Happy Third of July

We didn’t do a whole lot for Fourth of July weekend. We’ve been traveling a lot lately and will be traveling again next weekend, so we decided to stick around the house. Another reason is that we didn’t want to leave Simon alone, since Fourth of July weekend really freaks him out (as I guess it does with most dogs).


Jon, Everett, Amy, Joe and Tim chow down on the long holiday weekend. (07/03/05)

But we did have Jon, Amy and Everett over on the 3rd for a pool party and barbecue. Since I had just purchased a new barbecue recipe book, I took it upon myself to be the chef. That’s why I was up past midnight on Saturday night preparing my marinades, sauces and rubs (no way was I going to use any of the pre-fab stuff).

The goal was to grill everything, including dessert! But since I couldn’t possibly fit all that stuff on the grill at the same time, I broke it up into three courses.

The first course — the vegetable course — included:

• Grilled Asparagus
  
• Corn on the Cob with Hand-Prepared Basil-Parmesan Butter
  
• Grilled Artichokes with Oregano and Salt
  
• Grill Roasted New Potatoes with Home-Grown Rosemary

Course #1: A variety of grilled vegetables ... and every bit of it was yummy. (07/03/05)

The second course — the meat course — included:

• Flank Steak with Crushed Garlic and Tennessee Barbecue Sauce
  
• Lightly Cured Pork Loin with Orange-Mustard Glaze

The third course — the dessert course — included:

• Pineapple Skewers with Brown Butter and Orange Juice Glaze
  
• Grilled Peaches with Blackberry Sauce

The grilled pineapple skewers with brown butter and orange juice glaze were fantastic. (07/03/05)

Needless to say, since I was the chef, everything was fabulous. The good thing was since I did most of the preparation the day before, I was able to spend most of the afternoon in the pool with our friends, rather than being stuck in the kitchen.

I also taught Amy how to make true Mexican guacamole. She brought all the ingredients and I gave her a lesson on the preparation. The only thing that wasn’t autentica was that I didn’t have an actual molcajete to mash the avocados with, so I had to resort to using my hands and a fork. But it tasted great, which is all that counts.


Starting the day out with fresh-made Mexican-style guacamole and a pitcher of Mojitos. (07/03/05)

While I was responsible for food, Tim and Joe were responsible for beverages. The drink of the day was the Mojito, a summery blend of light rum, sugar and mint leaves. We went through several pitchers throughout the day. Tim and Joe were also on cleanup duty, which was a real chore with all the hand-prepared marinades and sauces.

In the end, it was the perfect summer day.