Family Friendly Labor Day Grill

It's your last chance to grill before school starts! Well, some of you in other parts of the country have already started school, but Labor Day weekend does serve as the other pillar to Memorial Day that means summer is over, fall shall begin.

Here is a post I wrote for Char-broil. It's a recipe for grilled chicken with my secret to sneaking vegetables to my kids without their knowing it. Spoiler alert: I wait till they are so weak with hunger they'll eat anything I put in front of them. No, not really. To find out you'll just have to read the whole post here.

If you feel more like steak this weekend, you should read How to Make Perfect Sear Marks. In that post there is a contest to win a jar of pickles. I know that's not an Ipad or Ipod or I-something, but they are really great pickles, if I may be so bold.

Perfect Sear Marks on your Steak

We all love those perfect crosshatch marks on our steaks It's macho, so they say, but as a woman griller, I'd like to call it Facho (that's the feminine of, um, acho?)

Anyhoo, it's not that hard. Don't let those boys tell you differently or that you need a pair of not-to-be-named body parts we gals don't have. Yes I've actually been told that. To my face. It's a wonder I didn't lash out. Oh right, I totally did. That was quite a hospital bill. No, just kidding. At least I think so. Sometimes my dreams are really really vivid....

Here is the totally FACHO way to get perfect sear marks. It's a post I did for Char-broil so you'll have to click here to read it. This is what is called a teaser. But do click on it. I'm happy with the post and I did part of it in California and part of it in Seattle. Can you guess what photos are from where? First one to get it right gets a jar of pickles mailed to them in the fall. Seriously.

This post just turned into a contest without my even planning it. It's like my fingers are possessed. Or my brain is simply way behind because we're experiencing our busiest catering season ever and I'm so bleary eyed that my hands are now in charge. They certainly have been reaching for a lot of chocolate lately with little to no resistance from my brain. Those hands.

So go read the post and comment on the Char-broil post or here which photo you think was taken in California. Hint: You may want to read the post I wrote while in California. Certain people are excluded. You know who you are.

Big Pig in Big Jim

We've been smoking a lot of whole pigs lately for events, but this particular pig was so big, it didn't fit in our smokers at the shop. We have two Freidrich smokers that have basket carousel inside where you place the meat. It's important to keep the carousel balanced, however, or you can have a derailment. This hog from Kapowsin was definitely going to derail the smokers.

We had to bring in Big Jim, our new-to-us smoker and the larger of our two mobile smoker. Eric slept in the van at the shop in three-hour increments to get this big boy done.

One of the reasons I want to post some photos of the whole hog is because we will be doing a whole hog night for Fare Start in September.

The other reason is because some people don't realize how much the pig...looks like a pig when you smoke it. We are so removed from our food that it can be a little shocking when we see meat so close to its original form and not packaged on a tray with some plastic wrap.

The construction crew who ordered this pig were in hog heaven!

While an apple is traditional, we had a little fun with this one for our client.

Here are some more photos. Eric will claim to have not a marketing bone in his body, but he's the one who set this up and took photos for "whatever" (you know, like our facebook page or our website...).

I didn't crop out the van, his bed for the night.