Mike Szewczyk's Page

I came home a few nights ago and found my tape measure on the kitchen counter. I asked my wife why it was out and she told me that my twelve year old son used it and needed to talk to me.

He's decided that we need a shed in the backyard. I asked if we needed a shed, or if he needed a shed. He said that I could use it too, but we would need to make it bigger if I was going to use it. He needs room for it to be his fort and he can't have my snowblower taking up all of the space.

Building a shed… Continue

I'm down to the last of this past year's garlic harvest. I loved it, but unfortunately, I didn't get another round in the ground this fall. I have a few small heads and four nice big heads left.

A lot of the leftover cloves are just beginning to sprout and I think it may have been enough to go through the necessary freezing phase in the very cold garage. The ground was soft so I planted it today to see what happens.

The worst that can happen is that I lose four heads of garlic and I got a litt… Continue

For some reason I couldn't get it together enough to go pick up a CD from a friend of mine which contained all of the pictures from the Arthur BBQ Competition. It's taken me over a month, but I've been able to get them, sift through them, and post them here.

Thus begins my photo essay of the trip. The photos are a little bigger than I normally like to submit, but after taking all of the time to submit the photos, I didn't want to have to go back around and do it again.… Continue

For the past few years now, I've been traveling to the Central Illinois Braggin Rights BBQ Competition in Arthur, Il. Here's the web site:

http://www.cibr-bbq.com/

The first year I traveled down with my neighbor and team captain, Brian, with a pickup truck full of junk and a $200 smoker bought from Menard's.

Brian moved to St. Louis and has been really upping his game over the years. The first year he would have died of hypothermia without me. This year, I don't have to bring anything, he's g… Continue

About a year ago I decided to really spend time learning to be a better cook. To a great extent, I have Eric to thank. He made a few things that looked really great and were easy. It was what I needed to try and bring my game up a level.

Since then, I’ve read countless articles on the… Continue