What a strange day few days... I haven't been writing so much here because I'm busy writing a project for myself. I haven't gone back to really dedicated, eight hours a day writing in years. Which is always a misnomer, anyway. I think eight hours a day of writing is comprised of seven hours of staring at a wall or monitor.
Weds. I decided very late and impromptu in the evening to have a BBQ in the backyard. I put the word out and quite a few people were free to come by on short notice. Some I hadn't seen for months. The BBQ was a failure. I was racing the sun to get it going and hopefully have it wrapped up not too late for a weeknight because sound travels so well in backyards here. I failed miserably. Our coals dully glowed grey rather than red hot after an hour, and any burger sitting on that girl was going to get roasted like a thanksgiving turkey. At 9:20 pm I called it and went and got tacos for everyone. I felt awful, because so many people had come and pitched in to help make it happen. Ken's wife Linda marinated corn. And they didn't get to taste the meat of their labors. The people in my taqueria were asking me why I needed so many tacos on such short notice. That's the really sad part because last summer every time we went to have a bbq we never got as far as getting the grill going and would lazily just get tacos instead. The curse of living by NY's best taqueria. That said, my friends were great company. I like bringing disparate people together who have the same interests. I wish Dan had been able to come by, though. I bet he would've gotten the fire going.
This getting the bbq grill ready picture says it all. Something was wrong to begin with. After Ken blew everyone away with his expert level Guitar Heroism, everyone left except for Cat and Emily and we started to watch Tarnation... But after an hour of it we needed to go for a walk. My neighborhood was beautiful under the moonlight and the summer is at that pleasant state right now. And we found an ice cream shop open at nearly 1am.
We had all this leftover meat and the next night Cat and Emily returned... Gracious of them to give it a shot again. And it worked. Thanks to advice from my Dad and the nice old lady who lives next door laughing at me going all pyromaniac on the grill... It turned out to be something that's really easy to do.
Given the fact that between ten people there was no certainty on how to bbq, and I found that someone had googled how to bbq, here is the secret knowledge passed unto me by elders regarding the secret of fire.
Pile the coals (and use plenty of them) as best you can.
Make sure the vents are open on the bottom of the charcoal grill to feed the fire with oxygen.
No newspaper is needed.
Lighter fluid and flame for a bit.
Then wait. Just wait a good hour. Cover it with holes open on the lid. Once the coals go grey on the edges no more lighter fluid is needed.
When you cook the meat, fat dripping off will get the fire going even better. Once the coals are going good and red, spread em out. Voila.
Now we can do this all summer long.
-
Everything else this week has been health insurance (I finally found some), bills, throwing out my contact lenses due to what's probably unnecessary hysteria, and writing and writing and writing. I've been around a lot of friends lately but I miss one person who's gone right now. Haven't felt that in awhile, and it's comforting in its own way.
Weds. I decided very late and impromptu in the evening to have a BBQ in the backyard. I put the word out and quite a few people were free to come by on short notice. Some I hadn't seen for months. The BBQ was a failure. I was racing the sun to get it going and hopefully have it wrapped up not too late for a weeknight because sound travels so well in backyards here. I failed miserably. Our coals dully glowed grey rather than red hot after an hour, and any burger sitting on that girl was going to get roasted like a thanksgiving turkey. At 9:20 pm I called it and went and got tacos for everyone. I felt awful, because so many people had come and pitched in to help make it happen. Ken's wife Linda marinated corn. And they didn't get to taste the meat of their labors. The people in my taqueria were asking me why I needed so many tacos on such short notice. That's the really sad part because last summer every time we went to have a bbq we never got as far as getting the grill going and would lazily just get tacos instead. The curse of living by NY's best taqueria. That said, my friends were great company. I like bringing disparate people together who have the same interests. I wish Dan had been able to come by, though. I bet he would've gotten the fire going.
This getting the bbq grill ready picture says it all. Something was wrong to begin with. After Ken blew everyone away with his expert level Guitar Heroism, everyone left except for Cat and Emily and we started to watch Tarnation... But after an hour of it we needed to go for a walk. My neighborhood was beautiful under the moonlight and the summer is at that pleasant state right now. And we found an ice cream shop open at nearly 1am.
We had all this leftover meat and the next night Cat and Emily returned... Gracious of them to give it a shot again. And it worked. Thanks to advice from my Dad and the nice old lady who lives next door laughing at me going all pyromaniac on the grill... It turned out to be something that's really easy to do.
Given the fact that between ten people there was no certainty on how to bbq, and I found that someone had googled how to bbq, here is the secret knowledge passed unto me by elders regarding the secret of fire.
Pile the coals (and use plenty of them) as best you can.
Make sure the vents are open on the bottom of the charcoal grill to feed the fire with oxygen.
No newspaper is needed.
Lighter fluid and flame for a bit.
Then wait. Just wait a good hour. Cover it with holes open on the lid. Once the coals go grey on the edges no more lighter fluid is needed.
When you cook the meat, fat dripping off will get the fire going even better. Once the coals are going good and red, spread em out. Voila.
Now we can do this all summer long.
-
Everything else this week has been health insurance (I finally found some), bills, throwing out my contact lenses due to what's probably unnecessary hysteria, and writing and writing and writing. I've been around a lot of friends lately but I miss one person who's gone right now. Haven't felt that in awhile, and it's comforting in its own way.
1 Comments:
do what all summer long? eat and look pissed? way to go aaron. way to go.
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