Bourbon and BBQ Festival

We went to Lebanon, KY to the 1st annual Bourbon and Barbeque Festival. It took almost three hours to get there. We took our entire setup. Just the three of us went – me, Skyler, and Colton.
We had a great location – right next to the stage. We set up Friday night, but the selling was Saturday only. We didn’t get a hotel, so the boys napped in lawn chairs while I slept in the cab of the truck. It rained overnight, but everything held up.
Friday evening we talked to a few of the other vendors. It was obvious that they were just there for the barbeque competition, not to make money. They were planning to sell pork sandwiches for $3.00! That’s ridiculous. We sell ours for $4.00. Skyler said he wasn’t selling his for that low price.
The big deal at this event was the People’s Choice Barbeque Competition. The committee gave each team two pork butts to smoke and sold tickets for $11 ($1 per barbeque team). Each ticket bought a two ounce sample of pork from a team. Then, they placed their vote for the tastiest pork. Based on word-of-mouth, it sounded like we would be the winners. People were coming up to our tent saying they heard our barbeque was so good. We served ours mixed with a sweet “beer” barbeque sauce. We thought we would win. We didn’t. We got fifth place – not even in the money. All of the comments were that our sauce was so good, but all three winners served their pork with no sauce. Ugh! $300 would have been really nice.
The day was hot but not too hot. We didn’t sell that much food because of the pork sampling, which I was afraid would happen. Mostly, we sold lemon shake-ups. Oh my gosh, did we sell lemon shake-ups. We could barely keep up with it. Probably everyone at that festival had two or three shake-ups each. It was crazy. Everyone continued to comment that it was the best lemonade they ever tasted.
That was another thing. Even though our menu said “Lemon Shake-ups” and we have a sign that says “Lemon Shake-ups,” everyone was asking for a “lemonade.” I guess it’s a regional thing. I could probably count on one hand how many people ordered a “shake-up.”


Mrs. Skinny’s Lemon Shake-ups

In a 16 oz plastic tumbler, place a half lemon, sliced into four wedges.
Add 1/4 cup sugar. ***Important. Put sugar on top of lemons or it won’t mix in.
Smash lemons and sugar together using a smasher. Ours in a T-shaped smasher made out of PVC pipes. Smash until the sugar and lemon juice becomes a paste.
Fill the cup to the top with crushed ice.
Fill the cup to the top with water.
Place a 16 oz paper cup tightly over the top of the tumbler.
Shake vigorously until all the sugar is dissolved. Turn tumbler over and pour drink into the paper cup.
**For 32 oz cups, double the recipe using a whole lemon and a half cup of sugar. Oh yeah, that’s why it’s so good!