And what better way to start such a big event than with LOTS of butter!?
All that butter, some flour, ice water, and a TON of herbs went into making two big tart shells. The good news is there's some leftover dough in the fridge that I should turn into something more "Brett friendly" this weekend...
One of the fun challenges of summer is to see how you can use up all the zucchini you're getting out of the garden. One of the old reliable methods is zucchini bread. LOTS AND LOTS of zucchini bread, which, if you're casual with your measuring, can use up LOTS AND LOTS of zucchini! >;-) Here's the beginnings of a double batch of zucchini bread, which made four loaves (which I forgot to put out at the cookout, so I just gave away a loaf or two). It was supposed to be four cups of shredded squash. It was more like 5+ cups.
Around the same time I bought a big jug of Madagascar Vanilla from King Arthur Flour, mom and dad came back from somewhere tropical on one of their vacations, and mom brought me some KICK ASS mexican vanilla!! I LOOOOVE just opening the bottle and smelling it. It's much sweeter, and perhaps more floral, than the usual stuff you buy. (Peter noticed the list of ingredients included corn syrup. Oh. Hm. Is this bad in vanilla? OH WELL! YUM! The stuff smells and tastes great!) Lately, since I have a hard time deciding which of the two vanillas I want to use, I'll sometimes go with 1/2 and 1/2...which I did for the double batch of zucchini bread. Check out the differences in the two vanillas after they were poured into the vegetable oil. The mexican vanilla is lighter (with the bottle at the top left), and the madagascar vanilla is much darker, and it's bottle is bottom left.
I put Peter in charge of a few things for the party, one of which being to roughly chop up all the veggies I'd picked for grilling. They sure didn't seem like much as I was digging up onions, picking zucchini, summer squash and patty pan, grabbing a few green bell peppers (and even some hot ones!), and swiping every dinky little eggplant the garden had to offer. Once he had 'em chopped, I dumped in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and the last of my Penzey's Greek Oregano (which is sooooo amazing, even compared to homegrown oregano!).
Peter's knife skills also came into play when I needed a bunch of diced squash for the tarts. Wow - check that out - it's no wonder he actually got BLISTERS while cutting the squash. How's your hand Peter?
It seems all good veggie tarts need shredded cheese - here's some pricey Grueyere...
While Peter was dicing, I made fast work of more squash on the mandolin. These thin slivers were lightly salted and allowed to sit to drain of some of their natural liquid.
Aside from too much squash, another sure sign of summer is basil. Beautiful green basil!
And a few days before, I was lucky enough to beg some ripe tomatoes off a coworker and her husband. BIG thanks to Margaret and Jeff - they're the only ones I know who have such amazingly ripe tomatoes already here in NE Ohio! Jeff's a big fan of these Dick's Big Italian tomatoes - they LOOK like giant paste tomatoes with a point on the tip, but they're really great tasting raw (not something you'd normally expect from a paste tomato). We'll come back later to the miracle Peter worked with these tomatoes, some we bought at a local market, and the basil...
Here I am out grilling the veggies (I think this was batch two of three!)...
We put Conrad to work on some of the outside prep - cleaning chairs, getting things set up, etc.
Peter's clearly giving those tomatoes a stern lecture!
And then the people started showing up! We set the start time for 5pm, but then more folks said they wouldn't make it til around 6pm, and unfortunately I don't think I had us actually eating til 7pm, but at least I think people were mingling well and having fun while I cooked. I think I was starting to feel the effects of an infection from a bug bite I'd gotten that morning around this time, plus the stress of trying to make it all perfect, so unfortunately I didn't mingle as much as I should've. BTW - Cindy's probably not as out of focus from wine as this picture might appear. I was rushing with my picture taking!
Ahhhh finally! It might not look like a ton of food here, but this is two of the chickens from the previous weekend's chicken slaughter (took FOREVER to thaw them out!), all chopped up. The combination of their freshness, their wholesome upbringing, and the marinade had these birds tasting GREAT once they came off the grill! Thanks Bluebird Meadows/Chicken Thistle Farm for a great experience AND great food!
Looks like I wasn't the only one snapping pictures of food! There's Brett, Kattie and Conrad WAAAAITING for food!
Mmmmm - here's the "Dallas Dandy" brisket I smoked the day before. This stuff marinated for 24 hours, then got smoked for about 3, and then finished up in the oven over about 4 hours maybe? I had it all done the day before, pulled it apart, sliced it up, and then just reheated it in time for the party. I was amazed at how small 10lbs of meat appeared after that full process, but it went over great, everyone was well fed, and there was leftovers!
One of the two finished leek and squash tarts. This doesn't look very "lattice-topped" after I've sliced it into wedges, but it did taste good!
Time to start lining up the food and fixin's!
Mmmm more food!
Dave E. brought the great sundried tomato pasta salad in the upper left, Carol & Dave G brought the Meditteranean potato salad (bottom center), both cucumber salads (one with onions and vinegar, one asian) came from my garden, as did all those green beans.
Mary went out to a friends house earlier that morning and got a couple dozen ears of corn. After Mary, Dave G and I shucked it, and SAVED all the shuckings for MARY'S compost, I crammed them all in a roasted and steamed them on the stovetop til they were just perfectly cooked.
Remember Peter's project with the tomatoes and basil? Well, add in some tomatoes we bought at the local market, plus some fresh mozz I'd picked up, and...voila!
Back center is the grilled veggies from my garden, and bottom right is the amazingly good beer bread Andy & Kattie brought. Andy used local beer for the beer bread, which had a dark, earthy taste, and then he also roasted up some garlic, which he combined with olive oil and local butter for an amazing spread that paired incredibly well with the bread.
More of the feast food!
I swiped this one from Peter's blog - I thought it was a great pic of Peter and Sharon, who'd never actually met in person before, but must've felt like they'd known each other for years online!
Cindy's wondering when I'm going to give permission to start eating, while Conrad and Carol start claiming their spots.
I'm sure Carol and Mary are arguing over who gets the most grilled chicken here! Then there's Kattie & Andy M. deciding whether or not Kattie's willing to eat the chicken AFTER she had me describe the slaughtering process, and then there's Andy H. digging in to some of the food.
Andy H's helping himself to some of Dave E's really good pasta salad. (Yes, we have too many Dave's and Andy's in our lives!)
Here's Mary's husband Jim plating up!
Hiiiiii Jiiiiiim! (Ok, so maybe I should've sat somewhere in the middle instead of at the end of the table. I feel like I missed out on a lot of what was going on - but that might've also been the wine + the infection)
You can't even see everyone here... At the back center is Jim. Down the left from back to front where Andy M, Kattie, Conrad, Peter, Brett, Cindy and Dave G. Down the right side were Mary, Carol, Sharon, Andy H, Dave E, Randy and Larry.
Next time we do this I'll make sure I get EVERYONE'S face - that should be a real adventure! It seems like the local wines we picked up earlier that day are going over REALLY well!
Time for seconds and/or dessert!
Sharon made a rhubarb pie that I heard was really good (I'm not a rhubarb person, so even though I DID try it, it wasn't for me), Larry whipped up some great peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes, plus we had a white and a chocolate angel food cake, layered with freshly whipped cream, and served with mixed berries. Considering the surrounding two week period had birthdays for Peter, Dave G AND Andy H....well, we had to have cake!
As darkness settled in, we fired up the citronella candles to fend off the mosquitoes and make it easier to see who we were talking to.
I wish I could've relaxed and enjoyed the party a bit more - I was a bit frantic, not realizing I had a staph infection kicking in, causing a headache and fever....but even with that, I had a GREEEEAT time! We had a wonderful time with many of our friends joining us, the food people brought was great, I had fun touring the yard with people (explaining which items were just weeds!), etc. Plus people were amazing at helping with clean up - Peter and Brett cleaned up so many of the dishes! Thanks so much to all who came and shared a wonderful evening with us - hopefully we can do the same again next year (and hopefully next year we'll have ripe tomatoes before the 1st of August!)
4 comments:
Ok, that all looks like fun and deliciousness right there. I wish I lived in OH so I could crash your BBQs!
Do you even know how very much you guys rock? No really. Totally. it was such an amazing dinner - very good friend, your company, all the others, relaxing. We loved it.
Knife skills? The picture is pretty, but I got blisters in part because my knife skills are so very poor.
:-)
Wonderful pics, Jeph. Good looking food and even better looking friends! ;-D
Looks like it was such an awesome time!
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