You can make pulled pork on the grill the day before then heat it before serving.

aren't almost all barbeque items make ahead or slow cooked?

Congratulations! We have a new baby in the family and I am so so so in love with her.

For ease of cooking, for a crowd, for freeing yourself up to mingle and visit with your guests---nothing beats a big beef brisket. Cook it indoors in the kitchen oven, and save your outdoor grill for appetizers, vegetable kabobs, bread, et cetera. You can pre-slice it a few hours ahead of party time, then put it into a slow cooker to keep it warm (without drying it out and overcooking it) and for serving. Serve sauce on the side.

If you're interested in ribs, pick up this month's issue of Bon Appetit with the ribs on the cover. They're baked first and finished on the grill, so most of the work can be done ahead of time.

Not to be a snark, but you're actually revealing the sex. You can't really know how the child's gender will develop for quite awhile. That said, congrats and best of luck!

Ha! @biggreenpiano, that's exactly what I said to my husband as I read this.

@biggreenpiano: That's a good point. "Sex-reveal" Baby-Q is not quite as sweet as gender reveal, I think. I don't think they should change it but should still approach the child's gender the way you pointed out, as something not assigned by sex but by how the child naturally develops. That said, Eric, is it okay if I totally steal your idea? That is the cutest thing I've ever heard!!

Full disclosure: I don't like big parties, especially involving milestones in my life but I know it means a lot to my family so what I've decided to do is to throw a Build-A-Library gender reveal instead of a baby shower so y'know, there's a point to the whole thing. I've already heard the "it's bad etiquette to throw your own shower and decide what people should buy" argument so don't bother. The idea of other people choosing what my baby will essentially live in makes me uncomfortable and disappointed since I'm looking forward to and have saved up for doing that myself; and my mother is traditional(?... ridiculous?), she thinks it's bad manners to register at a dept store despite how socially acceptable this is in America. This way my family gets to contribute to something that's important to me (my child's bookcase), there can still be a celebration, and the socially awkward among us (me) will be comfortable with an objective for the party. Adding the Baby Q (& pool party) element would be wonderful since I'm looking to tone down the formality and the expense. I want it to be just a simple get together of family and friends but my mother and sister-in-law have a tendency to try and big up family events. Thanks for the suggestion and the question! All these ideas are going in my baby shower notebook.

Hey everyone! We actually ended up doing pulled pork barbeque - two pork loins that we did in the oven with some veggies. We pulled the pork strings for hours, then dumped two giant bottles (think costco-sized) of BBQ sauce all over. The party was a hit! Upside is we ended up with leftovers to freeze + gave some to go containers for friends and family.

The way we revealed this was by getting a cake with a neutral white icing on the outside with pink & blue question marks all over with the writing, "What is Baby B?" --- Then we gathered everyone around our dining room table, cut into the cake, lifted up a piece to reveal that it had pink icing inside! We're having a girl!

@fauxfaux, we threw this as a BBQ with the added bonus of finding out the sex of our baby (and gender-reveal does sound better than sex-reveal. Haha). We actually received gifts from some of our friends/family - we were totally not expecting this as it wasn't the point of the party. You should try this! If you want other ideas of what we did, e-mail me at eabrobst@gmail.com

Seriously? Could we PLEASE enjoy an occasional post here without having to sift through another ignorant, immature debate?

discerning: Erm... which ignorant, immature debate are you referring to?

eabrobst: Thanks! :) (P.S. I'm doing gender reveal cupcakes. Of course, everyone else, feel free to do the ideas I brought up... they are awesome!) Pinterest also pointed out that cooler corn is low-effort and delicious.

I work in a bakery and we've been doing quite a few reveal cakes lately (colored cake or filling), some of which were pre-ordered by a relative who got the low-down on the sex of the baby from the doctors ahead of the parents. The parents intentionally did not want to hear the sex until the shower and all the family and friends were assembled: a surprise for everybody!