Fire It Up

We had our first official, all-family barbeque blowout on Saturday, capping off a day of festivities in advance of Mother’s Day and my little Bee’s third birthday.

I loves me a barbeque. It has become a weekend tradition at our place, with friends and family knowing that they are welcome to come ‘round pretty much any weekend of the warm months and fire it up with us.

Or I should say, with Chris, as I don’t actually do any of the bbqing. (That’s just one more reason why I love having them.)

I do all the prep, but I am just no good on the grill. It doesn’t help that Chris is a purist and we must cook over charcoal. ‘Otherwise, why not just use the stove?’ is Chris’ response when we are questioned about why we remain old school. At any rate, I don’t even know how to light the thing.

Yes, yes, I know we should make the move to more environment-friendly natural gas (we even have a languishing built-in hookup), but even if we did, I’d probably be hands off. Goes back to a backyard incident when I was a girl – I’ll spare you the details, but something blew up, someone’s head was relieved of its eyebrows, and the whole neighbourhood turned out to watch. And laugh.

My poor, good-natured, eyebrow-less dad.

Anyway, it makes me wary of gas barbeques. And flame in general makes me wary of our Weber, so I let Chris strut his stuff in the great outdoors. It’s what men like to do anyway, if you’ll pardon me some sexist generalization here for a moment, but they do. Give Chris a beer, some tongs, someone to shoot the shit with and some meat, and he’s a happy camper. Lately, the beer has been some apricot-wheat concoction (beer is yummy, and fruity!) and the meat has been elk. (Rudolph is tasty, and organic!)

The mains need little in the way of prep, so allow me to suggest some colourful, healthy grilled sides:

Grilled Veggies – slap some olive oil on chunks of peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, sweet onions and eggplant and get someone who is not afraid of the bbq to grill until almost soft and a teeny bit charred. Toss with a touch of good balsamic. Mmm mmm.

Grilled Corn – Peel back the husks, remove silk, butter them if you like, and twist them back up. Place on grill until done. Try them shpritzed with lime.

Sweet Potatoes – Pierce some holes in them and put ‘em on the barbie.

Grilled Pineapple – cut a big pineapple into big chunks. Mix up 2 tbsp. maple syrup, 1 tbsp. brown sugar and a few good squirts of limejuice. Toss the chunks in this sweet loveliness and grill until pineapple starts to caramelize. You could call this a dessert, but I don’t.

Put some pickled beets, olives and booze on the table, and thank whomever you believe in that winter is finally over.

Comments

[Don Mills Diva]

Several years ago we spent a lot of money on a BBQ called the big green egg. It has been worth every penny. It is a cermaic kiln basically, designed in Japan and it kinda works as a smoker while it BBQs. You can throw anything on this thing and it comes out tasting like the most delicious thing you can imagine. It is also guaranteed for life - I highly recommend it!

[kittenpie]

Misterpie does the barbecuing, too. and while he doesn't love them, he is nice enough to always grill me some zucchini or eggplant. Mmm.

[nomotherearth]

Barbecuing is my #1 favourite way of cooking food! Strange then, that I have never actually bbq'd anything. Mr Earth does that. I also don't clean bbqs. I put my foot down about that one. Thanks for the veggie tips - I usually stir fry, but I've been wanting to try the bbq for them.