Finally the sun is out - and I'm ready for some summer cooking

On Sunday evening it was time to announce the winner from my “1000 Followers Giveaway” competition. Congratulations to @pitbudbbq - I hope you enjoy three of my favourite rubs from The Smokey Carter!

As the title suggests the sun has finally made an appearance - which has spurred me on to try some more different cooks. I wanted to try a one pot cook to keep things simple for a midweek dinner. I decided on a sausage, tomato and gnocchi stew, type thing (I’m sure there’s a technical term). I got some coals ready in my chimney starter and put them on the charbroil and added my dutch oven to warm up, with a little oil. When the oil was hot enough I put in the diced onion and cooked until soft. I added a tin of chopped tomatoes and 2 tsp of smoked paprika, cooking the sausages next to the dutch oven on the grill. Once the sausages were cooked I cut them up and added them to the pot. Once everything was bubbling away nicely I put in the gnocchi and added a small amount of water to help it cook. A great and simple meal.

The next evening the weather was still nice so once again I fired up the Joe Junior for a nice piece of flat iron steak. It was a lovely piece of meat and nearly 1kg - so enough for a good meal for my wife and I plus leftovers. I cooked it for around two minutes each side and added some slices of a new butter I bought from a bbq shop for the last thirty seconds.

Keeping up with the outdoor and different cooking my wife suggested prawns. I'm not the biggest fan of prawns but she loves them and to be honest I quite enjoyed them. I also wanted to keep up the simple cooks so tried them in a parcel. My wife de-veined and shelled the prawns whilst I sliced the chorizo into crescent shapes and diced the mango. Also thrown into the parcel were sliced spring onions, two cloves of crushed garlic and some red chilli flakes. All wrapped up tight and placed on the Joe Junior for 15-20 minutes.

We woke up Saturday morning to some glorious sunshine. So whilst doing some garden chores I fired up the Joe Junior again and put on some bacon and black pudding, fried up an egg and had a great sandwich with some hot sauce.

Then in the evening I finally got the chance to light my new fire pit - and it was amazing. The shape of the pit pushed the heat out at the same angle of the metal, so felt much warmer than previous fire pits I’ve owned. It was so nice sitting outside writing some new recipes sitting by the fire.

I think I'll do it again this evening.

Thank you for reading and take a look at my instagram page for all of the above and more.

Stuart - @bbqfestu