When I worked at a summer camp the year after I finished college, I became good friends with the lifeguard. She and I would take nightly trips into the closest grocery store for ice cream and double dipped chocolate peanuts.
Once, we wandered back to the seafood department where we found and stole a sign that proclaimed, "If It Swims, Grill It!" She kept this sign inside the pool shed. I like to think it was a warning to wayward campers.
It seems appropriate this week, as MB and I have finally become the proud owners of our first grill. It was no easy process, acquiring this grill. We had to go to no less than three stores. We waited at the second for them to tell us that they didn't actually have the grill we wanted in stock. Off to store three, where we obtained the grill in no time flat.
Then the real fun began. I should have taken pictures of what I like to call "Assembly for Humanities Majors." Every instance of confusion was seized upon by MB as both an example for him to share with his classes AND as the epitome of bad technical writing. For us, what the box proclaimed was a grill that "assembles in minutes!" became a one hour plus extravaganza of trying to figure out the difference between a 20 1/4 X something screw and some other screw that looked exactly like it only was thicker and shorter. Whatever. Luckily we had plenty of beer and hard lemonade on hand to assist us.
To christen our grill, we had tuna.
Tonight we had friends who moved away (to Nebraska) and who are back for a short visit over. I took the opportunity to make something new. Lamb burgers with apricot salsa using a recipe from Bon Appetit. I've never made anything from that magazine before, because it usually looks too complicated or has tons of cream or cheese. But I highly recommend this. I made the salsa using apricots from our beloved Farmer's Market. I ate one this morning. It was delicious. The salsa also had red onion, roasted red peppers, pistachios and mint. It was a hit!
Our friends brought over their son who is Son's age. They also have twins who are about 17 months. They are incredibly adorable and surprisingly low maintainence. They just kind of hung out and walked around. Even Gus was good. Big fun all around.
I might post pictures of MB manning the grill eventually. But we expect to eat a good portion of our meals outdoor and straight from the grill.
*As a side note, while looking for a grill we found a stylish outdoor bar complete with bar stools and umbrella. That's going on the wish list.
5 comments:
OK. The fact you guys haven't owned a grill until now can be mitigated by the fancy Bon Appetit lamb burger christening. Or the tuna christening. But you had best not cook indoors for the next three months to make up for these years of bbq-free living. We will see you on August 1-ish for some proper outdoor snacking.
I feel you should buy the bar pronto and have a giant party, with a little "reserved for Lisa B." on one of the bar stools. Congrats on the grill! My daughter has some patio furniture that she wants to part with, and I hope to take it off her hands, but! we have to figure out a means to get it from there to here. Then we, too, could eat breakfast lunch and dinner outside.
Grills rule!! The rule out here is in the summer, don't cook inside. It gets the house too hot! I think everything tastes better when it comes off the grill. The grill people should do what the Ikea people do, in addition to the written description, which is always terrible, they have pictures of stick people assembling the item. Pretty funny but good for those of us who are visual...
Okay, so how funny is this. Yesterday, we grilled lamb burgers too! I don't think I've ever even had lamb burgers before -- what are the odds that we'd do this on the same day? Ours weren't fancy, though, aside from the lamb part.
We had ours with grilled sweet corn. Yum.
- Mary Anne
Since my ex was the "I must assemble it myself to prove my intelligence" person, I am now a firm believer in "Free Assembly." I like those words.
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