The "CTV Morning Live" TV show here in Ottawa does a yearly "Live Where You Live" series on live TV broadcasts throughout the Ottawa region. This year, to represent Orleans (an Ottawa suburb), they returned to the location of our friends and biggest supporters, Romantic Fireplaces and BBQs. During last year's show, owner Mike Pilon leveraged the opportunity to raise funds for a very special cause, which is near and dear to the hearts of all his staff: The School Breakfast Program. They sold ham & cheese sandwiches for $2 each, with all proceeds going to the program. Last year, the staff did all the hard work, and they decided to recruit some professional help this year, so Team Eatapedia got the call!
Mike gave us a ring, and let us know the highlights: Lots of people, lots of media coverage (1 TV channel, 2 radio stations) and to top it all off, he arranged for a Special Guest to come up to Canada: Stu Wilson, of "BBQ Stu's" BBQ sauces! This was a special treat, as we have been tasting and using these sauces ourselves this summer, and are big fans of Stu's! We used his "Pennsylvania Gold" mustard sauce in the summer, when we handed out treats during another event. Big fans.
We were given a pretty long leash at this event. Our primary goal: Raise funds for the Breakfast Program, serve the ham and cheese sandwiches which were such a hit last year, and show off. Well, the latter certainly resonated with us, and for 2 weeks leading up to this event, we worked our tails off, trying as many unique BBQ breakfast treats that would be easy to prepare onsite, and yet be portable and cost-effective. A local grocery store, Your Independent Grocer in Orleans, donated all the sandwich fixins, but we were self-funded.
We ended up with 3 treats that were certainly unique to us, and which got us rave reviews by all:
1) Pancake Poppers. You know those Two-Bite Brownies? Well, those inspired us to create a breakfast version using pancake batter! We created these tiny little muffins, made of pancake mix, and at the center of this pancake is our homemade sage and savory breakfast sausage. We baked them in a Traeger till done, then drizzled dark maple syrup and shook confectioner's sugar over the top. They were a HUGE hit!
2) Home Fries on a Stick. Skewers with hickory-smoked ham, lightly seasoned potato and sweet vidalia onions. Again, these were smoked until soft inside and crunchy outside. Thet went as fast as we cook cook them. (Prep labour here was...heavy. Not sure we would do these again, only for that reason)
3) The Bacon Danno. OK, so this is where we got a lot of attention. And rightly so. These were my favourites! Chunks of fresh pineapple, wrapped in pre-smoked hickory bacon, dunked into a pot of dark maple syrup, and then lightly spiced with some paprika, ancho and chipotle. These were then grilled at a high heat until the sugars in the maple syrup caramelized. YUM! As fast as I could make these, they were gone. (What's with the name? Well, let's play a little "Word Association": "Pineapple" = "Hawaii" = Hawaii Five-O" = "Book'em, Danno!" becomes, you got it, "Bacon, Danno!" That's about as creative as I can get, so don't bust my chops. ;-> )
We arrived onsite at 4:00 AM, and there was already a ton of action going on. These crews are half-way through their "Live Where You Live" tour, so they are quite good at setup and teardown. Right away, we start, get ourselves all setup, make coffee and start working!
The next 4 hours were, literally, a blur. We worked hard and fast. No time for chatting, our touring, or photos, really. There were people all around us, lovely servers distributing our wares to the crowds, and just so much food. How much food?
Ham & Cheese Sandwhiches: ~ 250
Pancake Poppers: ~400
Home Fries: ~500
Bacon Dannos: ~400 (6 pineapples, 15 pounds of bacon and 1.5 Quarts of maple syrup!)
That's a lot of food for 3 guys, and 4 hours. And here we thought good BBQ was all about "low and slow". Not today!
By 9:30, the Breakfast Program donation boxes were packed and then everything slowed right down. 10:00 had the expert crews packing up, and we started out own teardown. Can you believe that all the media equipment was all packed up and gone before we had our own tent down? Crazy!
With our stuff finally packed up, we had a chance to sit and chat, and spend some time with the great guys from Stu's BBQ. Both Stu and Chris had driven up to Romantic, non-stop, from their home in Pennsylvania, and were a little tired themselves. The Romantic crew, Eatapedia and Stu's crew, all sat around gabbing, joking and just shooting the breeze. It was a great opportunity for us, having been long-time fans of their product.
Home by 12:30, in bed not long after. It was another fantastic event, and we are very grateful to Mike Pilon for involving us. Added thanks to Jason, Aubrain and Deb for helping us out and making us feel right at home, as always! We make a great team, Romantic and Eatapedia, and I can not wait for our next opportunity!
Highlights of this event:
- Being involved in something so big and fast!
- Meeting BBQ Stu's crew, Chris and Stu
- Seeing "Eatapedia" on TV, and watching hosts Kut Stoodley and Lianna Laing eating our stuff on Live TV!
- Watching Magic 100's Stuntman Stu meet his Brother From Another Mother, Stu Wilson. Hilarious! "We're twins, born 4 minutes apart".
Video:
Stuntman Stu Meets BBQ Stu
Kurt and Lianne enjoy some Eatapedia grub on live TV! Added Bonus: 3 good-lookin BBQ guys are in the background. ;-)
Recipes:
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