So the family is coming for lunch...

I had a great weekend spending time with my family since my cousins were in town from California and Philadelphia and it was a lot of fun to hang out and catch up.  Friday night, we hit up Modern in New Haven for pizza so the California crew could get their NH pizza fix for the year and I don't know if it was because I hadn't been there in a while but it was especially a good round of pies and we literally took no prisoners as we all devoured it up!

Today I decided to have everyone over for lunch before people headed out and what better way to enjoy a Sunday in July but with a lunch of all the summer classics on the deck with 13 of us.  Here is the menu run down and I've included links or references to most of the items: 

•  Yogurt marinated cilantro chicken (I don't like to repeat recipes so quickly but when you found a good one, take advantage of it!  We christened our chimney starter today as well and it makes such a difference...strong work Andrew with setting everything up) 
• Dry rubbed baby back ribs 
• Potato Salad
• Coleslaw (with my CSA cabbage) 
• Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Salad 
• Orzo with Spinach and Grape Tomatoes (I feel like I have to put a disclaimer on this one: This is actually a Rachael Ray recipe and I for one find her extremely annoying and refuse to buy into all of her 30 minute meal and "evoo" BS but I had this salad at someone else's house a few years ago and absolutely love it!  I add a good amount of Parmesan cheese to mine and it always comes out so good.)   
• Tossed Green Salad with Grilled Watermelon and Pignoli Nuts. 

the charcoal grill in action

"If I ate meat, I would eat this chicken" - from my cousin Allison, a vegetarian

the lunch buffet

Everything came out really good and the lack of leftovers was a sure sign of how much everyone enjoyed lunch.  But really what's the most important part of a meal especially when you are polling the "under 10" crowd but the dessert of course and I knew that homemade ice creams and a big plate of cookies would be a sure winner for a hot summer day.  My cousin Jane informed me on Friday that her favorite flavor was cookies and cream so obviously that is what she got which was easy to make just by crushing some oreos into my homemade vanilla ice cream base.  Vanilla also made an appearance and then I was lucky enough to get another delivery of black raspberries from Maria (I'm starting to think this is a perfect world scenario having fresh picked fruit dropped off at your house on a regular basis) so they got pureed and mixed into the ice cream base for an amazing new flavor.  I know I've made my fair share of good flavors in my ice cream career but I think the black raspberry really takes the award because it was so fresh and summer tasting and the color was this awesome vibrant shade of magenta!!!  In a last minute find, my Mom pulled out these vintage plastic ice cream bowls that were circa 1990 from our cabinet which is somewhat ironic because my mother isn't a saver in the least bit but they added to the excitement for the girls as they picked which color bowl each of them would have along with which flavor of ice cream would occupy the girls.  I on the other hand love to eat my ice cream  "chipwich" style as in slapping a big scoop of ice cream between 2 fresh baked cookies but anyway it goes down, its going to be good. 

"chipwich style"



The Rak girls and I