These Breaks Need More... Breakiness... About Them

For my last work break, my family was in town for Father's Day. Which was fun, but busy and un-break-like. This break, some of Matt's relatives are in town from the U.K. so it will be even less break-like as there will be mild amounts of touristy travel and BBQ hosting. Tonight was the first such BBQ. Friday night will be the next, at the mother-in-law's house, then Saturday is Hot Pot at my Chinese sister-in-law's house and Sunday we will be back here for another BBQ. So of course, I am hunting for ideas.

Tonight I barbecued some chicken and it was fine. My C-s-i-l brought bean curd with black fungi and it was lovely with the chicken. I made a salad and my m-i-l brought green beans. It was all respectable. And this was dessert. Crispy crumble crust over a pile of mixed berries and a couple of peaches. The crust sank in and was less than crispy, but it was still a massive hit. Just not photo-worthy. Especially by the time we finished with it. So I am fine with going for a safe menu and ending on a high note.

But what to do Sunday? I can always delegate a vegetable and a spicy Chinese side dish of some sort, so I am thinking of doing a couple of pork shoulders, really slow. They're cheaper than tenderloin for a crowd, for starters. And I'm thinking about a pie. Peach or cherry or something summery and traditional "American". The Farmer's Market is Saturday so I can pick up something decadent instead of using frozen berries... thoughts/opinions? How many people does the average pie feed? I usually only make pies for T-Day so it's been a while. Smitten Kitchen's crust recipe works for pretty much everything but I'm torn in the filling dept. I guess I'll see what I can find on Saturday and work from there.


I am contemplating something like this just because I would much rather cook outside (it's hot now). Not going to buy a fancy WS pan thing to do it in though. And what if I need to do two? We're looking at twelve or thirteen people not counting the kiddoes. Another fun option is kebabs but they are always high maintenance because you've got to pre-stab everything. I'm looking for something more interesting than burgers or my usual sausage-fest.

And apparently I make good coffee. As opposed to "American" coffee. Even though I definitely get my coffee from my home town which is definitely in America. At least they haven't referred to us as The Colonies yet. That always leads to a discussion about how Nevada was never actually under British control and may segue into Eddie Izzard impressions.



I'm still working on the bedroom ideas, if you have any good source for extra-large queen duvet covers please tell me! And cross your fingers that something decent will turn up on stupid Craigslist in the dresser dept...