SIX Days Back
Well today I went out to buy the makings for my BBQ. I have to start early because I do all the cooking myself and past experience tells me it takes about a week. So far we have 50 people coming and all the food should come to about $350. Fortunately the guests bring all the booze and desserts. This entire BBQ is a made from scratch deal so if I seem somewhat anal retentive about it all it's because I am.
FIVE Days Back
Today is the day to make the BBQ sauces, condiments, and glazes. I start with the Butcher's BBQ Sauce because it cooks the longest. Once it's going I start the Daddy-O's Tomato Caper Relish which also cooks a while. The Zesty Sauce and the Lemon-Mustard sauce are just mix-em-up types w/o cooking so they are both finished and in the refrigerator before the other 2 finish cooking.
FOUR Days Back
Time to start on some salads. First is the olive salad which is reasonably quick mix. Hang the yogurt and processed cucumber in cheesecloth, I usually hang it overnight so that all liquid is drained. Then I start the Vidalia Onion Salad which also has to go overnight. I then prepare the baked clam stuffing mix Refigerate all. (I have an extra refrigerator in the basement that I bought just for the BBQ) (My son reminds me that it was also to hold the beer for the all-night pool parties he had when he lived at home).
THREE Days Back
Finish off the Tzatziki dip, finish off the Vidalia Salad and then prepare the chick pea and smoked mozarella salad and the German Potato Salad.
TWO Days Back
Prepare the Couscous Primavera Salad and then start the long process of preparing all the vegetables.I trim the Vidalias being sure to leave the root intact. You then cut them into wedges thru the root. The little piece of attached root makes them hold together on the grill.
ONE Day Back
Today is meat prep day. Trim all the fat and skin off the pork butts, Skin the game hens and nuke them in the microwave. Trim the Shark into individual portions. Trim the London Broils and put them into the "drunk tank" (Last year I made Drunken Lamb. Similar concept but with Gin, Molasses, and soy sauce. I'd buy the legs in the Spring and freeze them until the summer. Still it was costing way too much for the crowds that want it so I switched to steak. Next year it's going to be drunken spareribs)
BBQ DAY - A First Person Narrative
Started early. Pre-heated the grill, heat on one side with a pan over the coals and the grill over the unheated part. Started to soak the hickory chips in a bucket of water. Put the two picnic porks on the grill at 9am and slathered with Butcher's BBQ sauce.
Poured my Zesty coffee BBQ sauce over the game hens to marinate them until they get grilled (Since they are pre-cooked they will be on the grill for 10 minutes at most.)
I turn the pork and baste every 20 minutes. About 4-5 more of grilling hours to go. Then I'll remove the smoker pan, replace the missing grill, Turn on the other side, and use the grill brush. Then I can grill the steaks. After the steaks, then the hens, and after the hens comes the shark.
Prepared fthe grilled vegetables by poring on 1-2 jars of Italian Salad Dressing and tossing well. The grills on my grill are reversable, so after all the meat/fish is cooked I flip the grills over to their flat surface and throw on all the vegetables at once. Because the grill is now flat I don't have to skewer the vegetables. Nothing falls thru.
Gotta go turn the pork.
The smell of the hickory smoked pork has filled the yard. People are salivating. So nice. Put the shark in the marinade.
The pork came out great, like butter, sweet and moist. Pulled all the meat off the bones and placed in the warming oven. The steaks were grilled and rested and then sliced on the bias and put in the warming oven. The hens too. It's about 4pm so the baked stuffed clams are prepared and all the appetizers and drinks are put out. All the meats go back ito the warming oven. The shark is grilled and is put out with all the salads and the other meats. The vegetables are grilled and put out. During all this Luke is making gallon after gallon of his own Sangria in an authentic Spanish Wine Tun I have. Desserts are being put out and many have retired to the basement pool room (I have an antique slate bed pool table from a Lower East Side of NYC pool hall in 1900. Solid mahogany). My kids and their friends take over the clean-up and I was relieved of that work. Thank God! By any measurement the BBQ was a huge success. Despite the quantity of food there usually isn't a scrap left. Some 20 people sleep over. I usually sleep for 12 hours!
| HOME |
| APPETIZERS |
| BARBEQUE |
| BEEF |
| SOUP |
| PORK |
| POULTRY |
| SEAFOOD |
| VEGETARIAN |
| SALAD |
| DESSERTS |
| CANNING |
| CONTACT |
 "Woman In the Cosmos" Salvador Dali |
