Grilling and Leftovers

Yesterday, Z and I made the best scrambled eggs with leftovers from the previous evening's bbq.  We sauteed some chopped beefsteak tomatoes, grilled eggplants, caramelized onions, Mexican corn in one pan with a little butter and salt and pepper, and made semi-slow cooked eggs in another pan (medium-low heat as opposed to low heat), combined the two together, added some cheddar cheese and sprinkled on some cilantro.  It was delicious, the best scramble that I've ever made!  We served it with some leftover arugula salad with dried rosemary cranberries and pecans and some freshly squeezed orange juice and ate brunch by the pool.  Perfect Sunday morning.

Saturday night, we had a simple bbq at my place.  We started with pita chips and homemade tzaziki with cucumbers from the backyard based on Ina's recipe (with the addition of a lot more dill), sliced some heirloom tomatoes with burrata, grilled portobello mushroom burgers again (topped with slices of Castello blue cheese, caramelized onions, arugula and beefsteak tomatoes), a new favorite for everyone, grilled some very pretty eggplants (I just halved the eggplants lengthwise, and drizzled with a little salt, pepper and olive oil and grilled them directly on the grill), and grilled Mexican corn (elote).  A nice healthy (vegetarian) bbq with plenty of fresh seasonal vegetables from the farmer's market.  We had several nice bottles of wine thanks to Alfio including a nice German riesling, Californian Sauvignon Blanc and Beckman Grenache.  I particularly love Mexican corn in the summer: spicy, smoky, and cheesy; recipe (as inspired by my favorite corn from Cafe Habana in NYC) as follows:

• Wash and remove the silks from 5 ears of corn (but leave the husks on) and soak the corn in a large pot of water.  Grill the corn first husk side down, rotating occasionally until corn is cooked through
• Mix together 1/3 cup of low fat mayo, juice from 1/2 a lime, 1/4 tsp of cayenne, 1 minced chipotle and 1 tsp of adobo sauce, 2/3 cups of cotija cheese (so excited to see that Trader Joe's now carries cotija cheese, besides Whole Foods), minced handful of cilantro, salt to taste
• After the corn is cooked, I shave it off the cob and mix it together with the above mixture.  It's a little easier to serve a large group this way and you don't necessarily need to have the exact number of cobs for the exact number of people.  You can serve it on the cob too, just brush the mayo, lime, cayenne, chipotle and adobo, onto the cob, roll it in the cotija cheese and sprinkle on cilantro