Sunday, early evening, the clouds have finally cleared revealing a pretty blue sky and the sun I love so much. It's only about 70 degrees, perfect night to sit out on the deck with my laptop and a paper take away cup full of Mango-Passionfruit tea that I purchased this morning at the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance's Sunday Farmers Market on Dvoor Farm. Every Sunday morning, after breakfast, I'm there getting some Jersey Tomatoes, Strawberries, a fresh bread and that freshly brewed, unsweetened iced tea.
It's almost full on Summer. This Summer is going to be a little more delicious than the last two as I have been gifted a brand spanking new Stainless Steel Weber Genesis E-310. I haven't really been cooking much in the last year. That is gonna change. I love this new toy! This big, gleaming hunk of stainless steel, with its 42,000 BTU per hour input and 637 square inches of meat hungry real estate, the "flavorizer bars" that I will admit make no sense at all to me and the sweet sound of a quick firing ignition. I even love the 6 tool hooks that "required" me to buy new grill tools with little loops that fit over the hooks.
Two summers ago I walked out to the backyard to fire up the old Charbroil grill for the first meal of the season and no sooner did I open the lid then a HUGE family of Mice scattered everywhere. I freaked. My Mom was here, I begged her to go outside and eradicate the Mice. The woman who would do anything for me, flat out refused. So, that grill went to the curb after spending a week with the lid up so the Mice would vacate.
I'm happy you see, because again, I'm "Manning" the grill. I "Man". I'm the "Manner" in the household. I really love to do anything that gets me outside and grilling lets me hang out in the sunshine and feed people. We brought the thing home a week or so ago and I have cooked every meal, with the exception of breakfast, on it. I started with your standard burger, first two attempts they were overcooked as I got my grill legs back. (Today's lunch burger, a perfect medium rare which for me is more leaning towards the rare side. I like some blood on my bun. It might have been the best burger I ever tasted. No joke. ) Later in the week I moved onto a Ribeye, Porterhouse, Shrimp and Veggie Kabobs, a dozen cobs of corn, a loin of pork, chicken breasts and sea bass.
I love this grill, but, I really love all my toys. I love "boy toys": electric nail guns, staple guns, power drills, hedge trimmers, cars. I long to buy myself a push lawnmower. I'm the type of person that loves activities that accomplish more than one thing. To me, mowing my own lawn would not only save me money, but it would get me free exercise and keep me tan all summer long. If it weren't for my severe allergies I would run over to Home Depot and buy one right now. If I knew how to shoot a gun and didn't have road rage issues, I'd probably have one of those too.
While I would never classify myself as a Tomboy, I did grow up in a Texaco station. When I was a little girl my Mom went back to work having raised my 3 older siblings who were then in College and High School. My Dad owned his own business and was essentially tasked in raising the last one, me. During the summer when I didn't have school I would go into work with my Dad. I'd follow my brothers around all day breathing in exhaust fumes and learning a varied vocabulary of expletives. I'd get the pleasure of a real Coke, out of the old style glass bottle vending machines. Nothing tastes better than a true, full sugar, ice cold Coke in a glass bottle. I'd hang out in my Dad's back office where he would give me busy tasks like counting change and putting them in separate piles so he could roll them in the little paper wrappers to bring to the bank. He'd leave me alone in there and I'd sneak peeks at his nude Playboy calendar that he thought he had so deftly concealed under a Snap On tools calendar. I was actually fairly obsessed with the nudie calendars. I still remember some of those pictures. I can hear the lightbulbs going off over your heads right now…"that's why she's like that!" Haha. One Summer my Dad hired a cute teenage girl to pump gas and on nice days he would pay her to take me to the beach for a few hours. I was too young at the time to realize what a great gig that was, I really hope that wasn't lost on her.
So, when I say "I'm half a dude", it's not only because of my raunchy sense of humor but also because I prefer the household jobs that are historically the man jobs. I'll trim bushes, wash mold off the house and deck, walk around with weed killer, fertilize the lawn, change lightbulbs but please don't make me clean bathrooms or do laundry. I don't even know when my laundry gets done. As long as it makes it to the hamper in my bedroom I can pretty much guarantee that at least once a week I will have clean, folded clothes in my room. It's a decent arrangement for right now. I go away with the guys to Key West for a week long booze fest and come home to a sparkling clean master bathroom and a vacuumed rug. I'm sure there was some snooping going on in my bedroom and the "cleaning" was an easy way to cover that up. But, I still appreciated not having to do it. Ya know, cause I'm a bit of a dude like that…
and lots of other things I love to discuss ad nauseum...
