Rib-Olympics weekend with the Malahowskis

Erin and Andrew flew down for the most exciting weekend of the year for our neighborhood -- the annual Rib Cook-off.  Corey has competed in the past and the results were less than stellar.  Having watched many episodes of "Boy Meets Grill" and "Grill It!", Andrew thought he might be able to help.  The day of our "Rib-Olympics" (as I named them), Andrew warmed up by feeding Piggle her oatmeal cereal breakfast of champions.

And then he tried to eat some of it himself to give him a little boost before grilling.  But it was too gross.

Andrew liked that the white onion I bought him for the sauce was nearly as big as Piggle's head.

Excellent Food Network slicing technique!

The teriyaki-based sauce simmered for hours to reduce.  We thought it was cool how you could watch the oil cook out of the sesame seeds.

We headed across the street to the site of the Cook-off (the Ballentines' backyard) and gawked at the hilarious water slide rented to entertain the kids.

Corey and Andrew made a great grilling team.  Andrew did all the heavy lifting and Corey drank beer.

The ribs were a spectacular sight to behold after slow-grilling in foil for several hours.

They submitted the required five ribs for judging and then we ate dinner while waiting for the results.

It was fun to try the ribs grilled by the other competitors.  Finger-lickin' (and teeth-pickin') good!

The boys won second place out of 14 competitors!  Not bad for a Yankee and a New Yorker-turned-Texan.  Erin, Charlotte and I were so proud.