Hello,
friends! I hope everyone has had a great summer. I've been slacking
on blogging but I have quite a few ideas brewing and plenty of drafts to
work on.
In
early August, I spent a long weekend in Yellowstone (and The Grand
Tetons) with my mom, and some extended family. It was some good family
time, and lots of natural beauty. At every turn in the road, the views
were AMAZING...
 |
| Me in front of the Tetons (hazy day) |
We saw soooooo many buffalo, and I'll tell ya...it never got old.
On the home front...
It
finally got HOT enough for our tomato plant to flourish!! We had a
big, beautiful green tomato sitting on this plant for about a month. We
had a nice hot spell a couple weeks ago and it FINALLY started changing
to yellow and then red, within about 2 days! (We had been wondering
for a while what was going on, but didn't realize they loved the heat so
much.) Since then it's been pretty warm and we have 5 new tomatoes
growing, the second one was just picked today!
Tomato #1 from our front yard tomato plant (that we did not, consciously, plant).
My boyfriend, ceremoniously picking it.
I had to take a picture of the momentous occasion. :-)
We had some chocolate (and assorted topping) covered strawberries.
Just cuz he loves
me. :-)
(I forgot to use my real camera so just have a crappy Instagram
pic.)
And now for the Grilling All The Things portion of this post!
As
I mentioned, it's been warm and the grill has been calling our names. A
few weekends ago our friend invited us over to help him eat a bunch of
abalone he had gone diving for. He did a few preparations of it, and it
was delicious! I was kind of expecting it to be somewhat rubbery, but
it really wasn't. We had small pieces wrapped in bacon, larger
"fillets" straight on the grill, and ceviche. To contribute to the
feast, we brought artichokes and strawberries.
The
grilled artichokes were inspired by a booth at the Ocean Beach Farmer's
Market, where we had purchased a grilled artichoke a month or so ago,
and fell in love. I looked online
for a recipe,
and it was as simple as I thought it would be. You boil them first,
for about 20min or so. (I did that before we went to the BBQ.) Then
cut them in half (from top to bottom) and spoon out the fuzzy stuff.
Then drizzle olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and I also sprinkled
some shredded roman cheese on top and (mostly, so it wouldn't all fall
off in the grill) between the leaves. Throw them on the grill and do
each side for maybe 5-10mins? Depends on the grill's heat. You just
want it to get a little char and melt the cheese. They were a big
hit!! We just ate them plain, no dipping sauces required.
Not
a great phone pic but these grilled strawberries. O.M.G. Seriously
amazeballs. (And amazeballs is not a term I use lightly!) Grilled
strawberries are my new favorite thing.
Balsamic and brown sugar grilled strawberries,
to be precise.
Rinse and cut the tops off (or leave them on, doesn't
matter) of the strawberries. I had 2 baskets because there were 7 or 8
people coming to the BBQ. Then put them in a bowl and pour on some
balsamic, just enough to coat them all but not so much that they are
swimming in it. Give it 5-10 mins to soak in. Then pour some brown
sugar out on a plate and roll the strawberries in it. Let them sit
another 5-10 mins to soak in the sugar, otherwise it will all fall/cook
off on the grill. Pile them up on your skewers (soaked for 20+mins in
water so they don't burn!) and grill them for 10 mins, rotating often to
avoid burning!
The flavor is ridiculously good, and they are all hot
and juicy. We ate them with vanilla ice cream. We will be doing this
again,
soon, and often.
Today
we harvested our second tomato! Talking about how to eat it, we
decided on kabobs. So I grabbed some stew meat (beef), bell peppers,
mushrooms, onions, and more tomatoes (cherry). We marinated the meat in
a teriyaki sauce from our fridge, and then skewered everything
together. Open a bottle of wine, and ta-da!! Easy and delicious Sunday
night dinner.
So,
that's what has been going on with me lately.
I just (this weekend)
got caught up on blog reading after being out in the beautiful wilds of
Yellowstone for 5 days (like 2 weeks ago).
I've been reading lots of
food and, especially, travel blogs lately. Another vacation already
seems in order. Hope everyone has been having a great summer!
Most of this stuff (and many more delicious recipes)
