I guess I've been making it a point to enjoy my summer to the best of my ability this year. This seems to translate into my being away from Philadelphia a lot of the time...which, I've begun to think, does not bode well for the impending busy season that will tether me to the city like that sad, sad boxer was kept in a medium closet-sized cage next to my great Aunt Helen's house in Fairfield, Pennsylvania. Man, that was a sad and scary dog. Point being: I did manage to find myself in Philadelphia for at least one full weekend. Perhaps I found myself there because I decided to have a barbeque, but nevermind. I made two dips, a tomato, basil, cream cheese dip (using Amish-grown Big Boy Tomatoes, basil from my roommate's basil supply and cream cheese from Philadelphia...kind of), which was terribly and wonderfully amazing...and my standard artichoke, lots of cheese and maybe a little spice and mayonnaise dip that I have been making since M. taught me how to make it when we were teenagers.
When I first started planning this barbeque I imagined a
barbeque similar in its people-construction to the one S. and I threw soon after his arrival last year or that of last year's
4th of July celebrations. The crowd was most definitely not identical, though there were some overlaps and a number of new faces. I meant to take a lot more photographs of myself and other people, I even put on lipstick for this purpose, but I got sidetracked by grilling and beer. L. and C. came, with a 40 pound bag of ice and a case of Amstel Light. E., an old-old friend from my younger days came with pie (by that I mean I knew her when I was in third through eighth grade-ish), C. came with Coronas and ketchup...is it weird that now I'm just telling you what everyone brought? It's kind of weird.
It turned out that my barbeque day was a hellish 99 degrees. Seriously. It was ridiculous. We all took to putting ice and ice packs on our arms and backs to keep cool. Well, not all of us, but some of us...myself included. We assume that it was such an errant ice pack that precipitated one of our deck tables disintegrating in front of our very eyes. First, there was a small but audible crack...then a small, but isolated, plunge of glass. We all looked at one another, noting that something had happened,
seeing with our very eyes the glass bits at our feet and yet, somehow, we didn't really understand what was about to happen. Next, another, much louder CRACK! More glass falling, now on the opposite side of the first shower of debris. At this point most of us realized that the table was cracking and that anything that might be on it would soon be on the ground. I can say that no beer or dip or chips were harmed in the destruction of the table. Basically, it was so hot that when one person laid a dramatically cooler ice pack on the table...or maybe just a cold beer...the collected heat of the glass went 'aw, hell no' and constricted. The glass parts looked the same as what my rear-view window
looked like after the bottle was
thrown through it.
I went to Reading Terminal market for many of my barbequeing (why can I not spell this word?) needs but I found it very perplexing to find pork tenderloin. In fact, somehow, all I could see or get was pre-packaged tenderloin. I mean. Come on. The point of going to a place in such a location, with such foot traffic and, I guess (?) reputation, is the belief you could find everythint you were looking for...in terms of fresh, sometimes specialty, meat. Maybe I"m being naive. Maybe I missed the pork tenderloing mecca? I don't think so, really, I walked the aisles, the highways and byways with no tenderloin luck. Probably - I mean, I could have missed something. The point is that I actually bought the pork tenderloin from Whole Foods. Then I brined it with salt, sugar, honey, garlic cloves, crushed rosemary and something else or so. I don't bother pretending when I've made something that is pretty good. I also think I can be honest when something fails, and believe you me some of the meals I make (and eat) are less than fantastic. But this? This pork tenderloin? It was really good.
I did get C. to take a few photographs of L. and me.
I also mixed up a fair amount of ground beef for burgers, adding a little of this and a little of that. Some of 'that' included chopped green olives, which took Mr. Ass by surprise. I was tempted to claim divine cooking inspiration, but I decided being honest was better. I would credit E. (I can't find a single appropriate link for E. but she is great and she must be on the internet somewhere) for introducing me to the olive/burger idea back when she threw burger nights.
They were good burgers, but I think the pork might have been better. I also bought far more sausage than this barbeque needed and of which no photographs were taken. Though S. (there was a strong 'I went to high school with you' percentage at the party with S., P. and L. in attendance), Ak and I did sample a piece of each kind of sausage I purchased.
At times it was a kind of bizarre (not by any grand pooh ba of bizarre standards) mix of people. S.'s friends T., K., S. and M. also came over and I had coworkers and people I have known since I was eight and thirteen respectively. That's just how I roll...I kick it old school. What?
When I first started planning this barbeque I imagined a barbeque similar in its people-construction to the one S. and I threw soon after his arrival last year or that of last year's 4th of July celebrations. The crowd was most definitely not identical, though there were some overlaps and a number of new faces. I meant to take a lot more photographs of myself and other people, I even put on lipstick for this purpose, but I got sidetracked by grilling and beer. L. and C. came, with a 40 pound bag of ice and a case of Amstel Light. E., an old-old friend from my younger days came with pie (by that I mean I knew her when I was in third through eighth grade-ish), C. came with Coronas and ketchup...is it weird that now I'm just telling you what everyone brought? It's kind of weird.
It turned out that my barbeque day was a hellish 99 degrees. Seriously. It was ridiculous. We all took to putting ice and ice packs on our arms and backs to keep cool. Well, not all of us, but some of us...myself included. We assume that it was such an errant ice pack that precipitated one of our deck tables disintegrating in front of our very eyes. First, there was a small but audible crack...then a small, but isolated, plunge of glass. We all looked at one another, noting that something had happened, seeing with our very eyes the glass bits at our feet and yet, somehow, we didn't really understand what was about to happen. Next, another, much louder CRACK! More glass falling, now on the opposite side of the first shower of debris. At this point most of us realized that the table was cracking and that anything that might be on it would soon be on the ground. I can say that no beer or dip or chips were harmed in the destruction of the table. Basically, it was so hot that when one person laid a dramatically cooler ice pack on the table...or maybe just a cold beer...the collected heat of the glass went 'aw, hell no' and constricted. The glass parts looked the same as what my rear-view window looked like after the bottle was thrown through it.
I went to Reading Terminal market for many of my barbequeing (why can I not spell this word?) needs but I found it very perplexing to find pork tenderloin. In fact, somehow, all I could see or get was pre-packaged tenderloin. I mean. Come on. The point of going to a place in such a location, with such foot traffic and, I guess (?) reputation, is the belief you could find everythint you were looking for...in terms of fresh, sometimes specialty, meat. Maybe I"m being naive. Maybe I missed the pork tenderloing mecca? I don't think so, really, I walked the aisles, the highways and byways with no tenderloin luck. Probably - I mean, I could have missed something. The point is that I actually bought the pork tenderloin from Whole Foods. Then I brined it with salt, sugar, honey, garlic cloves, crushed rosemary and something else or so. I don't bother pretending when I've made something that is pretty good. I also think I can be honest when something fails, and believe you me some of the meals I make (and eat) are less than fantastic. But this? This pork tenderloin? It was really good.
I did get C. to take a few photographs of L. and me.
I also mixed up a fair amount of ground beef for burgers, adding a little of this and a little of that. Some of 'that' included chopped green olives, which took Mr. Ass by surprise. I was tempted to claim divine cooking inspiration, but I decided being honest was better. I would credit E. (I can't find a single appropriate link for E. but she is great and she must be on the internet somewhere) for introducing me to the olive/burger idea back when she threw burger nights.
They were good burgers, but I think the pork might have been better. I also bought far more sausage than this barbeque needed and of which no photographs were taken. Though S. (there was a strong 'I went to high school with you' percentage at the party with S., P. and L. in attendance), Ak and I did sample a piece of each kind of sausage I purchased.
At times it was a kind of bizarre (not by any grand pooh ba of bizarre standards) mix of people. S.'s friends T., K., S. and M. also came over and I had coworkers and people I have known since I was eight and thirteen respectively. That's just how I roll...I kick it old school. What?
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