Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Had another great summer dinner this weekend at B1 & B2s house. We'd talked about having a "bring your own grill items" night since the start of the summer and by golly it finally happened. Word of mouth invites were passed among our friends and Saturday early evening found us gathering at B1 & B2s house; B2 had the grill heating up, Sierra was shucking corn, Beth was slicing Farm cheddar for burgers, and I was finishing a Farm cabbage coleslaw. The dinner was perfect because we had some staples: coleslaw, cucumber salad, burger fixings and beer, and then wound up with a variety of choices with what everyone brought: B1 & B2 had the burgers, I brought hot dogs, TSO and Brett brought venison pork sausage and lamb sausage, RugbyGirl brought Farm steaks. And the grilled corn--AMAZING! It felt nice to sit around and talk and laugh. If the worst complaints of a summer night are that mosquitoes were present or that the beer wouldn't stay cold enough long eno...

Part of what makes the best summer dinners is the food, but the other equally important part is the company. This past Wednesday Ian and Sascha (his gf and my Kitchen coworker), Jay and Pico came over for a grill out at my cabin; what came together was a Farm meal of cosmic proportions: marinated Farm ribeye (beef) steaks; potatoes, (white, red and fingerlings), garlic and onions from Jay's garden; lettuce greens from Sascha's garden; turnips from the Farm's gardens; cranberry lemonades with vodka from my refrigerator.  Ian oversaw the grilling, so the rest of us kicked back and chatted, enjoying the summer early evening. Everything was amazing! Here's how we made everything: Steak: Marinated for 5 hours in olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, maple syrup, oregano, rosemary, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, salt and pepper. We didn't put anything on the steak after it was cooked (medium rare), the marinade left the MOST AMAZING flavor. Potatoes, onions...