BBQ and grilling festivals & competitions Last year was a tough one for me personally. I had to handle a lot of personal hardships including the loss of my father and my mother-in-law, the...
Category: Features
Cooking Oil Comparisons
Warmer temperatures bring more people outside to grill and entertain. I recently dug deeper into stable, high-heat-tolerant oils for seasoning and re-seasoning ManGrates (particularly after a wet, cold winter with limited grill use), and...
2017 Holiday Gift Guide
It’s that time of year again. Not like it sneaks up on me, but… Who am I kidding, fall flies by and next thing you know it’s time to find something sparkly to wear...
Effingham Manor Winery: Open!
In July I was fortunate to have met with established Virginia vintner Chris Pearmund, and we discussed his latest wine venture in Virginia for a “Grate Bites” feature. At the time they were months...
Effingham Manor Winery
New Chapter for Established Vintner and Property There has been much talk here in Virginia about a new winery opening on a centuries-old property in Prince William County. Much of the discussion is about...
Thirty Years of Thunder
I don’t often write about my personal thoughts in this blog. Sure, a lot of bloggers tend to share their opinions, their latest recipe triumph (or failure), a recent how-to project or the trials and...
2016 Holiday Gift Guide
Every year my intention is to publish the gift guide earlier, but seriously…what happened to the fall of 2016? Whooosh….it’s prime time Christmas season. At least Hanukkah is later in the month (beings Dec....
November-December 2016 Events
A listing of events happening around the country involving Barbecue, Blues and Brews—as well as other live music, cornhole, motorcycles…… We are heading into the last part of the year, but there is still...
Making a Difference
It’s no secret there is a lot of serious, stressful and ridiculous information being thrown at us from every media outlet on the planet over the past several weeks. Drama stemming from the upcoming...
Summer Grilling Tunes
It’s hard to believe we are heading into the Independence Day weekend already. Wasn’t Memorial Day just about two weeks ago? Hmmm…guess not. That being said, this is a huge cookout weekend and I..cannot…wait!...
