Family Dinner Brings On the FIRES OF MORDOR!!!!!!

The Fires of Mordor!!!!

Only a little bit of it….but still– THE FIRES OF MORDOR!!!!!

But I’ll get to that in a bit.

It’s been a few weeks since we had our last Family Dinner and I have to admit, I want EVERY THING from that menu EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

Since it was August, we were celebrating this pretty gal’s birthday. Yes folks, my little Nina is now 17. How is this even possible?! I feel like it was only the other day that I was zerberting my baby niece’s cheeks and now she’s a senior in high school, preparing to apply to college and driving me around. Well, the latter definitely has its perks.

So, the gang gathered at T’s house on a warm August afternoon for Family Dinner and birthday festivities.

There were cousins selfies……

Cuddle time…..

A little smooching…… (barf)…..

Dudes hanging out by the grill……..

Puppies running around and going BONKERS………

Leo-nators climbing on patio furniture….

Nini and Maya  time…….

And lots of QT with this cutie..

We had A LOT going on.

Good thing T made a bunch of Green Sangria for us to sip on. It was filled with kiwis, cucumbers, pears and white vino. Light and perfect for the HOT day we had.

As you may recall, if it’s your birth month, we usually create a menu with your favorite things for Family Dinner.

But the challenge you face when you raise little foodie-lings is that they end up having a taste for high end ingredients and dishes.

Nina loves lobster, uni, premium steaks, sashimi, poke….

Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE all of those things too but I don’t recall having such a refined palate at our munchkins’ ages.

So her birthday dinner of choice was not something your average teenager would have.

Lucky girl.

Seester T’s neighbor had just gone deep sea fishing and they gifted her with a bunch of fresh yellowfin tuna. Now that’s a neighbor I would TOTALLY want!

We took a few pounds of it and my niece Nini made her infamous Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls for us to snack on as appetizers.

SO. FREAKING. GOOD.

I love that Nini has such a great palate and makes THE BEST Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls.… like, EVER. They far surpass any that I’ve had at sushi joints and it’s all because of that “crack sauce” she makes. And lucky for you all, she’s agreed to allow me to share the recipe {coming soon}.

Did I mention she’s only 15?

Remember those lobsters from a few photos up?

Seester N took those buggers and made a wonderful Lobster Bisque filled with chunks of lobster meat and finished with a drizzle of truffle oil.

Lobsters and Truffle Oil?!?

Yea…just keep thinking “17 year old birthday dinner”…..

And because that Lobster Bisque was so nice, I had to show it twice.

One of the sides for dinner were twice fried Parmesan Garlic Truffle Fries.

Go Big or Go Home.

Well, we went Big and then went home.

As for the main course, Nina is like her grandma and ADORES beef. She always wants some kind of steak on her special day.

So she got this beauty below. Dry-aged, Prime Ribeye Steaks with herb butter and crispy onion strings on top.

I’ll pause a moment to allow you to lick the screen……

Oh! And there was a Caesar Salad for a bit of greens.

And to wrap up the whole meal, a decadent birthday cake. Nina loves and I mean LOVES chocolate and green tea. With that in mind, I made her a rich chocolate cake and filled the layers with a matcha mousse. It was then frosted with a matcha buttercream and adorned with Matcha Pocky Sticks.

Not to toot my own horn but it was pretty fantastic.

Now, let’s spend some more time talking about those mouth watering, juicy steaks.

When we first started talking about the menu for Family Dinner, we knew steaks had to be on the menu. But we make steaks all the time–a TON of different ways. We had to do something special for Nina and that’s where my brother comes into the picture.

He and I have talked numerous times about that one episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown uses a chimney starter to “grill” porterhouse steaks.

Yup, you read correctly. A chimney starter that you typically use to heat up coals for a BBQ grill.

And what’s fantastic is that the thick steaks cook in 5 minutes!

It all started with the beef.

Now, Alton used porterhouse steaks but that ended up being tough for V to find that were prime and not choice or select. Why do you want prime beef, particularly for this method of cooking? Because of all that beautiful marbling in the meat. Lots of lovely marbling = taste bombs exploding in your mouth.

We ended up using prime ribeye steaks which were fantastic. V took those beauties and dry aged them in the refrigerator for four days. Click here to find out how A.B. dry ages steaks.

This is where the chimney comes in .

He filled the inside with a layer of natural lump coal………..

Then stuffed the bottom with newspaper…. well, actually, it was an old Trader Joe’s bag……..

Then he lit the paper and allowed the coals to burn.

And this is where the magic begins.

He lifted the chimney and placed one steak on the grill before placing it back over the beef.

He allowed the steak to grill for 90 seconds and then flipped them….

Then the chimney goes back over the steak for another 90 seconds….

Then he took the chimney off, placed the grate on top of the chimney and placed the steak on top………..

Then threw a metal bowl to cover the steak. It grilled for 60 seconds, the bowl was removed, the steak was flipped, the bowl was slapped back on top and then the steak grilled for a final 60 seconds.

And that’s it! The steaks were then rested before we dove in.

Wasn’t that freaking AWESOME!!!???

Not only did it produce a commercial-kitchen-salamander affect on the beef but it was SO FUN to do!!!

In fact, it was SO fun that I had to make a quick video about it. Check it out below and let me know what you think 🙂

All in all, it was a show stopping dinner.

Filled with kids inhaling pounds of lobsters.

And lots of laughter and vino.

Big, BIG thanks to my bro for overseeing our awesome steaks!

And I don’t know what’s happening in the picture below but I can’t stop cracking up over it.

And don’t forget about cake time!

Look at Luna and Leo’s faces below.

They kill me.

Happy Birthday Nina Love!

Speaking of love, take a look at the little photo bomber on the right.

Precious.

Delicious food, learning new cooking techniques, hanging out with the fam–it was a memorable summer family dinner.

With the fires of Mordor….

And Maya dancing behind them. 😉

Until next time gang!

xoxo ❤

This Month’s Family Dinner Menu

Cocktails: Green Sangria
Appetizers: Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls and Lobster Bisque
Entrees: Grilled Ribeye Steaks with Crispy Onion Strings, Caesar Salad & Truffle Parmesan Fries
Dessert: Matcha Chocolate Pocky Cake