Week 26: BBQ Potatoes!

Ahhh...life is good.  We arrived at the in-law's lake house about an hour ago.  Two little angels are sleeping upstairs.  And I'm sipping a beer listening to...crickets...random fireworks...and the sounds of up north.  Quite the ambiance for blogging.

I'm hoping vacation round 2 goes more smooth than our trip to Toronto.  It should.  It's going to be a much slower pace day to day.  Playing with toys, walking down to the beach, playing in the sand, going on the pontoon boat, getting ice cream, BBQing, making smores.  Yeah...it should be relaxing.  Check back in a week.

I'm knocking on wood as I type this, but I think we're all better.  Last week's post was full of things like vomiting, fevers, and crabby kids.  We've had a few random occurences of vomiting (normal, I'm told by our pediatrician) and a fever on Sunday by Evan.  But, I'm blaming it on his teeth.  Small fry is cutting his two top teeth (one is in and the other on the way).  His appointment on Monday confirmed his ears are in tip-top shape, he has no fever, and there's nothing requiring yet another round of antibiotics. 

Saturday, we got back in to the groove of life at home.  A trip to the Farmer's Market for muffins, a visit to the library for our weekly prize for the summer reading program, and our morning was off to a great start.  I decided to head to Troy to meet up with the bride-to-be, Kristen, to help her finish her registry at Macy's and stopped in to Beaumont to visit my grandma who had some breathing difficulties last week.  I rushed home to meet up with the boys in downtown Plymouth for the Michigan Philharmonic's, "An American Salute" free concert in the park.  Sean was a little squirly waiting for them to start, but we made it through the first half and got to hear the Star Spangled Banner and some music from E.T.  So fitting...

Sunday, Scott took off to go golfing with his parents around lunch time and I was excited to spend the afternoon with the boys.  We made our 4th of July t-shirts.  Not quite the way I wanted them to turn out, but I guess that's the beauty of crafting with two little guys.

We had an interesting situation arise between Sean and our dog, Bailey, not even a half hour after Scott left.  Let's just say that Bailey does not like to be awoken by a toddler jumping on her.  Poor Sean walked away with a tiny scratch on his face and a lesson learned.  Bailey's bed is off-limits.  Truly, it was a lesson for all of us.  I shouldn't have left him on his own in the living room while I was in the play room with Evan.  Sean shouldn't have been in Bailey's bed.  Bailey shouldn't have reacted the way she did.  But, in the end, all is well and Sean still loves his Bailey-boo. 

Over the weekend we decided to BBQ some italian sausages.  I had a bag of potatoes that were on the verge of going bad.  So, I decided to try a recipe for BBQ potatoes that I've seen on Pinterest quite a bit.  Let me say, the pictures on Pinterest of these potatoes look absolutely delicious.  It's a pretty simple recipe.

1 1/2 pound potatoes (equal sized)
1 grated garlic clove or 1/4 to 1/2 tsp garlic powder
chicken or vegetable broth
tiny cubes butter
minced parsley
pepper and salt

Use an ovenproof dish. Place the peeled and washed (even-sized) potatoes in there and make sure they fit snuggly together.

Add the grated garlic or powder to the broth and heat it for a minute to get the flavors going. Pour hot broth in there until there’s about 1 inch of broth in the dish and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top of the potatoes.

Place a tiny slice of butter on top of each potato. As the potatoes start to cook the butter will melt all over, it’s delicious. Not diet-friendly, but very tasty.

Place the dish in your BBQ or oven and give them 35 to 40 minutes. Check them for readiness.

Here's the thing...mine never turned out looking like the ones from Pinterest:

The bottoms never browned, the flavor was just that of a potato that was baked with a small amount of butter, and it just wasn't all it was cracked up to be.  I was disappointed.  Not to mention I let mine cook for close to an hour instead of the time recommended above.  Not sure what went wrong here, but I'm moving on to another recipe for this week.  I have a great recipe for a new pasta salad that I haven't made before and I'm excited to see how it turns out.  Plus, I'm making the infamous feta dip that my friend, Justina, made a few months ago that was delicious! 

Should be an exciting week!  Evan's first time up north, new recipes, the fireworks and boat parade, Adelaide's second birthday, and hopefully Sean will catch a fish or two!  As much as I'm freaked out by the ginormous daddy long leg spider that greeted us at the cottage as we arrived, I do love northern Michigan in the summer!  Time to make some memories!