It only happens once a month…and it’s happens on the First Friday of each month.  Our catering customers kept requesting it so now Albert Pit Barbecue offers carryout BBQ on the First Friday of the month from 4:00-7:00!   Be your family’s hero by picking up some great barbecue on your way home from work.

We are busy the rest of the month catering corporate lunches, company picnics, family reunions and weddings—so this is your once-a-month chance to get carryout of our hickory smoked brisket, hand-pulled pork, chicken and ribs along with tangy slaw, beans, creamy potato salad and Fat Albert barbecue sauce.

Prices start at $8.99 a plate (1 meat and 2 sides).  We have meat by the pound, and side dishes by the pint and quart.  (Rib racks sell pretty swiftly!)  I love to think of all those Albert Pit Barbecue ribs being eaten by families in front of a Friday Night Movie with a beer–for the adults only, of course.

Sign up for our newsletter (usually one email  a month but no more than three) I’d be glad to send you an email reminder and a map to our catering kitchen.

I like everything about this baby shower bbq invitation I found on etsy.com here:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/81579709/baby-barbeque-shower-invitations-baby-q?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=retro+baby+shower&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_ship_to=US&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

A gathering with food, family and friends after a funeral is a way to continue the celebration for the life of your loved one and serves as a transition time from the funeral and commemoration to everyday life.    We see this meal as an opportunity to show your hospitality, spend time with family and friends, and honor your loved one.

Funeral Food Delivered

In my oven right now is the most decadent Oatmeal Cake; a recipe given to me by my friend Louise.  Louise’s Oatmeal Cake is so awful for your body that if I die prematurely, I am sure this cake will be part of the reason.  And I don’t care.  In fact for my funeral, I’d love for you to make Louise’s Oatmeal Cake and bring it to serve to my grieving family.  Louise’s Oatmeal Cake is comfort food.

In fact, the funeral food I’d choose is all comfort food:

Funeral Food I’d Cater to My Own Funeral

Hand Pulled Barbecue Pork

Spare Ribs

Spicy Sliced Sausage

Gingerbread Spiced, Spiral Cut Ham

Coleslaw

Barbecue Beans

Mashed Potato and Gravy

Jello Salad (with Cool Whip, of course)

Louise’s Oatmeal Cake

Peach Iced Tea

I am sure that this menu would not make me feel any better (seeing that this is my funeral food), but I can’t help to think that it would make my family feel better.  These are the kinds of foods that satisfy your taste buds and release all that feel-good serotonin in your brain.

I’ve been making meals for people all my life.  How lovely to think I can choose a meal to serve them after my death.  Heck, why wait!  The timer just beeped and my cake is done.  Family, come eat!

In this world, we still get to marry for love.  I can’t imaging a more lovely way then to celebrate your wedding on Valentine’s Day weekend, rent a hall, invite your friends and your kids’ friends, hire a band–with a fiddle, then call your caterer and say your main concern is that people go home and say that they had plenty of great food to eat.  OK, that is already a great celebration but when the bride and groom love vintage you have an over-the-top memorable wedding.

I’d greet the wedding guests with a modern take on a punch bowl.  The mason jars match the bride’s centerpieces and look fun with striped paper straws.

Of course, the bride and groom would need monogrammed mason jars.

To soften the room a bit and bring in a bit of vintage romance, I think doilies would do the trick, perhaps a bunting behind the appetizer tables, definitely on the appetizer trays, perhaps in a paper cone.

Then I’d add something with holding power for hungry kids…but in a cute heart shape…it’s peanut butter and jelly!

Vintage Wedding Menu  Appetizers

Signature Pink Punch (both spiked and virgin)

Winter Crudites

Kettle Potato Chips served in Doily Cones

Cheese, Crackers and Grapes on Silver, Doily Lined Trays

Spicy Sausage served with Heart Topped Bamboo Picks

                                                                             PB&J on Heart Shaped Bread

I can see guests mingling around the dance hall with their paper straw-ed mason jars nibbling on chips from Paper Doily Cones…ready for the main course.  Since this bride and groom want to be sure all their guests are really full and happy, I’d pull out the caterer’s best meal…barbecue.  Kids and adults both love barbecue.  You can offer a lot of variety so that everyone finds several things that they like.  Best of all, it makes for a lovely full plate of food that is full of the home cooking love that mom made.

I do hope the bride has some family silver we could use to add this cute little detail to the table…

This wedding show at Ellis Ranch in Loveland is open to all brides and grooms (and quinceaneras, anniversary, and other special event hosts.)  This is a fun way to see Ellis Ranch and meet their hand-picked wedding vendors.  It is also a great time to taste some of our barbeque.  And, unlike other bridal shows, I think this one feels more like a party so your groom will have a good time, too!  The other thing that I like is that there are lots of vendors (around 40) but not as many brides as at some shows.  That is great for couples that really want to make some decisions and have lots of questions as you don’t feel rushed or pressured.  We think some of the finest vendors in the industry are at this show.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

6:00 -9:00 p.m.

Ellis Ranch Event Center

(Ellis Ranch’s beautiful Carriage House will be open for tours,  too.)

Loveland,CO

Tell them you saw it here when you RSVP to the fine folks at Ellis Ranch by emailing  eranch@verinet.com

We’ll have barbeque samples that night along with lots of other goodies.

You’ll notice that our barbeque catering company is on the preferred vendors list at Ellis Ranch.  We cater barbeque a lot to both the Event Center and the Carriage House.  One of our favorite venues in fact.

I’m excited already just thinking about this bridal show at Ellis in Loveland!

When we eat ribs at our house we eat a lot of them. In fact, we love ribs so much that we start to run out of places on our place to collect all the spent bones. So our solution is simple. At the start of a rib meal, we place an empty plate on the table (we, of course, have a vintage BBQ plate) that serves as the place for people to discard the empty rib bones. We call this place the “bone yard.” So you see, ribs and boneyards are a natural Halloween accessory. And to celebrate that fact we are offering a great deal on barbecued ribs pre-ordered for Halloween.  You can pick them up in advance and we’ll have them ready for you to warm in your oven on Halloween.

Since Halloween is on Monday, you can pick them up by 6:00 on Monday or on Saturday morning.  We’ll be smoking all week so have your order in by Friday before Halloween.

All of our ribs are pork and are massaged with a blend of our own secret spices and herbs, then hickory-smoked until they just have the slightest bit of tooth as you slide them off the bone.,

Rib-Tickling Halloween Rib Special

Baby Back Rib Rack  $20.00 (regularly $24.00)more tender, but smaller, than a spare rib

St. Louis Cut Spare Ribs $17.00 (regularly $21.00) uniformly cut so that no one “gets the short end of the rack”, great flavor, the preferred rib at the Albert home

Slaw $7.00 quart

Bread Puddin’ $10.00 (just for adults–since the kids hate sharing their loot) serves up to 8

The short afternoon rain showers we had this week reminds me of my first summer in Fort Collins in 2002.  I’d just graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (or as it is called in Nebraska “THE University”–no need for any further clarification since when you say University in Nebraska every knows you mean UNL.)  I was engaged to Korey (who cooked all the meat for our carryout night) but he wouldn’t move to Colorado until the week before we were married in the fall.  It rained every afternoon.  I was lonely.  I couldn’t believe how much it cost to live here and I was broke.  My parrot died.  It was so cold that May and I didn’t have heat in my apartment.  I read Gone with the Wind every night after work (under every blanket I owned and in two pairs of sweats) and then went to bed about 8:00.  It was sad.

One bright spot?  One of our local greasy spoons made great mashed potatoes and gravy.  The rest of the food was average, but I tell you what, those mashed potatoes and gravy got me through that lonely period.  Later, Korey and I ate those same mashed potatoes from Styrofoam boxes on New Year’s Eve in 2004 in the framed house that would become our first home.

When the rains start every afternoon I am always taken back to my first summer in Fort Collins.  I am thankful that things got much better from there.

We don’t make mashed potatoes and gravy for our First Friday Carryout Nights, but I wonder if there is someone out there who has their spirit lifted by something we make or remembers eating our barbecue at a very meaningful time or place.  I do hope so.

Everyone loves free food and so sending lunch to your best clients is an easy and welcome way to say thanks.  But, while you are at it, why not let us take the extra step to truly make your customer appreciation luncheon memorable.

I started thinking about this because we just had our car fixed at Community Auto Center (where they do a great job and are quite professional) and their office manager, Stacia asked about sending some lunches to clients.

First, ordering a great barbecue menu is a must do.  Check out our Albert Pit Barbecue Catering Menu.  We have packages to meet every price range and meal needs.

Second, think of ways to represent your company well.  When our client, Joe, wanted to take food to a training meeting, he advertised it as a coffee, then we met him in the parking lot with a full breakfast.  He marched into the meeting with the breakfast on his shoulder.  He looked like a hero!

You don’t have to attend the luncheon to make it a success, but you certainly want the client to know the lunch came from you.  Think of ways we could incorporate your logo into the event.  Do you already have some imprinted napkins from a past event that we could use?  Do you have some bags with your logo we could use to pack the brown bag lunches? Could the sodas be slipped into your coffee mugs?

Wouldn’t it be neat that if Stacia was able to provide us with some car parts, bolts, etc. that would fit inside a clear vase topped with flowers.  We’d make up the bouquet and deliver the flowers along with the lunch.  Most likely, those flowers–with the unique vase filler and the Community  Automotive Center card attached–would sit on the client’s front desk all week.  Great for advertising.  Great for reminding the client of your gratefulness.

For an event like Stacia’s, I’d recommend some black and white cupcake wrappers.  Who doesn’t love homemade cupcakes after barbecue!  We could add sprinkles in her corporate colors or add some cupcake picks that have the corporate logo or the words Thank You.  Add a personal note to slip on top of the cupcake box, and you’ve added a personal touch to the event.

Your client will be so happy to receive a free lunch from Albert Pit Barbecue. Adding a little extra touch like flowers, cupcakes, and personal notes will just be the icing on the cake sauce on the brisket!

When I saw these plates in the Oriental Trading catalog, it made me think how lovely they would look with a nice pile of barbecued pork on top and a beer beside them.  Then, who’d care if there was any sand around?

For the really creative, attach an invitation to the fan and mail them in big envelopes.

Get all these fabulous finds at Orientaltrading.com

When a bride and groom choose you to cater their wedding almost a year in advance of their date, you know two things.  1)  This is the world’s most organized bride (or groom?).  2.)  Organized couples have more fun at their wedding.  Just look how relaxed Mark and Maggie look as they come through the buffet line.

Courtesy of Marshall Miller Photography

I do believe there are TWO buns on Mark’s plate.  This is one groom who didn’t go hungry at his wedding.

Courtesy of Marshall Miller Photography

Maggie and Mark chose added a colorful garden salad for their guests from our barbecue meal.  We used silver, white and clear serving pieces to go with the more formal nature of their event.  This couple chose clear plastic plates and forks (included in our prices for weddings) rather than real china.  I think it works great–we don’t want any couples to have flimsy paper or foam plates at their wedding.

Wouldn’t you like to look this relaxed on your wedding day.  We’ve catered many more wedding than most people will attend in their lifetimes, and we’ve noticed planning ahead really does make for relaxed, wedding day bliss.

Courtesy of Marshall Miller Photography

Can I just say?  What a classy gown.  The bridesmaids wore very tasteful deep yellow dresses.  Mark wore a three piece suit.  Really a very put-together wedding.

Marshall Miller took these casual snaps of the dining couple.

Marshall Miller Photography

“The Frugal Photographer”

marshallmillerphotography.com

fort collinsphotographer.com

970-689-9332

Serving Fort Collins, Loveland & Estes Park