Happy Independence Day

Today is the Fourth of July, so of course we had a barbecue. Our new outdoor kitchen is finished. We decided to use today as an excuse to get some people over and try out our new grills. I thought we'd try an ambitious menu, drawn from a new cook book: "Planet Barbecue" by Steven Raichlen.

The menu included:
- Santa Maria Tri-Tip (beef)= Californian recipe
- Ginger, Garlic and Honey Grilled Back Ribs (pork) = Cambodian recipe
- Grilled Tofu with Chile Peanut Sauce = Malaysian recipe
- Grilled Bananas = Colombian recipe
- Caramelized Grilled Pineapple = Brazilian recipe
- Rotisserie Onions = Brazilian recipe

And there were various other things, including a summer pudding made by Deep Thought. We were inspired by OEM saying she had made one a couple of days ago. We'd never made one before and were pretty pleased by how it turned out. Like OEM's, ours went onto the plate without falling apart! One of our young friends had also made dessert: decorated cupcakes laid out in the pattern of the US flag (see photo). There were many left over at the end of the meal, and I cruelly made her mother take them all home. Good for me!

The grilling was reasonably successful. The best dish of those listed above was the ribs. Hubby burned them a bit, but it didn't seem to matter too much. The beef was a bit tough, though not sure why. The tofu was fine, but was an incredible faff to make, with an ingredient list as long as your arm that would have been longer if I'd bothered to buy every item called for. I think Hubby learned that both grills get hotter than he expected - and certainly hotter than our old kettle grill, which was consigned to the recycling center yesterday - and so everything is even more inclined to burn than before.

We'll be grilling for 26 people next weekend, and I'm sure there will be even more men around willing to offer their expert advice. It really is a guy thing.