Summer Party (now with Jazz Band)

Every summer we host a small party for friends.  It is great to get everyone together at the same time.  The kids swim, the adults do mostly adult things (mostly with empahsis.)  It is always a blast and thanks to nice weather, this year was equally, if not more, awesome than usual.

The Food

When I say I love a "multi-grill meal,” I know parties are the best time to make it happen.  It’s nice to see the grills sitting on the deck uncovered.  However, I like them more when all are being used simultaneously.  It’s a party for me.  It’s a party for them.

This year’s meats were brisket, baby back ribs, and Boston Butts for pulled pork.  BBQ is one of the best foods to entertain with as a little goes a long way.  I usually add in some chickens, but this year my goal was to work less and relax more.  Chickens, while good, involve a little more work to carve up.

Speaking of relaxing, my other goal was to have most of the food ready prior to our friend’s arrival.  For long cooks with the brisket or pork, I usually get up extra early to get them on and then most importantly, off on time.  There is nothing as patiently waiting for the thermometer to hit 190 while the party start time creeps up twice as fast.

There was no way I planned on dragging my butt out of bed any earlier, so my solution was an overnight cook.  While Zoë wandered off to bed, I grabbed a beer, some tunes, and prepped the WSM for a nighttime mission. 

I followed my typical brisket prep with the rub consisting of 2 T sugar, 3 T salt, 3 T freshly ground black pepper, and a cross-hatched fat cap.  For the pork, I made a rub, but it was on the fly, past midnight, and not written down…so sorry, no help there.  I also added injections of Angry Orchard Cinnful cider…to the pork.  It was late, but it wasn’t that late.

I locked the WSM temp in at 210 F versus more towards 250 since I knew I had a long time ahead of me till the party.  With the WSM, and its load of cherry chunks doing its thing, I went to bed….

Zzzzzz.

I slept great, although I woke up a tad early as my reoccurring dream of a cold grill was hard to shake.  Usually my bladder wakes me up, so at least that wasn’t in play!  In the end, I should have known I had nothing to worry about.  The temperature gauge on the WSM hadn’t budged a bit.

As the morning went on, I added ribs to the 26-inch kettle.  It is times like these, where I absolutely love the space and versatility of this grill.  Kettles make great smokers.One note, I should have swapped the racks out.  Notice how much more cooked the rack closest to the fire is?  

The 26 makes for a ton of smoking space.

By the end of the day, I ended up with almost a 14 hour cook.  

The brisket hit 190 F internal first and was wrapped in foil and moved to a cooler to rest.  Soon after, the pork followed.

With the pork rested, and the start of the party still an hour off, I effortlessly removed the bone and proceeded to smash, then chop, the pork.

I sliced the brisket and chopped the ribs.  

Keith put his BGE to work in the afternoon and brought over even more ribs which he sauced on a kettle.  

The Samuel Adams Bacon Blue Cheese Dogs also made a comeback.

Brian, always one to jump in, grilled brats on the Summit.

The meat was ready to go, and so was the party.

Probably one of the biggest changes for this year’s party was the music.  In the spring, we successfully bid on a performance by the Stiver’s School for the Arts Jazz Band.

These guys, all high school students, played the most amazing set.  

While our neighborhood has its share of impromptu live outdoor music throughout the summer, I think this is the first time the tunes have been provided by a tight jazz quartet.

Golf carts could be seen driving down the side road of our house and stopping to take it all in.

As we opened the chow line, the guys hit their groove and provided the best party background music we could have asked for.

When they left, it just wasn’t the same.

The Beer

Home-brews from me and Dave were bookends to Deschutes Inversion IPA and Samuel Adams Summer Ale along with a Pimms Cup, Sangria, and some crazy beer-liquor concoction "the other Dave” brought in a cooler.  The only thing missing from it was the international symbol for poison.

The Lights Dim.

While the kids did their thing.

We helped celebrate Carla’s 40 birthday.  

Welcome to the club, Carla!

It was wonderful, as always, to have the ability to celebrate the richness of life with so many of our wonderful friends.  Even if Gary pulled something in his back and scowled from his chair most of the evening.

It has been another awesome year.

I expect next year will be even better.  Now, where’s my jazz iTunes playlist….