I've got pork chops marinating in the refrigerator and thoughts of an easy dinner on the brain. Since two out of the my three children came inside today acting as though they had heat stroke, I figured it is warm enough to grill out tonight, which makes me happy (the grilling out part, not the heat stroke part). It obviously was not heat stroke in either situation, but it made me think that a 75 degree day in what is technically still winter might be almost as shocking to the system as a 100 degree day in the summer. Thankfully both children have fully recovered and one of them is outside again as I type. It's all good! In fact, it is really good because I can grill out tonight. The ONLY two kinds of cooking that I view with mild enthusiasm are using a crock pot and grilling. But of the two, grilling is way better because I don't have to clean the remnants of a day's worth of slow roasting from the heating surface. I've found if I just keep the grill on low while we eat, what's left on the grates gets thoroughly charred and easily brushes right off when the grill cools down. My kind of cooking!
This picture has nothing to do with grilling out or late winter heat stroke. Just some great puffy clouds and trees with buds small enough I can still pretend the branches are bare- Tuesday, March 13.
(Time lapse of 5+ hours...) I had purposely waited to post this so I could include a nice shot of the pork chops on the grill, but I encountered one small problem in the meantime. Between thawing and marinating the chops and stepping outside to actually turn on the grill, I realized that the grill was still perched in its winter storage location, our deck, which happens to have a plastic ceiling. I had gotten pretty excited about eating grilled pork chops for dinner, so I kept telling myself it would be okay to go ahead and grill on the deck, but then I thought of the patch of siding on the back of the garage that is bubbled and buckled from a previous grilling mishap, and decided I better not risk melting the ceiling, too. So, since My Husband would not be coming home until well after dinner-making time, I decided to try to round up one of my neighbors to help me move the grill down the two steps to the patio, where it sits for the non-winter months. My go-to neighbor did not answer his door. My second choice was not outside and I didn't feel like knocking on his door to ask for help because I always second guess his wife's name and was worried she might answer. There was a big, strapping teenage boy out getting the mail across the street two houses down, but I didn't know his name and I thought it might be a bit awkward yelling, "Hey you, can you come help me move my grill so I can cook dinner?" So, after hovering a bit longer in the front yard pulling weeds (Man, there are a lot of weeds already!) with no helpful neighbors in sight, I decided to save the pork chops for tomorrow night and go with everybody's favorite, leftovers. I couldn't complain, I got to use my third favorite cooking appliance- the microwave. And now I have a nice and easy pork chop dinner to not dread making all day tomorrow, thanks to My Husband, who helped me move the grill when he got home from work. Well, I guess it was more like I sort of helped him, but not really. In fact, as we were in the middle of trying to get it down the steps, he was reminded once again of what he says every year when we attempt this very thing. And I quote, "I should get one of the neighbors to help me move this thing." Good luck with that!- Tuesday, March 13.
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