Sunday 11-30-08

[KenP]

We had a very busy end of week.

Family over for the full Monty T-day dinner.

MIL was in town for her birthday Sat and she wanted BBQ so Fri I went to BJ's and grabbed a couple of butts.

Pork went on Fri at 11:45pm. It was cold and breezy so holding temps in the smoker required more work than usual and kept me up much of the night.

The pork had a rub and was basted with apple cider. We offered two sauces and I'm proud to say my homemade sauce was the clear winner as the store bought, preservative laced brand wasn't even opened.

By 2:30PM Sat the pork was done and people would be here in about 1 1/2 hours so I prepped the rest of the food.

After they arrived and we deemed it time to get crackin' I fired up the gas and charcoal grills for some serious, fast work.

I marinated portabellas in homemade Italian, grilled them, stuffed them with sauteed spinach, then covered in mazarella to melt.

I was also grilling squash and zucchini that I'd cut in half and seasoned with s and p and evoo. Got the nice cross hatch marks on them so they looked great.

Grilled tomatoes that I'd cut in half, then after pulling them off the grill I put just a drop of the salad dressing on them and topped them with some basil.

Lastly, I grilled quartered oranges just long enough to lay on some grill marks and bring out the sugar.

After we ate I still had to pull about 10lbs of leftover pork, bag it, vac it and freeze it.

My back was sore and I was tired, but it was fun. I love cooking outside.