Lamb chop BBQ with the Fam!

This past Sunday we decided to have a little family BBQ.  My Dad had suggested we do lamb, since it had been a while.....probably about a year since any of us had eaten lamb.  Dinner ended up being a group effort and it was a fun afternoon.

 Dad did the meat and the salad, I did the sides (Grilled asparagus, Zucchini squares, and Grilled/marinated Portobellos)with a little help from Lil A who came up with the Portobello recipe

 It all came together nicely and by the end of it we were all sooooooo stuffed!!!!!!!!!!

 (please see previous post for zucchini square recipe)

(Isn't eating out side so great!)

Grilled/Marinated Portobello Caps

• 3 large portobello mushrooms stems removed
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 small chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 balsamic vinegar
• 
  
• Here's what you need to do:
• 1. Clean mushrooms and remove stems, reserve for other use. Place caps on a plate with the gills up.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the oil, onion, garlic and vinegar. Pour mixture evenly over the mushroom caps and let stand for 1 hour.
  3. Grill over hot grill for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
  *We set up the shrooms in little tinfoil bowls and allowed some of the vinegar to drizzle over the side and then popped them on the grill as is (in their homemade little bowls) so that the balsamic on the bottom would thicken and make a nice sweet syrupy gravy.

It's official, Summer is here!

Last weekend T and I started the exciting project of getting the place summer ready!  My Parents drove up for lunch and my dad took T and I to Home Depot with the truck.  We filled her up......to the brim!  there was a patio set, dirt, rocks, plants, planters, and even a barbecue which was a gift from my Dad!
Well we still have some work to do but the space is definitely coming together.  But today was a special day, today we christened the barbecue..... broke her in if you will :-)

I had never tried a charcoal grill before,  it was brilliant!  even before we got any food on there the smell was pure summery heaven!    Anyway we fired her up and let her sit for about 25 minutes getting all toasty and then Wham.....Salmon steaks

 I'm not normally a big lover of fish but in an effort to be more healthy and to make my family more healthy I now eat a lot of things that I never used to really care for .........I wonder if this new introduction of fish to my diet will help my credibility as an east coast girl? :-)

Now comes the best part, and let me give credit where credit is due.......I found this recipe on another food blog that I read @ lekim.ca  if you live in the GTA and like to eat out you should definitely check out her blog!  Any way here I copied and pasted the ingredients and instructions from her posting so you can try it out if you want to.....you do want to it is delicious!

Ingredients:

2 firm-ripe mangoes
1 ripe tomato (substitute only. use 1 red bell pepper)
1/8 red onion (do try fine-slicing correctly, i failed miserably)
1 small handful of cilantro (use your discretion, i’ve got a heavy hand with cilantro)
even smaller handful of thai basil leaves (good with my rations, eh?)
1/4 avocado
pinch (or two) of black pepper
3/4 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (try with peanut oil if you have it)
2 tbsp of lime juice
1/2 tbsp of chili garlic sauce (substitute only. use thai peppers or  fresh chilies)

Instructions:

Peel, pit and thinly slice mangoes lengthwise. Add cilantro, thai basil, red onion, avocado, tomato into a small mixing bowl. Add dressing mixture of fish sauce, olive oil, lime juice and chili garlic sauce(you’ll notice that I don’t use sugar). Mix gently. Note: Gently is key.

Generous heaping of thai-mango-avocado-goodness & served with grilled salmon for dinner.

I tried the recipe and was so happy that I did, it was delish!  Here are my pics, Kim has her own on her blog.....nicer than mine......but I'm proud of my creation, and I don't want to rip off her whole post! lol

Thanks for reading and Happy BBQing!