One More Hurrah for Summer!

Let's have one more hurrah for summer...ok, two. Two cheers for summer and grilling!

Though I profess to grill year round in sun, rain, hail, or snow, the reality is that the grilling season is now diving into a deep double dip recession. The initial chill of autumn has already shocked us into scurrying around looking for nuts but we will rebound and grill again before snow. Then, it's nearly over. Not that I don't enjoy grilling in the snow, it's just hard when you have to shovel the grill off between burger flips.

But let's remember the good times and let the snow come as it may. Here are two recently grilled entrees for your viewing (and dreaming) pleasure. Please make sure Nikki, Twila, Ozzie, and Fletcher are nowhere near before you scroll down - unless you'd care to have your keyboard salivated on.

Grilled burgers topped with fresh garden tomatoes, cheeses, and grilled jalapeños (Mmmmm). Charcoal grilled and smoked with fresh jalapeño (I dropped one in the coals).

Make room for cow! When you need to clear space for this year's cow, it's time to grill up the T-bone and Porterhouse. The kids didn't complain. This was grilled over hardwood charcoal with hickory chunks for a hefty flavor.

Add your own photos if you have some late season grilling to show.

An unreasonable fascimile

A few weeks ago when Ben was visiting, we went to one of my favorite (ok, I'm obsessed) restaurants called Bien Trucha. It's ridiculously small and you have to get there before they open and wait in line if you want to get a table, but the food is so good and the atmosphere unpretentious enough that I completely forgive them for it. I describe them as haute gourmet Mexican food. Anyway, I came home last night from work and found myself trying to recreate a few items on their menu, most notably their version of Mexican corn, esquites (also called elote). I can only describe it as magical corn - I don't really know what all the flavors are or how they do it, but this is the best corn you will ever eat. Mine wasn't quite magical, but it was still pretty delicious. Don't tell Andy but I put a little bit of sour cream in it and he thought it was delicious. Andy, if you're reading this I just made that part up.

Grilled skirt steak, grilled onions and peppers, yellow sweet tomatoes, queso fresco, and almost-magic corn.

Grilled peaches with honey cream cheese for dessert.

I also have a great belly/Ozzie picture to post, but I'm a little sheepish to put it up after talking about all this food. I promise there's more than tons of food in there. I think I"ll just post it on the other blog. 

Raw and Unedited - Fruits and Veggies

It seems that Lisa's culinary entrance has shocked all into a state of summer salad stupor. Due to the dearth of food posts I have no other choice than to post photos of cute kids with huge fruits and veggies. These were all harvested on the estate.

Two apples for two apples of my eye

Kohlrabi the size of your stomach

A David summer classic

I've been eating a lot of chicken this summer, and finally reached a point last week where I couldn't stomach the thought of more chicken for dinner. That's when I remembered the grilled tuna steaks that David made a few times when he lived at home after college. I grilled the tuna and chopped up some tomatoes and onion to put on top. I also grilled some zucchini fries, which tasted amazing! All in all, it was a perfect dinner for a warm summer evening

My first attempt at fancy food

Well, by now you may have all noticed that I'm not quite as culinarily (I know that's not really a word, but just work with me) inclined as all of you. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the only post I've contributed to this blog was filled with pictures of food that I had no part in preparing. So, Steve and Rachel took matters into their own hands and gave me a subscription to Cuisine at Home magazine for my birthday so that I too could venture into the world of food that doesn't come in a box. Without further ado, I give you...MARGHERITA PASTA WITH GRILLED CHICKEN



I was planning on taking pictures along the way so you could see the progress of this fantastic dish, but I kind of forgot. The dish consists of tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, garlic, pine nuts, and chicken and is dressed with olive oil. I added a little lemon juice and salt at the end which gave it a good kick. I only set the smoke alarm off three times (I had some problems toasting the pine nuts), so I'm calling this a successful first try!

Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes

Once again, Strawberries are in abundance at the Barnhart house. But this year the girls both know how to pick them when they're ripe. Peter doesn't care yet (though he does care for ripe strawberries and, incidentally, sour green apples).


One of our favorite ways to use strawberries is to make Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes. These are rich and hearty, with a good balance of flavors and contrasting textures. The pancakes have cottage cheese in them and are substantial. Strawberries, graham cracker crust crumbles and sweetened sour cream top it off nicely. We'll happily eat this for any meal.

Thanks to Cuisine at Home for the original recipe.

Pizza Perfect

Well, it's time for the monthly gastronomic grub gala and this time it's just a little pizza to get your appetite worked up. A little pizza and a big pizza pan, that is. On our road trip down south earlier this year, we stopped at the Lodge factory store and picked up...yes... a Cast Iron pizza pan. As you see in the picture it isn't the biggest pan they make, but it's big enough.


I've been trying different methods with the pan and this one was one of my favorites. I preheat the pan and make up the pizza on a peel dusted with cornmeal. Then I slide the pizza onto the hot, freshly greased cast iron and pop the sizzling pie into the oven until its pepperonis are piping hot. The photo almost speaks for itself, but not quite.