Labor Day and BBQ cookout!

This Labor Day weekend was just too short! I had a lot of fun but I didn’t have time to relax at all. I helped my sister do some moving, visited a relative with a parrot, went to a block party and ate alot of bbq food. On Sunday we hanged out with good friends in Long Island at a block party. It was suppose to be one of the biggest block party in LI. There were cookouts and outdoor entertainment the whole day with DJ, music, dancing, texas holdem tournaments and black jack tournament’s, volley ball, and crocket. I ate lots of home made food, bbq stuff and sweets! Someone made a homemade ice cream chocolate cake which was very good! It had 2 layers of fudge cake with chocolate and vanilla ice cream and cool whip cream on top. The night ended with beautiful fireworks and then police came to shut it down.

My boyfriend and I also went gas grill shopping this weekend. He’s been using a charcoal grill for a long time and decided it’s time to get something better and bigger (size does matter!). He wanted a gas grill because it's clean and quick, no need to hassle with the starter fluid and waiting for the coal to glow. He ended up getting a 2 gas burning for $127 which is a decent price. It took him around 2 hours to put it all together and after that we went off to the supermarket and got some meat and veggies to grill.

Things we made (we were hungry and lazy so we just kept it simple):

Green and yellow squash:
I brushed both side with olive oil and sprinkle some salt, pepper and garlic powder over the squash. We left it on the grill for around 5 mins each side or until it's soften with the outside lightly char. The squash was really sweet and lightly seasoned, it was awesome!



Rib-eye steak and pork chops (oops, forgot to take pic)!
For the steak, I marinated it with garlic pepper and some salt. The pork chop I used a season salt with everything in it and some more garlic power because I love the garlic taste. Andy grilled the steak for around 5 mins on each side. I like my steak bloody so I told him not to cook it for too long but it didn't turn out bloody at all. He grilled the pork for a long time because we didn't want to get salmonella and we didn't....

Grill master chef Andy and Sous-chef Mel's creation!

I made a garden salad to go with our delicious grilled meat. The rib-eye steak was very tender, medium cooked and was not too salty. I usually don't like my meat too salty and rather not put much stuff when marinating it. If the meat turns out tasting bland then I would usually eat it with a steak sauce or add salt/pepper but this time I didn't need to add anything on it, it was perfect! On the other hand, the pork chop was very hard and chewy but very tasty. I think I almost broke the plate trying to cut it! Andy totally over cooked it! So after that I went online to check out what's the proper way to grill pork chop and other meat:

Pork chop

Marinating time: 2 hours to overnight

Grilling time: 3-4 mins/side at 145F

Pork tenderloin
Marinating time: 2 hours to overnight
Grilling time: 14-16 mins; occasional turning at 145F

oh well, we'll do better next time around and will try out other stuff to grill! Yay! Happy grilling...

Tip of the day: Use insect repellent when you know you're going to be outside for a long time. For example, like having a bbq! I got so many mosquito bites! I hate them! grrr...