A Hawaiian Inspired Dinner

I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a BBQ menu for dinner on Sunday. We were having our friends C and D over for dinner and this was the first time they were going to taste my cooking. I wanted it to be special but I didn't feel like making burgers, hot dogs and potato salad - my usual BBQ fare. Then I remembered the excellent meal we'd had at C and T's last month and decided to use that as my inspiration.

For starters SP wanted to do a taste test of two different wing sauces: the traditional Frank's:


... and Texas Pete's:


The consensus was that Frank's was world's better. We all liked the tang of the Frank's and found that while Texas Pete's was spicy, there was no zip, no pizazz.

For side dishes I made a Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad that I first saw on JoJo's blog:


Once I saw the recipe I knew it would be good, but I had no idea how good. This was fantastic in every way. The only changes I made were that I grilled the corn (and probably used way more than 2 cups since I had 5 ears of corn) and I used seeded fresh Jersey tomatoes but otherwise I followed the recipe. SP thinks it was the fact that the salad was served at room temperature that made it so great. Honestly, I don't know. All I know is that this is now my go-to corn salad. The corn I got at the farmer's market was sweet and succulent and it married perfectly with the creamy, buttery avocado and the ripe tomato. The brightness of the cilantro and lime juice brought everything together. Our friends couldn't stop eating it. A definite winner.

I knew I wanted to serve pineapple rice and luckily a friend had a good recipe.


I used basmati rice because we love the flavor (and it smells divine while it's cooking), but I misread the recipe and ended up with 4 cups of rice instead of 2. It made plenty for 4 hungry people with enough for leftovers, but there wasn't enough pineapple, cilantro and serrano for my taste. Next time I'll double those ingredients to match the rice.

I also made skewers of various vegetables:

... including pineapple, mushrooms, green pepper and red onion, as well as chicken and sirloin steak marinated in lime, lemon and pineapple juices, ginger, vodka and garlic:




Unfortunately it rained while we were grilling so we couldn't eat outside, but we had just as much fun indoors. Here's my plate:


... with plenty of pineapple rice, corn salad and skewers. As if that wasn't enough, C made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing:


By now you should know of my obsession with cake, so this was the perfect ending to a scrumptious meal.

Rainy Day BBQ

I know I've said it before but I feel like I need to say it again - I love Cook's Country magazine. When I saw a recipe in the latest issue for Slow Cooker Barbecue Shredded Beef I knew it would be amazing even though I was slightly skeptical about making it in my slow cooker. I've never had much luck with my slow cooker, but this turned out great. We invited my mom and stepdad over for a little impromptu indoor BBQ.


I served the sandwiches on soft, pillowy rolls that had just enough substance not to disintegrate but were light enough not to compete with the meat.

I've been meaning to try Ina's Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread from her new cookbook:


... and it did not disappoint. Slightly spicy from the jalapenos and scallions, rich and moist from the cheddar and milk, this was a real winner. But as you can see from the tower of cornbread, it's enough to feed an army. SP prefers a sweeter cornbread, so I might experiment by adding more sugar next time to see if I can get a whole sweet-savory thing going on.

Mom brought coleslaw made with fresh veggies from their vegetable co-op box:


... and because we didn't have enough food, SP made wings as an appetizer while we waited for the meat to finish cooking:


We bought a huge pack of chicken wings at the wholesale club not realizing until it was time to put them in the oven that we had gotten whole chicken wings, not the pre-butchered wingettes. Luckily I'd recently seen a TV chef break up chicken wings so I had some idea what I was doing. A sharp knife and a little time and I got those wings separated with no problem.

And for dessert, pumpkin gems from the local farmer's market: