<p>What are you serving? Any recipes you care to share?</p>
<p>Cheese tortillini with pesto at room temp</p>
<p>the usual: Hamburgers, hot dogs and cilantro/beer/garlic marinated chicken</p>
<p>salads fruit…ice cream sandwiches (homemade) brownie sundaes</p>
<p>margaritas/sangria/wine/beer/ice tea</p>
<p>Bobby Flay flank steak for me.</p>
<p>Thinly slice a couple cloves of garlic and deep fry them like potato chips in a couple TBS of olive oil. Set aside to cool.</p>
<p>Grill whole red bell peppers and thick slices of vidalia onion, till slightly charred. Coarsely chop and toss in a bowl with the garlic slices, some minced parsley, salt, pepper, a dash of balsamic vinegar, and the olive oil used to fry the garlic.</p>
<p>Grill the flank steak, thinly slice, and top with the veggies above…</p>
<p>It is so good!</p>
<p>Ribs, corn on the cob, some kind of slaw, honey corn bread, fresh fruit and ice cream… Lightly oil and pat ribs with dry rub, encase in aluminum foil, bake at low oven for 4 hours, finish on grill.</p>
<p>Hi! I need to bring an appetizer or two to a small family gathering. We are having teriyaki steak on the grill as the main course. It will be 6 adults total. We will drive 1.25 hours to get there. I won’t be able to make anything until Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning (leaving around 1:30 pm). </p>
<p>I welcome some suggestions - probably should include something on the healthy side, and nothing too adventurous (some picky eaters).</p>
<p>Some kind of fruit platter is always appetizing on a hot summer day, college-query. Or the type of fruit collection that comes in the edible arrangements: [Edible</a> Arrangements® Fruit Baskets, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Fruit Bouquets](<a href=“http://www.ediblearrangements.com/]Edible”>http://www.ediblearrangements.com/)</p>
<p>college-query – how about a pasta salad? With a vinaigrette dressing vs mayo. I have made the chocolate dipped strawberries before but I don’t think they would last 1.25 hours in the car.</p>
<p>I love making mozzarella/cherry tomato/basil leaf balls. I marinade in light vinaigrette dressing, put on skewers. They travel well (I would put in cooler with ice pack) and look really pretty and are easy finder foods.</p>
<p>We have a cove party every year. It’s our take on a block party, but for the people who live in our cove here on the lake. Everyone brings something, this morning I found the most magnificent heirloom tomatoes at the farm stand and I bought 10 pounds of them! All they need is a little salt and pepper! But since I need to show up with more than just produce, I am making this
[Carolina</a> Pulled-Pork Sandwiches Recipe at Epicurious.com](<a href=“http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Carolina-Pulled-Pork-Sandwiches-101803]Carolina”>http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Carolina-Pulled-Pork-Sandwiches-101803)
It is one of my stand bys and it is scrumptious</p>
<p>One comment on the pulled-pork recipe: 165 degrees is certainly fully cooked and would be fantastic! But, if you can hold your smoker to 225 degrees, you can take the meat all the way up to 190 to 195 degrees. That’s the internal temperature at which the meat will literally fall or pull apart with a fork. This only works if the oven temp is low (or if you are braising meat in liquid that can’t go above boiling – like a pot roast).</p>
<p>The problem is that it takes 12 to 14 hours at 225 for a 6 pound pork butt.</p>
<p>I’m not serving anything, but my friend is serving clam boil and shrimp on the grill. I’m bringing sour cherry pie - got the cherries at the farmer’s market on Saturday. My new favorite pie.</p>
<p>College<em>Query, my favorite approach to appetizers is to get filo cups and fill them. If you are really lazy you can fill them with store bought carponata. It’s good with creamed spinach or sauted mushrooms too. Last time I put romesco sauce in them. You can make the sauce and put it in a jar and assemble them when you get there. I put a little shaving of manchego cheese on top. Capers are also cute. This is the romesco sauce recipe I use: <a href=“http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/prosciutto”>http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/prosciutto</a></em>wrapped<em>scallops</em>with<em>romesco</em>sauce. It’s also really good with those scallops and prosciutto, but maybe not for the non-adventurous.</p>
<p>If you really want non-adventurous - deviled eggs or white bread tea sandwiches. Cut off the crusts, cut into quarters and fill them with egg salad, or turkey and cranberry, or cucumber and butter, or cream cheese and chutney.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, do you have a link (or other source) for the Bobby Flay flank steak recipe? I’d love to try it!</p>
<p>I don’t remember where I got the Bobby Flay recipe. It might be from one of his cookbooks (I think I have all of them…), but I think I saw him cook it on his orginal Food Network show, the one where he and friends stood around a counter and cooked.</p>
<p>Anyway, I pretty much gave the recipe above.</p>
<p>Assuming you are doing a full flank steak:</p>
<p>1) Peel and slice three or four cloves of garlic (Flay probably did 10 cloves!). Sautee the garlic slices in a tiny skillet with a couple TBS of olive oil until they are golden brown like potato chips. Remove and cool. Save the oil. Flay just put the whole slices in the veggies. I usually coarsely chop them. Both ways work.</p>
<p>2) Peel two large vidalia onions and slice into two or three slices – half inch to an inch thick. You are going to just throw these on a very hot grill and let them cook. Doesn’t matter if they char black on the outside. They can be well cooked, nearly raw, or anywhere in between. I usually char them and then throw them off to the side of the grill while I’m grilling the meat.</p>
<p>3) At the same time you are grilling the onions, grill two whole red bell peppers. Just put them on the grill and keep turning them. If you char the outside, that’s OK. Just take a paring knife and scrap the black skin off, leaving a few black charred bits. Or sometimes I go easy on them, just give them some grill marks, and then put them off to the side to cook a little more. Either way works.</p>
<p>4) Chop a bunch of parsley. If you like parsley, chop a lot. Or chop a little. This is pretty flexible recipe.</p>
<p>5) Salt and pepper the flank steak and grill it over a red hot fire. I find that it generally takes about 10 minutes (five minutes per side) to get it medium rare to medium, but it could be 8 minutes. It could be 12 minutes.</p>
<p>6) Slice the cooked onions and peppers, throw them in a mixing bowl with the garlic, the saved garlic olive oil, the parsely, salt/pepper, and a dash or two of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (or any other kind of vinegar). Toss it all together and spoon it over thin slices of flank steak on the plate. This becomes your sauce and your veggies!</p>
<p>On occasion, I grill some sliced summer squash and throw that into the veggie mixture as well. Or, just serve it as a side veggie. Grilled portobello mushrooms might make interesting addition to the topping, too.</p>
<p>It’s the crispy fried garlic slices that drive the flavor of the dish.</p>
<p>mozzarella/cherry tomato/basil leaf balls - is this done with toothpicks?</p>
<p>We are having standard fare: hot dogs and burgers (well, some of the "hot dogs are chicken-apple sausages). But I decided to also prepare (a weight watcher’s recipe!) some grilled cheese-stuffed jalape</p>
<p>The appetizer suggestions look yummy. But unfortunately our picky eaters are very picky, so I don’t think will work for this event.</p>
<p>I’m taking the easy route - I remembered we have a huge bag of tortilla chips left from S’s graduation party, which are unopened and have an August expiration date. H had put them “away” so I forgot about them. Will pair with various dips - salsa, guacamole, and a queso blanco. I also have raw veggies and ranch dip. I know everyone will like something, and there are healthy options.</p>
<p>churchmusicmom, my S loves very spicy food. I was preparing something for him with a habanero pepper (at his request). I cut them up, and even though I washed my hands thoroughly, I could “taste” the hot pepper on my fingers for days. S decided to try eating one of the seeds from the habanero. Then he made the mistake of later rubbing his eye with his hand that had touched the seed. He was screaming in pain! Flushed the eye with cold water and he was okay, but boy, was it potent!</p>
<p>We are going to an annual 4th party with family friends with a lovely home on the water with a big kitchen. This is our 5th year of attending their party, and it’s always such a nice dinner and congenial atmosphere. This year I volunteered to bring more food, and the mom of the family is not well today. Their D is bringing corn and appetizers; another guest is bringing dessert. We are bringing all the rest. Here is our list:
potato salad
watermelon-tomato salad
cold roasted asparagus
garlic foccacia bread
BBQ ribs
cold grilled salmon
fresh-caught crab</p>
<p>I should be cooking instead of reading CC!</p>