Grill-Meister

I can cook...Yes, Sir I can.  

Not the fancy schmancy stuff on Food Network but good simple fare that keeps them coming back for more.

Can I bake?  

Sure...Some things better than others.  My Oatmeal Craisins keep the folks in the cheap seats hollaring for more.  I suppose I'd be more interested in baking if I could actually eat the stuff. (Ha! Gluten Free Me).

But it's Summer now and there's NO WAY that I'm encouraged to heat up the house to do either. 

Mama takes a break from June till September so if you like salads or nacho's or a simple rice jambalaya or even microwave popcorn...than I'm your girl.

Eventually though, SM's tummy starts reminding him that most food is served HOT and he wants me to grill some real food up.  

Such was the case yesterday morning  when I picked another plethora of summer squash and SM chimed in "Boy, these would sure taste good grilled."

Now usually I just "stew" them.  (Stew is southern for "steam them" in a veggie steamer.)  I toss in some salt and pepper and a slab of butter and I'm a happy camper.

But I do recognize the fact that one of the big reasons SM and I have a happy marriage is because I keep him well fed.  

Seriously Girls...That old adage is true!

 

Makes me sad that so many of today's young women don't know how to cook.  Or don't care to.  Restaurant food is so blah anymore.  I can cook WAY better than those fools...But I digress.

So since it's hot and Daddy wants some grilled up chow, so be it!

Now the truth is, I have NOT mastered the art of the grill.  
Yeah, yeah, yeah...Low and slow is what they say.  

BULLSHIT.  That's what I say!



I have wasted more food grilling than I've ever lost to the forgotten, moldy depths of my refrigerator.

Now I always thought that grilling was the Man's domain.  

Ugh.  
Fire.  
Me cook.



The few times SM was desperate enough to proceed without me turned out pretty freaken good. 

Pork chops was his thing and he grilled them beautifully.

I heaped tons of praise upon him in the hopes that he might become Grill-Meister extraordinaire!  

Ha!  No such luck.

And so I made my preparations.

Low heat.

Fresh Veg. Spray oil.  (Do you see the seasonings that you gave me Bob?)

So far so good.

And what do you know?  
Success!
And was it ever GOOD!

Move over Boys...I'm taking on the big dogs now!

June Wrap Up

The 2015 gardening year has surely been an interesting one so far. 

April was colder than normal.  May was dry with no rain and June...Well, June has given us some rain (ie: not much) but has been as hot as August would normally be.

Surprisingly, the garden has hung in there with squash (both winter and summer) being this year's star performer.

We were told that the weather would break with the cold front that moved through yesterday but "ha ha" no such luck unless 5 degrees colder is what you would consider a break.

Supposedly, by the time The 4th of July hits we'll be back in the 100's.

Fingers crossed that I'll be able to get the winter squash to ripen soon and then I'll just cover everything, run back into the air conditioned bliss of my humble abode and wait till September.

You know...That thing called "Fall".

Hanging In There

First...A bit of history.

SM and I moved to North Carolina in July of 1998.  

SM moved down first in March and lived in an apartment that the company he worked for provided while I stayed up in Ohio working, showing the house and packing things up.

Once I'd completed my notice, I came down in the begining of June to start house hunting and my first thought was "Holy sh*t, we made a mistake."

I had left the mild June weather of Ohio and walked into a Carolina inferno.  Every stinking day of the 2 weeks I was here was over 100 degrees.  I was in shock.  Was this normal?  I was assurred it was not but still...Wow.

I pointed out to SM the other day that this June is very similar to that one.  We've been around 100 degrees everyday for this past week and the long term shows us staying that way through the 4th of July.

The garden is still hanging in there but no longer producing new fruit.  (Except for the squashes for some reason.)  The beans have blooms but few beans.  The same with the tomatos.  The cukes are withering.   

I water everyday (unless by some miracle we get a pop-up) but I feel the plants are kicking into survival mode and it likely won't be too much longer before I start to see them stress. 

I'm curious to see when I'll throw in the towel and in what order I'll stop bothering to water and just let it go.  I've already let one section of beans go since the plants are young and puny.

I find that a certain lethargy is settling in.  These are the days of staying indoors where it's cool (Thank God for the AC) and afternoon naps.  I don't even mind going into work right now.  

At least it's cool there.

 
 
 

The Lure Of The Lake

Every 2 years SM's brother Ronnie and his extended family pool their resources together and rent a huge house somewhere vacationey.  

A lot of times it's at a beach or a mountian retreat.

This time they picked Lake Lure in the mountains of North Carolina, one of SM's favorite places.  

We often go out that way for a day trip in the Fall and loop around the Hendersonville area for apples, cider and donuts.  On the way home SM loves to drive through the switchback curves of Lake Lure.

I've never been there in the summer and it was slightly less hot there than at home.  We enjoyed sitting in the shade and gabbing and got back home late (for me anyways).

I'm always fascintated by these rental homes.  Built specifically for rental income, these homes have 5-6 bedrooms and sometimes just as many bathrooms.  Ron's house for the week sleeps 16!

Whenever I'm at these retreats, I like to envision myself waking up every day to that view.  

Would I take it for granted eventually?

Probably.  And then it occurs to me that the majority of homes along the lake shore are not owner occupied anyway.  

The owner of this one wasn't.  They live in Ashville.  They have a boat house where they keep their boat and use it on weekends.

SM and I had a conversation about that once,  If money was no object and you could go anywhere, do anything...What would you do?

To which we both said travel.  I'd rent a house at the place I wanted to be and live there until I was done seeing everything and then pickup and move on to the next place.

I guess that's why RVing interests us for our retirement years.  

Still, it's always fun to see how the other half lives.  
Or doesn't.

Hot, Hot, Cha, Cha, Cha

The garden continues to go gangbusters with daily pickings of zucchini and yellow summer squashes.  

Golden and green beans are being picked every 3rd day.

The Zinnias have reached critical mass.  

Flowers are exploding everywhere.

But all is not unicorns and rainbows in the back forty.  

Oh no...It's crunch time out there my friends.  

The switch has been flipped and we are in full out Summer time mode.  

Everyday for the near future has been forecast to be between 95 and 100 blistering degrees.  

And better gardeners than I have seen promising gardens go up in smoke during lengthy heat waves.

The lettuce is already toast.  The cucumbers are just starting to grow, the carrots are getting close and I actually have a shot at a bumper crop of winter squash and pumpkins this year.  

For some reason last year all I got was male flowers so for me to see so many baby butternuts and dutch longnecks on the vine is thrilling me to no end.

Trouble is I need at least another month to get them to size and if they don't get adequate water or the plant stresses too much from the heat...Well, then I'll be skunked again this year.

I think a lot of folks assume that we have a long growing season here but actually it's not a continuous growing season for vegetables at least.  

Everything but tomatoes is done by July and then you have to hang out and wait till September if you want to try for a fall garden.

So I'll do what I can.  

When Mother Nature fails to supply us with a daily thunderstorm (few and far between) than the garden hose and I will do that age old gardening dance of summer survival.

Hot, hot??  
Squirt, squirt. 
Cha, cha, cha...

Honey...Come On!

This year I've noticed a distinct lack of pollinators.  

Oh, there's a few bees out there.

I see some fat Bumbles on my flowers out front.
And of course the Borer Bees that want to make holes in my back deck.

But Honey Bees?
Nope.

Either someone nearby lost their hive or the bees I usually get have found greener pastures.

I saw some early this Spring on the Henbit weeds that were flowering and I usually have a plethora (love that word) of honey bees on the Holly bushes when they flower but the frost zapped those blooms, so no bees.

The Summer clover in my yard usually guarantees they'll stick around until the veggies start blooming.

But this year I haven't seen any buzzing around my squash or bean flowers.  

Until today.  

SM and I went out and picked our first beans and summer squash and when I stuck my head in between the gi-normous squash leaves, I noticed a distinct hum in the air.

Did you hear my shout and witness my happy dance this morning?

So the honey bees have come and not a moment too soon.  And did you know that we also had rain this week?  Blessed Relief I can tell you that!

When you think about it, it really is a miracle that SM and I are witnessing out in the garden this year. 


We spent the money on good compost for the veggie seeds and tons of mulch for weed control and Mother Nature is supplying the rain and sunshine in just the right amount.

God Bless Us Everyone...!