Yesterday's Feast (Sorry - No Pics Yet)

FearlessGrill

To celebrate the end of summer, we had about 20 people over for a BBQ yesterday. I love telling people that we'll provide food, and having them show up expecting burgers and dogs. The surprise when they hear the planned menu is priceless. It was even better this time, as we had three professional chefs in attendance, who loved all the food. One of our friend's young son thought our house was a restaurant, which got a good laugh.

We had about 8 dishes - here's what I did on the Egg (and a couple on the gas grill, since my wife didn't tell me ahead of time that she prepared these, and I hadn't worked them into my timetable). My wife also made a few side dishes and another dessert. I'll post details and pics of each of these dishes as we have time to write them up.

Appetizers
- Bloody Mary Chicken Wings (from the Eggtoberfest 2006 cookbook). These were a big hit, since a bunch of our guests aren't big spicy food fans (heathens). They came out really juicy, with a great smoke flavor.

- Figs Stuffed With Goat Cheese Wrapped in Prosciutto. I think my wife made this recipe up, and it came out fantastic. She hollowed out figs, stuffed them with goat cheese, wrapped them in prosciutto, and put a toothpick through to hold them together. I grilled them on my gasser, as the Egg was cooking dinner at this point. The plate never got put down - they were all gone in the 1st pass around through the guests.

Main Course
- Bourbon Marinated Pit Beef with Bourbon BBQ Sauce: I came up with this one by combining a few things. I had seen some nice Pit Beef recipes on the Forum in the past month or so, and wanted to try that. For the marinade, I used the one from the Drunk and Dirty Tenderloin out of Smoke and Spice, and I came up with the BBQ sauce recipe based on a couple that I found on various websites. I cooked the beef rare, sliced thin, and served on rolls with the sauce over it. Big hit - 13 pounds of beef for 20 people - all gone.

- Purple Veggies Stuffed with Bulgur and Dates: Another of my wife's recipes. She hollowed out small eggplants, and cut some purple bell peppers in half. They were stuffed with a mixture of bulgur, dates, and some other things, and then were grilled on my gas grill until the veggies were soft. This came out pretty good, though not great.

Dessert
- Grilled Sugar-Dipped Pineapple. (from WiseOne's Recipes). Sliced pineapple into 1/2" thick rings, coated in butter, dipped in sugar, cinammon, and allspice, and grilled at 450 degrees for 5 minutes per side on the Egg. Poured dark rum over them, and served. We lit a couple on fire for the flambee effect, which was fun. These were absolutely delicious.

I'm still full.

-John

Rascal

Wow!! You really let it all hang out!! 8 - )~~~