July 13
Star Wars: The Dinner

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- Grilled Italian Sausages with Caramelized Onions and Shallots [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 1 shallot
- 1 tablespoon thyme
- salt and pepper
- 1.5 pounds sausage
- 1 loaf bread
- mozzarella
Instructions
We start by turning on our gas grill.
Next, we prepare the vegetables. The onion is halved, peeled, and sliced into quarter inch pieces. We repeat for the shallot. We put the onion and shallot into a microwave safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and cook for two minutes. Careful with the steam, we stir, add the thyme leaves and cook in the microwave for another minute. We add salt and pepper and dump into a disposable aluminum cake pan.
The sausage links are placed on top of the onions and shallot and the pan covered with foil.
The pan is cooked in the center of the hot grill, covered, for 15 minutes. This will steam-cook the links.
Then, we move the pan to one side of the grill, carefully remove the foil with tongs, and place each link on the grate. We continue to cook the sausages, uncovered, turning them as necessary, for 5 minutes. We also continue to cook the onions and shallot on the side of the grill in the cake pan until most of the liquid evaporates.
When the sausages are nicely browned and the onions and shallot caramelized, we move them to a platter.
We cut the loaf of bread into thirds and slice open. We toast the bread a few minutes with some sliced mozzarella and then top with the cooked onions, shallot, and sausage. This could have been done on the grill, but we use our toaster oven today.
- Spaghetti with Sauce
- Spinach Salad
Today was a momentous day for the men in the family.
For Chris, this was a day 10 years in the making. It was the day the kids start watching the Star Wars trilogy. Chris has tried many times to get them to watch, but today they finally gave in.
It was the original trilogy, of course, the one where Han shoots first and all that. Even without the CGI, it still captured the kids' imagination, just as it had Chris' 30 years ago. Even the baby was enthralled—more than once, she was overheard repeating “I only wish Ben were here”, followed by a kiss for the nearest family member.
Yes, it was truly a big day for Chris. For our son, it was equally as big a day—we had pasta. Any day with pasta is a big day for our son.