With Liberty and Burgers for All….
With the 4th of July weekend being a huge weekend for barbecuing I decided to become a chef and grill for a few friends. I went with the basics for the most part, but here was the menu: burgers that were store bought (I had a recipe for some good ones but then decided to go this way in the end), turkey dogs (again another bland choice until we decided to throw some chili on them). My favorite items were my two sets of wings: Hot and Honey wings and the classic BBQ wings. Hot and Honey is my own concoction, seasoning the wings with spices covering them in honey and creating a sauce with honey, hot sauce and butter. They’re not that spicy but they are delicious. As for the BBQ wings I just used Dinosaur BBQ sauce which was great I recommend people to check it out. I also made a veal/pork/beef chili and we fried up some vegetables as well. Overall, I think I did pretty well.
-Jonathan
For the 4th of July I had the pleasure of visiting my good friend Jon for, what was to be, one hell of a BBQ. Nothing celebrates Independence Day better than grilled food, beer, and fireworks (unless they keep going off by your ear, in which case you’ll be mildly deaf for a time). I had been looking forward to this as Jon had been talking up his much vaunted cooking abilities. The food was great with the exception of the burgers. Not that the burgers were bad, they were simply store bought and frozen. Wendy’s doesn’t even freeze their burgers anymore. This slight is easily forgiven as the honey hot wings and BBQ wings were absolutely superb. I stand by the reasoning that sweet and spicy are the two greatest flavors to combine, and the honey hot wings did that very well. They were not terribly spicy but amidst the sweet was the subtle heat of the spices. The BBQ wings were great as well as Dinosaur makes a fine sauce. The chili was absolutely incredible. People were shoveling it into their mouths. The chili made the turkey dogs all the better. Come to think of it, why didn’t I put it on the burgers? The grilled zucchini was good, having been sprinkled with some spices. The desert was great. Jon’s friend Jill made something with graham crackers, chocolate, and happiness. I’m firmly convinced she bottled happy and put it in there.
The beers for the day were: Landshark, J. W. Dundee’s Honey Brown, Sam Adam’s Summer Ale, the Saranac summer variety pack, Miller Light, and Bud Light. The other beers were foreign and will not be mentioned out of respect for America. All in all, a terrific 4th, and a great BBQ.
-RJ
