Grill Girl Falls in Love with Wowzio Widgets

Barbeque Master is Really Down to Earth . . . But Will Try New Things

If you blog (or even if you don't), you probably notice that some comments or messages are just pure junk. You can tell that the person (or maybe some kind of auto poster) left a totally unrelated note on your space.

This week Alisha left a note to check out some Wowzio widgets. She said that her message was not spam. Yeah. Right. That is a good way to get around it.

I'm Southern (as good an excuse as any), so I check out notes folks leave even if they don't sound on the level. This was a longish note though, and I thought maybe . . .

Normally I don't even like widgets or any movement on a web page. That running monkey. Oh man. That drove me nuts. When about com had the bobble line, I could not bear it. So, I was thinking that even if these were good widgets, they probably were not the kind of thing or things I'd be interested in.

I did click over to see the widgets for Barbecue Master, and WOW. I guess that's why they call the company wow-zio. I read all the pages on the site and looked at those widgets, and I decided, "Yes. I think those would be helpful to visitors."

If you're checking out my Barbecue Master blog, you can look over to the right and see some rotating photos. Those are the photos with my most current posts along with titles, so you have some idea as to what the blog post is about. If you click on a photo when it's up, then you go right to that post. Maybe you come here to read about corn, but see some burgers that catch your eye. You can easily click and find the burger post and not spend loads of time searching.

The second widget I added (they have a few) was the one that lists the locations of visitors. It's not your home address or anything - just the country and/or state. I don't suppose that's critical, but I enjoy seeing the areas of the world and country where others are visiting from. I hope other people reading Barbecue Master also find that interesting.

I hope all ya'll visiting enjoy the widgets. You have Wowzio to thank, because I'm sure it would take me a lifetime to build those. Also, if you blog, check out Wowzio. They don't charge bloggers. You just visit and see what they have to offer and then can add the widgets or not.

I think the widgets are especially nice for food bloggers, because it's nice to have some way to showcase the various foods and recipes. I might not think to go back through your blog posts, but if I saw something yummy, I'd be likely to click and see how to make a good looking dish.

Lexington NC Barbecue Festival

Lexington, NC will host the 24th annual Barbecue Festival next Saturday (October 27, 2007). This is one of the biggest and best barbeque festivals in the South. Heck, it's one of the best festivals in the country period. They even have the awards to prove it.

I live about 45 minutes from Lexington, and we make an annual pilgrimage to Lexington. We go other times of the year for the fabulous local vinegar based barbecue, but we make sure to mark the calendar for the official food festival. Government officials were going to name it the state barbecue festival, but barbecuers in other parts of the state got their panties in wads. They just named it the state food festival, but it's definately barbecue.

Don't confuse the festival with a barbecue competition. You don't have to haul in your cooker, and you won't see all the hot dogging. Locals managed to come up with a representative trademark sandwich which is served at the festival from several large tents. That's just for starters on the food. You'll find all the carnival type foods plus some Southern favorites like fried apple pies. The line gets long for those, so don't wait until afternoon. You'll never get one if you do.

Even if you aren't a fan of barbecue and other fast foods, there's plenty to see and do at the Lexington Festival. They have entertainment on several stages. Some of the entertainment is music. Some programs are for the kids but fun for adults too. There are small rides and games and lots of merchant booths. I get a lot of my Christmas shopping done at the festival and have unique items that I can't find in stores.

Lexington is a small southern town, but it's busting at the seams come barbecue Saturday. They have buses running from the Wal-Mart parking lot, and that's the best bet. Just park and catch a ride over. The buses run just every few minutes.

Be sure to look for the cheese ball mix ladies. Yum. Those mixes are wonderful. I always stock up. And keep an eye for the marshmallow shooters. Those are made with PVC pipe and shoot mini marshmallows. My boys had a blast with those the year we picked some up.

If you miss the festival this year, mark your calendar. The Lexington Barbecue Festival is always one of the last two Saturdays in October. They have a web page. Check that out for details.

Kabobs - Tasty but Not That Easy

Well, we got those barbecue kabobs cooked up. Pretty good eating. I think I may buy one of those kabob things to turn on the grill. You stick the kabobs in, and then you just turn the thing over all at once. It's pretty hard to turn kabobs with a spatula, and those suckers get hot. Feel my pain.

I tried some Lipton Onion Soup potatoes on the grill (they are similar to the tin foil potatoes I linked in the last post but not as good). I used the basic recipe for the oven. They were fair, but I doubt I'd make them again. The biggie is that they come out looking kind of brownish and gross with the soup mix there on the grill. They don't get that nice crust like they get in the oven.

I'm always trying new things on the grill. The recipes that make the cut go up on my site Yes You Can Grill. The ones that don't, well, we just eat them.