Kickoff to Summer BBQ...

My friend, Debbie at Mountain Breaths, is hosting a Kickoff to Summer two day BBQ event this weekend. Check out her blog at the link above all weekend as other's join in to see many great BBQ posts and recipes.
We eat outdoors almost every night in the summer except the days when it is raining or the heat and humidity force us indoors to central air conditioning.
I usually don't take the time to try and set a pretty table but for Debbie's BBQ party, I picked a fresh centerpiece of peonies and did my best with our "everyday" summer dishes. The plates are what my mother called melmac - unbreakable and durable as well as the glasses and flatware, which are rounded out with paper napkins. Summer's are all about easy living here. Usually I do my best Rachel Ray imitation and see how much I can pile on my handy tray and carry out at one time. Weeknight dinner's such as last night's BBQ are all about quick cooking - I never know when J is coming home and dinner is served anytime between 6:30 and 10 pm.
We enjoy being outside watching the birds and listening to wren songs and the sound of the rock fountain as we eat.
I wish you could smell the peonies...one of my very favorite scents and I have been enjoying smelling it while working in the garden all week.
Oops, since this is a BBQ event, I better head over to the grill. Our menu was veggie kabobs and cedar planked salmon. We love salmon and usually use an old standby recipe which I just noticed is my previous post (sorry about that) so I thought I would try a cedar planked version from allrecipices.com.

Cedar Planked Salmon from Allrecipes.com
INGREDIENTS
• 3 (12 inch) untreated cedar planks
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 (2 pound) salmon fillets, skin removed
DIRECTIONS
1. Soak the cedar planks for at least 1 hour in warm water. Soak longer if you have time.
2. In a shallow dish, stir together the vegetable oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, green onions, ginger, and garlic. Place the salmon fillets in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and marinate for at least 15 minutes, or up to one hour.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat. Place the planks on the grate. The boards are ready when they start to smoke and crackle just a little.
4. Place the salmon fillets onto the planks and discard the marinade. Cover, and grill for about 20 minutes. Fish is done when you can flake it with a fork. It will continue to cook after you remove it from the grill.

My notes: I only used one fillet and one board but the same amount of marinade. This is a great recipe, the salmon was so moist and flavorful!

While we waited for the food to cook, we enjoyed a glass of wine. This is the only part of our everyday grilling post that isn't everyday ;) but hey, this is a BBQ party so I brought out a bottle. I picked a bottle to match the plastic flamingo (flamenco) glasses purchased at one of the wineries we stopped at on the Texas wine trail on our recent riding vacation in Texas.
The photo doesn't do the food justice - it was excellent. Veggie Kabobs were made with baby portabellos, mini sweet peppers, chunks of vidalia onions and fresh zuchinni tossed with olive oil, pepper, seasoned salt and minced garlic.
After the great meal, we just relaxed and enjoyed the garden and company as we watched Hershey being entertained by fish swimming under the bridge.
An hour later we figured we could tackle dessert before heading inside. Summer dessert at our house is usually smores or the lower calorie version of freshly toasted marshmallow, pulled off the fork and a hershey's almond kiss stuffed into the bottom which melts from the heat of the marshmallow...yummy. Grilling dessert was new for me so I did some online browsing. I decided on Grilled Banana Sundaes from the bhg.com website.
The matching pink bowls are huge but we were good and only used two scoops of ice cream.

Grilled Banana Sundaes from bhg.com
• 3 large firm bananas
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter
• 2 teaspoons lime juice or orange juice
• 1/2 cup caramel ice-cream topping
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• Toasted coconut or toasted sliced almonds (optional)

Directions
1. Cut bananas in half lengthwise, then cut each piece in half crosswise. (You should have 12 pieces.) Stir together margarine or butter and 1 teaspoon of the lime or orange juice. Brush mixture on all sides of banana pieces.
2. Place bananas directly on the grill rack over medium-hot coals. Grill, uncovered, for 2 minutes; turn over and grill for 2 minutes more or until heated through.
3. Meanwhile, in a heavy, medium skillet or saucepan combine the caramel topping and the remaining 1 teaspoon lime or orange juice. Heat on the grill rack alongside bananas directly over the coals, or on a stovetop, until bubbly, stirring frequently. Stir in cinnamon. Add bananas and stir gently to coat.
4. To serve, scoop ice cream into 4 dessert dishes. Spoon sauce and bananas atop ice cream. Sprinkle with the coconut and/or almonds, if desired. Makes 4 servings

My Notes: I used orange juice instead of lime juice and at my first read thru I didn't see where to add the 1/4 of a tsp of cinnamon listed in the ingredients. So I added it to the caramel sauce. Then I thought I bet it was to flavor the bananas so I added another 1/8 tsp to the melted butter sauce too - our end result was wonderful. The combo of a warm caramel sauce with cinnamon, a hint of citrus and warm banana with ice cream was so good we will add grilled desserts to our next party. We also used cashews as our topping of choice. I honestly didn't read the cinnamon part in the recipe until this morning when I saw it was to be added to the butter sauce. It was great in the caramel too so next time I'll do 1/4 tsp in the butter to coat the bananas and 1/8 tsp in the caramel.
If I didn't have a tight dress (how do they shrink hanging in the closet anyways?) to squeeze into in 2 weeks, I think I could have eaten a whole bowlful ;) No more desserts, grilled or otherwise, until after June 27th for me and lots of fish & chicken rather than ribeyes as well.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

The next event to be hosted by one of my blogging buddies is Kathleen's "show your whites" white tablesetting event.
This is a quote from her blog telling a little bit more about it.

*******Summer arrives June 21st...get out your summer whites! So many of us have WHITE dishes, I was wondering if you would be interested in a WHITE event..white tablesettings, flowers and foods.. Hey, vanilla ice cream is white, and lots of other things too...anything having to do with food or tables to show us your whites.
Carol, no, your whitening toothpaste won't do!

So plan to join in and head over to Cuisine Kathleen on June 21st to a white-out of fun!