1 pound zucchini, quartered and sliced into 1" sticks
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried dill
salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Arrange zucchini skin side down on a large baking sheet.
3. Combine oil, garlic, salt and herbs and brush over zucchini.
4. Bake in the oven until zucchini is tender and lightly brown, about 5 minutes.

Makes 4 servings

6 eight ounce sirloin steaks
1/4 cup tamarind
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup molasses
4 ounces tomato paste
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper

1. Dissolve the tamarind in boiling water, breaking it up with a fork.
2. Place tamarind juice in a small sauce pan over low heat and gradually whisk in the remaining ingredients, except the steak.
3. Reduce the sauce to a desired thickness for barbecue if it is not as thick as you desire.
4. Preheat the grill.
5. Season your steaks with salt and pepper or steak spices of your choice and place them on the hot grill.
6. After 2 minutes, turn the steaks at a 45 degree angle to sear crosshatch grill marks on one side.
7. Flip the steak over, wait 2 minutes, and rotate the steak 45 degrees again to crosshatch the other side.
8. Spread several tablespoons of sauce on top of the steak, reduce the heat and close the lid to finish cooking.
9. Flip the steak once again and top with more barbecue sauce before serving.

Makes 6 steaks

2 medium tart apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1/4 small red onion, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest, grated
1 tablespoon ginger puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1. Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat and add remaining ingredients.
2. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened and apples are tender.
3. Allow mixture to cool before serving.

Makes 4 servings

Tonight we had company over to watch Montreal absolutely clobber Carolina. It seems only appropriate, when inviting people to bring beer, that you serve barbecue. We just filled up the propane tank and I even took apart the grill to sort out all the ash and such that is a likely culprit of the uneven heating and when I went to get the flames going it just wouldn't start. Considering the origins of fire lie somewhere directly in my genealogical tree, I'm surprised it took so long to discover that I'd accidentally pulled out the connectors that fuel the propane into the barbecue. After some nervous experimentation, we ended up with a big gust of flames and everything was ready to go.

As I mentioned back in February, I felt it was necessary to try tamarind in some sort of barbecue sauce upon the discovery that it is one of the ingredients in Worcestershire sauce. I slowly pieced together ingredients for the Tamarind Barbecue Sirloins and in the end was left with a thick, dark syrup. I had been tasting the sauce after each ingredient addition (barbecue is not something to be messed with for the purpose of experimentation) and it sort of tasted a little off. I decided to give it a go anyway and after it'd been cooked up a bit on the grill it was actually quite tasty. One of my guests started swearing spontaneously a-la-tourettes and I thought he might've burned himself. Turns out that's just what he does when he's excited or really likes something, these steaks being that.

I was going to make Potato Salad, but yams were on sale for 39 cents a pound, so I made little baked yams with an Apple Chutney instead. The chutney was comprised all of flavors that I figured would be complimentary of yam, like apple, brown sugar and orange zest. I wasn't a huge fan of the chutney itself, but it did go with the yam. I'd take a simple roasted yam with a bit of butter and salt over it any day, though.

Finally, a simple Garlic Roasted Zucchini, which filled the oven with smoke in 5 minutes with its easily burnable garlic. The herbs and garlic were virtually indistinguishable, but I still think zucchini prepared pretty much any way (and especially with mushrooms) is perfect barbecue fare. Perhaps it's the ability to sop up steak juices that makes it such a great side dish. We also had Caesar Salad with homemade croutons.

This has seemed irrelevant until now, but since it's taking away from my kitchen, I feel it necessary to mention it. Shannon and I are moving to Montreal at the end of the summer and we are currently trying to sell everything that we own that does not fit in a suitcase. This seems like a daunting task and, rather than rush at the last minute and end up auctioning everything for 0, we decided we'd rather sleep on the floor in our empty apartment than risk relocating broke. We mentioned the move to the caretakers in our apartment and the word quickly spread like wildfire. They brought their son's family over and they bought up half our apartment. Sadly, this included a food processor, an electric griddle, a wok and the barbecue. Also, the light that was in this room, so I am currently typing this in the dark. While it is sad to see this stuff go, it is also nice to have several hundred dollars extra in our savings account. Alas, summer without a barbecue may prove to be a painful experience.