The fabulously festive Fourth Food Fest festivities

We spent the Fourth of July at my parents' house in Iowa, along with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. We had lots of fireworks, and lots and lots and lots of food. Jay and my bro-in-law love to grill, so when they get together, they go wild. Jay brought his own grill along, so we had two Weber grills fired up all weekend.

Saturday night, they treated us to this main course, which we'd all admired on the show Man vs. Food:



Yes. That's right. It's a bacon cheeseburger with a grilled Krispy Kreme doughnut for a bun. It was delectable. My dad said that maybe the myeloma cells would be so scared of what I was actually putting into my body that they'd jump right out. I'm thinking that my arteries are so clogged now that the myeloma cells simply can't circulate anymore. Don't worry; I also made a salad that we could place in the center of the table and admire, which made this a healthy meal, right?

The next day, we had lots more family and friends come over for a party with a luau theme. We had obnoxious Hawaiian shirts, paper leis, tons of grilled appetizers ... and this guy:

Yes, they grilled an entire pig. It was pretty yummy, as long as you ate the parts that weren't smiling at you. I can't wait to see what they grill next year.