On September 13th I asked Mark’s Daily apple readers to host a Grokfeast (a picnic/party celebrating the Primal lifestyle) and to send me the results. The following is one of 13 amazing submissions, the best of which will win an entire cow courtesy of US Wellness.
Alright, well we got to the park at around 1:00pm and immediately started to set up the grills and get those going so that the food that needed to be cooked could get started. The kids started playing tag with their dad and doing handstands and cartwheels. I put out the zucchini chips and the pico de gallo to stave off the starvation. Everyone liked that. I was surprised that the kids were eating it so well. Apparently so was Josie. She kept saying how she loved it when we tried new recipes because they got to try them. So it must have been a good success. From there, we just ate when the food was done. So naturally the hot dogs and brats were done first because they cook the fastest. Next were the shrimp and beef kabobs. I don’t think they were a huge success because we ended up bringing a lot of those home with us. The ribs took FOREVER to cook. Everyone was most excited about those. We all ate as the food was done so it ended up being an eat and then go play for a little bit then come back and eat cycle. Which was fun, especially because I think that’s how Grok would have eaten anyways.
We had so much fun doing the kites and frisbee. None of the kids had ever flown a kite before so that was so much fun to teach them how and to watch how much fun they had running and watching it fly up in the air. One of our kites we couldn’t get up no matter what we tried. The other one was so easy to keep up on the other hand that you barely had to hold on to the rope. We didn’t have the string or plastic thing that the kite string holds on to so I sent the kids out to find a stick. We had bought some white string from WalMart earlier that we were just going to use and hope that it wasn’t too heavy for the kites to handle. My son went out, and as the two year old that he is, found a BIG stick that looked exactly like a club. And as the boy that he is, had to start hitting things with it. Which, I think, was very appropriate for the situation. So this two year old is walking around with a club in his hand that is about the same height as one of his legs and he is just swinging away at everything. Most hilarious. We played frisbee for a little bit, but it seemed like everyone was more interested in flying kites. Richard said that he hadn’t flown a kite since he was like 12 and still found it fun and something that he would definitely do again. When the ribs were finally done, everyone swarmed to them. We were like a pack of bees. In fact, there were several bees competing with us to get at the barbeque sauce. All of the boys had fun trying to knock the bees to the ground and kill them before the bee could fly back up and ensue a chase. It was very funny to watch. My husband was so proud of the number of bees he got that he started bragging to everyone. We never did successfully get all of the bees to go away. After the ribs were all gone, it was time to head home and pack up the picnic. We had a lot of fun and would definitely do it again. Maybe without the bees next time though. Although, it was VERY funny to watch the boys go at those bees…
The Feast
Spinach Salad, Bacon Salad, Pico de Gallo, Zucchini Chips, Ribs, Shrimp and Beef Kabobs with green peppers and onions, Hot dogs, and Brats, Grapes
There was a tie between the pico de gallo and the ribs with barbecue sauce for the tastiest thing there. So I will give the recipe for both. Both are easy.
The ribs were a St. Louis rack. We brushed on the barbeque sauce on them when we put them on the grill. The sauce is:
1/3 cup (about 3 ounces) tomato paste
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 – 1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 – 2 tablespoons honey
2 – 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons tamari
1/2 teaspoon mustard
2 tablespoons water
1?4 teaspoon ground allspice
1?4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1?4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1?2 teaspoon chili powder
1?2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Instructions:
In a small bowl mix together tomato paste, butter, hot sauce, honey, vinegar, tamari, mustard and water.
In another small bowl mix together allspice, cinnamon, pepper, chili powder, paprika and onion powder.
Mix the spices in with the wet ingredients.
The Pico de Gallo is super easy as well. It is just a mexican salsa.
4 tomatoes (chopped up)
1/2 red onion (chopped up)
1/2 of a bunch (rough chop)
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and dip. This is mainly a taste wise. If you like tomatoes add more or you can add more cilantro or onion. It all depends on what you like and how much of it you like.
The Tribe
Sara Kofoed, Steve Kofoed, Caleb Kofoed, Rebekah Nelson, Preston Farr, Rebecca Farr, (unborn baby Farr), Josie Bolleurs, Richard Bolleurs, Jordyn Bolleurs, Presley Bolleurs, Tim Bolleurs, Tom Bolleurs, Trevon Bolleurs
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.