BBQ Season 2010

BBQ season has begun. This past weekend Justin fired up the pit after 6 months of hibernation for a little 4th of July celebration. I will never understand the appeal of BBQing but Justin and my brother sure do love it. When the two of them get together it automatically becomes a competition to see who can be the best. This weekend Justin made a brisket (my favorite) that turned out delicious and Kurt made ribs that were super yummy too. The meat is obviously the real star of the show but we also had potato salad and beans. To top the meal off our wonderful friends brought a super yummy banana pudding and a tasty "Happy Birthday America" cake. It was the perfect BBQ meal to start the season. 

{It might be hard to see but the words "Happy Birthday America" were literally piped onto the cake. So cute and funny.}

I feel I should note that this weekend was my first attempt at making potato salad and I think it turned out pretty good. The recipe is my mom's and was really easy to whip up. Here are the details:

Potato Salad

4 baking potatoes

1/2 cup miracle whip

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 -3/4 cup onion, grated

1/2 bell pepper, chopped

2-3 tbsp pickle relish

1 tbsp pimento

Peel and cube the potatoes to edible pieces. Boil until just tender enough to eat. I cut my cubes to about 3/4" to 1" in size and boiled for just about 8 minutes. Let potatoes cool.

Add all remaining ingredients to potatoes and stir until completely combined. Store overnight in fridge before serving.

Yummy.

Thought I would add a pic of my family just to show you how relaxed these parties are; Notice my lack of makeup and Haley's lack of clothing. It was long, wonderful day. I will try to be more presentable as the summer goes on. Ha.

Cousin Blake and Chocolate Oreo Pudding

Growing up my cousin Blake and I were close in age so we spent a lot of time with each other. Looking back it may have sucked for him since I was the girl but I tried my best to be obne of the boys. I was always right there with them wrestling, shooting water balloons at cars, and pulling skateboards behind bikes. In the tangle of cousins he and I were in the middle between the cool older boys (Kurt & Blain) and the little baby (you know who you are). Not sure if it ever happened but I like to imagine that there was a meeting of all the boy cousins at one point and Blake vouched for me getting into the gang. For that, regardless of the fact that it is a ficticious event in my mind, will have me indebted to Blake forever.

As we have grown older our visits revolve less around worms and jellyfish and more around jobs and our growing families. Blake and his wife Amanda are due with their first child this July...it is going to be a little boy! Baby Graedon and Haley are set up almost perfectly to be the new Blake and Sara. Unfortunately for Graedon the gender dominance is now girls. I will try my best to keep my little munchkin from painting his nails with sparkly polish...I promise.

Blake and his wife Amanda

My older cousin Blain, me, and Blake. No idea why I have my arm around him like I am his pimp?!?! Maybe the beer in the foreground is a hint.

So, my cousin Blake is pretty great, be he is not the star of this post. The real star is the recipe he gave me for Chocolate Oreo Pudding Deliciousness. I am not really sure if that is the real name (since I just made it up) but it sounds good so I am going with it. Anyway, I needed a new recipe to make this past weekend for a party at CELG's and remembered Blake bringing this to a family gathering not too long ago. This dessert is super yummy, super sweet, and super easy...since I remembered to use milk this time. I would suggest eating in small servings unless you want to be useless the rest of the day with a tummy ache (this really happened). Here is the recipe for all you sweets lovers out there.

 Ingredients

1 large box of instant chocolate pudding

2 1/2 cups milk

1 container Cool Whip

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 package of Oreos (we used Oreos with chocolate filling)

Chocolate syrup (if you need an extra kick of chocolate)

 Hershey bar ( again, only if you need an extra jolt of chocolate)

Recipe

Combine pudding mix and milk. Whisk for 2 minutes. Add in the Cool Whip, the condensed milk, and two good squirts of chocolate syrup and stir. Layer ingredients in a glass container beginning with syrup, then oreos, then pudding, and so on. Reserve a couple cookies to make the top nice a pretty. We also added some chocolate shavings for that wow factor.     

 Delicious!

Thanks Blake and Amanda for the yummy recipe. I am sure it will beome a staple in my slowly growing recipe file.