Happy 4th!

The 4th of July is a day that has Barbecue written all over it. There is no time of the year when grilling is more appropriate than on Independence Day. Up until a couple of days ago I was left with no place to grill and frown upon my face when I envisioned a day of sun and fireworks with no charcoal or hamburgers. Luckily I was able to convince a friend of mine in Williamsburg to have a BBQ on his deck the night of the 4th (provided there is no rain, we will even be able to see the fireworks.)

The only problem is that neither of us has any sort of time earlier that day to do any prepping for the BBQ. I’m going to Gotham Bar & Grill for lunch (they have a $27.00 prix fixe) with a couple of friends and then going to a concert in Battery Park. This leaves any kind of burger making or complicated BBQ stuff out of the equation. Our solution was to throw what we are deeming a co-ed sausage party. We spent all day Saturday at the Greenmarket and Dean & Deluca buying all kinds of sausage and sausage condiments. Eventually we got into the theme and started trying to get as many different kinds of animals into sausage form as possible—so far we have fennel pollen, and hot and sweet Italian (pig), venison sausage, pheasant garlic sausage, beef sausage, bison kielbasa, Thai chicken, curried lamb and lamb and sage, hot dogs (possibly several kinds of animals), chorizo, duck sausage, soppressata and prosciutto. Unfortunately we don’t have any rabbit or wild boar sausage, but I think we’ll still make due.

We also have several different kinds of mustards, chutneys, pickled items and assorted cheeses from Murray's. Hope everyone else has something nice planned for the 4th. Happy grilling!