Saturday: Costco Bagels, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Lunch & a Bonfire Blackstone Dinner

Got up this morning and immediately dealt with the bagels we bought at Costco.

Because if you’ve ever bought Costco bagels, you know the situation.

They’re delicious.

They’re a great price.

But they also seem determined to get moldy or stale approximately seventeen minutes after you bring them home.

Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration.

But not by much.

So I have a system.

My Costco Bagel Storage System

The very first thing I do when we bring home Costco bagels is slice every single one.

I don’t leave them whole.

I don’t leave the big bags sitting on the counter.

I slice them all immediately.

Then I divide them into bags of four.

About half go into the refrigerator for the next few days, and the other half go directly into the freezer.

Nothing stays on the counter.

This makes breakfast so much easier.

When somebody wants a bagel, it’s already sliced and ready to go.

And the frozen ones can go straight into the oven.

A Fun Lunch While Grandma Is Visiting

My mother-in-law is visiting us this weekend.

She lives out of state, so it’s always nice when she gets to spend some time with everybody.

And since we had company, I wanted to put together a fun lunch.

But I didn’t want to make seven different plates and then try to figure out what everybody wanted.

So I decided to do one of my favorite things.

A choose-your-own-adventure lunch spread.

I made two different kinds of chicken, added some crunchy things and plenty of vegetables, and let everybody assemble their own meal.

Some people made salads.

Others made platters.

And everybody could choose exactly what they wanted.

I think this is such a great way to feed guests because it feels like a nice spread without requiring you to make an elaborate, plated meal.

Cilantro Lime Chicken With a Saved Costco Sauce

For the first protein, I made cilantro lime chicken.

And here’s a little kitchen trick.

Remember those Kevin’s meals from Costco?

They often come with a generous amount of sauce.

Sometimes more than I actually want to use with the meat.

So the last time I bought one, I saved an extra pouch of cilantro lime sauce.

And today I finally used it.

I started by heating a large skillet and searing the chicken.

But I did it in two batches.

And that’s important.

If you crowd your skillet, your chicken won’t sear. It’ll steam.

When you put too much cold meat into a pan at once, the temperature drops, moisture collects, and instead of getting those delicious browned edges, the chicken ends up cooking in its own liquid.

So I cooked the chicken in batches, giving each piece enough room to develop some color.

Once both batches had a nice sear, I put all the chicken back into the pan.

Then I added the cilantro lime sauce, along with the juices from the chicken and some extra salt, pepper and garlic powder.

I put the lid on and let everything simmer for about five minutes to finish cooking through.

I checked that the chicken was fully cooked to 165°F.

And that was it.

Crispy Chicken Bites and a Big Lunch Spread

For our second protein, I made a tray of crispy chicken bites.

Then I put together a tray of naan crackers and prepped a whole bunch of vegetables.

I set everything out so people could build whatever sounded good.

Some made salads with chicken and vegetables.

Others made little platters with crackers, chicken and different sides.

And that’s what I love about this kind of lunch.

You don’t have to guess what everybody wants.

You just provide good ingredients and let people put them together.

It works particularly well when you have company because people can eat as much or as little as they want.

And I can actually sit down and enjoy lunch instead of standing in the kitchen assembling individual meals.

Getting Ready for Another Bonfire Night

This afternoon, I started prepping for dinner.

We decided to do another big bonfire night with dinner on the Blackstone.

And I’ve learned that the secret to enjoying these evenings is doing as much of the work as possible before we go outside.

I don’t want to spend the whole evening running in and out of the kitchen.

I want to be outside with everybody.

So I started getting things organized.

We were going to have hot dogs and savory s’mores for appetizers, flank steak and vegetables for dinner, and traditional s’mores for dessert.

Plus sparklers, glow sticks and flashlight tag once it got dark.

Basically, an entire evening outside.

And I wanted to have everything ready to go when we got home from Mass.

A New Way to Marinate Flank Steak

First, I prepped the flank steak.

And I actually tried something new today.

Not a new marinade, exactly.

A new way of applying the marinade.

Normally, when I’m handling raw meat, I put on disposable gloves.

Then I put the meat into a pan, take off the gloves, grab all my seasonings, and then put on another pair of gloves so I can rub everything into the meat.

It’s a whole process.

And I don’t want to touch my seasoning containers with gloves that have been handling raw meat.

So today I thought, why don’t I just put the marinade into the pan first?

I know.

Revolutionary.

But sometimes the most obvious ideas are the ones that take me years to figure out.

I grabbed a glass baking dish and added all my marinade ingredients directly into the dish.

Then I put the flank steak on top.

I moved the meat around, flipped it, and made sure it was thoroughly coated.

Done.

No taking gloves on and off just to reach for another seasoning container.

And it worked beautifully.

Sometimes a tiny change in your kitchen routine makes the whole process easier.

Prepping the Potatoes and Vegetables

Next, I cut up a bunch of small potatoes.

I diced them into little pieces because I wanted to cook them on the Blackstone.

Ideally, I would have started with potatoes that were already cooked.

I love doing that because you can throw cooked potatoes onto a hot griddle and get crispy edges almost immediately.

But I didn’t have any cooked potatoes left.

So raw potatoes it was.

I knew they’d take longer, so I planned to start those first.

Then I prepped a bunch of mixed vegetables.

I cut everything up and got it ready so I could just carry the vegetables outside and put them directly onto the Blackstone.

Again, the goal was to eliminate as much chopping and prep as possible once we were outside.

Savory S’mores: Our Favorite Bonfire Appetizer

And of course, I got our savory s’mores ready.

If you’ve been following along for a while, you know we love these.

They’re one of my favorite things to make around the fire.

I put together a platter with:

• Babybel cheese
• Mozzarella balls
• Thick slices of cheddar cheese
• Thick-cut Margherita pepperoni from Walmart
• Crackers for serving

The pepperoni is particularly good.

I buy the big log of Margherita pepperoni at Walmart and cut it into thick pieces.

Then we roast the cheese and pepperoni over the fire and put everything onto crackers.

It’s basically a little hot charcuterie appetizer.

And it’s so much fun.

We also had hot dogs ready to roast.

Yes, hot dogs were the appetizer.

Because apparently we like to be a little extra when it comes to bonfire dinners.

But that’s part of the fun.

Getting the Blackstone Going

After Mass, we came home and got everything started.

The kids began roasting hot dogs and savory s’mores while I fired up the Blackstone.

And this is exactly why I like having appetizers ready first.

Everybody has something to eat.

Everybody is happy.

And I can work on dinner without hearing, “When are we eating?” every thirty seconds.

I started with the potatoes.

Since they were raw, I knew they would need the most cooking time.

I added some bacon grease and avocado oil to the Blackstone.

Then I spread out the diced potatoes and let them start cooking.

I love using bacon grease for potatoes.

It adds so much flavor, and it helps them get those wonderful browned edges.

I moved them around as they cooked, giving them time to soften inside and crisp up outside.

It definitely took longer than it would have if I’d started with precooked potatoes.

But they turned out really good.

Next time, though, I think I’ll try to have some cooked potatoes ready ahead of time.

That would make this whole process even easier.

Flank Steak on the Weber Grill

For the steak, I decided to use my Weber grill.

I make flank steak on the Weber fairly often, so I figured this would be straightforward.

Well.

Not exactly.

I got the steak onto the grill and started getting a nice sear.

But then I ran into a grease flare-up.

And I wasn’t interested in letting the steak sit over a bunch of flames.

So I ended up moving it.

Thankfully, I had the Blackstone going right next to me.

So after the flank steak had gotten its initial sear on the Weber, I transferred it over to the middle of the Blackstone to finish cooking.

Not exactly the original plan.

But it worked.

We got the steak cooked.

And sometimes that’s just how outdoor cooking goes.

You make a plan, something unexpected happens, and you adjust.

The One Part I’d Change Next Time

The flank steak was delicious.

But I did run into one logistical issue.

Serving it.

Normally, when I’m cooking steak bites on the Blackstone, I can just scoop them up and serve them directly from the griddle.

It’s so easy.

But with a whole flank steak, you need to let it rest and then slice it across the grain.

So I had to take the steak inside.

Let it rest.

Slice it.

Then figure out how to keep it warm while everybody was getting ready to eat.

I ended up putting the sliced steak into a loaf pan and covering it with foil.

Which worked perfectly well.

But it felt a little clunky.

And I completely forgot to take a picture because I was too busy trying to get dinner served.

I think next time I might experiment with cutting the flank steak into strips or bites before cooking it.

That way I could cook it directly on the Blackstone and serve it straight from the griddle.

No running inside to slice.

No loaf pan.

No extra step.

I do love the flavor and texture of a whole grilled flank steak, so I’ll have to play around with that idea.

But for a bonfire night, I think steak bites might be the easier option.

Because the whole point is to spend time outside with everybody.

Not disappear into the kitchen to carve meat.

Dinner Outside

Once everything was ready, we served the flank steak, crispy potatoes and mixed vegetables.

And it was delicious.

I love cooking outside like this.

There’s something about having the Blackstone going, the grill going, and a fire nearby that makes dinner feel like an event.

Even though we’re really just eating steak and vegetables.

And because I’d prepped everything earlier in the afternoon, most of the work outside was actual cooking.

Not chopping vegetables.

Not searching for seasonings.

Not trying to find the pepperoni.

Everything was ready.

Which made the evening much more enjoyable.

My Bonfire Night Timeline

I’ve discovered that there’s a particular order I like to follow for these evenings.

And it works really well.

First, we do the hot dogs and savory s’mores as appetizers.

Then I get dinner going on the Blackstone or grill.

Once dinner is finished, I clean the Blackstone and grill while there’s still daylight.

This is important.

Because I do not want to be trying to scrape down a griddle in the dark.

And I definitely don’t want to come outside the next morning to discover a greasy Blackstone that I forgot to clean.

So I try to get all the cooking equipment cleaned up before the sun goes down.

Then we move on to sparklers.

Sparklers at Twilight

I love doing sparklers while it’s still a little bit light outside.

You don’t need complete darkness to enjoy them.

And twilight is actually a really nice time because you can still see what everybody is doing.

So after dinner and cleanup, we brought out the sparklers.

And the kids had a great time.

Then, once it got darker, we moved on to glow sticks.

I still have a bunch of glow sticks and sparklers that I bought back around the Fourth of July.

And I’ve discovered that fall is actually a much better time to use them.

In July, it stays light so late that everybody is practically ready for bed by the time it’s dark enough.

But in October, the sun sets much earlier.

So we can do sparklers, glow sticks and all the fun nighttime activities without staying outside until some ridiculous hour.

Glow Sticks, Headlamps and Flashlight Tag

Once it was properly dark, we brought out the glow sticks and headlamps.

And then the kids started playing flashlight tag.

Which is one of those activities that requires almost no planning but keeps everybody entertained.

A few flashlights.

Some headlamps.

A dark backyard.

And suddenly you’ve got a whole game going.

Meanwhile, we still had the bonfire.

So of course we made traditional s’mores too.

Because you cannot have an entire bonfire night and skip dessert.

We’d already had hot dogs, savory s’mores, flank steak, potatoes and vegetables.

But somehow everybody still had room for marshmallows and chocolate.

Funny how that works.

The Kitchen Aftermath

Eventually, we came inside.

And then I had to face the kitchen.

Because here’s the thing about hosting a big outdoor dinner.

Even when you do all the prep ahead of time, you still end up with dishes.

The trays.

The cutting boards.

The containers.

The serving utensils.

The things you brought back inside.

And somehow the kitchen still looks like you’ve been cooking all day.

Which, I suppose, I had.

So I spent some time dealing with the aftermath.

And I was definitely tired.

But it was worth it.

We had such a fun evening.

My mother-in-law was here visiting, the kids got to spend time outside, we had a delicious dinner, and everybody enjoyed the fire.