Lazy Sunday Afteroon BBQ

Food
We ate, people swam, it was hot. The kids loved it.

A good friend (Bob Yamada) provided Pork Ribs, BBQ Chicken, and Smoked Beef.
It was tasty!

Marinated Sweet Onions and Tomatoes

Get some good sweet onions.
I chose Walla Walla's.

Slice your onions up. I like the greens too, that's just my preference.

The view from the countertop.

Arrange your onions in a shallow dish so you can dump the marinade over them.

The marinade is:
1 cup mild olive oil
¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a blender...

Blend all of the marinade ingredients for 30 seconds in a blender, or beat well with a wire whisk.
It'll look like this.

Dump the marinade over the onions and chill for 1-2 Hours.

To serve, arrange some tomato wedges in a salad bowl. Layer the onions on top and pour extra marinade over. Easy enough. Goes good with Mozzarella too.

Pizza, Cakes and Birthdays

Tiffany working on a birthday masterpeice.

You probably cannot tell but this is the first time she finished a cake with fondant

The presentation to the birthday girl...


Brother Jim rocking one of the many pizzas that night.

Beer Simmered Sausage and Onions

In a cast iron skillet over medium high heat with a little oil, fry Onions and Sausage seasoned with a little salt and pepper until onions are carmelized.

Add a light lager beer (dark beers do not reduce well) and butter, simmer until Sausage is cooked thru. Remove onions and reduced beer sauce. Fry Sausage again to recrisp...


Serve with Beer Grilled Onions and Salsa Mashed Potatoes.

This can easily be modified for the barbque or grill... Just grill or smoke sausage and onions toss in a foil tub with beer and butter, recrisp sausage on grill. super easy...

Kalbi again with Caesar Salad and Salsa Mashed Potatoes

Well we have done the Kalbi a couple of times so I will hit you with the mashed potatoe recipe this time... Salt and Pepper then cook 2 lbs halved red potatoes (grill em, steam em, boil em whatever. I prefer grilled) Grill 2, 1" slices of red onion ( 1/2 large red onion) then dice. Dice the other half and leave raw. Mash potatoes with 1 cup light sour cream and 1/2 tsp ground cumin and 1/2 tsp ground Coriander then fold in onions along with chopped cilantro and halved grape tomatoes. Taste. Adjust Salt and Pepper. Serve.

Rub

Mix up some tasty Rub

Rub some tasty spices on the meat of your choice.

This just happens to be two Pork Loin.

Bar-b-que at195 at least 2 hours for complete smoke flavor saturation.

use meat thermometor to determine doneness.

Sorry no photos of the finished meal.

the food was gone before I could take a photo.

Oops.

Gross

Coffee flavored ice cream, good. Coffee flavored yogurt, very very disgusting. David didn't even like it and he'll eat anything. No picture 'cause we threw it away immediately after gagging.

Quick pasta

Boil some noodles, fry some minced garlic in olive oil, add chopped tomatoes and chopped fresh basil, allow to warm thru, top noodles with warm tomatoe mixture and top with fresh basil. Fresh Basil cannot be beat!

Gyros!

Note: mom (Melissa) made these and she gets all the credit
and she doesn't want me to give away her recipes.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the gyros themselves, because I was too busy eating them, but here are the ingredients.

seitan, or lamb, whichever

hummus, tzatziki sauce, cumbers and Greek olives

feta cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers again

yummy!

Grilled Sausage with Grilled Onions, Peppers and Sauerkraut

Grill up a nice Sausage and top with grilled Onions and Peppers (3 different colors preferably) and a whole crapload of Sauerkraut. Serve with your favorite Doppelbock and enjoy

Holy Guacamole

This is my base guacamole recipe...

5 ripe avocados
2 clove garlic, pressed
2 tsp ground cumin
2 ripe medium Roma tomato, chopped
½ Cup minced onion
¼ Cup chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

And here's how I do it...

Split the avocado, cutting and twisting them apart.

Did I just cut through that seed?

The easiest way to remove the seed is to just give it a good thump sinking your blade deep into it. Then twist and the seed will pop out. Keep in mind you don't want to miss on this step and take off a finger...

Next, scoop out the avocado skins and mash the flesh in a bowl.

After pressing in the garlic and adding the cumin, juice a lime. I usually only do one lime, it'll typically give you + - 2 Tbsp of juice.

Also add your onion. Today I grated my onion instead of chopping or dicing it.

And don't forget the tomato. They're always nice.

Taste it!

Then season. Usually a 3-4 second pour with the salt shaker, and about 80 cranks on the pepper mill for me.

And if you notice... I have no Cilantro! Crap.

Brb, I'm off to the store...

Lookie Lookie what they had at the store.

Riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of Hollywood.

Medicinal Mojito

Start this recipe by picking a warm summer day. 88° is good. I think today was around 90°, which is even better.

Go out and wipe yourself out. Yardwork is always good for this. Especially on the warm day. My example would be weeding and tilling the garden. I'm dirty, hot, and sweaty.

Go shower and get cleaned up. Then find some fresh mint and cut several sprigs.

If you know where the cheese store is, pick some up. A little good cheese never hurt anybody.

Pour out some Oil and Balsamic for dipping the crusty sourdough bread that I know you bought when you bought the cheese and crackers...

Next, get a tall glass, throw in a generous pinch or two of sugar, the juice of half a lime, about ten mint leaves that you cut earlier, and some ice. Then muddle the mint leaves into the sugar and ice to release the mint oils. Top off with a couple ounces of white rum, and then fill with soda water.

It's a Mojito, and if it's before noon, it's medicinal. If it's evening... you've earned it.

And let the porch creeping commence!

Done right, this recipe will last well after sunset.
It's all about quality of life.

**Author Update**

Everybody knows how to make "a" mojito right? But "a" mojito isn't really useful for most occasions. So I've been tweaking my recipe, and here it is... for a decent amount.

Use a pitcher... throw in 20 Mint Leaves, a couple handfuls of crushed ice, and 12 tsp Sugar, Muddle that. Add 3 oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice, 10 oz of White Rum, and top with 22 oz of Club Soda!

Sandwich

Take a hollowed out Sourdough round, brush it with E.V.O.O. then stuff it full of pickled garlic cloves, roasted red peppers, Gypsy Salami, shavings of Sharp Provalone, a bunch of Arugala and what you have is a pretty tasty sandwich.

Tasty Lunchtime Salad

I love Pomegranate Blueberry Vinagrette!

Rogan Josh

Yeah I know this should have had lamb but for last night the pork just had to do... It could have used some fresh cilantro also.

Tasty Dinner

Dinner was tasty, Bar-b-qued Pork Tenderloin, Khao Gram purple rice and a nice salad of mixed greens & herbs with almonds and a Shitake Sesame vinagrette.

Bacon Asparagus Pizza!

So David wanted to use up the asparagus his parents gave him, so he made pizza. First you start out with homemade pizza dough, and brush it with olive oil. Top lightly with mozzarella. Then you add the chopped asparagus and cherry tomatoes. Add crumbled bacon.

Dot with Goat Cheese. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Bake and enjoy.