Dinner Party

Strawberries.  Yum yum

This week's post is less about artistic presentation and careful photographic setup and more about capturing the moment.  Amy and I hosted an end of summer dinner party

Best way to light charcoal

jalapeño poppers pre-grilling

with some friends and I've decided to share some pictures of the afternoon/evening.   The day started out a bit iffy in terms of the weather.  We wanted to take a walk before starting the day and given the way the skies looked we decided to just do laps around the neighborhood and before we made it around for the second time the rains came heavy and our plans for the day looked in jeopardy.  We had 3 racks of baby back ribs that needed to get into the smoker by noon and I was a bit worried about keeping the temperature of the smoking chamber where it needed to be while it rained.   The rained stopped and it was touch and go for a while but by the time the guests arrived and the festivities started the rain had stopped and did not return.
We had a wonderful time sharing food and wine and lively conversations with our friends.  The hors d'oeuvres, the snacks, the baked beans and corn that Dan O. brought and, yes, the ribs were all delicious.
Amy prepared some jalapeño poppers for a pre meal treat that were a hit last time we had this crew over for a similar event.  Don't mess with a good thing.

Dan Olean grabbed my camera and took this shot of
Amy telling me how to grill the chicken.

Once the meal was complete we desert soon followed and we had chocolate zucchini cake that Amy put together and Jeannine's famous dream desert.  We then moved to the fire pit on the lower level of the deck to finish off the evening.  We had a great time and feel blessed to have such wonderful friends.