an awesome four-day, food-filled weekend

Sadly, the awesome 4th of July four-day weekend is coming to an end. It started out cray-cray as I prepared for my annual BBQ (under my new "pergola"), but by Friday, was super-relaxing and fun. Here's a recap of a great weekend packed with good friends, food and fun!

The BBQ

While I will never be Martha Stewart, when it comes to gardening and party throwing, I am getting better. I have a bunch of 4th of July decorations I've been using outside for years. But this year, I decided to make the indoor buffet table look more fun. 

Inspired by a recent Hawaiian birthday party I attended, I created fun buffet table decorations out of red rock candy sticks, blue and white gumballs, and stars and stripes pinwheels I got at Michaels.  

I also used those pinwheels, plus a block of foam and blue painters tape, to create little food labels. (And for those of you making fun of me/my OCD, some people can't eat certain things, so a caring hostess labels things on the buffet table :-p)

Speaking of food, this year, rather than hot dogs and hamburgers, I decided to actually make food that required some thought and prep work. I kept the hot dogs for the kids, but then was debating between shrimp and carne asada. I couldn't make up my mind, so I made both!




Upon hearing I was making grilled shrimp and veggie skewers, a co-worker suggested that -- rather than soak the sticks in water -- I should soak them in white wine. This, he said, would prevent the food from having a popsicle stick aftertaste. So I broke out a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and poured it into a casserole dish and soaked the skewers overnight.







I didn't get around to eating any of my chili-lime shrimp (marinated with a variation on this Bobby Flay recipe) but the veggies I ate, including these gorgeous red onions, tasted great and included no wooden aftertaste. ;)

Last Sunday, after driving by for four and a half years and thinking, "I need to go in there for carne asada one day," I finally went into the Vallarta Market and got carne asada, fresh tortillas, salsa, guac and churros (!!! five minutes from my house!!!). Then I did a test grilling run for family dinner at the 'rents. 

It came out pretty good and, emboldened by my first attempt at making a marinade from scratch (guided by master chef Mom), I searched the interwebs for a similar but slightly different marinade recipe.

I found this one, prepped it Wednesday night with some slight variations so the meat could marinate overnight (that's it marinating at left :) and then on Thursday grilled it up to yummy deliciousness!

I think carne asada is now going to become a staple of summer grill nights! Did I mention is was delicious?




In addition to shrimp, carne asada, veggie skewers, hot dogs and Aidell's yummy chicken apple sausages, we also grilled up corn (with yummy homemade lime butter provided by Diana). Here's the grill in action! Thanks to James and Dad for helping me grill in the heat :)

After grilling, it was time for dessert-a-palooza, with fruits and sweets provided by Diana, Maureen and Erin. Over the last three days, I've tried all of these and can attest, they were all amazeballs! (Note: the recipes I'm linking to are just similar recipes I found online, not necessarily the ones my friends used.)

Hamburger Cupcakes

Berries with cheesecake frosting

White chocolate-covered strawberries

Red, white and blue parfaits

"Brookies"  (aka a brownie with a cookie in the middle!)

Saturday Playday

On Saturday, the poker people (minus one) convened on Maureen's pool for a swim and lots of food, including BBQ leftovers, fruit, In-N-Out french fries, and a lot of new food Maureen felt the need to make us, cuz she's the hostess with the mostess. 

When not eating and swimming, we were entertained -- for a while -- by looking over the deck wall at the street below every 20 minutes to compare and contrast the different "Star Tours" tour buses driving by on their way to Justin Timberlake's gate and security guard booth, then turning around to go back down the hill. One of the tours blares "Sexy Back" as they drive up the hill. We don't like that one. 

Following pool time, I came home to do exciting things like laundry. I also lit the inaugural fire of the season in my chiminea. 

I have decided I might be a minor pyromaniac.... I was highly entertained by keeping the fire going for two hours. I also toasted the marshmallows I wanted to toast on the 4th of July but didn't (see photos of five desserts above) and made some smore's. More yummy deliciousness. Now I need to go figure out how many times I can make it to Pop Physique this week to work off all this food!