Come on summer 2017! Winter is killing me. For those of you that follow me on Twitter you'll know that I'm at my happiest during the blazing hot summer, sitting poolside with the grill fired up with some sort of over the top appetizer or meal. As I was sitting inside on this annoying dreary non-snowy winter day, I was going back through my iPhone photos and found a bunch of food photos that I wanted to post here so I can routinely look back and remember how much fun summertime poolside grilling is. Heads up, there are a lot of pool party grilling photos, food porn you might say. You might also get hungry, end up booking a trip south for the winter, or better yet... making friends with me!
Sometimes all you need is a simple burger. Notice that nothing fancy is going on here. No cheese or jalapenos stuffed inside, no bacon. Just extra runny cheese, lettuce, onions, mustard and ketchup. Perfect.
Speaking of burgers, these burgers were topped so heavily with cheese that it gives the impression of a runny egg on top. These are cooking on the new Big Green Egg that arrived in early 2016 (hey thanks guys!). It's made a routine appearance at pool parties throughout 2016. Those dogs are looking sharp too.
There she is. No doubt firing out something fun.
Let's turn to the water for a second. Oh man, I need to take a dip. As a chemistry nerd, I'm balancing the water daily. Splash of chlorine here, splash of chlorine there. Perfectly balanced. No unnecessary chemicals.
Back to the food.
The Pit Barrel Cooker was also an integral member of the pool party cooking team. I think most of my friends agree that the pool side nachos stole the show. I'd hang a beef brisket on the PBC, cut up the brisket point and lay it over some tortilla chips with cheese, salsa, and hot peppers. So fun.
There's that brisket. Want to smell something good while doing a back float at 11am? Smoke a brisket!
Pulled pork works too. Talk about easy. Shred some BBQ meats and make nachos. No rules.
You'd be surprised some of the gems you can find in the places you'd least expect it. One day that I took off work, I had to return something at Walmart. I ended up seeing these little pizza boat flat breads and a gorgeous rib eye steak on sale (yeah, at Walmart of all places). Talk about a perfect day off lunch. I added some brats in there for good measure.
Costco also had these awesome Italian flat bread sandwich things going on. Perfect for poolside indirect grill heat.
Poolside pizza. Obviously that was on the menu.
Poolside steaks are special. They are amazing but they do have drawbacks. Not very forgiving if you forget about them and get caught up in too much pool fun (or drinking). I have to focus when doing these.
One night we turned the light on and grilled some steaks in the dark. What an experience!
Hey, don't forget about the drinks. A blender comes out to the pool deck for some piña coladas. Some extra cherry juice on top for special guests.
Some superstar "elite" pool party guests will make a trip to a local brewery and show up with fresh IPAs that were canned just days prior. Wow!
You know... it can't always be about BBQ. Steamed crabs on the menu too.
And obviously poolside desserts. Fresh donuts and ice cream sundaes hit the spot routinely.
Sometimes the pool party can be as simple as some local gas station fried chicken and a hoagie.
... and some more burgers and sausages.
I'm a clear water addict.
Did I mention that this place is paradise? Oh man. Come on summer. Winter is a crock.
Note: I wrote this whole post and resized all of the photos while walking on an incline treadmill with a desk attached. It took an hour and a half. I supposedly burned about 600 calories, getting ready for 2017 pool parties!
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