My Uncle Denny has been featured here before. Or at least his famous smoked salmon has been. The other night he held a little shin-dig for his cousin (my first cousin once-removed – I figured out the difference between once/twice-removed and first/second/third cousins at a family reunion years ago). He invited a mess people over and cooked up six chickens all snug and cozy on his little Weber charcoal grill. They’re about half-way done here. He was a bit reluctant to open the grill, since part of the secret to the deliciousness of the final chicken is leaving the lid on to capture all the smoke and get it into the chicken meat. If they suffered I almost wouldn’t want to taste the more perfect birds – the chicken he served up was smoky, juicy, and fabulous. Just salted and peppered them, and put them on the grill as crowded as can be, and let them cook until golden and “done” from what I could tell. He seemed to spend most of the party in a lounge chair nursing a margarita without a chicken concern in the world. I should have asked more questions, but by the time I knew how good the chicken was, I was busy eating it.
Note: My cousin (technically another first cousin once-removed, the sister of the guest of honor) Jajie* really wanted to make the blog. She talked about it and made a fuss but then refused to stand still for any picture-taking. She made this awesome salad, however, which I then re-made, tweaked for the dressing, and posted a recipe (Blueberry Blue Cheese Spinach Salad) because it was so pretty and tasty and easy:
*You wonder what kind of name “Jajie” is? It’s short for Janet. You can’t really hang with the Watson clan and not have your named turned into a diminutive ending with a long “e” sound. Even Schuyler ends up being called “Schuylie” half the time.
class factotum | 21-Jul-09 at 7:34 am | Permalink
I thought I was the only person with an Uncle Denny (well, besides my brother, sister and four cousins who also have an Uncle Denny). It must be a Wisconsin/Minnesota thing.
RE: The lefse. I have eaten it at the Sons of Norway hall and it is delicious. Lutefisk, on the other hand, would not be my favorite.