Labor Day Dinner 2015

Looking back on this blog, I noticed all the dinners moments I missed posting.  Wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthday, Just Because dinners.  I need to find my motivation again.  I used to love cooking and taking pictures.  Now, something always seems to get in the way of that.  I have pictures of the various events but they lack a certain creativity on my part.  Others creativity is great but mine, I feel is lacking.  I've decided, though I'm working full-time away from the house I should be making menus with possible new dishes designed to create fun, health, and flavor.  My family needs to get healthy.  The wasted calories are starting to weigh heavily not only on my conscience but also on my waistline.  So in celebration, I present...

Dinner - Labor Day 2015

The beer... Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - One of my husband's favored. Sorry, Babe, still don't like it.

 The smoke dying down after pulling off a nice smokey pork butt with a rub our son created and applied earlier in the day.  You can't see the whole grill (it's about 6 feet long) but it contains a smoker box, charcoal grill, propane grill, and searing grill.  My hubby used three of the four sections to make dinner.  I believe Tim Allen would have an appropriate grunt or growl for this grill.

Using the propane part of the grill to cook the corn and marinated artichokes.

Our small boxed garden with thyme and garlic chives.

 The other box with marjoram and Thai basil.  The wine bottles are periodically filled with water to make sure the herbs get a decent amount of water.  It works okay but not great.

 The salt box...  I love this!  We have several different finishing salts great for completing almost any dish.  Starting at the far left... Hawaiian red sea salt, black sea salt, lemon herb gray sea salt, roasted garlic sea salt, and citrus thyme gray sea salt. Each of us have our favorites and it changes depending on what we are eating.

 The beautiful, smokey goodness.  It was great to see the smoke ring on the initial cut into the meat.  Then when we started to shred you could smell the warm smokey flavors...

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All in all a wonderful meal, wonderful day, and wonderful friends.  Thanks for stopping by to help us devour this great feast.  I'm looking forward to the next meal.  In fact I've already started putting a menu together for the next couple major holidays.  :P