4th of July 2014

A few things have struck me about the 4th of July celebrations, a few very important things that are a must have on the 4th, beer (preferably craft beer), food (preferably BBQ) more beer and of course last but not least fireworks. Well this year we managed to have all three in abundance. So we made merry, ate our fill and exploded the driveway...just joking +GIEnterprises Oregon , we didn't actually explode the driveway but we did have a whole lot of fun with the fireworks.

We might as well start this 4th of July post with the food images captured on the day. We had BBQ pork ribs, two racks and they were delicious. And the bonus was that we had plenty of leftovers for the next day.

Unusually we didn't use BBQ sauce this time round but instead marinated the ribs in a mixture of Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar and garlic over night.

I thought they might have lacked moisture with no BBQ sauce but they were fine, they turned out very juicy and didn't appear to dry out at all.

I have to say there is nothing quite like the taste of BBQ pork just off the grill, I'm actually drooling here thinking about it.

We also had salad with the meal though I failed to capture any images of that as I was to busy devouring the ribs.

All good things come to an end they say and this was true of our ribs, after we ate our fill it was time for some real fun. The front yard fireworks display for Talon. He was waiting anxiously at the door with a box of matches in hand...in a safe way I might add and not in a Beavis kind of way.

I love fireworks, when they are relatively low key and not setting off sonic booms to scare the bejusus out of our pets. The legal ones in Oregon though are just fine and still provide a lot of fun and entertainment.

They are mostly just fountains of colour and sparks but they do give a great light show. This is the one night a year that we really do appreciate having very few working street lights on our road.

Above, +Linda Dean  and Talon set up for a light show that very nearly reached the camera, it was very cool.

Not sure if our hops appreciated it, they were probably suffering from shock afterwords.

Being the one behind the camera meant I didn't get to set a whole lot of them off but I eventually got my chance with Talon giving me very detailed directions on how to light them properly and safely.

I hope you all had a great 4th of July and I hope you share your images with the rest of us when you get time, for now though, that is it from me.

 

Linda's first lamb BBQ

One of the strangest things for me moving to Oregon from Ireland was that there was no lamb to be found in the supermarkets, I mean literally no lamb at all. Back in Ireland it might be expensive at times but lamb chops and lamb roast are a common sight in every butchers. So I found myself really missing the taste of lamb as I've never really been a huge beef eater apart from the odd steak during the summer or a beef stew during the winter. Then one fateful day last summer +Linda Dean with the help of Google discovered a local farmer who was actually willing to sell us lamb at an affordable price. We had struck gold and a week later we cycled out to the farm to collect our lamb. It was Linda's first taste of a lamb roast and she was blown away by the flavour, lamb really is an incredibly tasty meat and even mutton is fantastic if cooked correctly.

So this year while at the local farmers market here in Corvallis, Linda once again came across a farmer that was willing to sell us Lamb at a reasonable price. So we bought an entire lamb to freeze and keep for the months ahead (better value to buy in bulk if you can) and tonight we had our first lamb chop BBQ. 

Our still newish grill was put to good use tonight and not for the last time this summer cooking some great lamb for us.

If you look very closely at Linda in the above picture you can actually see her drooling at the thought of eating the lamb.

Lamb is much more pink I think than beef and takes a bit longer to cook, it is normally very tender and the taste is completely different to beef.

They sizzle nicely with a drop of olive oil and their own juices. The smells of lamb cooking on the BBQ are delightful and will have you drooling just like Linda in anticipation of the coming meal.

They definitely cook a lot slower than beef steak so you have to watch that but they don't burn like beef either as lamb is a very juicy meat.

Lamb is very, very succulent, tender and incredibly flavoursome, we didn't have any tonight but mint sauce can be great with lamb and we really should make some as we have a ton of mint growing in the garden (we've been using them for Mint Juleps).

Next I think we'll try a nice Lamb roast or possibly rack of lamb with mint sauce made with fresh mint picked in the garden.

And that's about it for now, so the lesson here is, if you haven't tried lamb you seriously need to...unless you're a no meat person in which case you need to try some fresh garden mint in a Mint Julep.

Playing with Fire

With BBQ season fast approaching +Linda Dean and myself have been getting in some practice. Of course wanting to test out the brand new BBQPad site was also a good excuse. It was also a great excuse to try and capture some fire shots because I've never really played around with fire photography. So as the BBQ began to light I got my chance to start shooting.

I prefer food shots but it is always fun to play around with new ideas. I need to get more practice in with fire as we BBQ over the summer. But for now I'm happy enough with these captures.

It is very true that fire has a life all of its own, at least it appears to, especially as the breeze catches and fuels the flame. There is a strange irony about flames, it has incredible destructive power but it also has a calming effect when viewed safely.

You can drift into the worlds of your own imagination while staring into flames. I've often wondered if the very early peoples that first learned to control and use fire, had their imaginations sparked to life as they stared into the flames, if it brought them an escape for a short time from the dangers around them.

Of course when Barbecuing you really don't want or need a massive big flame for long, you just need the flame to get the coals started and to make them white hot and ready for cooking. We then wait, knowing that within a very short time the aroma of BBQ will be drifting through the evening air and making us drool in anticipation of the coming meal. The sounds that it makes as the juices drip down onto the hot coals, to sizzle and spit flame back up and onto the cooking food above.

But that's for another time. For now, we can enjoy for a brief time the beginning of the cook and let ourselves for a few moments get lost in imagination, dreaming of the past.