Dining alfresco

I love eating outside, and in the spring, summer and fall we eat outside all of the time.  I was planning a picnic, but we ended up eating these at home, which was probably a good thing considering how messy they are.  I used this recipe for BBQ ribs and it was very easy and very, very good.  I didn't even change the recipe for once.   

We ate hamburgers outside the other day too....

With a tall cool glass of a strawberry drink I mixed up for something different.  All I did was mix some strawberry syrup with water until I liked the taste.  Super simple.

We had friends over a couple of nights ago and made pork chops on the grill.  We are having a heat wave in Wisconsin right now, and it is too hot to cook inside.  I kept it simple and just put salt and pepper on both sides of the pork chops.  Then my husband, the grill master, put them over indirect heat for 20 minutes and about 4 minutes per side over direct heat.  I also cut up some russet potatoes and put them in a foil pouch with some sea salt and olive oil.  Those went on the grill over direct heat, for about 30 minutes.  Added some popovers and salad.  Good friends, good food, very wonderful time. 

The next night we cut up the remaining pork chops and made sandwiches with the leftover hamburger buns.  Potatoes again.  Nice cool meal for a beautiful night. 

I am going to use the pork chop bones for a stock.  I just need to use the burner on the side of the grill and it rained today.  That was really nice for cooling things down a bit, but it was still too hot to cook outside.  Tomorrow.  I think that I will make some kind of cold soup.  Hmmm....