(9/12/2009) - Big Creek BBQ continued its 2009 season with the Blue Springs BBQ Blaze-Off this past weekend. The team hosted Tammy's family who was in town from Michigan. They also hosted many family and friends and family and friends of sponsor Jay Greco, a local Farmers Insurance agent. Also in attendance was Donna Pittman of Curt's Famous Meats in Independence. Donna sponsors Big Creek BBQ in the chicken category each contest. Big Creek BBQ finished 2nd in brisket, 8th in chicken and 8th in chef's choice for a 7th overall finish. In addition, my sister-in-law, Kim came down from Michigan and put the hurts on the salsa competition and claimed first place in the hot salsa category and we can tell you it rocked!

(8/21/2009) - During a barbeque contest at Harrisonville, Missouri, Big Creek BBQ Head Cook Jeff Stith was nominated by Stephanie Wilson of TheSlabs.com to be a candidate for the Kansas City Barbeque Society Board of Directors. This came during the Friday evening potluck dinner hosted by Big Creek BBQ at their site. Although official nominations will not be accepted by the KCBS until October 1, Stephanie made it known publicly and to the KCBS office that she intends to nominate Jeff on that date.Jeff currently has a Web site up at www.VoteJeffKCBS.com and from there, you can find his campaign site on Facebook. The election will begin in early January, 2010 and voting will continue up to the KCBS banquet in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during which winners of the election will be announced.

(7/29/2009) - Next up for Big Creek BBQ is a competition in California, Missouri on August 7-8, 2009. This contest holds special meaning as it marks the first time Jeff will get to return to his hometown where he grew up and cook in a contest. After moving away with family in 1979, Jeff has not had much opportunity to visit California other than passing through. Hopefully there will be some fun reunions. After this event, Jeff and Tammy have invited good friends Rich and Bunny Tuttle of K Cass BBQ to cook with them at the Cass County Square-Off BBQ in Harrisonville, Missouri on August 21-22.

(7/25/2009) - During the spring and early summer of this year, Jeff coached Taylor's 7 and 8 year old softball team and he said it was one of the most rewarding experiences of his volunteer career. It was very gratifying to hear parents say how much their daughters enjoyed playing on our team. While the team finished with a respectable 5-4-1 record, Jeff was proud as can be of their overall growth and learning of the game. To reward the girls and their families, Jeff and Tammy spent the day on July 25 cooking pork, ribs, chicken and Big Creek Beans and served a barbeque dinner at the local city park that evening. It was well received and when Jeff and Tammy told parents to grab clam shell boxes they brought and load up to take the leftovers home with them, within minutes, the chafing pans were EMPTY! It was a fantastic season that ended with good food, fun for the girls and enjoyment in meeting lots of folks!

(7/11/2009) - The long drive to Great Bend, Kansas paid off for Big Creek BBQ / Sloppy Creek BBQ. While Big Creek didn't fare so well in the Chest to Chest National Brisket Championship, finishing 13 out of 18 teams, cooking as Sloppy Creek BBQ on Saturday, we received calls in five of seven categories. Results included 10th in dessert (with a blackberry cheesecake), 5th in Anything Beef (with a grilled ribeye steak and grilled shrimp), 5th in beef sirloin roast, 1st in chicken and 2nd in pork. Overall, Sloppy Creek finished 8th overall in a very tough field of 41 teams.

(6/22/2009) - Big Creek BBQ has received an invitation to compete in the Chest to Chest National Brisket Championship. This special event will take place in Great Bend, Kansas on July 10, 2009. The team qualified for this invitational competition by winning the brisket championship at the Blue Springs BBQ Blaze-Off in Blue Springs, Missouri in September, 2008. After this event finishes, Big Creek BBQ will once again join forces with Lee Keith of Sloppy's Backwoods Smokers to compete as Sloppy Creek BBQ in the same location during the Central Kansas Barbeque Championship.

(6/20/2009) - Big Creek BBQ was back in competition mode over the Father's Day weekend, this time in Sedalia, Missouri at the Missouri Blues and BBQ Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds. Jeff's father came down from Odessa, Missouri to hang out and watch the team in action. Results included a 4th place finish in both chicken and ribs. Pork and brisket both finished 13th. There were 28 teams entered in this year's contest. Daughter Taylor once again captured the Grand Championship in the Kids Q 5-10 year age division for the second time in three years at Sedalia. She finished in first place in both hamburger and sausage to take the title. She now possesses one of the largest trophies that Big Creek BBQ has accumulated over five years!

(5/23,24/2009) - Big Creek BBQ joined together again with Lee Keith of Sloppy's Backwoods Smokers to compete in the Great American BBQ Invitational and Open contests in Bonner Springs, Kansas over the Memorial Day weekend. Competing as Sloppy Creek BBQ, the team qualified for this invitational by winning the grand championship at Warrensburg, Missouri in July, 2008. The invitational resulted in a 4th place in pork and 7th place in ribs and 9th overall out of 44 teams. The open contest saw Sloppy Creek finish 8th in brisket and 18th in pork to finish 21st overall out of approximately 165 teams.

(5/2/2008) - Big Creek BBQ continued the 2009 season at the Richmond, Missouri Mushroom Festival. In this event, we took 6th in pork and won our first-ever championship in ribs, taking first out of 23 teams. Overall, Big Creek BBQ finished 5th.

(4/11/2008) - Big Creek BBQ opened the 2009 season at Osage City, Kansas where we finished 2nd place in chicken and 9th place overall out of 69 teams.

(10/5/2008) - Big Creek BBQ again teamed with Lee Keith of Sloppy's Backwoods Smokers to compete as Sloppy Creek BBQ at the American Royal Barbeque. Due to the championship at Warrensburg earlier in the year, we got to compete in our first ever Invitational contest. We didn't fair so well, finishing in the lower third of the field. However, the next day in the Open Contest, Sloppy Creek finished 24th out of 450 teams!

(7/12/2008) - Big Creek BBQ teamed with Lee Keith of Sloppy's Backwoods Smokers to compete as Sloppy Creek BBQ during the Johnson County Fair BBQ Cook Off in Warrensburg, Missouri and captured a Grand Championship! The team took 1st place in chicken, 1st place in pork, 6th place in ribs and 6th place in brisket to win the overall title by a total of over 13 points ahead of the reserve grand champion team. In addition, the weekend was rounded out with a 2nd place in desserts and Taylor winning the Kids Q championship in the 5 to 10 year old division!

(9/8/2007) - Big Creek BBQ celebrated their first ever Reserve Grand Champion finish at Blue Springs this weekend! They finished poorly (30th) in chicken but strong in all other categories to finish second overall to Smoke on the Water. Big Creek's 662.2854 total score was 0.5718 points out of first place! Tammy's mom and dad and Jeff's mom were present at the awards to witness the announcement. Also this day, Taylor took 3rd place in the age 5 to 10 Kids Q. This gave her 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th place finishes in 2007!

(8/13/2007) - Big Creek BBQ traveled to Dillon, Colorado to compete in the BBQ at the Summit contest. Dillon is at 9,100 feet elevation! Our niece Ashley came in from Michigan to go with us to help as we were vending BBQ to the public. Taylor and Ashley entered the Kids Q as well with Taylor taking Reserve Grand Champion (2nd place) in the 5 to 10 year old group and Ashley took 3rd place in the 11 to 15 year old age group! Big Creek finished 10th in pork and 34th overall out of 67 teams. We took a much-needed break and stayed another day in Colorado to relax and do some sight-seeing before driving home on Monday. Serious injury was avoided when Jeff's BBQ van blew a tire going 75 mph on I-70 in eastern Colorado on the trip home. Luckily, he was able to get the van out of traffic ands over to the shoulder without losing control and after a sweaty job of changing the tire, the trip home continued with no further incident!

(6/16/2007) - Taylor captured her second Grand Championship in Kids Q in as many seasons with her title at the Missouri Blues and Barbeque Festival in Sedalia, Missouri. This contest required kids to enter two categories, sausage and hamburger. Taylor took first place in hamburger to propel her to the title!

(5/27/2007) - Big Creek had a successful contest at the Great American BBQ held Memorial Day weekend at the Woodlands Race Track in Kansas City, Kansas. Jeff and Tammy finished 16th place in brisket and in the top 60 in the other three categories to finish 12th overall out of 212 teams.

(4/28/2007) - The 2007 season continued for Big Creek BBQ this weekend when we competed at the Osage River Bottoms BBQ and Blues Festival in Warsaw, Missouri. Big Creek finished 2nd in brisket and 4th in ribs. This was the first time in Big Creek history that we finished top five and earned team of the year points in ribs. Previous best was 6th place at Columbia last October. We finished 7th place overall. Also, during this contest, Stan Hays, also of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, joined Big Creek BBQ on a part-time basis. Stan has a lot of barbeque experience but is new to the competition circuit. He will be a great help to Big Creek BBQ!

(4/24/2007) - Big Creek BBQ gained it's second KCBS Certified BBQ Judge when Tammy attended the CBJ class in Sugar Creek, Missouri tonight. the class was taught by Rich and Bunny Tuttle and the cooking was done by Rick Kline (Road Hogs BBQ).

(4/13/2007) - Big Creek BBQ fired up the pit and got 2007 rolling in a wet and cold way at the first annual Capital City Cook-Off in Jefferson City, Missouri. This event drew the biggest names in BBQ outside of Mike Davis and it showed. Big Creek BBQ came in a respectable 25th out of 66 teams entered. The weather didn't help. we experienced rain, sleet, cold, snow and wind all within a 36 hour period. Check out the photo gallery for some shots of just how miserable it was.

(9/9/2006) - Big Creek BBQ took home first in chicken and fourth in pork at the Blue Springs BBQ Blaze-Off in Blue Springs, Missouri. We finished 12th overall out of 76 teams. Our ribs and brisket scored too low to finish higher overall. Tammy also scored first place in the mild salsa category.

(8/5/2006) - Taylor scored the big one! She placed first out of 18 kids in the 5 to 10 year old age group Kids Q at the Laurie Hillbilly BBQ Contest in Laurie, Missouri. She received a blue ribbon, a trophy and a $50 savings bond. Big Creek could do poorly all year and this would have made our season a success. Talk about a proud dad and mom! Congratulations to Taylor!

(7/15/2006) - Big Creek BBQ traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan this weekend for the Taste of Grand Rapids BBQ Competition. We scored a 10th place finish out of 56 teams with our highest places being 3rd in pork and 8th in ribs. The contest itself was a little disappointing in that water and ice were far away, the few restroom facilities they had were filthy with no paper products and not much attentiveness to teams by organizers.

(7/1/2006) - Big Creek BBQ took another step in our growth on Saturday with our first ever first place finish in a category. At Cameron's Crossroads BBQ Cook-Off, Big Creek scored a first place finish in brisket with a score of 172. Additionally, we scored a 172 in pork to receive our first ever 2nd place award. Overall, we were very honored to have finished in 4th place out of 35 teams, including several very successful and respected names.

(6/3/2006) - In what has been our biggest success to date, Big Creek BBQ came away with third place overall at Platte City, Missouri, trailing only Smokin' 101 and Smokin' Guns in the final tally. We received three ribbons (chicken, ribs and pork) with pork (5th place) being our highest finishing category.

(5/27/2006) - With the big guns showing up from all across the country, Big Creek BBQ went up against some of the best barbeque folks and finished 63rd of 217 teams in the 2nd Annual Great American BBQ at the Woodlands grayhound and horse racetrack in Kansas City, Kansas. Our best showing was 29th in pork and 54th in brisket. The contest is a very well run event with volunteers catering to every need of the teams. It included a balloon rally/glow and an incredible fireworks display. Our team hosted a dinner on Friday night for family and friends.

(4/29/2006) - Big Creek BBQ continued to be on a roll to start the 2006 season. At the Osage River Bottoms BBQ and Blues Festival, Big Creek finished 3rd in chicken, 3rd in brisket and 6th overall out of 34 teams. The weather was horrible as we saw lots of rain but everyone survived and had fun.

(4/15/2006) - Big Creek BBQ got our first call at Osage City. In only our fourth contest and third KCBS sanctioned event, we placed 4th in Chicken, good for a trophy and a paycheck. Overall, Big Creek BBQ finished 21st out of 65 teams entered. Hank Smits has decided not to continue in competition barbeque and to instead focus on his real estate career. Big Creek BBQ is now Jeff and Tammy with support from Taylor!

(4/11/2006) - The Big Creek BBQ smoker is now home! Jeff picked it up in Columbia today. It is a beautiful piece of equipment, although Jeff lovingly refers to it as his baby. The Spicewine single axle trailer smoker has 23 square feet of cooking space and an large water pan that replenishes itself from a reserve as levels drop in the cooker. It's double walled and insulated to hold the heat and gets up to 4 hours on a single load of charcoal. For photos, visit our smoker page on this Web site.

(3/25/2006) - Big Creek BBQ participated in the Kookers Kare Charity Cook at the Wyandotte County Fairgrounds in Kansas City, Kansas. This is the 10th year for Kookers Kare, a 501(c)3 organization that raises money all year and purchases meat to cook at this event. The meat is donated to Harvesters who distributes it to needy families and shelters throughout the Kansas City area. As our smoker isn't quite ready, we took part by volunteering our services to help with the fish and fries dinner served to all volunteers on Friday evening, clean up, wrapping of cooked meat and whatever need there was. Aproximately 20 teams came out to help the cause.

(2/11/2006) - The "contest-mobile" rolls into our driveway on Saturday afternoon, February 11. Jeff has purchased a 2002 Ford Club Wagon van to haul contest supplies and pull the new smoker that will be arriving in a month to six weeks. It's a good running vehicle with fairly low mileage and lots of space for equipment and sleeping at contests. The plan is to have Big Creek BBQ Competition Team, Pleasant Hill, Missouri and the Web site address placed on the side rear windows and some sort of personalized license plates ordered.

(2/10/2006) - Big Creek BBQ launches new Web site featuring the newly designed logo by Patrick Carlson at www.bbqlogos.com. It also contains our 2006 schedule of contests and an online team store. It will be updated with news, recipes and photos as the season progresses.

(1/29/2006) - Head Cook Jeff Stith traveled to St. Louis, Missouri on January 28, 2006 to complete the KCBS Certified BBQ Judge (CBJ) class taught by Ed Roith at St. Richard's Catholic Church.

(1/22/2006) - Jeff and Tammy Stith attended the 2005 KCBS Awards Banquet at the Clarion Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri on January 21, 2006. KCBS Team of the Year Twin Oak Smokin' Crew accepted their honor to highlight the evening. Also, friends from Squeal of Approval were awarded 10th place for 2005 in Chicken.

(1/20/2006) - The order has been placed! Big Creek BBQ Head Cook Jeff Stith has selected the Spicewine Smoker as the "weapon of choice" for 2006. Jay Curry, owner of Spicewine Ironworks in Columbia, Missouri, makes outstanding quality insulated cookers that are fast becoming a big name in the BBQ world. The smoker will be built and ready by mid to late March, plenty of time to practice with it before Osage City, Kansas.

(10/22/2005) - We thought our brief initial season was over after De Soto... not so. Got a call from Kurzweil's Meats in Garden City, Missouri asking if we'd enter their newe contest and for $100 entry, we figured this non-sanctioned event would help edge us along the road to success. The contest used KCBS rules, contest reps and computers. There were only eleven teams entered. Big Creek took home it's first "hardware", getting 4th in ribs and 7th in both chicken and brisket. Each earned a small plaque. The weather was cold and miserable and we were glad it was over! Taylor competed in her first Kids Q and while her results were not outstanding, she did earn a plaque for her work. Hank did not cook this one with us.

(10/15/2005) - We followed up our initiation to the world of competition barbeque by competing in the Kill Creek Farm BBQ contest at De Soto, Kansas where we were more encouraged by the results. We finished tenth in chicken (and didn't get our name called because they only called the top five!) and 16th overall out of 35 teams.

(10/1/2005) - In our inaugural barbeque contest, Big Creek BBQ (Jeff Stith, Hank Smits and Tammy Stith) learned a lot of valuable lessons and just how far we need to go as we finished 400th out of 475 teams at the world's largest barbeque competition, the American Royal Open. We ended up being on the "dark side" of the contest area where all the big corporate parties took place. We weren't prepared for some of the things we saw!

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