Sunday, the weather was perfect. No wind, no clouds, about 80 degrees.
We drove to the folks' house in the afternoon for a cookout. The cook: me.
The folks don't own a grill, so H borrowed one from a neighbor. Everything was laid out with surgical precision when I got there, as is H's way: beneath the grill was a drop cloth, in case ashes or charcoal fell on the patio (which is made of stone, so WTF?), a table next to the grill with all the implements in place, the stuff to start the fire with, the charcoal...
I told H: "My dad and I had a tradition when we grilled together. We'd stand around the grill drinking beer and the rules required at least one piece of meat to fall onto the ground and be hurriedly wiped off and put back. Extra points if none of the guests saw this occur."
"Let's go inside and drink a Metaxa," H said, no doubt preferring that as an alternative tradition.
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I'm no expert with a grill. I recently learned there's an alternative to charcoal briquets and that's lump charcoal. This stuff lights easier and burns hotter. I've only used it once but it's my new charcoal of choice, and this is what H had on hand.
I messed up, though. I'm accustomed to lighting charcoal with a chimney, which accelerates the process. With no chimney I futzed around a while before finally getting the stuff to ignite properly, so as a result we ate 30 minutes later than expected. But it gave everyone extra time to enjoy the beautiful day.
We had my "famous" (in my mind only) pork tenderloin, grilled veggies on skewers, and potatoes. B's mom made a couple of different sauces and B brought along a delicious cucumber dip.
B found a nice marinade for the veggies: melt some butter, put in a few drops of walnut oil, a few spoonfulls of white wine, and a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Put the veggies in the pot and stir them around until everything is coated. Pro tip: wood skewers are probably better than metal ones with this marinade, because the veggies tend to slide right off of metal skewers and into the fire. As I found out the hard way.
Everything came out fine, but because there were no hickory chips to flavor the meat with, and because I had to tone down my infamous rub to accomodate the taste buds of the non-cayenne eating family, the pork didn't have its usual BAM! POW! quality.
Still, it did not suck, sitting in the shade with the family, enjoying each other's company.
Every time I do this I realize how much we'll miss it when it's no longer possible...
