Nothin' Wrong With a Little Somethin' on the Side

I have received some questions about what I served besides burgers the night the Pat La Frieda brisket blend stole my heart. (See Sept 2nd post.) Here it is barbecue fans!

Starters and Sides:

• Crudite platter with vegetable dip
• Apartment-made guacamole with blue corn chips
• Pigs in snuggies (see, their arms are free to pick up the phone or the remote with ease!)
• Grilled corn salad with heirloom tomatoes, avocado and applewood smoked bacon
• Watermelon salad with feta

Intermezzo:

• Two varieties of venison sausage, as a palate cleanser, obviously.

Notes from the Chef:
First, this is too much food to serve before a burger tasting, especially at 6 ounces per burger on potato rolls. Second, I feel compelled to share a previsouly closely guarded party secret. My pigs in snuggies are a snack I put out at pretty much every barbecue I host and they're always a big hit. The secret is all you have to do is buy cocktail franks and Pillsbury crescent rolls for the dough and bake, serve with grainy dijon mustard. Its that easy.

Next, the corn salad. Take the above ingredients, add chopped fresh cilantro, a little lime, pepper and salt. Be careful with the salt as the bacon will have some saltiness to it already but probably not enough. Sometimes I use a tiny bit of high quality peppery olive oil. I don't usually use avocado in this dish but did this time. I like the flavor it adds but it definitely takes away from the presentation as the avocado can coat the other elements and mute the sharpness of their colors.

On the watermelon salad. This is actually a go to dish of mine for dinner parties. Usually I serve it in a martini glass with some crumbled feta, high quality peppery olive oil, pepper and depending on the saltiness of the feta some rock salt or salt flakes. This didn't translate as well to a large format presentation. One issue was that I couldn't get the feta crumbles, only a regular block of feta, so it was a little too creamy. This mostly effected the presentation but it didn't make it look as refreshing and enticing. I like using the watermelon itself as a bowl but next time may do it for just the cut up watermelon or fruit salad.

So that's the inside scoop. Off to the Back Forty Crab Boil now, stay tuned for notes and pics!