Hi! I am Mary, Fritz's wife. I wanted to share a blog post with you all and describe what it is like to be married to a crazed, obsessed, BBQ loving fiend. He also happens to be a fun-loving, caring, and sweet husband and now daddy to our handsome "Fritz mini-me," Baby Freddie.
This picture is from the St. Louis BBQ Bash in 2013 when we took home 1st place Pork Steaks and 6th in Ribs (out of 100 plus teams). I was one happy BBQ wife that weekend and very proud!
People often ask me, “How do you keep up with Fritz?” My answer usually is, “That’s a very good question.” You see, Fritz is known as a man full of hobbies or someone who is continuously looking to invest his time and money into something prosperous. For as long as I have known him, which has been just over eight years, he has always been an eager young man about life that constantly keeps me on my toes. I never know what bright idea is coming next! But when I see those wheels turning in his mind, I know I’ll either hear the idea and I am expected to give my valuable input, try a new recipe that he whipped up, see something arrive on our doorstep that he has ordered to help him with his new project, or see him working in the garage on some new contraption. Whatever it is though, it gives me joy to see the pure excitement on his face, no matter how large his new project may be – like a big red BBQ concession trailer. (Which we no longer have and we now have a big white box trailer! We have had several trailers over the years. From mini open trailers that we prayed we would get to a competition safely in and not have our smokers roll onto the highway to what we have now).
Fritz and I met when I was a freshman in college. It was my second week at The University of Missouri in Columbia. I became recently single and was casually dating people at the time. When I met Fritz on a random Thursday night I was studying biology at a mutual friend’s house. When I saw Fritz sitting on the couch, there was something about him – and that excitement that I mentioned previously was there on his face. I knew I wanted to get to know this guy. Little did I know, he would one day become my husband.
Our wonderful alma mater, The University of Missouri in Columbia, or also called, Mizzou where we met my freshman year.
During our first month of dating in 2006. | Tailgating at Mizzou. |
Only nine days after meeting, Fritz and I started to date exclusively and we never looked back. I can tell you from the first month of dating, he already was springing ideas on me and sure enough he roped me into one of them. This very first idea was joining a company where we could sell products and the goal was to have as many people as you could recruit to be underneath you to help boost your business. We shall call this a “pyramid scheme.” Needless to say, it was not Fritz’s best idea and we were out of the business in two short months time.
Fritz and I were out to dinner earlier this year - a BBQ restaurant nonetheless – and I was giving him trouble about all the hobbies he has explored. Rather than calling them hobbies, he explains to me that they are “investment adventures.” I only came up with fifteen but I know there are several I am missing. To name a few there has been: hunting, archery, wine making, flipping a house (I told you there were some large hobbies), buying and selling weight lifting equipment, making beer pong tables, and lastly BBQ. While many of these hobbies have come and gone, BBQ has stuck with him for the past seven years.
It was his junior year in college when he announced to me that there was a BBQ competition in St. Louis that he wanted to try out. He and his roommate bought a little smoker for $40 at Home Depot with a gift card. We rolled into the BBQ competition with 5 cars loaded to the max and all of our supplies we needed for a mere 48 hours - and Fritz tells me that I over pack for vacation? This competition was called the “BBQ Bash” put on by St. Louis Home Fires. There were eight categories and on top of that we were trying to vend. This first competition was quite the learning experience. I even heard Fritz say, “This was fun and all, but I just don’t think I will do it again.” So I thought another hobby was in the books and we were never going to see another day of competing. Oh, how I was wrong, so very wrong….
It only took about a week and a half before Fritz was wondering why he did not get a call for his BBQ. Since 2007 I have probably tried over 150 different kinds of rubs, mops, sauces, and glazes. I’ve burned my mouth multiple times on chicken thighs, had BBQ sauce stains on my white t-shirts, and pieces of ribs stuck in my teeth that drove me crazy for hours until I could finally find some floss. This is what it is like to be a BBQ wife.
Just some of the wonderful food I get to sample being a BBQ wife, Fritz's famous brisket and ribs.
Some of you may not know what exactly a competition is like so I will give you a brief explanation. There are typically four categories that you need to turn in order to compete for Grand Champion. There is a rib category, brisket (beef) category, pork category, and chicken category. Several other competitions can sometimes have ancillary categories such as dessert, chili, Bloody Mary’s, and the list goes on. You are given Styrofoam boxes in which you plate your meat. The funny thing about these boxes is the filling in them; which is usually green lettuce or parsley. If you ask anyone who does these boxes, it is the most tedious task you can imagine. Placing hundreds of parsley bunches throughout the boxes can be time consuming and frustrating. Especially when you drop a box… Not that Fritz has done that to my masterpieces ever…. I am nick named the “Parsley Girl” on our BBQ competition team and I am still waiting for a shirt with that title I was promised years back.
I have learned several things about what it takes to be a BBQ wife. The list includes an empty stomach, an open mind, small fingers for bunching parsley, a lot of patience (and a lot of coffee), a continuously messy kitchen from practicing during off weeks and prepping the week of a competition, and the realization that you will always smell of BBQ smoke. However, I also learned that these competitions are some of the best memories that I have, that the men and women involved in the BBQ world are some of the greatest people you can ever meet, and most importantly, I get to see my husband live out his passion.
The past seven years have been an incredibly fun ride. To see where we started is quite comical to where we stand today. From throwing on over cooked brisket and pork on a few torn off pieces of green lettuce to be judged to now having our own BBQ sauce, Twisted Belly’s Melon Madness, can be seen as a rather successful endeavor. An endeavor that I believe has still only begun. Lastly, as a BBQ wife, I am proud of our achievements, eager to face new challenges and set new milestones, and excited for the journey to continue on for many more years. Here’s to having the best BBQ husband and team I could ever ask for. As always, Get Twisted!
It looks like I am in it forever with this guy, BBQ for life.
And that sounds pretty good to me.