“I don’t know why men like to barbecue so much. Maybe its the only thing they can cook. Or maybe they’re just closet pyromaniacs.”
Yesterday was summer. It reached 80˚. I even sat on the deck a while. All those nights in the 30’s disappeared from memory. Today is already warm.
My friends came to dinner last night. They brought a chew bone and a toy for Henry. He wasn’t all that welcoming. He even growled, but that didn’t stop him from eating the bone. Henry is still bit skittish with new people. He allowed patting, but his face gave away his emotions. Henry wasn’t happy.
Dinner was delicious. I enjoy cooking but it has been a while. Luckily, I haven’t lost my touch. My flow chart worked perfectly. I was able to sit with my friends and enjoy some appetizers: shrimp, including barbecue shrimp, and an antipasto plate. For dinner we had mashed potatoes (according to the recipe the best mashed potatoes ever, and they lived up to the hype), glazed baby carrots and marinated lamb chops. Dessert was first a fig filled with chocolate ganache and covered in dark chocolate then coconut ice cream with a sea salt caramel sauce. My friends cleaned up after dinner, the best gift of all.
My father was the official barbecue chef, not unusual as men tend to the fire, a leftover skill I suppose from cavemen. He used a hibachi. He’d sit outside, have a drink or two and keep an eye on the meat. My mother made her potato salad. The meat varied. There was chicken, or sausage, including Chinese sausage, steak tips and once in a while pork chops. When I was a kid, it was always hot dogs and hamburgers.
Before he bought a hibachi, my father had a regular size grill. He’d load it with briquets then use charcoal fluid to help along the briquets. He was a believer in the more fluid the quicker the fire. I can remember hearing a whoosh and then seeing a flame rise into the air from the grill. I remember when the cuff of my father’s pants caught on fire. He got off his chair and stomped around. He also kept a canvas tarp near him to smother the flames which were inevitable. Amazingly, my father always cooked the meat perfectly.
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May 3, 2018 at 1:06 pm
That dinner sounded delicious! Especially the dessert 🙂
I’ve never been that much for BBQ to be honest. I like to grill a sausage or a few but that’s it so I don’t even have a grill any more. Well I have the electric one but it’s not the same and I do grill sausages in the fire stove sometimes 🙂 🙂
I had to scrape ice from the car windows this morning, have to say that I was a bit surprised to see all that ice 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
May 3, 2018 at 3:40 pm
Christer,
That dinner was just perfect from start to finish.
I have both a charcoal and a gas grill. The gas is far easier to use and the temperature can be managed. In the summer I grill a lot.
Last night was warm enough that I had my bedroom window open all night. Today too I have windows open. The air smells great. I’d have hated to see frost on the window.
Enjoy the day!
May 3, 2018 at 3:20 pm
I have zero interest in barbequing, We have one, Mrs MDH will use it or my son if he comes over. Otherwise I have no desire to be involved.
In my own defense, I am the master of cleaning up and have no problem in dealing with the chaos associated with the preparation of a meal.
May 3, 2018 at 3:45 pm
My Dear Hedley,
My father considered it his responsibility and his alone. When I’d visit for the weekend, my mother always had a Q.
I’d take the cleanup man in a heartbeat. I prepared the meal and cleaned up as I went along so my friends cleaning up after was wonderful.
May 3, 2018 at 4:52 pm
What a perfect mouth-watering dinner! I’m hungry now…
May 3, 2018 at 5:32 pm
Birgit,
We all cleaned our plates! Everything was delicious. I am so excited to have some leftovers for dinner tonight!
May 3, 2018 at 11:52 pm
Your dinner sounded wonderful. I love lamb chops but they are not what my spouse likes or will even eat. However, she fixes (A Texas term for preparing) them for me and that must be love. 🙂
Although grilling outside on charcoal from a bag may be called barbecue it’s really grilling. Barbecue is smoking meat indirectly using hardwoods such as Post Oak or Mesquite wood. Beef brisket or pork ribs takes about 12 to 14 hours at about 250 F degrees. A grilled hot dog or hamburger tastes great but calling that barbecue it just insulting real barbecue.
A solid line of thunderstorms roared through around noon and dropped a lot of rain, wind and lighting but no hail or thunderstorms. Another round is forecast for tomorrow morning.
May 4, 2018 at 12:16 am
Bob,
My guests are my only friends who love lamb so I take the opportunity to serve it. It is love tat your wife cooks lamb for you!
I found a page of all things barbecue: https://amazingribs.com/barbecue-defined
That article says, “Barbecue has many meanings. The bottom line is that it is a cooking method that produces smoke. It often involves flame for heat. Barbecue is also a cooking device that produces the smoke. In addition, barbecue is an event, usually festive and outdoors, at which food is barbecued on a barbecue. And finally, barbecue is a flavor produced by cooking with a barbecue, often with a sweet ketchup based sauce called barbecue sauce, on a barbecue at a barbecue event. Unless it is cooked on an electric barbecue, with any other sauce you like, and eaten alone indoors.”
It seems that your smoker is just one example of the definition.
We’ll have the last warm day tomorrow before colder days return.