Well Hello Bar B Que!

 

The plants are in the ground, the chairs have been hosed down and put on the porch and the lawn has already seen a few trimmings in the last few weeks.
 Grab the tongs and fire up the grill cause it's barbeque season.
We have been celebrating this grand tradition of the welcoming of spring with an all out Barbeque Bash.
After years of dragging around my step-dad's old grill that he built in welding class, and attempting to get our hands on dry fire wood and sitting back for an hour and a half while we waited for wood to turn to coals, I finally gave in.
   Not to say that I don't appreciate my husband's attempt at grilling, but cooking with wood is tricky and he either waits too long and we have uncooked meat or he cooks it to death. So after many years of sitting in the smoke from the old grill and waiting what seems an eternity for dinner, I broke down and bought a propane grill the first day of Spring Break.
   Hank Hill is smiling somewhere.
And in true Cox tradition, we managed to convince the store clerk to let us take the pre-assembled grill home so we could get to cooking right away.
Shortly after our first few experiences with the new grill, I decided to have a solid week of grilling our dinners, as it's healthier, allows us time on the porch and leaves us with less dishes to clean.
   We have feasted on steaks and chicken and pork and stuffed peppers to our heart's content. And just when I think we've been ka-bobbed to death, I find another culinary compilation of meats and veggies and sauces that I can't wait to try.

 There have been two remarkable meals that won me over the last week. One included Jamie's adequately named "Epic bbq sauce."
   As Jamie points out, this recipe has loads of layers of flavors and it's relatively easy to make because it uses a lot of ingredients you already have on hand in your fridge and (thanks to my little herb garden) out on the porch.
   The recipe in my book varied a little from the link I provided above, but it included balsamic vinegar, ketchup and olive oil as the base, and then we added thyme, rosemary, paprika, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, brown sugar, cayenne, S&P and some lemon juice. (It called for orange, but I was fresh out of oranges as I don't live in Florida and we hadn't been to the store in a while.)
  Sweet, spicy, tangy, salty, smoky, acidic... just all around.... how do you say.... epic? Jamie was right.
It wasn't your run of the mill, traditional southern barbeque sauce with full body heavy flavor. It was brighter than that. And as I was mixing it all together, I stuck my finger in to give it a taste and I did the traditional "Jamie" thing. (Eyes wandering around, kind of dancing back and forth with a circular hand gesture, trying to figure out just exactly what it needed a bit more of) I had to laugh at myself when I realized.
    His explanation of barbequeing in his book, 'Jamie at Home,' covers a wide area of circumstances.. He basically included a really good sauce (above) and a few different techniques of grilling based on what type of meat you were using. I've heard Jamie talk about bbqing before and the reason he's so fond of it is because of its simplicity. It's just food and fire. The most basic of techniques and there are so many ways to do it and flavors to be enjoyed. 

   We decided to pair our epic sauce with the suggested pork ribs from Jamie's recipe. The trick with any BBQ, if you're cooking at home, is starting it in the oven and then finishing it on the grill. The end result falls apart, but has a nice crispy outside. So I covered the ribs in the epic sauce and popped them in a low oven for about an hour and then finished them on the grill until slightly charred.
   Here's Jamie's Secret: You take those leftover juices and sauce from the pan and you reduce them so you have something to pour over the ribs when they come off the grill.
I almost didn't do it, but I committed. I'm so glad I did. It was so tasty. We also had my version of stuffed jalapenõs and I looked to Jamie for the other side.
   We took a red onion, quartered it about halfway down and then stuffed it with butter and a spring of rosemary (can't get enough of that herb garden) and wrapped it in foil. We grilled until it was tender and (oh my) it was good. No salt or pepper required on this one. It was a perfect little side dish.

I can't leave out another one of Jamie's sides that we tried this week: Baked sweet potatoes on the grill. They were rubbed with salt, cumin and a little bit of cayenne pepper on the outside and then grilled in foil. When we got to the table we cut them open and hit them with a squeeze of lime. I thought we'd need a bunch of fixings for these potatoes, but I was wrong. Jamie is a master of flavors. Brandon fell in love with this and has already requested it again. It sounds odd, but everyone should give it a try.

The other meal I'm simply dying over was bbq pork and pineapple. I just made up a quick bbq sauce out of some store-bought bbq, salt, olive oil and balsamic. Those skewers, along with some stuffed peppers made for one heck of a treat. I can't wait to do these again. And it was my first time cutting up a pineapple! So there's something new! It was really a great week with good food and minimal clean up.

So we talked it over, and we've decided to extend the grill fest, (or should I say 'feast') for yet another week.

P.S. I spent an hour and a half the other day in Hastings reading Jamie's cookbooks that I don't own yet and I can't wait to get them! Always a good read.