I hope that everyone had a great long weekend. We kicked off summer spending a weekend at the beach, where my children had some awesome cousin time and concluded spending Memorial Day at home, taking time to honor our servicemen and women and then an impromptu BBQ.
Before I get to today’s post…these four kiddos brought so much fun to our weekend. But see that last one in line, trying to keep up with the big kids, but starting to run in the opposite direction from the line towards the water? That is my little daredevil who tries to always keep up with the big kids. She is the reason for an early bedtime tonight! Whew!
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There are few things that I like to do more in the summer than host BBQs. I feel like I save recipes all year, and as soon as it is possible to get the grill going, I am making my husband fire it up. So yesterday, as my husband and I were sitting on the beach, I looked over and said, “we don’t have anything going on tomorrow, right?” The “oh s%*&” came across his face, and he knew that he was going to be out there mowing the lawn and cleaning furniture pretty early this morning.
My philosophy for most any gathering is if the host/hostess are in the kitchen the whole time, people get anxious and feel like they should be relaxing too. We decided to keep today very simple and 1) make sure we had enough drinks (I am obsessed with Raspberry Shocktop…yummm), 2) make some of our summer favorites 3)fulfill my pinterest obsession and make some recipes I have drooled over.
Our menu for tonight was pretty easy:
- Marinated Steak Tips - Marinated Chicken kebabs - Steamers - Artichoke Orzo Salad (Shhhhh…don’t tell anyone I purchased this at grocery store…cheater!) - Watermelon - Cheesecake strawberry poppers - Little ice cream sundae cups for the kiddosBesides my husband, here are the items that made it possible…
1) Stubbs: if you have not met this marinade yet, please please introduce yourself this summer. We love their beef marinade (and think it is awesome on steak tips), but they do have a bunch of other kinds which I would have to imagine are also pretty delicious. And since there is always an opened bottle of it in my fridge, that is what you get a picture of
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2) Steamers: After going to a cookout a couple of years ago where they had steamers going on their BBQs side burner, I was dying to try making them on my own. Thanks to these great directions/recipe, I am now hooked. We have a little more to do to perfect it on our side (i.e. remember to cut up/serve the lemon that goes with it), but I think these are going to be a winner. Check out the recipe here.
3) Watermelon: yes, just plain old watermelon. Honestly, it is a must for any BBQ, and with how sweet it tasted, it was a great dessert, especially for my 1-year-old who ate two pieces down to the rind!
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4) These items have been all over pinterest. I have now named them Strawberry Cheesecake Poppers, because I literally pop them in my mouth. I saw them on a friend’s facebook status at about 7 am this morning, and I decided that I HAD to make them. I added a blueberry on top to bring out the red, white and blue! They are addictive though, beware!!! Thank you to The Girl Who ate Everything for this recipe!
All in all, I think the food was great, we all had a blast with our friends and the kids went to bed in about 3 minutes.
Did you enjoy your long weekend? Any good recipes you made???
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WOW – I never saw those Strawberry Cheesecake Poppers – they look amazing!! BTW – What’s Raspberry Shocktop?
You sound like the perfect hostess!
they are FABULOUS…and so easy!!! Shocktop is a kind of beer, Raspberry is my favorite kind – yumm!!!!