Another Rib Off Victory

I now have three signatures on my chefs hat. I got each of them for someone that I defeated in a one on one Rib cook off. My latest victory came Saturday night over my best friend Brock Purslow. His ribs were good, mine were better. I would love to tell everyone how I do my ribs, but at this point in my career I can't give away my secrets. I am considering taking my show on the road. Hitting some of the smaller county fairs around this great state of ours. All along the way picking up Blue Ribbon after Blue Ribbon. I will sustain myself on a consistant diet of roasted corn, turkey legs and funnel cakes. Being a rib man is like being a drug dealer...never use your own stash. I may pull a few of my own teeth out so I look like I belong. People have asked my if I do brisket. I always say, "Did people ask Mozart if he could paint? Or, did anyone ask Neil Armstrong if he was a great diver?" The answer is no, I believe in staying with your strengths, and my strength is the rib. I am a rib guy. When people think of me I hope they think of ribs. This is the one thing I will pass on to my son (if I ever have one) All good dads should pass on one thing, mine will be the rib. For reasons I do not wish to discuss, I would not share my rib secrets with a daughter. I would share something else with her, but not ribs. Hopefully, she would have enough brains to marry a man that can make good ribs. Go ahead call me a sexist pig. I am one, we all are, I am just willing to admit it. Its a mans job to prepare the ribs for the family. The best part of doing the ribs, or anything else on the grill is that you get ALL the credit for the meal. Sure someone else may have prepared everything else for the meal, but it is the person that takes the meat off the grill/smoker that gets all the credit, as it should be.

Sandy

Easy Fish

Well, I really don't feel like finishing my thoughts on leadership right now, but I would love to tell you about a great, easy way to cook fish. If you are anything like me, you cruise by the butcher counter at HEB and see all the beautiful fish they have. I have caught myself just standing there looking at what used to be creatures of the sea and would soon be food in my stomoach. The biggest problem is, how the hell do you cook it. Alot of people love grilled fish, I am one of them, but it can be such a pain in the ass. It always stick to the grill and you never end up with a good looking piece, it always comes off the grill in chuncks and if your are the chef, that is embarassing. I have found something that has solved the problem. Cedar Plank. Chances are you have seen Cedar Plank Smoked Salmon at some fancy resturant. Well, there is nothing fanchy about it. A friend of mine gave me a pack of three cedar planks that she got at HEB. I have had them forever and to be honest, I have been a little intimidated by them. Finally, with the excitement of my catch from Port Aransas (see previous blog) I decided to give them a shot. It was so easy. THe planks are about 18" long and 10" wide, you soak them in water for 20 minutes, then set your fish on them and put it on the grill. You can use a gas grill (I never would) or real charcoal. Cover the fish for 20 minutes and you are done. Of course you will want to season the fish before cooking, I use Tony Chacheres Original Creole Seasoning, but you can also use, Maple Syrup and Brown sugar, Lemon Pepper, Salt and Pepper, Red Pepper or all of the above. Just go crazy, you can't mess this up. Enjoy!

Sandy

Success and Leadership

I started watching "The Apprectice" for the first time this season and I got totally into the show. However, I didn't find the contestants as "creative" as The Donald and family thought they were, but to me that is not what the show was about. The show was about leadership and lately that is all I have been able to think about...leadership. What does that mean and how do you know if you are being a leader? I ask myself constantly if I am a leader. Sometimes I say yes, other times I say no and sometimes I just don't know, it is tough to understand. I just did a search on Amazon.com using the word "Leadership" there were over 205,000 results returned. I guess everyone knows what leadership is but me. I do believe one thing about leadership, you are born with it, I don't think you can learn to be a leader, it is one of those things that you either have or you don't. Sure there are books you can read (as proof with the over 200,000 results after a search on Amazon.com) to become a better leader, but to become a great leader, my guess is you were born with it. A couple other takes I have about being a leader, these are purely my thoughts, I have never read a book on the subject. I take that back. I read the first chapter or Rudy Guilianni's book titled "Leadership" but it wasn't what I was looking for. Okay, now on with some of my thoughts on what it takes to be a great leader.

To be a great leader you have to know who you are leading. If you are going to make decisions for a group of people, you better have a pretty good idea how they are going to react. Good or bad. If you decision is going to cause your group to rebel, you should know that, otherwise you will be caught off guard and could quickly lose any control that you have.

You need to respect who you are leading. Respect is key in all relationships and although a leadership roll may be a relationship with one person or 10,000 you have to respect the group and believe in their abilities. If you don't respect them, how in the world will they be expected to respect you.

Easy segue here...

The people you are leading have to respect you. An entire book could be written on gaining respect and I am sure it has, but to me the old saying "Lead by example" is the golden rule. If you ask your people to wade a mile through 3 feet of soupy pig poop, you better be in the front of the line encouraging them to keep going. How can you possibly lead someone into something that you would never do or have never done.

To be a leader, you better believe what you are preaching and if you believe it you can sell it. I can always tell when someone is towing the company line, covering their ass, and being a "Yes Man" I can always tell because they try to sell it but do a miserable job of it because they don't believe it. When you really believe it, you don't have to sell it, it just comes out of you. When John Kennedy said, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" it poured out of him, his body language told the world what he was saying. When Martin Luther King gave his beautiful, "I have a dream" speach, it poured out of him, that emotion can't be faked. When Bill Clinton said, "I did not have sexual relations with that women!" No one believed him becuase he didn't believe himself, he couldn't sell it because he didn't believe it.

I have more to say about this, including pissing people off, admitting your wrong and knowing when to fight and when to flee but my favorite TV show, "The Shield" is getting ready to start. I'll finish up later.

Doing Stuff You Have Always Wanted To Do

For years I have wanted to jump in my truck and drive to Port Aransas, Texas and fish for Red Fish. For some reason or another I never did it. I was too tired, I was too broke, or I was too hungover. The truth is, I was scared. It was something I had never done before. Scared that I would embarass myself. That is a safe assumption seeing as how I have never fished for anything more than what I might pull in when my bobber went under. I had never done any serious fishing is what I am trying to say. If you have ever seen the TV show, "The Deadliest Catch" that is uber-serious fishing, the serious fishing I am talking about is really trying to catch fish, not sitting around drinking beer hoping you catch something. Keep in mind, I know nothing about fishing for Red Fish...nothing. The good news is that there are people that know alot about fishing for Reds and they want to share their knowledge with you. These people are passionate about it and they love the fact that you are interested in their passion. Imagine how excited you would be if someone drove 4 1/2 hours and paid their hard earned cash to do and learn something that you absolutely love. How pumped up would you be to teach them and see them enjoy something as much as you do? My point here is if there is something that you really want to do, don't let having never done it before prevent you from doing it. The people that know how to do it will gladly show you and they want you to enjoy it.