YESSSSS…..I am!!!

“You’re Dr. Galakewitz?” – or so the shortlived (but quite humorous) Beer commercial went during the Super Bowl a few years back!  Spawnning a number of follow up commercials and ultimately, ambiguity for the campaign that led to it being replaced by the next big thing in advertising!  Well…this entry has NOTHING to do with beer OR commercials, but it has something to do with TV.  Yep, this season marks the pinnacle of attention that BBQ and its Pitmasters have ever received from the general public at large, thanks entirely to the new series “BBQ Pitmasters” on The Learning Channel.  Just like American Choppers, Hotrods, et al, we’ve finally made it!

So it would seem anyway.  I guess that it’s truly a good thing to have such a broad interest in real BBQ that it makes it to lots of folks TV sets a couple of times a week these days.  It’s even better for the Kansas City BBQ Society (KCBS – www.kcbs.us) and all of us teams, judges and members because it gives creedence to the difficulty involved in making ‘Competition Quality’ BBQ.  I’m sure it even helps to drive up membership in all of the National and Regional BBQ Associations.  It just seems funny to me that an art form that’s been in existence since perhaps the cave men (and women) walked the earth, is just now getting this kind of attention!

For all of us true “Q” lovers, it is a passion to experience and produce authentic, smoked BBQ products.  We drive or fly or ride our bikes to BBQ joints across the country just for a sandwich or some ribs or brisket. (Shout out to Arthur Bryant’s for one of my personal favorites!)  We can detail for just about anyone who asks where and when we’ve had the pleasure of eating truly GREAT BBQ, they are memories that never fade.  Some of us had to learn to cook it and then aquire all the trappings of a ‘Pitmaster’ to reproduce “Q” that we ate before since we didn’t have any close to where we live! (North of the Mason Dixon line, but only physically)  Others are multigenerational BBQ gurus!  All have a common thread that binds us together, a love of BBQ!

SO….what could be bad about a TV series you ask?  I think that as with everything you can, in fact, get too much of a good thing!  I mean, have you seen Boyd Coddington screaming at any shop employees on TV lately?  That’s just one example, there are many more.  Also, as I have watched several episodes of the show now, I have seen how some could draw the conclusion that competitors are drunks, or mean spirited or confrontational.  Without question, KCBS events are competitive and the folks in them are serious about their craft, but it’s been my experience in several years of competition or as a KCBS Judge that some of the nicest, kindest folks in the world compete in BBQ competitions!  Folks are more than willing to lend a hand, even before you ask!  There’s some consumption of icy cold, adult beverages, but for the most part, it stays in check.

I guess what makes good TV doesn’t necessarily reflect all of the things about BBQ that I love so much, but it does bring awareness to this incredibly difficult to achieve skill….making Great “Q”!  So for that I am thankful and hope that it inspires more folks to get involved in competition and better yet, in eating some GreatQ4U! (GreatQ4U.com)  I’m interested to hear what y’all think of the series and more than happy to answer any “Q” related questions you might have!  As for competitions…Pork-In-The-Park, Salisbury, MD – April 16th & 17th, 2010…be there, we will!  (So will over 100 other teams…its a BIG event and the folks who put it on make sure that there’s stuff for the whole family to do!)

Merry Christmas one and all!

Jim, Pit Master; GreatQ4U!

Chicken Thighs

Checking in from BBQ-Ville!

It’s been a while since my last post and I have no reasonable excuse to offer other than the standard ‘been busy’ line, so I’ll spare you!  Thought a quick update on what’s been going on around here might be in order:

• We’ve begun the process of looking for the right Co-Packer to do a commercial run of Hoover’s Sauce this Winter.  It’s an arduous process and there’s LOTS of opinions and possibilities out there, so I sure would appreciate any advice or experience that readers might have with or about co-packers!  Heck, then I’ll need to ride that distribution learning curve too…so once again, any help….much obliged!
• We’re actively working on a complete re-vamp of the menu for 2010 and so far have been having fun with concepts and test recipes…more news to come on the ‘10 menu soon!
• Still putting together plans to open a walk-up/concession location in early Spring, financing (as always) is the issue these days!  We have now included an “Investors” page on the website (www.GreatQ4U.com) which following initial conversations to insure sincerity and commitment, folks interested in being a part of GreatQ4U! will have a chance to take a detailed look at the plans and the numbers.  If it all makes sense for them, we’ll offer a package that offers the opportunity to earn a substantial return on your investment.  All the while investingating traditional financing options as well.
• Keeping the smokers burning!  We’ve got test recipes, competitions and lots to do in the coming months, so we keep the Hickory and Apple burning!

So, that’s all I have to say about that!  It’s APPLE SEASON…take the family to Adams County, PA this weekend and pick up LOTS of apples! – jak

What….Winter???

Who says?  Heck, as I am typing this the World Series has yet to begin!  They are the ‘Boys of Summer’, why is this weather in the Northeast SO miserable?

As luck would have it, I’m not that big of a baseball fan to begin with (don’t hate me for it) but it sounded like a good line to start a Mid-Fall blog entry with!  Just a few things to say today so you all don’t feel like I have abandoned the blogosphere!  We are keeping busy as the leaves begin to drop, which I appreciate VERY much and hope to keep up all Winter (banish the thought) long.   Smokers are burning night and day and I’ve seen a few customers smile as that Pulled Pork sandwich is ripped with their teeth…so all is well in “Q”-ville.

All of this smoking has been keeping us a bit distracted from the 2010 Menu which will include some old favorites and some new additions.  We are trying new recipes and scouring the country to find out what the ultimate BBQ side dishes are and I’d be interested in what you’ve got to say too!  Let me know what your favorite BBQ side dish is and perhaps it’ll make it onto the Menu.  In fact, if it’s REALLY good, I’ll even name it after you…how about them apples?

That’s it for now…keep on keeping on!

jak

Crisp Mornings and Low Hanging Smoke

Fall has always been my favorite season for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which (I assume) is that I was born in October!  SO…all you other October children out there, here’s a big Happy Birthday shout out!  In addition to Birthdays, there is the crisp cool air that greets you every morning and the hint of a change in the color of the leaves on the mountain!  In a few weeks the colors will be in full glory and I’ll be reminded even more why Central PA is such a nice place to live and work!  Finally, as it pertains to BBQ (I may have mentioned this before), cooler weather typically means a bit longer on the smoker for our “Q”, which I believe lends itself to a bit tastier product!  Alas, that’s just MY opinion…you should try some and see for yourself!

We’ve got LOTS going on around here wrapping up the busy Summer season and preparing for the influx of Holiday Party and Family Gatherings to come.  We’ve still got plenty of room to add your event if you are looking to offer your guests a BBQ treat in the next couple of months!  We are also still offering a reduced Booking Fee for any 2010 event booked by Halloween, if you’d like more details you can call us at 717-254-1937 or shoot me an e-mail: Jim@GreatQ4U.com

Thanks again to all of our clients who got to share the love this past summer, we truly appreciate your business!  We are working on adding quite a bit for 2010, including a whole new menu that will feature our traditional favorites along with many new offerings that will be sure to tempt your taste buds.  Our progress toward opening a walk-up service location on the West Shore is slowly coming along, but like so many other things we are measuring our growth as the economy continues to lag!  If you are interested in helping us to grow, please don’t hesitate to let me know, I am always open to suggestions and help!

That’s it for now, but I’m sure there’s more news to come soon! – jak

Fall has arrived!!!

SO much for keeping the Blog even remotely up to date!  I cannot believe that the Summer has officially passed yet again without a vacation…not a complaint mind you, but merely an observation.  Fall has arrived and we are keeping the fires burning…literally.  Lots of catering to do yet this year as we are planning a complete overhaul of our menu for 2010 to include some GREAT additions and changes based on our observations and customer input!  We are also in the final stages of putting together the Business Plan and more importantly, the financing package to open a walk up location on the West Shore that would be open 4 days a week from Thursday through Sunday.  Our menu would include all of our specialties, but would also incorporate some of the Pit Boss’s specials based on what’s fresh that week!  From authentic seafood gumbo to some of the best hush puppies you’ll ever git…we’ll have lots to tempt your taste buds!

As you might imagine…feeding all of our Fall customers, planning a new menu and starting a walk-up addition to our catering business is keeping us more than a bit busy!  Not to mention the new additions to the family (photo below)!  I’ll do my best to keep you apprised of our progress here and in the mean time…if you know anyone in the banking business or who’d like to have a stake in BBQ catering business…call me!!!  – jak

Little Bit and Little Cross

Post Labor Day Update

I know…I should have posted an update sooner…Hoover’s passing was a blah note to leave it all on and we were REALLY lucky to have a chance to spend any time with a dog like him…he got me through A LOT of stress for a few years immediately preceeding my current BBQ lifestyle!  SO…in his honor we have brewed up a special ‘Organic’ batch of “Groovie Hoovie’s 7 Pepper Hab Sauce” made with our own organic Habenero, Jalapeno, Hot Banana, Cayenne, Cow Tongue, Cow Horn and Pablano peppers!  We have a VERY limited number of bottles left…10 or less to be exact…and we are offering them for $25 (5oz. bottle) with all proceeds going to a Hoover memorial in next year’s garden!  (He LOVED to eat…particularly carrots!  So I am thinking a carrot patch!)

Things remain busy here and I am personally quite thankful for that!  I truly appreciate everyone’s business and hope that we have exceeded all our client’s expectations!  We have quite a bit on our plates and are in the process of re-working and expanding our menu.  In addition, we are actively looking to add walk-up service at least 4 days a week at some point in the next 6 months…depending on many details!  I’ll keep you posted on our progress!  Finally, we are booking events into 2010 and currently offering a reduced booking fee of 25% on any 2010 event to our online readers…so it’s a good way to lock in at 2009 prices and save 5% on your booking at the same time!

Stay tuned for upcoming news about competitions, appearences and our new menu!

Stay up to date with BBQ Trends and News!

In my ongoing attempts to try and keep up with the BBQ blogging I know that I am not ‘Sir Typesalot’, but I am making an effort here!  As I am sure most readers of this Blog can realize, this is peak “Q” season for us and time for blogging is only available after happy smiles appear on the faces of our customers!  As always, thanks again to everyone who has had us cater their event this season and thanks as well to all the folks who have booked next years events…we look forward to serving you!

My reason for this blog is to point fellow BBQ enthusiasts toward 2 organizations that have done a great deal to make real “Q” a prolific part of the American culinary scene, both of which we belong to and believe in.  Not in any particular order they are the Kansas City BBQ Society (www.kcbs.us) and the National BBQ Association (www.nbbqa.org).  In addition to the fact that these organizations both provide copius quantities of BBQ news, tips and general information, they have made significant contributions to the current BBQ craze that’s going on here in the good old USA!  Afterall…what’s more American than authentic BBQ?  I am writing this piece about them in hopes that if you are a true enthusiast and you haven’t already joined these organizations, perhaps you’ll consider doing so.  Each offers many benefits and connects you directly to a network of like minded BBQ folks.

I personally can attest that our membership in each organization has had many benefits to me personally and to our business.  In addition to all of the goodies and information that comes along with membership, I have learned a great deal from their helpful tips, courses and fellow members.  SO…that’s my pitch…you should check them out!

BBQ Thoughts for the day…

So, here it is on Friday morning and yet another weekend approaches!  As usual a busy one which includes quite a few miles of travelling and not nearly enough time for rest, but alas I am not complaining.  Instead I am typing a few words here following a long overdue update to the website.  Since I took the time to type the invitation for followers of my website news updates to come here, I thought that the least I could do was to type a current post!

OK, so here’s where it gets valid:  I’ve been giving a great deal of consideration to purchasing a pretty big commercial kitchen (concession style) trailer that would both serve as a fully functional mobile support unit for our catering business AND as a physical location (somewhere in the Greater Harrisburg metroplex) for folks to stop by and enjoy some Great BBQ and perhaps some things that we don’t currently offer like, say: really good hush puppies…cheesy grits….hand cut fries….you get the picture.  My question for you is this; do you think that there is a market for Authentically Wood Smoked BBQ and sides at a walk up location on the West Shore?  I mean, I know that there are some folks doing it now, but there’s simply no pulled pork around done the way we do ours! 

OK, so that’s my interactive question of the day, now I’d be interested in your responses!  Thanks – jak

Hoy! Hoy! Summer’s here…

OK, so perhaps my last post regarding the expedited arrival of Fall was a tad premature!  As it turns out, when you spend so many hours making sure that others have all they need to enjoy their summer get-togethers and parties, I guess it’s easy to get stuck ‘in the bubble’.  Now that the rains have (at least temoprarily) subsided and that Pacific Northwest style weather has passed, I’ve been investing some effort into planning OUR parties!  It wasn’t all that long ago that I would have hosted several of them by this time of the year, but then again I was so much older then…I’m younger than that now! (Thanks Roger)  Plans are in the works for a few festivities, the first of which will occur within a week and will include a whole hog, LOTS of fruit, fresh organic veggies, delicious accompaniments and a scenic vista of the beautiful Susquehanna River!  It will be the first of a few ‘personal’ celebrations of the season, one of which will include an invite to all of our Facebook Friends…so if you’re not already on the list…join today and bring some of your friends along!  You can visit our page at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/GreatQ4U-BBQ-Catering-in-Central-Pennsylvania/30070237853?ref=ts

It’s Sunday morning and I just finished a relaxing cup of Dunkin Donut’s finest, truck’s clean and lawn’s not too bad!  I am looking forward to a day of semi-relaxation so that I can tell my surgeon that I was compliant with his instructions following a recent double cut for at least 12 hours!   I am also reflecting on yesterday’s Pulled Pork and Chicken which came out better (in my humble opinion) than ANY other batch so far this year!  Which brings me to a short, but relevant diatribe about Pork Butt…which as you are probably aware comes from the top of the front shoulder…NOT the butt…which is the HAM!  Anyway, just some insight for those aspiring to do this at home (which is a GREAT idea), I like to cook mine ‘blade in’.  It is a subject on which you may find some controversy and in which every Pit Master has an opinion, some cook the whole front shoulder in tact, some cook it with the bones removed and I prefer to do it with the bone in.  My rationale is simple, I personally believe that the bone and its associated connective tissues impart both flavor and moisture during the smoking process.  I mean, 16 to 20 hours on the smoker can (if not closely controlled) dry out the meat and  no one likes stringy, stick in your teeth pulled pork!

So, there’s your tip for the day and a Sunday morning reflection.  I am hoping that all who read this have the best Summer ever and that you don’t forget to make some time to spend with family and friends!  They, like this whole life, are a gift and I for one am quite thankful for both!   – Peace, love and tranquility to all! – jak

BBQ Season is in FULL Swing!!!

It happens every year about this time…in fact this year it seems a bit later than most.  Perhaps it was the cold weather that I spent so many months whining about on the website that kept folks from warming up to Spring…but the certainly have warmed up!  Spring and BBQ season are in full swing around here and as always, I would like to thank all the folks who have chosen GreatQ4U! to make their upcoming events a bit more special. 

For those of you folks considering a BBQ caterer…here are some things to remember about us:  1. ALL of your food is hand crafted and prepared specifically for your event! (This is BIG!) We don’t rewarm any frozen anything for your event…it’s too important for that!  2. We time your meat selections to come off the smokers just prior to your event in order to provide the optimal taste, texture and aroma that you’d expect from Great “Q”!  3.  We’re focused on our customers…no matter what your needs or requests, we’ll do our best to meet and exceed it!  We even have an online ‘Customers Only’ section of our Web Site to make special offers available to all those folks who have helped us to grow over the years!  4. We simply offer Great “Q” for YOU!  We know that planning and executing a successful party can be stressful and time intensive.  We work with you to make serving high quality food as easy as, well, cooking a Pork Butt!!!

We are filling up for the season, but because of our 400+ Square Feet of smoker space, we still have plenty of room to fit your event in!  Give us a call at 717-254-1937 or e-mail me at Jim@GreatQ4U.com and I’ll be happy to help any way I can! – jak