bbq | salt & pepper

Tahoe is awesome during the summer and D & I

were lucky enough to head up to South Lake a few weeks ago!

of course I had to bring mr. bear along for the ride…

just in case we ran into any real ones!

D had been talking about Echo Lake and what a beautiful hike it was since we first met, so I was very excited to finally do it. And how cool is it you get to start off with a boat ride across the lake!

I loved this part when we went from the lower lake to the upper lake.

the views were just stunning

especially when you keep on climbing up and up the mountain!

so high up actually that we hit snow, and couldn’t keep going along the trail…

I still can’t believe that there was snow in July!

sadly we had to give up on our plans for a picnic lunch at Lake Aloha,

but luckily Lake Tamarack was below the snow-line so we headed there instead!

turn right for sandwiches!

lunch with a view

a Safeway turkey sandwich with kettle chips tastes a whole lot tastier

when you’ve hiked up a mountain and are covered in mud and dust, trust me!

N & D marks the spot

how great is this tree?

the lake is spotted with all these adorable little wooden and stone houses…

it would be fun to rent one sometime!

speaking of houses, how adorable are the shutters on the cabin?

I packed lots of silly reading

first up? The Hunger Games

Thank goodness Sara had also leant me the second and third

in the collection so I didn’t have to wait to finish the trilogy!

we barbecued every night

our chef’s bite fell through the grating, sadness

At least there was nothing sad about the end product… our version of steak frites: filet mignon, with organic oven fries and sauteed spinach. It was delicious!

the bbq becomes a fire pit

simple s’mores …

a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate digestive biscuits

The next day we hit up Zephyr Cove… pretty funny, there was a group of wild women behind us who proceeded to drink more and more beer as the day went on. Classy. I think they must have been reliving spring break 1985 or something!

That night there was a wee bit of a storm…

of course it had to happen while we were barbecuing

but we persevered and soon had a lovely meal of homemade burgers

with grilled red onion and corn on the cob

this was pretty tricky to eat

On our last day we hiked to Fallen Leaf lake, another one of D’s favorites spots in Tahoe. We had tried to hike to it during the wintertime but it was too snowy but it was well worth the wait…

How beautiful is this view?!

And look, it was in the news recently!

I spent the majority of last week at a review class, and unfortunately for me it finished on Saturday afternoon, so I only had half the weekend left. I missed my friend’s Sarah’s birthday celebration on Friday night (on a food truck! boo) because of my early wake-up the next day, so that was a bummer, but I did have fun Saturday night plans… a barbeque at Dan & Mary’s!

After my class, D picked me up and we popped by the Whole Foods in San Mateo… omg, amazing! It put my cramped neighborhood WFs to shame. Everyone was so friendly, it was nicely spread out without being too large, and they had wine tasting! Um, yes please.

I wanted to make a really simple appetizer which is sooo good on the bbq… pesto and mozzarella stuffed baby portobello mushrooms. I made a basil parsley pesto/chimichurri sauce in my vitamix, but you could easily buy a premade pesto and it would taste delicious.

I blitzed parsley, basil, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, pine nuts, and salt & pepper until smooth to create the pesto. Then I cleaned the mushrooms with a damp cloth, removed the stalks, and filled each with a spoonful of the pesto and a chunk of fresh mozzarella, and ground some salt and pepper on top. They’re so easy because you can put them directly on the grill when you’re ready to go, and heat until the cheese has melted. Of course I forgot to take a picture of the final result. Sorry!

How pretty is the walkway down to Dan & Mary’s backyard!?

Mary went all out… she made a homemade sangria that was so good!

Some chicken and turkey meatballs cooked in Stubb’s Original Bar-B-Q sauce that D & picked up at Whole Foods. I’ve never been a big barbeque sauce fan, but this one was really good. And I never thought of doing meatballs with barbeque sauce… yum.

Is it weird that I pick out the blue m&m’s?

Such a spread! Oh, that dip there was really good. It was an artichoke and lemon one from Whole Foods that I mixed with nonfat greek yogurt… by mixing the yogurt in to it you make it instantly healthier, plus it will feed more people!

Mary was so sweet… she gave me this fabulous piece of art by Pat Doherty. You may remember I did a couple of guest blog posts for the SFMOMA Artists Gallery here and here, as gallery was featuring a bunch of food inspired paintings by a group of local artists, including Pat. Pat’s art is so fun and whimsical… I just love it. Pat was also selected as the artist who created the Gallery’s invitation & posters for their Annual Warehouse Sale and was hands down my favorite artist from the event – I love her cakes and cupcakes collection. It was such a lovely surprise when Mary handed this to me on Saturday night. Thanks so much Mary! It is now displayed proudly in my kitchen!

We headed outside to do some barbecuing… how great is this fire-pit that Dan made?

Love the plants along the stairs.

That’s D barbecuing, but you can’t really see him since it’s really only his foot that’s in focus! But anyways, that’s D!

Mmmmm… that’s the smell of sausages and burgers cooking.

The fire pit was seriously cool. Especially with sangria.

Miro’s hungry.

I love their backyard space… so rare in San Francisco.

Mary and I, snuggling under this crazy impressive quilt her sister made her as a wedding present. I loved all the different patterns she used, and some were from old blankets they had used as kids… even cooler!