A Plethora of Birthday Shout-Outs! January 29, 2007
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It’s hard to keep up this time of year as the birthdays start rolling in from Louisville, Richmond and San Diego. First, Happy Birthday wishes to our nieces Victoria, Kristin and Kelly!
Today marks the birthday of my best bud Troy, who joins me in the old man category. One more year for the big 4.0! You’re young at heart, my friend.
Also today we celebrate the birthday of our nephew, Stanely Davis!
And the Hamburger Cookoff Champion Is…. August 18, 2006
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Mr. Barnes. Mr. Eric Barnes, that is. Yes indeed, the strategy of focusing on good beef instead of some crazy magic marinade paid off as I managed to win both the Pit and Grill competition. The competition was hot (pun intended) and intense. After a brief “sit-down” of the Barnes / Bloink / Ridge families to firm up the rules, we tossed our wrapped-in-foil burgers on Mr. Jerry Barnes Jr.’s immaculately created fire pit. Five prominent and impartial judges sampled each burger and scored their burger cards. Following my major upset of Jerry and Jimmie (they was a 200:1 Vegas line on Team California pulling the upset), the noble and attractive judges proceeded to vote Team Cali’s grill burger perfect – receiving a perfect score of “5″ by all five discerning and wise judges. In all seriousness, this had to be the most fun I’ve had with my family in my 38 years of being a Barnes!
A Word to the Burger July 22, 2006
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Update on the upcoming Barnes hamburger cookoff: I’m chillin’ tonight with my homey Tom Casper who arguably is the best non-professional chef I know. He also likes tequila and beer so we’re tight like that. After some intense discussions with T-Money (i.e., Tom), he dished out some serious prose on how to best approach this burger test. First, he correctly pointed out that I should not aim necessarily to prep the best burger I think will amaze, but rather to gauge the taste of my regional Kentucky audience and their taste buds. Bottom line – while other would-be chefs will go to all ends coming up with “the tribe – 40 spice blend” and overwhelm the beef under spotlight, I’m best served by keepin’ it simple and going with good beef and a reasonable seasoning of basic ingredients. I like that advise. So…..while all my Barnes bretherin’ is scheming to destroy their beef with chipotle-lime-garlic-paprika-A1 sauce, I’m going to keep it real and simple. Hopefully I’m not penalized because I live in California.
Let the Hamburger Games Begin June 23, 2006
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Mega Hamburger One, originally uploaded by Life on the Edge.
This coming summer I will square off against the other Barnes siblings in the first annual hamburger cookoff contest. Plans are to have two categories – an "open-pit" burger and a "grill" burger. No matter – I plan on winning both contests. Stacey might even enter her own burger as she's become quite the burger chef. We have both been card-carrying members of the "Beefeaters Club", awarded to those few Americans that have endeavered in 'steak tartar' and show courage in finishing off any remaining beef at three or more cookouts. Lastly, Californians have an unfair advantage when it comes to cookouts….since it's sunny and 70 every day we tend to grill out more 
