Easter Sunday family barbecue
Jac and her mum were originally supposed to go on a road trip together over the Easter long weekend to see her brother B, his partner K and their kids in Kalgoorlie, but there were a few unforeseen technical complications which made this impossible (long story, I won’t elaborate further). And after many alternative Plans were thwarted, Surprise Plan H was executed – Jac’s brother and co. came to Perth instead for Easter. Jac spent much of her Easter at her mum’s house, hanging out with her family, going on a picnic and just catching up. I stuck to my original Easter plans of catching up with much neglected mates via email, phone and lunch, reformatting my pc and tidying up my disgustingly messy study. But of course I couldn’t hide away in our house by myself all weekend (though I admit, I wouldn’t have minded!). I joined in a family barbie for Easter Sunday dinner. Because of ever-changing lighting/atmospheric conditions during the barbecuing process, I took some photographs with the flash and some without.
Here’s a bowl of barbecued spanish (red) onions. Lovely and sweet. Jac’s family aren’t big barbecued onion eaters – this is not a criticism at all, just an observation. My family on the other hand, will barbecue a large mound of chopped onions. Admittedly though, it’s been a while since my family’s had a real Aussie-style barbie with snags and steaks.
We also had barbecued garlic field mushrooms. Jac’s brother B prepared them very simply – mushroom + butter + garlic. Or, to complete that equation: mushroom + butter + garlic = utter deliciousness! The field mushrooms were huge. I was full of eager anticipation for these.
The sausages went on the barbie first.
When the sausages were pretty much done, B took them off the barbie to make room for the other goodies. This is my Donna Hay-esque stylin’ shot :):
The mushrooms went on next, as did two kinds of marinated chicken thighs, satay and Thai. All the meats came from a butcher, so I don’t know exactly what the marinades consisted of. All I know is the Thai had chilli in it.
The mushrooms looked and smelled amazing as they cooked. I could’ve stuck a fork in at any point, really. I just love carving a meaty mushroom with my knife and then spearing a bite-sized chunk. Mmmmmmm.
We also had steaks – a couple of them T-bone. This must look like a huge amount of food, but keep in mind no one had a whole steak or whole piece of chicken to him/herself. And this was all to feed six hungry adults and three kids. I think the kids weren’t as interested in the barbie as the adults – they’d participated in an Easter Egg hunt and then consumed a rather large Easter-comes-once-a-year amount of chocolate earlier in the day. Here we have steaks, no flash…
…and steaks, with flash.
The snags and onions went back on the barbie to get warm again just before everything else was ready. I love the sight and smell of a fully loaded barbie!
Here’s a really food porny shot :-P:
The platter of steaks and sausages ready to be attacked by the hungry hoards.
Ditto, this platter of chicken, mushrooms and onions.
To go with the meats, we had a salad featuring avocado, cucumber, English spinach, grape tomatoes and lettuce.
And B made his specialty coleslaw, featuring white and red cabbage (hmmm, shouldn’t it be green, rather than white cabbage? :))
K, B’s partner, made her secret recipe potato bake. It was a little runnier than usual because there should’ve been more potatoes in the dish, but the potatoes were cooked to perfection and flavour was fantastic – we all enjoyed it immensely. There was a little of that delicious creamy gravy left, as well as a steak and a sausage – a yummy leftover meal for Jac’s mum to have the next day.
My plate. When I took this photo I didn’t realise that my half a field mushroom was buried under the salad. It was as delicious as I’d imagined – so meaty and garlicky, sooo gooood. I had a sausage, half a steak and half a piece of chicken, along with the side dishes.
For dessert, we had apple pie, which Jac’s mum had bought from Gosnells Markets.
Jac and I shared a slice, drowned in custard (from a carton). Not the most delicious apple pie we’ve eaten, but yummy nonetheless!