We're enjoying a beautiful end of summer in Seattle this year and we decided to celebrate with having some friends join us for dinner. It all began the night before at our fire pit when the cave-men husbands were talking about how cool it would be to cook dinner over the fire.  We agreed to bring dishes to cook on the open flame at our house the next evening at 7:00.   

My husband and I decided to roast shrimp over the fire using a wire mesh "fry pan" which worked great.

I bought 1 pound of shrimp (or prawns?) pre-peeled and cleaned and marinated them for a half hour in a 2 T of fresh squeezed lime juice; 1 T of olive oil, 1 T of minced garlic and a T of Emeril's Essence with an extra dash of chili powder.

We also had some fresh cherry tomatoes from our patio garden that I mixed with some spicy olives I had on hand.  I also split a loaf of ciabatta bread and spread it with butter and garlic and wrapped it in foil.  We tried cooking it next to the flame but found it actually worked best to take the bread out (I also pre-sliced it) and kind of toss it in the fry pan over the flames.  I wound up taking smaller chunks of bread (buttered w/garlic) and roasting it on a skewer.

The neighbors delighted us with an assortment of goodies to cook on the fire including:  scallops, prawns, cubes of marinated steak, par boiled potatoes and corn and sweet onions.  We used skewers and the fry pan to cook the dinner feast.  They also brought some tasty green beans that were served room temp in a balsamic reduction sauce with almonds. (Do we have great neighbors or what??)

Desert was consisted of roasted marshmallows…of course!

The movie?  Endless Summer.  We used a projector and watched it on our neighbors home…it was a very fun evening.