Blue Smoke

A visit to NYC would not be complete without meeting up Camie, who is kind enough to trek into Manhattan to have dinner with us!  As a UNC-Chapel Hill grad, Camie is no stranger to BBQ and recommended Blue Smoke for dinner.

One of the things I love about Manhattan is how many great restaurants are within walking distance - sure, it's equally as easy to catch a cab to go places but I love the fact that if you're willing to walk some city blocks, your own two feet can take you to some fantastic food. So walk we did, and we ended up arriving within minutes of Camie.

Here's a picture of my dining companions for the night (without flash):

And with flash (Camie is making one of her classic expressions, so which is why I posted the no-flash photo so at least she looks normal in one of the pics!)

Any place that uses towels for napkins is guaranteeing some good, messy BBQ!

As a table, we skipped ordering separate entrees and decided to split a random assortment of appetizers, dishes and sides!  First up was homemade BBQ potato chips with a blue cheese and bacon dip:

One of my favorites for the night - Crispy Chili Crusted Calamari with Charred Red Pepper Mayo:

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this much but Camie and Amanda insisted on ordering it and I was so glad in the end - Shrimp and Organic Grits, with bacon, cremini mushroom, roasted tomatoes and scallions.  So good and even a non-grits fan like myself will scrape up every last bit when it has such a flavorful gravy on top:

Camie recommended the spicy cheese fries - I don't remember any spiciness but I adored that cheese sauce. I tend to prefer fake cheese (sacrilege, I know) over real cheese on things like nachos and fries because of the texture but this cheese was oh-so-thick and good:

Of course, you can't go to a BBQ joint without ordering some BBQ! We wisely went with the Rib Sampler, which gave us a taste of Memphis Baby Back Ribs, Kansas City Spareribs and Texas Salt & Pepper Ribs:

To round out the meal, we also got a basket of cornbread. I have to complain about the measly portion size (we almost ordered another basket right away) but with all the other food we ended up sharing, a bite of cornbread each ended up being all that we could fit in!



So yes, you can find some decent BBQ in NYC.  And dinner and drinks with good friends is always a good time!

Meeting Peter Bear

Not surprisingly, all this lovely warm weather we've been having on the weekends has led to a lot of gatherings and BBQs. We traveled to Plymouth to attend one such BBQ in Andrew's childhood neighborhood, in honor of old friends who were visiting from CA.

First, the food was pretty typical BBQ fare but I had to point out the cupcakes that were decorated to look like boxes of popcorn - you guessed it, this was the same neighbor that had made corn on the cob cupcakes for Memorial Day weekend:

But back to the real subject of my post, the highlight of the BBQ was catching up with Andrew's old friends and more importantly, meeting their seven-month-old son for the first time.

While it was fun to watch Andrew splashing about in the pool/trying to drown his friends under the guise of playing a diving game...

...my eyes kept getting drawn back to this little cutie.  Andrew and I had laughed over how his big his eyes were in pictures but I have to say from seeing it firsthand, yes, it's true that Peter's eyes have that "I've just stuck my finger in the wall socket" wide-eyed look:

He was a little charmer in person, and was happy and calm even as he was passed around from person to person.  Of course he was happiest when he was in his dad's arms:

Or being used as a fishing pole by his grandfather:

Or gnawing on his giraffe:

The only time those big baby blues closed was when Peter went down for his nap, and let me tell you, he fought it for a long time. In the end, he looks as cute and cuddly as his middle name suggests:

While Peter was sleeping, the big boys tried their hand at playing a game that we had never heard of before - Ladder Golf. Apparently it's huge on the West Coast and it seems to be making its way to the East Coast - the hosts of the BBQ had actually bought their (admittedly cheap) set at Marshalls, of all places:

I feel like this is one of the games like cornhole which appears to have been invented at some Midwest or West Coast tailgate and caught on in popularity.  Annoyingly enough, despite the fact that it was Andrew's first time playing, he was pretty good at it (I kept complimenting him on his form):

Popcorn cupcakes, an adorable baby and a new game? It was the perfect way to enjoy the nice weather and the company of old friends.

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

Ignore the fact that I'm writing this way after Memorial Day Weekend, and focus instead on the fact that I wish we were still enjoying the holiday!

Sunday morning was a busy morning for me. In addition to using my handy dandy pineapple slicer for sangria and making a dessert (more to come on that later),I made a Greek pasta salad that was loaded with yummy, colorful things:

Then it was time to head over to Andrew's parents' place in Plymouth. One of the first things I noticed was Charlotte's homemade sign warning visitors to keep A.J. in the house:

Then it was time to join the crowd poolside to bask in the lovely warm weather:

The water was a balmy 75 degrees (Tom claimed, the warmest ever for Memorial Day weekend) so Andrew, Phu and Amy ventured into the water to play with Andrew's cousins Madison and Meghan (not pictured):

There were even some fierce games of bocce played on the sidelines (which ended quickly once a set of balls rolled into a patch of plants that looked suspiciously like poison ivy):

Then it was chow time - Tom was busy grilling hotdogs, linguica, and chicken, and also made his famous beans as well as a new recipe for "sloppy linguica":

Paul, Jen and Pete arrived just in time to join us in eating the delicious food:

The rest of the time was spent lounging poolside, as demonstrated by Amy and her shadow, Meghan:

What BBQ would be complete without the neighbor's cat stuck waaaaay up high in a tree next to the pool?

Come to think of it, I hope that poor cat made it down. It was still stuck in the tree when we left around 8 p.m.

Memorial Weekend BBQ in Plymouth

The second big event during Memorial Day weekend was a BBQ hosted by Andrew's parents in Plymouth that brought together members of our extended families together for the first time.

Amy, Phu and Pete were crazy enough to go into the pool to play with Andrew's little cousins (either second cousins or cousins once removed, I can never remember which is which) while Jen was smart enough to stay out:


Everyone got into the ball-throwing action, Andrew a little too eagerly (although Phu was a literal pain in the butt with his shots as well):

My handsome Father had a good time lounging poolside with my equally handsome Uncle:

My Grandmother Lillian and my Mom also hung out poolside, despite the overcast skies and passing thunderstorms:

Amanda introduced Javier to everyone (hopefully, we didn't scare him away):

Andrew caught up on old times (such as the doorknob game, don't ask) with Kevin:

Andrea dropped by with Jonathan, just in time for food to be served:

Did I mention the food? There was ton of it, all delicious and hard to resist:

My Mom's contribution was the rice cooker in the picture above (filled with white sticky rice, natch) and her famous Cucumber Kimchi - which resembled more of a spicy summer salad than the typical pungent, pickled cabbage:

With Andrew's parents serving up Portuguese sausage Linguisa, the meal reflected both Andrew's ethnic background and my own. This is how stuffed my plate was - my favorite BBQ food - a hot dog smothered to the gills with mustard and relish, a piece of Linguisa, Amanda's yummy pesto pasta salad, Andrew's Dad Tom's famous slow-cooked baked beans and some salad:

Next came dessert, which included cornflake cookies and chocolate chip cookie bars (Andrew's Mom Charlotte), leftover chocolate graduation cake from the night before (BJ's), leftover sugar cookie bars from the night before (me), a Boston Cream layered dessert (Andrew's parents):

Did you think that was it? There were also brownies with fudge drizzled on top and with peanut butter cups (I believe this was Andrew's aunt Marsha), funfetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting (Andrew's cousin Kim), brownies with chocolate peanut butter frosting (Jen):

And the dessert that everyone raved about - the Orange Creamsicle frozen dessert made by one of Andrew's parents' neighbors (Valerie) - I got the recipe fronm her and if I remember everything quickly, I'll definitely be making this at some point this summer:

I was surprisingly lazy about baking while my parents were visiting, probably because my Mom took over my kitchen. So while I didn't bake for this BBQ, I did make a large batch of Sangria but forgot to take pictures of it - oh well, I'll just have to make it again real soon!