Dinner's over!

We had a fabulous time! I made veggie burgers out of black beans, onions, mushrooms, garlic, cilantro and goat cheese, with bread crumbs as a binder. Sadly, the lady for whom I made them didn't show. She's the only vegetarian in the group, so I wanted to make something for her.

I made eggplant stackers the recipe is on my previous blog. I made a simple balsamic vinegar and oil with italian seasoning dressing, and they marinated all day! Then, grill them and grill tomato slices with the same dressing (prevents sticking to the grill!), and layer eggplant, tomato, slice of feta cheese and repeat. Then move them to a part of the grill without direct heat until the cheese melts. I have never had eggplant before, but I will certainly make those again! Very yummy!

I set a couple of tri-tip roasts on the smoker about 3, and should have taken them off about 5 instead of 5:30, but they were still tender. The leftovers are in a crockpot as I type this with A-1 sauce for some delicious sandwiches tomorrow!

There was potato salad, fruit salad, garlic bread, oh, and I grilled onions, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant, the onions were the best part, but all good! For dessert, someone brought a cherry/cheesecake/brownie concoction that everyone said was fabulous!

So my husband and daughter were troupers about helping me get the yard and house ready, so I've just finished cleaning the kitchen and started the dishwasher. While I had company, Butch and Allison went to see Iron Man.

Well, I'm pretty well tuckered out, so I'm going to read "Stop dressing your six-year old like a skank and other words of delicate Southern wisdom" It's pretty funny so far!

Getting ready for dinner party

I have this month's gathering of the girls who sat together on jury duty a couple of years ago. We spent nearly two and a half years together, and we got to know each other, each other's kids, etc. A couple of them even cruised together.

So we get together every couple of months, just to catch up. One is moving to Florida this weekend, so we'll miss her, but she'll be back. I put a tri-tip on the smoker at 3, it's about half done, should be perfect timing! I also made some veggie burgers with black beans and mushrooms, I've never tried one! I'm also making eggplant stacks on the grill, as well as tillapia for those who don't want red meat. There will also be some yummy side dishes to go along with it. I'll have to post a picture of my home made smoker! No, we don't live in Arkansas, but I took an old electric stove, took all the electric parts out of it, cut a hole between the pull out drawer and the oven box, put a vent cover in the hole to prevent drips from getting on the charcoal. Voila! All you really need for a smoker is a fire box, and a box for the meat. Now I have handy racks for the food and everything! We enclosed it in a cinderblock station so it didn't look like we had a stove sitting on our patio, and I painted it black!