Sunday grilling (29/5): “we will grill this weekend even if I have to stand in the pouring rain” edition.

By the end of May, I was exasperated with the uncharacteristic cold and rain we’d been having, and determined to grill for Memorial Day no matter what. Thankfully, the weather decided to cooperate and bring forth sun and warm temperatures, so I busted out my collection of grilling themed magazines and settled on the Club Med menu from the June 2011 issue of Bon Appétit. Since the original cake in the menu and its ingredients looked too complicated to be worth bothering with, I replaced the dessert with a cranberry cake.

1. Grilled Yogurt-Marinated Leg of Lamb
There are no words to describe how amazing this was, but I’ll try anyway. This had a smoky flavor from the grill and the tabil spice blend in the marinade, and it was so soft, it practically melted in my mouth. Makes me drool just thinking about it now. Bit pricy, but so worth it. Great for sandwiches the next day too!

2. Cucumber, Tomato, and Feta Salad
A fresh salad with that yummy feta cheese bite.

3. Tunisian Vegetable Salsa
The sweetness of the roasted peppers and onions really came through in this. If I could stand to eat spicy food, I would’ve kept the chile seeds, and it probably would’ve been a nice counterpoint to the sweet vegetable taste, but… I don’t like having my mouth feel like it’s on fire.

4. Grilled Flatbreads with Tabil Spice Blend
Mmmmmm breaaaad. I love bread as it is—which probably isn’t very healthy—but homemade bread is the best. It just took a while because the grill could only fit two flatbreads at a time.

5. Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
I didn’t have the patience to go search for the weird ingredients that the orange cake originally part of this menu needed, but I did have bags and bags of frozen cranberries. Since you can only find them around Thanksgiving, I went a bit overboard last year and stoked up. Majorly. To the tune of about a dozen bags. But this cake is quick to make and tastes great, so using up all that cranberry shouldn’t pose too big of a problem. I do double the ingredients for the batter, though it still doesn’t turn out as high as the recipe photo.

6. Mint Tea
Simple and refreshing. I dumped two tablespoons of loose-leaf tea, a handful of mint, and ¼ cup honey into two cups of boiling water and brewed until very dark, then diluted it with three more cups of water, and added about ⅓ cup of lemon juice.