May I Offer a Recap?

[Jared]:  Get it?  May?  A quick hit list of what we've been up to...

We saw a baby hippo swimming at the zoo and fish swimming at the aquarium.

I spent a week in the desert for a work trip.

Then we went on a weekend camping trip with our church.

Next, some friends from Virginia stopped by for a visit.  We cooked for them and took them to the Wild Animal Park.

We went wine tasting!

We did some spring cleaning (yeah, no picture for that one).

I spent a few days in Anaheim for the AWEA WindPower conference.  We got a private night at Disney!

We went to two Cardinals-Padres games and took a stadium tour of Petco.

Finally, we went on a long bike ride this morning.

All this blogging is making me thirsty.

Adventures in Grilling (Episode 1)

[Jared]: I recently (finally) became the owner of a grill. Our apartment community in Richmond didn't allow grills of any type. Thankfully our new place in San Diego does not hold such restrictions. Even so, it took me nearly 8 months to see the dream fulfilled - mostly due to monies (or lack thereof). About a month or so ago, after much research and debate, I pulled the trigger on a Weber Summit S-470. This thing is a rock star. Four main burners, a fifth for use as a sear station, a sixth beneath a built in smoke box, an infrared rear-mounted rotisserie, and a side burner. I'd wager that since the grill arrived Beth and I have enjoyed roughly 80% of our dinners from the grill. I'm still getting adjusted to this particular grill and I have a long list of recipes and meats and grilling methods that I am anxious to try. This week though, it was finally time to have my first go at using the rotisserie. I will admit that I made a few simple mistakes, such as not tying the bird tightly enough or enough times. As a result the sliced lemons and garlic fell out of the cavity half way through cooking. Beyond that though, my biggest mistake was merely trying to do my first rotisserie on a weeknight instead of a weekend. Beth and I didn't get to eat until about 9pm. That said, we ate very well. :-)



Rotisserie chicken: Salt, garlic, lemons in the cavity. Outside rubbed with salt, pepper, butter, and Penzey's Herbes de Provence [rosemary, cracked fennel, thyme, savory, basil, tarragon, dill weed, Turkish oregano, lavender, chervil, and marjoram]. (I should point out that I love love love Penzey's Spices. Rest assured you'll be hearing more about them.)