Happy Fourth o’ July!
And what more traditional way to celebrate than to gather around the grill with friends to share nicely charred (in a good way) food?
Golnaz and Mehran had invited us and a bunch of other folk to their place to share a Sunday evening cook out (it was supposed to be Sunday afternoon, I think, but Golnaz very nicely made adjustments around our puppy schedule – thanks Golnaz!).
As the proud owners of a new – and still pretty shiny – grill, bought at a VERY attractive price from Target, they moved Golnaz’ now famous penchant of expecting twenty and cooking for ninety or so outside on a perfect summer’s evening. (One of) the featured parts o’ the feast was the very traditional (at least around about these parts) offering of grilled brats and onions; along with burgers, tofu and chicken hot dogs, grilled veggie skewers (eggplant, 
zucchini, tiny sweet peppers, plum tomatoes and ‘shrooms) all brushed with a bit of olive oil and dusted with this very nice veggie seasoning mix Golnaz buys at Costco that I am going to have to look into on our next trip to Mettawa.
Not being a big brat cooker, Golnaz very nicely consulted buzzyfoods.com for answers, and, as it so happens, we were able to offer up a TASTY method of preparing the bratwurst for the grill, calling for a big pot, a 
bit of butter, some onion, the brats of course, and several bottles of beer – for the brats – we were sipping sangria!
This beer-y cooking liquid did double duty as Golnaz tossed a bit over the burgers while they were cooking; and we were talking about the possibility of chilling and skimming the fat from the remaining liquid and then turning it into the base for what I think could be a KILLER beer cheese soup. I’ll let you know if that happens.
BTW – if you’ve noticed the different look on a couple of today’s images, I’ve been playing around with an app I bought for my iPhone – Hipstamatic – a wicked nizza series of ‘lenses’ and ‘films’ to yank your digital imaging all the way back to the days of wood panel station wagons and the Beach Boys on the AM radio. Fun stuff!
Happy Merry, everyone!