Luau at the Lake - 4th Annual Blogger Get-together

The 4th annual blogger get-together was held again this year at Tellico Lake in east Tennessee on the dock of Almost Heaven South at the home of Larry, Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings, and his wife Beverly. I can think of nothing finer than to spend Memorial Day weekend at the lake with friends. This year the theme was a Hawaiian Luau. Chris of Nibble Me This served as the menu coordinator for the event. Other bloggers in attendance included Penny of Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen and her husband David, Dave of Big Daddy Dave and his wife Laurie, and the third Dave of My Year on the Grill and Inspired by E Recipe Cards and his wife Jackie, who traveled all the way from Kansas, plus my husband Meakin, the event photographer and other friends and relatives. We all missed Katherine of Smoky Mountain Café and her husband A. J., who are part of the threesome who plan this event, but weren’t able to attend this year.

Grab a plate and join me and the others as we sample the offerings.

For appetizers, Larry prepared a sweet and spicy pineapple pork ribs that were “fall of the bone” delicious (more about it here) and Dave made an appetizer of grilled shrimp & pineapple.

For the main course we started with Kalua Pork, which were pork butts wrapped in banana leaves that Larry smoked over Koa wood, details here.

Chris made Huli Huli sliders with chicken that had been brined and was served with a tangy, sweet, almost teriyaki sauce and topped with ponzu slaw on a slider roll. Here’s a link to his post and more pictures of how the fabulous the slider looked assembled.

Penny brought an authentic Hawaiian macaroni salad, recipe here, and wrote more about the party here with lots more pictures.

I made a sweet and spicy pineapple salsa to compliment the pork. My salsa recipe was adapted for the Hawaiian theme, substituting pineapple for the nectarines in this post for a salsa seen previously seen on my blog. Link to recipe here. I also added quartered slices of peeled kiwi for more color.

For dessert my brother-in-law Stuart made a pineapple upside down cake using his wife Sandy’s mother’s recipe, one of their family’s favorite recipes.

Here’s Larry with his plate displaying a nice selection of food for you.

And later showing a sample of a banana leaf that he used to wrap his Kalua Pork.

Of course a party isn’t complete without drinks and lots of visiting. Larry makes some of the best margueritta's on the planet and he also whipped up a Blue Hawaiian special for the occasion.

More to follow on my next post with a very special breakfast the next morning prepared by David and Penny, so don't miss it. Here's David telling us more about what he has planned for breakfast.

Obviously you can see a great time was had by all. If you would like to join us next year, please let any of us know and we'll be sure you get the details.

This will be shared with Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farms, Miz Helen’s Country Kitchen Full Plate Thursday, Foodie Friday at Simple Recipes, On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable, and Oh the Places I've Been at the Tablescaper.

Have a great weekend everyone.