BBQ with Michael, Donna, Mikaela, and Marie

We invited Michael, Donna, Mikaela, and Marie for BBQ at our place today. It's a long weekend, Monday is BC Day, and that means, we can play longer and MJ is the plan.

This time, I decided to prepare the food myself. We bought our supplies yesterday at Superstore, and marinated the meats last night. I looked at some grill recipe book at Superstore, there's a $20 one which was pretty good, a lot of delicious looking recipes all in one book... but at the end I wanted to do it my way. That is, to improvise... using my heart as the only ingredient.

Didn't think that everyone's got an appetite for a full meal deal, I just bought enough to allow everyone a taste of charcoal and a stomach with room for fruits and desserts. I added a grilled vegetable dish to the menu - zucchini, eggplant, green beans, corns, and tomatoes.. a colorful mixture that is as healthy as it is tasty.

My secret marinates for the drumsticks and pork chops remain secret, a mix of everything available, and everything from my heart. I am the chef after all.. and I like to surprise people. Steak was seasoned with a Montreal steak seasoning. Okay, I didn't technically created this spice, but that's part of the chef's job, isn't it?

5pm and Michael, Donna and their daughter Mikaela arrived with 2 six-packs of Coronas - something we've forgotten altogether. The adults MJed while the little girl was kept occupied by Wii and TV. Mikaela watched us play MJ for the second time, and she's always shown interest in being part of it: 'Can I have the flowers?', she said. Certainly playing MJ is not in her parents plan for her upbringing. The little lady has been attending private lessons for phonetics, piano, ballet, chess, swimming, and every other survival skills there is to offer. The last thing to do is to corrupt her.

Marie came in the midst of 'South Circle' with her fruit plates at around 6:30pm - the perfect time for a babysitter and a leg substitute. It's time for the Chef of the house to show some colors. I already had 3 beers at this time, well, frankly I didn't feel anything yet. Drinking and cooking certainly enhanced the cooking and makes the food tastier. In less than 20 minutes, the garden is full of tasty aroma, everything cooked to the chef's liking... it's judgement time, the moment of truth.

Everybody liked it. Yet Chef believes the pork chop is a little dry, and green bean or what Mikaela referred as 'green worms' were a little more crunchy then expected, but everything else was pretty tasty.

Bubble gun was also played by adults and kid today... Overall, another successful BBQ this year. The next one will be next week... in a friend's place this time.