Delicious dining at my sister's house

Staying with my sister & her husband is like visiting a gourmet restaurant - EVERYTHING tastes good.

Treats that they served up included, but not limited to:

Grilled eggplant - This is my #1 favorite vegetable and #1 favorite grilled vegetable. Oktavijan showed me just how to prepare it. To my surprise, it was much easier than I had done. Here are the simple and easy steps:

1. Peel the eggplant. This prevents bitterness.
2. Slice lengthwise roughly into just a few large thick pieces.
3. SKIP drying & salting - he said that this is unnecessary, time-consuming and messy.
4. Place them on the grill and drizzle some olive oil.
5. Cover & check on. Estimate time on grill is about 20 minutes, depending on heat. I think the temp was about 450.

Perfectly grilled quarter pound hamburgers with Vidalia onions (not just any onion) ketchup and lettuce. It was one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever eaten. I’m not sure of the secret, but I think it has to do with cooking them to “medium” and not to “well done” to retain the moisture. While enjoying our hamburger, we all relived the scene in the movie, “The Pink Panther” in which Steve Martin’s character is trying to learn how to say, “I want a hambuger” but instead keeps saying, “ I want a DAMburger.” My little niece did almost the entire scene. It was funny.

Sorbet from a gourmet store in NYC. They found it at a local boutique grocery store. I tried the strawberry and chocolate flavors - very yummy. The strawberry was, in fact, so popular in the house that Oktajivan resorted to sanctioning out small allotted portions per person. Therefore, I had to try the chocolate instead of strawberry. My sister kindly gave me her “allotted strawberry gelato” for the day.

Pesto flatbread Mozzeralla Pizza - this they made from scratch, using fresh crushed basil for the pesto sause, fresh Mozzerella and a sprinkle of pine nuts. They put the square delectable creation on the grill and it was delicioso!