Drinks · Sunday Family Dinner

Summer Grilling Family Dinner + Fresh Peach Bellinis

Grilled Lobster with Cilantro Chile Butter

We’ve got a fair amount of July Babies in our family. Though, let’s be honest…with a family as large as ours, there are a lot of babies year round. Big Seester N, Big Seester P, brother-in-law, niece, several cousins, an auntie, an uncle….and that just includes the family in the states!

For July’s Sunday Family Dinner, we celebrated 2 of our July babies—Big Seester N and my brother-in-law R. As for theme? We kept the menu quite straight forward but pretty dang delicious.

Summer Grillin’

And of course, since we were celebrating, there had to be a bit of decadence. In the form of lobsters. Lots of lobsters.

N was totally freaking out Lucasaurus with them.

July 2013 Family Dinner

Seester T staffed the grill for a good portion of our meal which totally amused her hubs, the birthday boy.

July 2013 Family Dinner

Now what’s a Sunday Family Dinner without cocktails? Surely not one of ours!

This month we toasted with Fresh Peach Bellinis. Granted they weren’t grilled but they definitely were a nod to summer using wonderfully sweet, white peaches. After adding a few spoonfuls of fresh white peach puree and a squeeze of lime to champagne flutes, I topped off each glass with bubbly Prosecco.

Simply perfect.

Peach Bellinis

And of course, we had to take our mandatory-monthly Seesters pic while holding our cocktails.

Seesters

Our menu included:

Grilled Rosemary Flatbread.

Grilled Flat Bread

Grilled Pacific Oysters……..

Grilled Oysters

A few Grilled Ginormous Prawns…….

Grilled Prawns

Rosemary Garlic Lamb Rib Chops……….

Grilled Lamb Chops

and Grilled Lobsters with Cilantro-Chile Butter…….

Grilled Lobster with Cilantro Chile Butter

Did I mention that our kiddos have quite the refined palates?

And I think they’re uber adorable.

July 2013 Family Dinner

For dessert? Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée that my niece, Nina, made. Although technically not made on the grill, she did torch the tops to brûlée it.

Totally counts. 🙂

Creme Brulee

The kiddos also made this adorable sign for the birthday babies—I loved that they used their nicknames!

image_1

Not only was the dinner scrumptious but it was fairly low maintenance with at least 80% of the “cooking” done on the grill. The cherry on top? It made clean up a breeze!

Peach Bellinis

And for those who cannot travel to Venice to try the original Bellini at Harry’s Bar, give my version a spin. My Seester said it’s pretty darn close to the real thing 🙂

CHEERS to another memorable Sunday Family Dinner!

This Month’s Family Dinner Menu

Cocktails: Peach Bellini
Appetizers: Rosemary Grilled Flatbread, Grilled Oysters, Grilled Prawns
Entrees: Rosemary-Garlic Lamb Rib Chops, Grilled Lobsters with Cilantro-Chile Butter
Dessert: Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

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Fresh Peach Bellinis
Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 ripe white peaches, pitted and quartered
1/4 cup water
1-2 tablespoons sugar, optional
4 lime wedges
chilled Prosecco or other sparkling wine

Add the peaches and water into a blender. Depending on the sweetness of the peaches, add sugar as needed. Puree until smooth. Optional: Strain the peach puree through a fine-meshed strainer.

Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the peach puree into each glass. Squeeze the juice of a lime wedge into each glass and slowly top with the chilled Prosecco. Gently stir each glass before serving. Cheers!

Note: The Bellinis shown here are garnished with yellow peaches, however, the cocktails were made with the traditional white peach.

Drinks

Celebrating our “Birthday” with Lychee Bellinis

Lychee Bellinis

 

That’s right friends, it’s our anniversary today—or more accurately, our 1 Year Birthday 🙂

A year ago today, through the encouragement of friends and loved ones, I started The Culinary Chronicles to help document some of my Foodventures and to jot down some of my random musings. In truth, I wasn’t sure if I’d stick to it for long—admittedly, I kind of have a short attention span for things. 🙂 But here I am, one year later loving the creative outlet that this space has given me and thankful for all of my virtual foodie friends I’ve connected with.

So in honor of our “birthday” and my deepest appreciation to my loved ones and readers, this post is dedicated to you. A TOAST —for all of your support, comments, feedback, and inspiration.

May we continue to have endless Foodventures together.

Much alohas, “N”

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Lychee Bellinis
Serves: As many as you’re willing to share with 🙂

Ingredients:

1 Bottle Sparkling Wine
½ Cup Lychee Puree*
¼ Cup Lychee Syrup

Take the fruit from one 20 ounce can of lychee and puree it well. Strain the puree and discard the pulp.

In a flute, add 2 tablespoons of the strained lychee puree and 1 tablespoon of lychee syrup. Top off flute with chilled sparkling wine. Garnish each flute with one whole lychee.

Salut!