Home Cooking Parties forTM
The Story
When we finished the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Garlic dinner, my friend, Kenny was so excited he wanted to do another dinner right away. He loves tasty food and already had a plan to use his new Weber Grill. He brought his grilling cookbook to the dinner table, and the two of us started leafing through it immediately. Without hesitation I was ready to do it. So I said yes and even announced that we would grill every course! Even the soup and salad. As I blurted this out I wondered silently, hmmm, soup is wet and can you grill a salad? I would find out.
I have been grilling food on the barbecue since I was 10. No gas grills back in those days! Under the watchful eye of my father with a garden hose nearby, I did great slabs of ribs, prime beef, chicken, sausages, chops and pinwheel steaks. What do you mean you never had a pinwheel steak? You havent lived!
Some consider me quite handy with a fork and tongs in my hands, but I can remember partially melting the siding off of my bosss house one Saturday afternoon after golf. He insisted I take the tongs and work the grill. Ah, Me, The Expert let the prime steaks flare-up and get out of hand with nary a water pistol in sight! Six-foot flames. At the start I did think, Isnt this grill a little close to the house? Afterwards he quipped, So whats a little siding damage when we still wound up with perfect steaks. We went inside to join the wives and the rest of our golfing buddies and delivered the steaming platter stacked with delight to the table where one of the other golfers promptly splashed salad dressing all over Loraines beautiful curtains. He shook the Viva for his salad with a little too much right hand. Hooked it right into the silk! Funny, but we were never invited back again after golf.
Despite my lifetime grilling achievements, this grilling from beginning to end would be a journey into lands unknown. Grilled soup? Grilled salad? Grilled dessert? What had I gotten myself into? My mind harkened back to the old Honeymooners TV series with Jackie Gleason (my body double), when he would admit at the end of an episode, You know what, Alice? I gotta BIG mouth, a BIG MOUTH! I started my research in the mourning (yes, mourning), and it was my fears, not me, that were quickly laid to rest. Yes, there is grilled soup. YES, YES, there is grilled dessert. YES, YES, YES, there is even grilled salad. How about that!
Lovers of barbecue will love this dinner. It is an adventure at the grill, but even more, in your mouth. Normally, these are restaurant flavors or not in barbecued form at all. The grill champs will also get to sink their teeth and talents into the preparation and cooking of this meal. Sometimes these are the very same characters who bow out of any of this kind of work if it is in a regular kitchen. So you may get full participation from all of the dinner guests with this meal. Enjoy!
Grilling from Beginning to End
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