The Purple Turtle Catering Company

We stopped by at the BBQ Brethren sponsored class taught by Ray Lampe (traveling straight there after the Grillin on the Bay contest), visiting some old friends and meeting some new ones. Nancee also took the NEBS sponsored I Smell Smoke instructed class, and we both helped at the NEBS BBQ Cooking School teaching-what else-the chicken portion.

Party dates are filling up fast, so if you want us for an event, contact us soon before we get fully booked. You can also see our sample menu on the Catering page. That leads right to our BIG NEWS-Nancee's new toy, a pig roaster (see picture at right, and more in the Gallery) designed by Ed Mitchell of Ed Mitchell's BBQ restaurant in Wilson, NC. We picked that up at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party held in Manhattan, NY.

Well, hadn't meant to be away so long...already broke one of my rules about this site: make sure to keep it current.

The rest of the 2006 season was also busy, all the way through the first week in November at the Best of the Best Invitational and Smokin' on the Square in Georgia. More good times with our friends Bob in GA and Ginger, the die-hard anti-competition traditional Southern cooks who are now hooked on competing! What a shock to those who know them. Also big help (they brought most of the equipment we used) were Dave (Chad) Little and Tim Cochran, from the team Southern Brethren, up from Florida. We also had Big Jim Whitten and his son Danny, also up from Florida, to help us in the invitational. Then Big Jim, Danny, Bob and Ginger cooked in the open.

In addition, the desktop crashed in early November, and we are just getting back up to speed. We did have the laptop, but never got the e-mails figured out.

Other major news from the end of last season was that Dave and Sandy Warren, who had been part of our team for the last few years, formed their own team, Boneyard Smokers, and started competing on their own. We thank them for all their help, and wish them nothing but the best in their competitions. They will still be Turtles at select events throughout the season, however.

August 19 and 20 was the Hudson Valley Ribfest, bigger and better than 2005. The weather gods did, however, continue the 2006 tradition of rain and wind. Grilling was Saturday; we took fourth in Sausage. Sunday was barbeque, snagging a second in Ribs, fourth in Pork and fourth overall.

The next weekend was Hogstock in Warren, NH where we finished fourth in Pork and again fourth overall.

The first weekend in September was Rib n' Brews, in Lowell, MA, which brought home second in Flank Steak and seventh in Sausage. Sunday's barbeque brought another fourth in Pork and ninth in Brisket.

Next was November 3 and 4 in Douglas, GA for the Best of the Best Invitational and Smokin'on the Square Open. We took second in Whole Hog in the Invitational-the first time we had ever cooked a whole hog, let alone competed in it. We also took sixth in Brisket. This was with mostly borrowed equipment-from Bob and Ginger, from Big Jim and Danny, and primarily from Dave and Tim. Saturday for the Smokin' on the Square Open, Bob, Ginger, Big Jim and Danny competed in their first contest as LazyQ.com, and did respectably well. As for the Turtles, we took ninth in Whole Hog and tenth in Apple Pie-again cooking the pies on the smokers.

We have already started the 2007 season, with the first contest January 14 in Lincoln, NH in ski country. We took first in Chicken, but didn't have the time to hit the slopes. We were lucky with the weather, which was milder than it should have been. We did, however, get an inch or so of snow Saturday night through Sunday afternoon, which made turn-ins interesting, not to mention tear-down and traveling home.

March 24 is the annual Snowshoe Grilling Challenge, held again in Abington, MA. Then comes Grillin' on the Bay, in Brooklyn, NY at the end of the month. Check out the rest of the schedule on the Competition page. W won't be making all of them, so if you want to join us, check with us first, or just show up and if we're not there you can hang with some of the other great barbeque people.

Please stop by and visit at any of our contests and if you feel like helping at one of them, let us know. We are always eager to help people get their feet wet in competition.

We thought July was going to be busy, and boy, was it! From July 1 through July 23, we were in four contests, two were two days (one day grilling and one day barbeque) and catered a party for 115.

First up was the I Love New York Barbeque Festival in Lake Placid. We went up early and camped out at the US Luge Association headquarters ground and cooked pulled pork, chicken and ribs for the festival volunteers. We also made cole slaw, potato salad and beans. The workers really appreciated it. That was for Sunday night. Then on Monday, we moved the stuff we hadn't hauled to serve the party to the contest site in the middle of the speed skating oval, and started cooking again for the Tuesday, July 4 turn-ins. The contest went well also-we took "Reserve Reserve Grand Champion" (third overall). Many thanks to organizer Dmitry Feld and all the volunteers who took fabulous care of all the cookers. This one is going to grow and grow.

The next weekend found us in Lincoln, NH (right next to Loon Mountain, for all you skiers). It was a small contest, but another well run event. This one also has potential. We took reserve in this one.

Then we had a "break" in the schedule-Long Island Grill Kings-a two day event, but less than an hour from home at Belmont Racetrack. The only problem is that it took almost half that long once we got to Belmont before we found a track worker who knew where the contest was set up. Saturday's categories were Chicken Wings, BBQ Sauce (with or without meat) and Pork Chops. All these had to be cooked over Pure Fire Charcoal, one of the event sponsors. Nothing else could be used-no chunks or chips, lump or briquettes. We took first in chops, and would have won Grand Champion, had they named one, but they only called first through third in the individual categories. Sunday was standard KCBS categories. Our only call was First Place Chicken.

The fourth weekend in a row was the Sixth Annual Harpoon Brewery contest-barbeque on Saturday and grilling on Sunday. We didn't place as well as we would have liked (Sixth in Brisket Saturday and Sixth in Bone In Pork Chops Sunday), but we could also vend and we were busy both days. Saturday it also rained, just so we wouldn't get too used to nicer weather.

Harpoon is also the location of the NEBS Team of the Year awards. We took Team of the year in Chicken. Congratulations to I Smell Smoke-Challie, Carlotta, Doug and Steve who took Ribs, Pork and Brisket and, no surprise, Overall.

Now we have a few weeks off to relax, try to catch up on the website and start getting ready for the next stretch: New Paltz, NY and Hogstock in Warren, NH, then a weekend off before Lowell, MA.

Well, another rainy contest done-that's four in a row. Good thing Nancee is a Florida Gator and used to the swamp.

Saturday's grilling was interesting: Fish/Shellfish, Pork Chops, Grilled Fruit and Skirt Steak. We did "naked" bacon wrapped shrimp-it was KCBS rules, so we couldn't turn the bacon in, so we grilled them with the bacon and took it off. For fruit, we did peach halves filled with a whipped cream/mascarpone filling sitting on pineapple rings. We had a good time, but didn't place. There will be some pictures on the photos page soon.

Sunday was a bit better (and not just because it wasn't raining), but the swamp was still there. We took fifths in both ribs and brisket.We played with the chicken a bit, and tried something different for the pork presentation. Pictures of these are also in the gallery. Our shoes are just about dried out.

In addition to pictures from New Hampshire, there are lots of new pictures-We put in some pictures that Michelle Taft of Lunchmeat took of last fall's Best of the Best a while ago, and our teammate David Warren just gave us some shots of both March's Snowshoe and the Rhode Island contest. Teammate Larry LeBlanc also gave us pictures of October's Cape Cod Classic and more from Best of the Best.

Next up is the Peter's Pond Rib & Brisket Fest in Sandwich, MA, a nice contest and a nice relaxing Saturday night and Sunday on Cape Cod.

Well, it seems that I got the pictures straightened out. Check them out if you haven't already. If you are still having problems, contact the webmaster and we'll look into it further.

We cooked at the Rhode Island State BBQ Championship in Warwick, RI. Saturday we took 1st place in the Grilled Appetizer category (bacon wrapped shrimp) and a 5th place in Country Style Ribs (the first time we ever cooked those). Sunday was the barbeque where we took 4th in Chicken and 3rd in brisket. David and Sandy Warren helped us. Pictures will be in the Gallery soon.

Memorial Day weekend found us where we usually are: at Lime Rock Park to watch the car races. We watched some racing Saturday, then did some cooking and tried to entice our neighbors to join us, but they had already eaten. Sunday we hit the farmer's market in Rhinebeck, NY and picked up some supplies (you'd think we traveled light!) and toured some wineries. Back at the track, friends joined us, and dinner was smoked pork tacos-this time all the neighbors joined us. Monday was more racing, and more cooking: we smoked some kielbasa and homemade sausage, more country ribs, and cut up some fresh bread from the farmer's market for sandwiches.

Thanks to all you guys who visited our site and had such (mostly) exceedingly nice things to say about the initial effort at our website. The only negatives appear to be that unless you have IE as your browser, you can't see the pictures in the gallery. From some of the helpful peiple who took the time to comment, this may have been a coding error, which I apologize for. After all, this is the first time I've ever tried anything like this.

As we are heading up to Rhode Island for a two-day contest this weekend, it will probably not be until the middle of next week until I get a chance at fixing this glitch.

So, if you have IE, enjoy the pictures; if not, enjoy the rest of the site and check back later to check out the gallery.

The Purple Turtle Catering Company announces the launch of its website, www.purpleturtlecatering.com.

Here, you can find out about our catering as well as our competition barbeque team. We hope you will take the time to see where we've been and where we're heading, and possibly stop by to see us at one of our contests.

Please visit our photo gallery to see some of our turn-in boxes and other shots of some contests.

The 2006 is well under way. We started with the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge in Abington, MA on March 18, taking a 5th place in the vegetable category. The weather was chilly, causing some disruption to our turn-in schedule. We missed the turn-in for the beef steak category-but we were not alone among the chronologically challenged. Four teams missed the sausage turn-in. Michelle & Gary Taft did their usual great job, thanks again to the VFW for providing the site.

The following Saturday, March 25, we proved that you can go home again. We took the Grand Championship at the Grillin on the Bay in Brooklyn, NY, taking second in the Fish, Pork and Chef's Choice categories. We also took second for Dessert. This contest was held at the grammar school Greg went to from grades 1 through 6. Boy, has that school gotten smaller! Thanks to Robert Fernandez and Matt Fisher for organizing this extremely well run (especially for a first time contest) as well as Andrew Fischel of RUB BBQ and the St. Marks Sports Association for sponsoring. There are some pictures of this on our Photos page

April 20th, we were heading down to Pork in the Park in Salisbury, MD, when Nancee found that she couldn't leave early. So, Greg drove down by himself and set up. On the 21st, the "Anything But" category was due. The rains started mid-afternoon, and didn't let up until Monday the 24th. Nancee drove down, and got to the site an hour before the Friday night turnin. Primarily due to the weather, we were having trouble keeping the temps level in the cooker, and were not real happy with any of our meats. However, we did place 7th in brisket. Driving two trucks home in seven hours of driving rain was certainly lots of fun. In spite of all that, this is still one of the better contests. The organizers go out of their way to make the cookers welcome and happy.

Links to some of our favorite barbeque sites, and other sites of interest, are also attached.

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