We have been working on our backyard for several weekends in a row to get it ready for summer and for a pig roast we hosted this past weekend. It had rained for much of last week, but we lucked out with beautiful weather on Saturday. My husband has wanted to do a pig roast for years, but the logistics in our city condo just didn’t work out. Now that we have moved out to the ‘burbs, we have a pretty good set-up in our backyard for it. After pricing out a few “pig-roasters” in the Boston area, we hired Big Pig Barbecue & Catering.
An hour or so before the event began, a big van pulled up with a large grill in tow and this slogan stamped on the side:
If you grill it, they will come!
The guys did a great job of setting up the large grill and banquet tables while we continued to prepare for the party. Little Sister M was visiting us for a few days and she was really helpful with watching Baby T and helping us set up everything. She also made all the cute blue and green signs in the pictures below.
I bought a few outdoor party decorations at Home Goods…they had a great selection of table runners, table clothes, galvanized buckets, outdoor pillows, cocktail napkins, and citronella candles. I tried to stick to a blue and green theme. My husband also bought me some Mother’s Day flowers a day early so they served double duty as party decor and my present.
When guests arrived, the kids played in the backyard with some toys I had set-up (balls, pool noodles, bubbles, etc). One of our guests brought a bouncy house that they owned, which was a huge hit with all the kids. I put out juice boxes on ice for the kids using K’s duck she used for her hurricane party (that duck sure does get around!):
We had the Big Pig guys serve the food about an hour after guests arrived and it was all ready to go after a small presentation of the pig (which my husband loved):
I had hoped the roasted pig would be delicious, but I was blown away by all food – the baked beans, pasta salad, coleslaw, cornbread, and of course, the pork were all amazing. I didn’t get a chance to try the barbecue chicken on the day of the party, but I had some leftovers of it yesterday and it was also extremely tasty. I was able to freeze some of the leftover pork from our little piggie so we can continue to enjoy the meat a few more times.
Since most of the food was already being taken care of by the Big Pig guys, I wanted to just make a few small things for the party. I decided to make a signature cocktail and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. The weather was pretty warm out so I decided to make a red wine sangria for the event’s signature cocktail. I searched for a quite a few recipes to find one that was similar to an authentic Spanish sangria and adapted it to make this recipe:
- 5 large juice oranges, washed; three oranges sliced; remaining oranges juiced
- 3 large lemons, washed and sliced
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 cup Triple Sec
- 4 (750 ml.) bottles of Spanish red wine, chilled (I used a rioja with tempranillo grapes)
- Start to prepare the sangria 2-8 hours before serving so the flavors begin to meld together.
- Divided evenly, add sliced orange and lemon slices and and sugar to two large pitchers. Use a wooden spoon to mash the fruit slices and sugar for about 1 minute. Stir in orange juice from juiced oranges, Triple Sec, and wine (again, divided evenly between the two pitchers). Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Add some ice cubes and stir to redistribute fruit before serving.
Source: Adapted from Recipe Girl
