Dinner - July 2: BBQ Pork, Chicken Skewers, Grilled Potatoes, Zucchini-Tomato Slaw and Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

I always visit my family in Washington state at this time of year.  My youngest sister and her son's birthday are all clustered around the beginning of July and festivities abound - this year it seemed on steroids. Oh - don't forget Canada's Birthday on July 1st.

On Saturday, while a couple of sisters and their friends were out getting pedicures, I made dinner for them and (most of) the rest of our family. Even though I visit several times a year, I miss the normal day-to-day stuff and contributing to get-togethers and meals shared. I love cooking for them.

A bonus to visiting when the weather's nice (and it was spectacularly sunny and warm this trip) are frequent, seemingly close enough-to-touch sightings of Mt. Rainier, the surrounding Cascades range and if you're lucky the Olympic range on the peninsula to the west. This shot, taken with my phone as I was about to go into a store, does not do justice to Mt. Rainier. If you live (or have lived) within sight of it, you don't often refer to it by name but just "the mountain".

This day I made: barbecued pork, grilled chicken satay, barbecued potatoes, corn and zucchini-tomato slaw with a Tennessee mustard dressing (yeah, I'm still digging the julienned zucchinis). Strawberry-rhubarb crisp for dessert (my sister S. assembled the crisp - thank you!!). And Cosmos - the official Walker sister's cocktail.

Photo: Cathy Walker Hall

Recipes after the link include:

• Cosmos - Walker Style
• Barbecued Pork Shoulder
• Grilled Chicken Skewers
• Grilled Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic
• Grilled Corn on the Cob
• Zucchini-Tomato Slaw with a Tennessee-Style Mustard Dressing
• >Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Friday Dinner: Barbecued Country-Style Boneless Pork Ribs + Al Bergez's Sauce

I wrapped-up some of the warmed-up leftovers and sauce in a slightly crisped 4" corn tortilla for lunch.

(Another catch-up post) Back in early May, I was (as I am quite frequently) at my best friend and cooking partner-in-crime's (a/k/a Lynn) house for dinner. We barbecued country-style boneless pork ribs. No biggie, except... EXCEPT... we were done before dark - which is a giant improvement and the ribs were especially good. Her method for prepping the pork resulted in very, very good barbecue.

I acquired one of these for each of us earlier this year. Many a night we have barbecued well after dark, with one of us holding a flashlight. The ones I bought were through woot.com, but you can get your own here. They are fantastic. The light can be adjusted so that (in our case) what you're cooking, or checking on is brightly lit and you have both hands free.

...and no, there shall be no pictures.

One note - it's a really bright light and you need to be careful not to temporarily blind your cooking partner by looking up too quickly.

She made, not for the first time, a very good sauce, by way of Mike's friend Al Bergez. It's on the vinegar-y/tangy side (which we all like). I'm pretty happy with any kind of sauce or mop, except the mayonnaise-based sauces which I find to be kinda nasty. This sauce isn't hot (but it could be made hotter) or too sweet.

We had a problem keeping a consistent temperature - definitely user error. Sometimes our barbecue temperature control mojo is very strong - but not that night. Our overall karma came through like gangbusters though because when we were going to take the pork off to finish it in the oven, we found that it was done perfectly. This recipe/method requires some time before you fire up the coals (or turn on the gas) and I'm convinced it that the pork was even better than usual because of the order in which Lynn prepared it prior to grilling it.

Recipe: Barbecued Country Style Boneless Pork Ribs + Al Bergez's Sauce