Barbecue!

So hopefully it is a myth that eating too much smoked meat can cause cancer, since we managed to indulge a lot, not as much as we could have, this weekend at the Big Apple BBQ. Mr. D first went to this festival 3 years ago, when he was working up here for his summer internship at the firm he works for now. That year, he was excited because Dinosaur BBQ had come into the city for it.

Last year, we missed the festival for a wedding down in Dallas (which was one of the best receptions ever - featuring Pappasito's catering), so this was the first year we were able to go. Mr. D started talking about it last month. When we checked out the tickets, it was too late to buy the "fast pass," but luckily no tickets are needed to just show up. Mr. D sent out an email to all those who had come up from UT to see if they wanted to meet up with us.

One of them reported smelling the smoke in the elevators of his building before he left work on Friday afternoon. We anxiously checked the website the night before, only to find out that one of the guys manning the pit crew from the Salt Lick was injured, so they couldn't make it. :( Big amounts of sad faces here.

We got to the park right at 11:00 am, and people were already lined up at the tents, but the people we were meeting weren't there yet, so we wandered around to get the lay of the land. We found the spot to get wristbands was open near the beer tent, so we checked that off the list. Tagging along with us was the Sasha, so Mr. D stopped with her in the dog run, while I went to the assigned spot. Typically, I managed to miss the people we were supposed to meet, as they were on the other side of the corner, so Mr. D saw them as he walked up. :)

We split up so as to get the most out of our line-waiting time. Mr. D grabbed some brisket and baked beans and I snagged some babyback ribs. My line was moving really fast, so I was able to scout out a picnic table, with enough spots for four of us, and by two more people from Mr. D's work joined us, we were able to all squeeze in. Mr. D took the opportunity to head off and grab a basket of sausage w/ pimento cheese, and by the time we finished that, the rabble around us was ready for us to give up our seats. We headed over to the beer tent and had a beer (it was by the music stage, but you weren't allowed to take the beer out of the beer area to wait in line - poor planning). Before we headed out, we stopped at the dessert tent and had blueberry crisp/brownie's a la mode. Yum!

Unfortunately. we decided to grab a coffee and some pastries this morning on our way to the dog park. I say unfortunately, because we wound up dilly-dallying in the park until it was almost time for the tents to open back up. The pizza dough rising in the kitchen was turned into dinner, and we decided to lunch at the festival with two different kinds of babyback ribs. (insert drooling noise here) :)