The Summer Barbecue

For the last half dozen years or so, Kathy and I have hosted a barbecue each summer for our local family and friends. It started after we moved closer to family. While we lived away, we tended to think that the rest of the family got together all the time for potlucks, barbecues, and other events that we couldn’t attend. Once we spent some time here, though, we realized that the family doesn’t really get together all that often. A few times a year, perhaps. Life gets busy and it just has a way of getting away from everybody, it seems.

Our annual barbecue has evolved a bit. It began with hamburgers and hot dogs. Everybody got excited and oohed and aahed over the quarter-pound hot dogs. Compared to more typical hot dogs, they do look rather impressive. We got both regular hot dogs and Polish dogs. I prefer the Polish dogs, but to my surprise, our guests seemed to prefer the regular variety.

After a couple of years, I decided to put some steaks on the grill instead of hamburgers. I like a good steak sandwich, so I decided my guests might enjoy that, too. Therein lies a little secret. I’ll let you in on it.

When our guests see the fancy (and abundant) spread we put out, they express their wonder that we would “go all out” for them. They don’t understand that we don’t do it for them. Well, not just for them. We do it for me. (I’m not really sure why Kathy goes along with it). First of all, I want to attend a good barbecue, with great food. Second, we’ve been to some amazing barbecues in the past. (My employer used to throw some truly epic Company Picnics. Maybe I’ll write about that some day). I want to share that kind of experience with my friends and family. When I see them enjoying themselves and indulging in our spread, that makes me content.

For my barbecues, I use flat iron steaks. First of all, it’s a great steak. That is, it tastes great. It’s also easy to prepare. All the flat iron steaks are roughly the same size. (Their size and shape resemble an old-fashioned metal flat iron, apparently, so that’s where it gets its name). They don’t require marination or fancy preparation. I simply pat them dry with a paper towel, sprinkle them on both sides with Montreal Seasoning, and put them on the grill. I like the grill around 550°. A broiler also works well. Grill or broil for 9 minutes on each side. It comes out great!

When I started serving steak sandwiches, I also upgraded the hot dogs. Unfortunately, they aren’t quarter-pound hot dogs anymore. Instead, they are 100% American Wagyu beef. I had read an article a few years back about these fantastic hot dogs, supposedly the best. Right before I planned to put in my order, the Today Show did a story about them. They seemed to agree about how great they are, but the sudden attention meant long back orders and I almost didn’t get them in time. Now, I’m always careful to order them well in advance. I get them from https://www.kccattlecompany.com.

I used to tell my guests not to bring anything but an appetite. I would provide all the food. I don’t know what all their specific circumstances are at the moment. I don’t want anybody to come to my event with trepidation or anxiety because they had to prepare some sort of food to share. So, I used to make everything myself.

That started to become a problem. Well, it wouldn’t have, except I always seem to want to improve on the prior year’s experience. In other words, I kept wanting to out-do myself. Nobody expects me to step it up each year, but in my mind, I just want to elevate things. That’s how it got out of hand.

One year, I made a lot of different foods. Fancy foods. I don’t do a lot of cooking the rest of the year. I’m not all that experienced. I just look things up on the Internet and then decide to try my hand at all these great-sounding recipes. (And I guess I use my guests as my guinea pigs). One year, I made baked beans. Not from a can. Not from the deli. I soaked the beans for two days and baked them for twelve hours. That alone was a lot of work, but that was just the beginning. I made a corn and blueberry salad, bacon jam, watermelon cubes served with a mix of cucumber, red onion, mint, and cilantro. There was a lot more, but I don’t even remember everything. Kathy said that was enough of doing that. She said we needed to simplify.

She was right, of course. The next year, I invited my brother to participate. He loves to make things in Dutch ovens over charcoal. We split the responsibilities, with him preparing beans, potatoes, and a cobbler, while I did the rest. We enjoyed that.

These days, we no longer tell my guests not to bring anything. Many of them enjoy preparing and bringing something to share. I simply tell them that nothing is required, but that they may bring something if they wish.

We still make plenty of food on our own. We provide the steak sandwiches and hot dogs, of course. We usually provide a bunch of other stuff, as well. And I still try new things to serve to my unsuspecting guests. This year, I tried pickling some crudités. Kathy helped me chop up and prepare carrots, purple cauliflower, watermelon radishes, cherry tomatoes, fennel root, fennel sprigs, red onions, ginger, thyme sprigs, and pickling spices. We used apple cider vinegar with some sherry vinegar added to it. I had no idea how it would turn out. We opened a jar and served it at our barbecue. The carrots seemed more popular than some of the other vegetables. I liked the radishes. I think it was okay, but too strong. If we ever do that again (we probably won’t), we’ll dilute the vinegar some more. (This time, we used one part vinegar with one part water).

Anyway, I think my guests enjoyed their time here. I hope so. I know I did. I try to mingle with everybody, always moving between groups. I’m usually too concerned with everybody else’s enjoyment to actually eat much of my own fare. But it’s not about the food. It’s about . . . friends and family. It’s about setting some time aside to get people together. It’s about sharing. I think that’s why we’ll probably keep hosting a summer barbecue. I might have to tone it down, though. Just a bit.