There are various channels of YouTube RVers that Barry and I follow. Several of them we have met in person. The couple of “The Next Exit”, Bob and Pearl Caddel, recently bought a home a few miles from us in the Yuma Foothills. They have organized a boon-docking get-together in Quartzsite the last three years. Barry and I signed up for their upcoming 2022 rally since we were unable to make it last year. It began as an informal gathering of like-minded folks, but has doubled in size each year. This fall after we both landed back in Yuma, we invited them over to our place for us all to meet. What a neat couple they are!
I happened to fix jalapeño poppers on our BlackStone for us to have with our beverages and other snacks while Bob and Pearl were here. Bob was wanting to have poppers at one of the community meals at the rally. He was going to be hosting a test run of several meal items using BlackStones and smokers at his house on November 20, and invited us to join the group. He wanted to compare the jalapeño poppers down two different ways.
What fun the test run was. I brought jalapeño poppers ready to make on our BlackStone the same way I made them when Bob and Pearl came over to our place. Bob had purchased popper holders to test cooking some whole and upright in a smoker. We discovered while placing the whole ones in the holders that some peppers were too little to be held up within the hole, and a few others slipped down as they cooked. To have some spicy poppers we added seeds back into the pepper, and put the end cap on top to indicate hot ones. Unfortunately, a few of those caps slid off and there was no way to know which popper it came from. Next time we would need to make an entire holder all mild or all spicy.
Time for the taste test of the poppers. Consensus was that the upright ones were not near as soft as the split version, and more difficult to eat. The more concerning factor was that you could not ensure all the seeds AND membranes inside the peppers got removed with the twisting seed remover tool. That meant that even those that were intended to be mild were unexpectedly spicy. We agreed that we’d go with the split version. They were easier to monitor for doneness/softness, could really be mild, and were easier to eat. Another bonus was we’d use griddles for these which would be more plentiful than smokers. We also decided that we wouldn’t try to make some spicy and some not. We didn’t want them to accidentally get mixed up! They would all be mild with all seeds and inner membrane (ridge) removed.
We had two or three smokers going with chicken wings and brats. Oh, boy were they good! The hot sauce that Bob made for the wings was perfect without being fiery.
The last item we practiced was Smash Burgers. We did these on the BlackStones. It took two of us working the BlackStone and another person bringing us the meat, cheese and buns as needed. This was a pretty cool process and they were a big hit. We were able to make 8 burgers on the 22-inch BlackStone, and 4 on the 17-inch one. It was a lot of hot sizzling splatter on the 22-inch griddle as I flipped the burgers in the back row. I would want to have my long BBQ gloves on to better protect my forearms- or have someone else do that.
Step 1–toast the bun in a little butter
Step 2–bring out the beef balls ready for the grill –
Using a stick of butter make the circle of butter for each ball.
Step 3– smash and re-smash
Pretzel buns toasting 
Burger balls are ready 
Smash! Harder
Step 4–Season, make “holes” for the grease and butter to sizzle up
through the meat.
Step 5 –Flip the burger when the butter and grease is sizzling up
through the slits and around the edges. It should be
caramelized on the bottom. Season again.
Step 6–Place a slice of cheese on top and cover with toasted bun top
Step 7 –When cheese melts, the burger is done. Remove and serve
with a “bottom bun”.
First one flipped! Now season… 
Ready for cheese & bun top
Some had a double! Oh, yeah!!
As we ate and visited, Bob asked for people to take the lead for various community meals at the rally. I agreed to do the meal for Saturday, which will include everything we made today. If I was going to be in charge of this meal, I needed to record data from today to begin figuring what that scaled up to feed 200 people would mean. I’m sure glad we took time that night to do some of the math with Bob and Pearl. Initially figuring 2 wings per person, we were a bit shocked when we realized from today’s test that we would need 30 smokers just for the wings! Wow! That’s a lot of smokers. After the first of January, we would look at the data from the survey Bob sent out, and adjust plans accordingly.
This first community meal will be the largest attended with approximately 175-200 people, and will consist of smash burgers, brats, smoked wings, jalapeño pepper poppers, with some side veggie trays and chips. Looks like we will have about 14 smokers, and 30 BlackStone griddles and/or grills. Therefore, we will only be able to make about half the wings we originally intended–unless we have some made in advance and kept warm while the second batch is smoked. No biggie, because we will make plenty of smash burgers as the main meat. The brats will be done on BBQ grills instead of in a smoker. That also helps. Buns will likely get toasted on grills instead of the BlackStones.
I’ve asked Tammy and Scott Morfey to head up the Smash Burger portion of the meal, and Pat and Bob Spencer to head up the smoked wings since they were all present for our test run. They immediately agreed, so I’m feeling much better about having this meal run smoothly!
January 22 will be here before we know it! At least on Jan 23 I can totally relax and enjoy the rest of the rally. 🙂