ottawa foodies

So what is everyone cooking/eating this Canada Day? I am making lobster salad to take to a potluck where the main will be slow cooked tri tip beef roast on my friends smoker (sounds interesting, will let folks know later how it turned out.)

Friday I took a chicken out of the freezer - it was a big circa 10 lb bird from a local organic farmer. Threw it right into my cooler to brine for for 24 hours (1/4 cup salt to 2 litres water) with a whole bunch of fresh oregano from the same farmer's CSA ( Saffire Farms )

Cooked it on the egg yesterday about 2.5 hours at 325F. No smoke at all. I put it on a roasting pan so I could collect up all the wonderful juices that come off - oh yeah!

Turned out perfectly! I cut it up and threw it in the fridge to eat today and tomorrow.

Also took a half pork loin out of the freezer from one of krusty 's pigs. Was originally going to rub it and then cover it in bacon to cook but after taking it out of the vac seal bag I was reminded that it was a pretty fatty breed of pig and even the loin had a good deal of marble in it. So I rubbed it last night and tossed it back in the fridge. It will be cooked low and slow today after we get back from the hill.

Zym, that loin roast will be very tasty. I made one from Krusty's last pig, with a rub and in the BBQ and it was awesome.

For today I'm doing two shoulder roasts and a ham roast in the smoker for pulled pork (also a la Krusty). We are having 13 adults and 14 kids over today. I also threw some tomato and poblanos in the smoker and turned them into a smoked salsa. For the pulled pork I'm doing the battle of the carolina's, one mustard sauce and one vinegar. Should be a good night.

Spatched and grill roasted cornish game hens. Sweet/tart cucumbers. Caprese salad. Fresh strawberry tart. And lots of Rhubarb Whiskey Sours.

and I almost forgot fresh peas with mint and shallots.

Well, for us it was a nice pasta salad with tuna on top. We wanted to stay cool, so we decided to stay in all day and cooked the pasta early. I did throw in some red onion for patriotism.

I didn't want to cook so we had a spread of bits and bobs. bread, cheeses, salami, etc. And lots of wine and beaus beer.

Sausage from The Piggy Market: Jerk Pork and Maple Chipotle.

Well the lobster salad went well with the smoked steak, which was a little drier than I would have preferred, but still ok, served on arugula. But the rest of the meal was awesome, beet salad, roasted tiny potatoes and gelato for dessert.