Our Memorial Day Weekend

I've been a little under the weather this week thanks to a disagreement between my sinuses and all the pollen in the air. I'm on my second round of antibiotics trying to get rid of my ear infections. I have been wanting to post about our nice Memorial Day weekend sooner, but I just wasn't feeling up to it until now. We started a cooking spree on Thursday and didn't stop. We had some andouille sausage in the freezer that Kraut brought back from New Orleans a little while ago. So, we thawed it out and made a sauce with soy sauce, honey, and lemon juice and we marinated the sausage for an hour or so. Then we skewered it up with some pineapple, onion, cantaloupe, and green pepper and threw it on the grill for 15 minutes, basting it while it grilled. It was delicious and easy, check it out:

Saturday was pizza night. When I was browsing my latest Bon Appetit there were some pics of a roasted tomato pizza that caught my eye. We also found some amazing looking artichokes at Fresh Market, so I boiled them up for an appetizer and also made a nice green salad. If you have never boiled and artichoke and dipped it in lemon butter you are missing out!!! My mom used to get just 2 and have my sister and I share, until it caused too many arguments and we had to each share with a parent to keep the peace. The only cooking tip I have is just be patient and let it boil for at least 45 min if not an hour. Aside from the wait it couldn't be easier. For the pizza I roasted up some grape tomatoes in the oven, made a homemade crust and then threw it all together with some grated parmesan and buffalo mozzarella. Yeah, I know you are jealous! Mmmmm look at all the nice melty cheese....

Peel the leaves off one at a time and bite on the soft ends.
Then when you are down to the heart dip it in lemon butter like this....

On Sunday we decided to have some friends over and have a BBQ. We bought 6 racks of ribs at Fresh Market (that's about 18 lbs). Kraut put a rub on them the night before and the next day he smoked them for about 3 hours. He also made a great apple whiskey BBQ sauce to serve on them. Along with the ribs we had some baked beans that Kraut made, a spring mix salad with a beer and mustard dressing that I whipped up (something I found in Food & Wine Magazine), and some roasted fingerling potatoes with a homemade chive pesto. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of all the good food on Sunday, but I did get the best part....

Monday came around and we had so many leftovers that cooking was not necessary. It ended up being a great day to hang out and play some lawn golf with Kraut (I won) and then we decided it was time for JJ to get his annual haircut. Here are his before and after pics:

I know he looks ridiculous, but my floors and I really appreciate the new do. Its much more low maintenance! I hope "all yall" enjoyed your long weekend as much as we did. We love to cook together and it was nice to spend some quality time together and visit with our friends.

**Normally I'd just say yall, but thought I'd throw a good Southernism in there just for Kraut**