Monday, May 19, 2008

Fun weekend at a Foodie's House Party


We had a memorable ending to a fun weekend at J&M's place on a beautiful, warm Sunday afternoon where we sampled a new (to us) bottle of white wine, and learned a wee bit about bee-keeping (J's new hobby), new organic markets in the area, kids' summer activities and made some new friends while our kids squealed with delight as they played with two 12-year-olds and a 7-year-old who were all around the 5-acre backyard. My kids also played with their gentle 10-year old retriever, chased their poor cat around the front yard, waved at a fox that went trotting across the field a short distance away and ride around on their friends' old barbie jeep.

We also had the pleasure of tasting a superb dinner of BBQ pork ribs and pork shoulder that J started on his impressive Weber Ranch Kettle grill (he said that size doesn't matter, but that was a great looking charcoal grill!) May even convince me to give up the convenience of my gas grill for charcoal. But maybe not. He started bbq-ing since 7 am that morning, and had to replace the coals about every hour til for about ten hours. And the results were impressive. The meat was beautifully seasoned with a dry rub and was fell off the bone. J also had a tangy, spicy homemade sauce that was perfect with it. Not forgetting the wonderful honey cornbread baked in an cast-iron skillet, home-made BBQ beans (I saw the chunk of pork knuckle that was cooking in it and gave it such depth and flavor), and the wonderful coleslaw that had just enough ingredients in it to let the cabbage shine through.

While we were enjoying our lovely meal, J&M had a call from a friend that there were a swamp of bees on the ground about 2 blocks away from their house. A very excited J jumped into his car and went to check it out. Within minutes he was back and was suited up in his bee-keeper outfit along with T while Hubs took my camera and followed them to the site. Free bees for bee-keepers are apparently a very exciting event! Before we headed home, I drove over to the site and the bees were getting into the box as the temperature was dropping in the evening.

And what did I do? After spending the whole Saturday moping around with a gnawing sinus headache from the high pressure blowing into the state, and running the kids around town for a long-promised MacDonald's breakfast and play area trip, driving across four towns to Hub's favorite dry-cleaner, taking the kids to their favorite merry-go-round ride (4 times), shopping for summer clothes for Hub's, making a Costco run, and stopping for lunch at Chick Fillet where the kids dump out more energy at that play area too... I decided that I was going to bring to this party a simple, rich, decadent 7-layer chocolate cake filled with creamy Bavarian icing, covered with a thin layer of chocolate and topped with a chocolate covered strawberry. That was a perfect ending to the meal, and totally bakery-made from a wonderful baker that was 3 towns away on the other direction from the party. Of course we couldn't show up without some Cold Stone Creamery Vanilla Ice Cream to go with it!

6 comments:

ioyces said...

7 layer chocolate cake??!! MmmmmmmMMM!!!!

petite fleur said...

Wow what a decadent chocolate cake.

Anonymous said...

That chocolate cake looks fantastically delicious ... I was drooling over that BBQ rib.

Anonymous said...

Wow, a 7-layer chocolate cake and Cold Stone ice-cream. Can't beat that combination! Yum! :)

wonda said...

Psst... what did J use to bast the ribs and what's his special spicy homemade sauce?

East Meets West Kitchen said...

Thanks everyone!

Alice, I can't get J's secret recipe yet, but will keep trying. :)