I just read this whole thread right now as I'm fasting and needed to stay occupied. Oops!! Not one of my best ideas however what an amazing story of faith, family, dedication and hard work. PaulstheRibList You inspire me and no doubt bring joy to others. I am sincerely happy for you and your family.
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Oh, HouseHomey, I'm honored you shared a few minutes with our little journey. Sorry about the food pics during a fast...#NotSorry I love telling stories, especially ones that turn out the very best in the end! #Forever
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Beautiful Rig. Congrats! Im super jelly and taking notes.Comment
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One of the things I really dig about our ole Barbecue action, dear Pitmaster Peeps, is that it lends itself so well to being Authentic. Doing your life and story, expressed in the way you do your BBQs/Parties/General Food Sharing times. Both the food itself and the stories we share about how we prepare it and why give us a platform to encourage others.
I asked my photographer/graphic/web friends to help me do a card. I've used a bunch of 5.5 x 8.5 glossy cards over the years, for my other business and our several civic initiatives. I like 'em! She did this card, using that magical rib picture on the front...dude, maybe the best rack of ribs I've ever cooked, with a little artistic rendering on the picture:
On the backside, she did some panels of some of the pictures she took, and a general description of our offering: Meat - Sides - Drinks.
That's factual, and all...but hardly complete. So, I sat down and did some ole' modifying (I learned early on that I should get the graphic designer to do the design, then I can learn to edit them. That way I can do all the wordsmithing without having to pay the graphic person to adjust while I go through iterations...):
Meat - Sides - Fun!
Our barbecue, collective Pitmaster Club friends, is Fun. We can light up people's afternoons with our interest in serving them, and then the Boom! the knockout food we can cook, thanks to our old pal Meathead, as well as to each other as we spur one another on to better barbecue.
Keep up the good work, PitmasterClub!
#MeatsSidesFunComment
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Looks great, PaulstheRibList ! You've probably caught the couple of typos I spotted: under Fun, there should be a space between Rig and to . And in the red center portion at the bottom Tuck should be changed to Truck.
I love that Flame of Freedom logo. It says so much, and adds just the right patriotic touch.
Kathryn -
Thanks for the edit, fzxdoc. Typo's are the byproduct of the 1 am finish up editing in order to get them here on time for the event. #HopeNoOneElseNoticed
I wanted to redo that card anyway...
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This whole thread/story is just amazing Paul!!
You are blessed!Comment
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Just ran across this thread for the first time. What a cool setup! All the best in your venture!Comment
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Dude, isn't cooking barbecue fun!!!
It's time for a little update here on the "hey, I started a barbecue food truck!" thread.
Well, we are 5 months after Official Opening Day! We have done something like...
> 35 Events/Cooks (a few had cooks that piggybacked on top of the other)
> Prepared for about 6500 guests. A few of these were sample/single size (a rib with beans and slaw in a boat). Several of these vending events, we cooked more than we sold. This is good for folks on the friends list, as they get more leftovers that way! It is not as good for the checking account, lol. We've learned about what to cook for which kind of vends. My first event, I cooked 10 briskets and sold 5. So I learned right away to always sell out of brisket and have pulled pork leftover, in order to enhance said profitability!
> Cooked proteins in something like these quantities:
107 Briskets
404 Racks of Spare Ribs
1500 chicken legs (probably more)
284 Boston Butts
60 eight pound turkey breasts
91 pans of beans
83 pans of slaw
33 pans of mac
150 pounds of sausage
130 Bone-In Beef Short Ribs (yep, saved the best for last!)
> Super Good News: My apprentice, Sam, had become a full-fledged good barbecue cook! He has pulled off most of these cooks, with my supervision, often only very light supervision. As I commended on many a thread on thePit, there is no substitute for PracticePracticePractice. If you want to get better, you have to add some reps to your cook. And read AmazingRibs.com and get feedback and insight from your Pit friends. He's learned a few humbling lessons, and improved over the process. I'm proud of Sam and his progress. He's trained one of his friends, Colin, to help. And we are currently recruiting other help so we can do more gigs and sleep!
Other learnings:
> You run through a lot of supplies to do this much cooking.
> You can't get behind on ordering stock. And working with the wholesale food people is not as simple as it seems.
> Getting health department licensed is not overly complicated, but it is detailed. Plus, when you are dependent on other to make progress on the steps (In my case, the restaurant I am using for my commissary), you are on their schedule, not your own.
> I need more barbecue pits. Seriously! I'm looking to get two more HUGE Pits in the coming months.
> I'm still having fun and making friends!
> Big gigs are by far the most profitable. Vending is what you do to get catering gigs.
> If you good really good barbecue, word will spread. I'm a social guy, own another business, and on several charity boards, etc, and I am all the time hearing from folks that they have heard really good things about us and our food! That, friends, is rewarding!
> Biggest Event: 1,000 Plate Cook: Pulled Pork Sandwich, Chicken Leg, Smoked Beans, Slaw...assembled in 38 minutes!
It was so exciting, I created a whole thread for it at https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...ich-plate-cook
Well, I've got a long list of stuff to do tonight for buying more bbq supplies and building more menu's and graphics to get ready for the next push!
Love,
Paul, your friendly, neighborhood @BishopofBBQLast edited by PaulstheRibList; August 26, 2017, 03:09 PM.Comment
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Well, it's cloudy and raining. lonnie mac and our other South Texas friends are getting a pounding from that blasted Hurricane Harvey. Folks around here didn't plan much today, other than bracing for if the storm turned north, or if it puts 15 inches or rain on us in the next few days. So I'm getting ready for next Saturday, even though they are predicting rain rain and rain next saturday from THE SAME Hurricane! We are planning to cook and get lots of folks on #theRibList.
I'm no graphics person, but here is my effort of the past 45 minutes...
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You had me at "Smoked Crab Mac" yum!!! Annnnddddd.... the Kicker, Beans and Fun! Yes!
Oh Goodness! So just for grins I clicked on PaulstheRibList signature. Though I have read this entire adventure my first thought was "Seriously?!"
Do you ever feel insignificant?
I Just did. Great things brother!Last edited by HouseHomey; August 26, 2017, 09:08 AM.Comment
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It is said that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. Way to go after your dream. Best of luck!Comment
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We all know a thing or two about cooking the ole' barbecue here in #thePit. Congratulations to you all!
As I'm learning to cook more of this fabulous food, I keep finding a few new ideas that help it all go smoother. The Smoked MacNCheese we are cooking now is an adaptation of Kenji Lopez-Alt's Stovetop Creamy Mac. Cooking big batches of Mac is, well, a lot of work! I'm trying with the Mac what we've been doing with the Saute' we use in the beans: Prepping the base of the dish in larger quantities, and storing it to be used in each pan.
Tonight we busted out the big boxes of our cheeses: Mild Cheddar, Gruyere, Fontina, Smoked Gouda, and American. A pan of Mac has 2 pounds of pasta, I'm partial to small shells lately, together with 2 pounds of the blend of the 4 expensive cheeses, lol, and 1 pound of the American. This is what it looks like, before the food precessor does it's thing:
Our process is to shred these up, all mixed together, then spread into the shred 2 tablespoons of Corn Starch, as an emlusifier to help the mac reach its creamy apex of desirability!
Maybe you were asking, "Paul, what's the kitchen look like when you cut 10 batches of that up?" Funny you should ask...
That's 2 batches sitting on the cutting board, one in that orange container in the background, and 4 finished bags resting there, waiting to make many people happy!
What else did I learn from this big batch? I can definately get on my way to a nice blister on my palm in cutting all that cheese.
And, I don't have to cut, shred & blend cheese for a couple of weeks, because I have 10 bags worth ready to go!
Don't forget: #SmokedMacNCheeseIsOntheRibListComment
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Your just being Cheesy. Too "Cheesy?"Comment
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One of the big reasons we opened @PaulsRibShack is so we would have tons of capacity to do community service gigs...like #LaborDayofLove yesterday in the Terrace! Lake Charles escaped the big problems of huge rain that brought all that flooding to Houston and SE Texas. But we did have one neighborhood, backing up to a bayou, where a localized super-heavy rainfall brought flooding into a few hundred homes. So, a friend of mine lead dong an event yesterday, #LaborDayofLove to bring seminars to inform the residents of what support is available for them, and to provide some tangible blessings. We did free laundry at my laundry mat in that neighborhood, a church from New Orleans brought a ton of relevant cleaning supplies, and us and others provided a tasty meal. All of this gave us a great platform for encouraging each other and sharing love and community!
Click through the pics and read some short stories of folks from all over being great neighbors, giving time and work and love to each other. All of this was done by churches and pastors providing the leadership and bringing the teams to put on the event and start the mud-out in these flooded homes. I'm so proud!
The crowd is getting started with the tasty barbecue lunch!
Here is our crew, all started dishing out 350 pulled pork sandwiches! The middle guy is Pitmaster Sam, my right hand man. He's doing a good job!
The fella on the left is Assistant Chief of Police Mark Kraus. The friend in the middle is Pastor/Entrepreneur Joe Banks. I interviewed both of them, and you can watch here: https://www.facebook.com/paulpettefe...type=3&theater
The news covered the event. And our crew was particularly interested in the wonderful reporter. I wonder why? She has enjoyed our barbecue before! I'm sure they are rooting for her to come back soon.
This friend is a minister, and he is leading a pretty good size crew who was cleaning up 3 different homes. They go in and cut the sheetrock above the water line, remove the insulation, and let the house dry. After that, you can go back and re-install the insulation and wallboard. Some of the homes they did at 2 feet, others at 3 feet (the wainscoat height). They were veterans at this. They did lots of homes in Baton Rouge 2 years ago when they had that huge flood, and last year when the Sabine River put water in a bunch of nearby homes. That's what I call Loving Your Neighbor!
These wonderful people are from churches in Baton Rouge and New Orleans - they called friends in Lake Charles on Sunday saying they were coming to feed the folks who were flooded in the Terrace in Lake Charles on Monday! They connected with me via another pastor friend, and they beat me to 3001 Industrial Avenue, Lake Charles Monday morning! They cooked up two big pots of yummy Jambalaya, and shared hugs, prayers, smile and joy all day!#GoJesus to my new friends! #ThatIsHowItIsDone
More guys (the other 5 in their crew had just walked back over for a 2nd pork sandwich!) from a local church who were doing the debris removal and sheetrock cut work on the flooded homes. So proud of them!!!
This friend is from New Orleans. Their church and a couple others had been through the stuff when Katrina put a ton of that city underwater. So, they gathered up a BUNCH of cleaning supplies and headed over. That stuff is really useful in this stage of the clean up!
Then I found out he was an barbecue aficionado, so we had to go find a few more bites after we were mostly packed up! So glad to connect with you, bro!
This is what you call "Barbecue Feet Tan." What do ya'll think?
Lastly, the barbecue!!! It was pretty good!
Love, Paul Pettefer, your friendly, neighborhood @BishopofBBQComment
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You and your friends, new and old, did a wonderful thing, PaulstheRibList . Your all's kindnesses will not go unrewarded, I just have to believe.
KathrynComment
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Now that looks like it was a lot of tasty fun! Love the pics of all the people who helped and enjoyed the event!Comment
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Amazing story, and great deeds done!Comment
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