smoke. I asked the president of the PNWBA what women BBQ'ers I should talk to for some of my She's Smokin' side bars, and he immediately said, "You have to talk to Lynnae!" So I tracked her down and did. She tells a great story of her very first Weber kettle that she bought at a garage sale for $10.

Over the years we've met, kept in touch and do the usual of "liking" things each other says on facebook. But beyond that I have a true respect for this woman and what she does. She's a pitmaster for her competition barbecue team and a caterer dedicated to quality barbecue. Her hard work has paid off because she just got filming for the upcoming season of BBQ Pitmasters! I can't wait to see her on the show.

This class might be the last time we get her, seeing as how her britches might be getting mighty big with all that TV fame. For those of you still sitting on the fence, you could say, "I knew her when..."

Backyard Barbecue Class, June 2

Want to hone your barbecue skills? Come join me and two amazing teachers - Barry Martin and Lynnae Oxley - on June 2 at Smokin' Pete's BBQ. 

Chef Barry is a grilling master, long time grill spokesman, and has been on myriad cooking shows, most recently a series of spots on the Weather Channel. Lynnae is the pitmaster of Sugars Barbecue and will be on the upcoming Barbecue Pitmaster's television show.

We have two sessions, a morning and afternoon, both of which will serve a meal at the restaurant. We'll go over all the basics of hot and fast grilling and slow and low barbecue to help you wow your friends and family at your next barbecue. 

Please check out the full website with bios, class info, and the registration form. It's only $100 for a four hour class with three instructors and lunch! We wanted to make it easy for you to sign up. So sign up! If you can't come, do tell your friends in the greater Seattle area about it. We're smokin' for ya!