Independence Day Cookout

Happy Birthday America – Happy Independence Day Everyone.

Since we have to take Alex to her week-long camp this afternoon, we decided to have our little celebration cookout on Saturday. Alex had been wanting to roast marshmallows, for smores, over an open fire, so we decided to do it yesterday – at least it wasn't it the 90’s.

So we invited a couple of folks to join us for dinner and had an old fashion weenie roast over an open fire with chili, mustard, and onion (and slaw for the Southeners – remember I’m from northern WV), sided with deviled eggs three ways, corn chips and guacamole, and potato chips and dip.

I’ve been saving bloggers deviled eggs recipes and decided to make a recipe of each of the three very different ones I wanted to try – Old Bay deviled eggs from Nobel Pig, deviled eggs with curry and cilantro from One Perfect Bite, and smoked salmon deviled eggs from A Spoonful Of Thyme. So I boiled up a couple of dozen eggs and commenced to make the stuffings. I followed each recipe as written, except I had to use dried dill weed – check them out on each blog.

As long as I can remember, “I can’t even boil an egg” has been an indictment of ones inability to cook – not as bad as can’t boil water, but it wasn’t until I began watching the food channel that I discovered there is actually a best way to boil and egg , who’d a thunk it.

I was looking forward to trying them all. I haven’t had much exposure to curry and this was a good reason to give it a try. I like Old Bay and thought this was a unique use of it. And finally, I’m a big fan of smoked salmon and couldn’t pass this one up. I got them all done about 4pm and into the fridge for a couple of hours of flavor marrying. And the best part is I don’t ever remember making a deviled egg before – although I could have.

Here’s a pic of each of them

The Old Bay


The Curry


The Salmon


I enjoyed them all, even though they were very different - thanks for the recipes.

Down at the lake, we have a rustic little area with a picnic table and fire ring/grill that we use for activities like this, although usually in the spring or fall vs. mid summer. I don’t have any kindling, but have found that charcoal works very well for starting fires – I even use it in the house fireplace. So a chimney of hot coals topped with a couple of smaller pieces of split oak and off we went. I started it around four so we’d have a good bed of embers by cooking time. We’re ready to cook.


The finished food wasn't anything new, so I didn't take any shots, but it's hard to beat a dog cooked over an open fire and they were sure good.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry