Memorial Day Eats 2010

As usual, when we get out the grill, we go a little crazy with the amount of meat that gets cooked. The way I see it, why waste hot coals? Plus, there are usually between 2-4 hungry men in the house on any given holiday, so it's not like the food won't get eaten. And what doesn't get eaten on the day of cooking  means a respite from meal planning for at least a few days. In this case, it was a whole week!

Mr Minx wanted to give "beer can chicken" another go. He'd tried it once before but it just didn't work out, due to temperature, coal placement, and other grilling voodoo. This time, the grill was all about the chicken - hot coals on the sides, an empty drip pan in the center. We marinated the fowl overnight in a combination of Mexican Molé spice mix, paprika, brown sugar, salt, garlic, and onion powder. The next day, more of the molé seasoning went into a can of beer which got unceremoniously shoved into the bird's...cavity. It roasted for about an hour in a covered grill which reached an internal temperature of 350F or so. The result was a mahogany bird with crisp, spicy/sweet skin and succulent flesh. Oh, and I forgot to take a picture. Sorry! You'll just have to content yourselves with the sound of my lips smacking at the sweet memory.

We also marinated two big sirloin steaks, one in my favorite Steak Continental marinade, the other in some Cambodian Lemongrass Curry seasoning, grated lemongrass, garlic, and soy.

And there was a pound of shrimp in the freezer, so those went in a marinade of garlic, soy, and canola oil before being threaded onto skewers.

(Both steaks were cut into chunks for easy serving. The lighter meat at center bottom of the platter is the lemongrass marinated version.)

Can't forget the burgers and dogs! Mr Minx likes to put burgers on the grill first so their dripping fats can get the coals burning hot - so much better than using tons of lighter fluid. And the dogs were actually Buffalo Chicken-flavored chicken sausages that we picked up at Wegman's (that place is soooo dangerous!).

In addition to the meaty goodness, we also grilled portobello mushrooms and made two kinds of slaw (Quick-and-Dirty Kimchee and a version with honey mustard mayo), potato salad with Romesco sauce, and a grilled Caesar salad with creamy Caesar dressing and home-made croutons.

Either it was too much food or our guests were just plain too polite to eat much. Probably the former. It certainly wasn't because the flavor was lacking - I have to admit that everything turned out extremely well, and I was happy to eat various leftovers during the week.

What did you cook for the holiday, if anything?