BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Party Planning Cookouts

Does anyone ever have cookouts for family and friends? What kinds of foods do you usually have?

We always have BBQ ribs as my husband and son-in-law have a "secret recipe." We've also smoked turkeys tho, with great success.

My specialty is deviled eggs. I usually take them to every famly cookout.

Ribs, hot dogs or hamburgers. My sister has a terrific recipe for BBQ sauce for ribs. She prepares the ribs by boiling first, long enough to remove most of the fat, marinates them in the sauce, wraps tightly in foil then keeps warm in the overn till she is ready to take them out and toss on the BBQ. They come out soooo tender and tasty!

Deviled eggs are a must for my family at any BBQ or family get together.

My son and his family are vegans, so we have veggie burgers, veggie cheese, veggie hot dogs, woops i should of had a V8 ;O)

I love veggie burgers and wouldn't mind doing that but the rest of the family, except my daughter, wouldn't care it. My son-in-law is allergic to dairy tho so we always include veggie cheese for him if we have burgers.

I like them to, plus i feel like i'm doing some thing good for my self. When i eat healthy. I also buy veggie for myself not because im vegan, but because i like it

Phyllis, I boil the ribs first too. It's amazing how much excess fat you can remove. I then bake them in the oven for about an hour, then onto the grill.

Rosie, if I had veggie burgers at my cookout, I would probably be the only one in attendence.

I like to make kabobs with shrimp and vegetables marinated in either lemon butter or teriyaki sauce. They are so good on the grill.

My husband does not like deviled eggs so I very seldom make them unless it's for family and friends. And then, watch out.

While either of my two younger brothers are barbequeing they toss on a link of polski kelbasa. When the skin is crispy, they cut it up and hand out pieces on tooth picks - delicious! It keeps us from starving while the meat is cooking and the kelbasa tastes so good!

Phyllis, around here, we take those sausages--any kind, really, but I prefer hot (spicy) smoked sausages, grilled and sliced, then put on a plate with cheddar cheese cubes and crackers (ritz or club), then sprinkled with a bbq spice seasoning mix. Rendezvous (a famous local BBQ restaurant where we first had this dish) makes a good one, but anyone you like will do.

It's a great appetizer. And, if you low-carb, just skip the crackers.

Now, we also make BBQ nachos. At restaurants, they use the melted cheese sauce stuff, but at home, you just take tortilla chips, top with chopped pulled pork, BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese--melt the cheese under the broiler or you can nuke it. Then, put the seasoning spice on top of it all and sprinkle with a few sliced jalapenos. Yum-oh! (You can put this same stuff on baked potatoes, too.)

These are popular in BBQ restaurants, but are also served at ballgames here -- from pee-wee kids games to pro basketball and semi-pro baseball cncession stands. It's a once-a-year or so treat for me.

Oh, here's another dish my crew really likes for cookouts:

Chicken Hooters

(I got this idea from my former neighbor, J.P., so here's to him.)

Chicken tenders --three or four per person (I also have usd breasts that I cut into thirds in the shape of tenders.)
Bacon slices, cut in half --one half per tender
Jarred Jalepeno pepper slices (about one slice per tender)

That's the original recipe, but of course, I jazz it up:

Sprinkle the tenders with your favorite Mexican or Southwest spice mix. I combine salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and garlic. Any seasoning salt will probably work, too. Oh, and you can marinate in a vinegar-based BBQ sauce if you like. Or, any basic chicken marinade.

So, season or marinate the tenders, then set up a work station. This is kind of messy and you're working with raw chicken, so be careful of cross-contamination and wash everything with hot water & soap when you're done.

I work on a large cutting board. Have your chicken in a small bowl to the left, the peppers in a bowl beside the chicken, the bacon to the right on the cutting board, and the toothpicks in a pile to your right.

Take a tender, put a pepper in the center & roll the tender around the pepper. Then, wrap it in bacon. Then, secure it all with a toothpick.

Grill over medium heat, turning occasionally until chicken is done and bacon crispy--takes about 10 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is.

These are really yummy and with just one jalepeno, they are not very spicy, but some people will whine--they can remove the peppers. If you really don't like heat, leave the peppers out. If you like it hot, put in two pepper slices and add some cayenne or tabasco to your seasoning mix.

You don't usually need a sauce, but if you like, stir some tabasco into some ranch dressing or use your favorite dip.

Great with typical cookout sides--pasta salad, potato salad, grilled veggies!