Just Meat It
I like to close out each Meatwave season with a cookout hosted in the coziness of falling temps, where hearty meals and an evening around the fire pit feels all too fitting. The week leading up to Just Meat It had those exact conditions, so it was a little frustrating when there was a single temperature spike into the 80s forecasted for the day of this cookout, but I kept with my original menu plan and, while not totally perfect, we still closed out the 2024 in a grand manner.
Chili is always top of mind when the temperature starts to dip into the 60s or below, and since it had been a few years since chili made a Meatwave appearance, it felt right to bring it back. The only problem is I've done so many of them in the past, I was having trouble thinking of a new recipe. I ended up landing on a white chili, which is not something I had even tried before, but it ended up being incredibly delicious with a trio of roasted green peppers, a lot of beans, and smoked turkey giving it a ton of flavor despite it's more unassuming appearance compared to many other chilis.
I felt like having a pretzel and beer cheese combo, but since neither of those are really grilling recipes, I took the idea and transformed it initially into these marinated portobello sandwiches. A soy and mustard heavy marinade infused a ton of flavor into the earthy portobellos which were paired with arugula, caramelized onion, and beer cheese on a pretzel bun.
I thought that sandwich idea sounded so good that I made a meaty version too, smoking up some pork belly burnt ends that were extra delicious thanks to leftover spicy mustard barbecue sauce that I had made for the first Meatwave of the season. The sandwiches got the same beer cheese and caramelized onions combo, but I swapped out the arugula in favor of pickled jalapeño slices, which brought a good hit of heat and tang to the party.
My mom has been making this sweet potato appetizer for get togethers recently that has roasted spud slices topped with goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, and rosemary, which is a simple, but effective trio. Since I've been enjoying those and they were thematically appropriate, I decided to do a variation of them with a topping combo that's more in line with my tastes. I used a mixture of ricotta and goat cheese spread atop grilled sweet potato slices, then adorned them with seasoned pecans, dried cranberries, rosemary, and thyme. They were definitely more flavor packed than what my mom has been making, but they didn't go so overboard that they strayed from what made those sweet potato bites so good.
Finally we get to the dish I actually made first—a butternut squash and kale salad. I'm always on the hunt for grilled dishes I can prepare in advance and there's a great butternut squash and kale salad make-ahead salad I've been utilizing for Thanksgiving, so I figured why not try something similar, only grilled. I grilled both the squash and kale the day before The Meatwave and coated them in a sweet Dijon dressing. Then right before serving, I mixed in crispy seasoned chickpeas and feta to give the salad all the flavors and textures to make it whole.
The last pizza party Meatwave was a huge hit, and so many folks came out that I thought this one would be sparsely attended, but most everyone made a repeat appearance and this photo captures the majority of my amazing friends who came to share the day with me.
In that crowd is Kellyn, who continued to impress with her creative baking skills, this time bringing these incredible chili cupcakes.
There's no guest closer to my heat those than Betty, so she gets a special shout out, as always.
But Betty had some company this time around with Rexford on the prowl.
The day was bit warm for a fire, but I made one anyway and put out all the ingredients for s'mores. It cooled down enough as the sun was setting for it to be comfortable to be close, and we got some quality fire and s'mores time in to end the 2024 Meatwave season exactly how I wanted to.
