Dad's annual bbq

My dad's birthday is July 3, so we always have a big bbq to celebrate.  The theme is always the same, but the food varies year to year.  This year, we prepare salmon, brats, and pork steak on the grill, corn on the cob, caprese salad, and I made a middle eastern vegetable pasta salad. 

This was the caprese salad that I assembled for the party.  Ina taught me that the most important thing in assembling this sort of salad is to make sure that everything is about the same size- the tomato, mozzarella, and basil leaf should all fit together so the person always has a bite with a little bit of everything.  Overall, it's always a hit.

This was the middle eastern vegetable pasta salad that I also prepared.  The recipe is from Ina's cookbook, "How Easy is That?" on page 101.  This was an incredibly healthy, satisfying, and tasty salad made with tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers, parsley, mint, basil, feta cheese, and chickpeas with a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette.  Ina doesn't put pasta in hers, but I added cous cous and the pasta just soaked in all of that flavor from the veggies and dressing. Very good and I'll be making it again. 

Who could have asked for a better day or setting- we swam all afternoon, cooked, ate, talked, enjoyed each other's company, and ended the night with sparklers.  Another successful birthday for dad.