Archive for May, 2007
Can votives.
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
These are great for those barbecue parties that run a little late — you’ve watched the sun set, and you’re fumbling around for the s’more fixings. And they’re using something you’d recycle anyway.
Save your cans from tomatoes and beans for a month. After you’ve removed the labels and washed each one, fill with water and freeze.
The next day, use an awl or a hole punch or a screwdriver and punch holes in a decorative pattern in each frozen, filled can. Be generous with the holes, you want as much light as possible to shine through.
Let the ice melt.
(I set the can in my herb garden so it waters it for me.)
Put a tea light or small candle in each can.
Voila! A home made candle holder good for the outside this summer.
I’ve also spray painted the cans to make them look a little more classy, but quite frankly, it’s a garbanzo bean can with holes punched in it, it’s supposed to be a little rustic.
Other summertime, okay-for-outside-candle is the Celebrity Saint Votive:
Take those largish, plain 7 day votives (that you can get at the grocery store in the Mexican food section) and paste a photo or US Weekly photo collage of your favorite celebrity (or the one that most needs your good vibes) on the outside of the candle in the manner of a saint.
(As you may or may not tell by the drawing, I’ve done post-Meyer-breakup Jessica Simpson.)
You could do also put these candles out for place holders around your picnic table for an outdoor party, where each guest could be Lindsay, Brandon or Paris. Determining which guest is which celebrity could be half the fun.
(Also, please don’t burn anything down. These are candle crafts for grownups — not wee’uns.)
Summertime platters
Monday, May 21st, 2007
You don’t want something made of tacky Walmart plastic.
You don’t want something made of metal.
You don’t want something formal.
You want something light and classy and inexpensive and stylish.
Summmer platters that serve us well:
Cb2 offers these fairly inexpensive shallow, ceramic, oblong serving trays that are big enough for big parties and small enough for a dinner on the veranda. We own two of the largest and two of the mediums and love them to pieces.
(Veranda! I said VERANDA!)
This bamboo tray from Pearl River makes a few choice appetizers look like you’ve worked on them all day — even if it’s an apple with peanut butter on it. Plus it won’t break on the way out to the lanai.*
(Lanai! I said LANAI!)
*Thanks Alison for the gentle correction!
My final favorite are the real life cafeteria trays from our youth. Food friendly, kitchy and utterly indestructable, guests can pile up their food and take it to their seat. It’s a great alternative when your kitchen table isn’t big enough to serve all the folks lined up for your delicious cooking.
Veranda and lanai* were pretty much my only two fancy porch synonyms.
If you have any more, I’ll send you the best vibes.
*Again, thanks Alison.
Barbecue pork on a bun
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
The fun part about this recipe is feeling like a kid as you take EVERY SINGLE CONDIMENT out of your fridge and pantry and throw it in a pan.
It’s like making mud soup, but more fun because you can eat it. As you throw ketchup, mustard and Worcestershire sauce all into one giant pan, you laugh and laugh while saying, there’s no freaking way this is going to taste good.
But it does.
It tastes so good that your bocce team will eat it from under your nose, leaving you with but a fingerful of sauce, and that fingerful of sauce will be so tasty, so not tasting like you tossed every condiment in your fridge into the crock pot that you’ll make it again, just for you.
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons Worcestershire
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon chili flakes
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 3ish pound boneless pork butt, trimmed
1 cup water
For serving:
Kaiser rolls
Chopped red onions
Coleslaw
Potato Chips
Combine ketchup, chili sauce, mustard, cider vinegar, honey, Worcestershire, soy sauce, red pepper flakes and garlic in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about five minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
Put the butt (heh) in a large plastic bag. Pour the sauce over the meat, seal it up and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Turn the bag over when it occurs to you.
Remove the pork from the marinade and put in the slow cooker. Pour the marinade into a small bowl, add the water and mix well. Pour over the pork. Cover and cook on low for around 8-10 hours, or while you are at work. Transfer the pork to a platter, tent with aluminum foil and let stand for around 10 minutes before it’s time to dig in.
I like to toast my bun and put coleslaw on the pork.
James likes his with mayonnaise.
We both like this pork with potato chips.