grilling for summer

We're here, folks. We've hit the summer weather, the days are sunny and breezy, and the weekends are cooperative. It's like the great outdoors wants us to enjoy it.

So this weekend, we used the little grill that Kate bought from Amazon for $30. We used it Saturday, we used it Sunday and we used it earlier today, because we had some sausages that were just begging to be charred up and eaten with a generous dollop or two of spicy mustard.

Saturday afternoon, we fired her up and ate burgers and guacamole with tortilla chips. We piled our burgers high with toppings and ate them in the shade of the overhang on our tiny little porch. Kate made raspberry lemonade with fresh raspberries, that earthy, sour-sweet taste that rings true on your tastebuds, and we sparkled it up with seltzer water, served over ice.

We more than doubled our usage of the tiny little grill this weekend, feeling indulgent but also resourceful.

On Sunday, we had kebabs (kabobs?), and parroted "ke-bab" at each other over and over, laughing as we threaded cubes of meat and vegetables on soaked bamboo skewers that blackened on the grill but did not burn. I marinated the chicken and beef both in a concoction of oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, dijon, garlic and black pepper, and the meat sat out in a ziplock bag for three hours or so, more than enough to soak in and stick.

We all agreed that, surprisingly, the chicken was nicer than the beef. It was juicy and moist and just-so, the lemon coming out on a high note when you bit into the chicken, the other flavors seared appealingly on the outside. The beef was tougher and the flavor didn't come through as clearly, but I did think it might have been an artifact of beef+chicken, because one might like medium-rare beef but one does not like medium-rare chicken. Honestly, though, it might just be that I didn't get the right cut of beef.

We didn't really have sides for the kebabs, because the meal is fairly complete on its own. We chopped up squares of white onion, elephant garlic, bell peppers, summer squash; whole baby bella mushrooms and grape tomatoes; cubes of pineapple. Some larger slices of pineapple were saved to be seared on the grill on their own, affording a burst of hot flavor when we, impatient, bit into them.

Grilled pineapple, on and off kebabs, is going to be a staple this summer. It just is.

However, we've also agreed that the relative ease of kebabs plus the lovely customizable, delicious results mean we have to do them again and again, and maybe with just chicken from now on because it was better and cheaper than the beef.

I made watermelon limeade that also went with seltzer water, and was surprised how thoroughly the delicious flavor of watermelon floated over the top. We used an old quarter of watermelon for it, all the sweeter for being older, and pureed it into a simple syrup. Squeezing enough juice from limes for the limeade portion was a rather thankless task, though.

This morning, we woke up and leisurely headed outside; we had the aforementioned sausages and another entire watermelon that I cubed into big pieces the way that Mom used to do and put into a large tupperware container, told Kate and Ben that we needed to eat at least enough that we could fit the top on to store it in the refrigerator.

We achieved the watermelon goal, and we also had potato wedges rubbed with chili powder and cumin, then roasted over the grill. We went through one small cylinder of propane this weekend and ate most of our meals outside.

With our lunch this morning (I headed to work later than usual because of Memorial Day and enjoyed my respite), I had iced coffee from the cold brew I made during the week. Ben made coffee ice cubes from the same batch of cold brew at some point yesterday, so we popped the cubes from their silicone mold to ice our coffee without diluting it (although I did add a lot of milk and enough water to thin it a bit, so the iced coffee cubes seem almost a little silly in retrospect). The cold brew is milder over ice, soft rich tones that actually do achieve a dark-chocolaty flavor without any added chocolate.

Last Wednesday, Kate bought a rosemary plant and a basil plant at the farmer's market, and I repotted them into plastic planters designed to look like terra cotta pots, set them out on the back porch to catch some sun. I'm strangely invested in their success. The rosemary is tall and spiky; the basil is squat and rounded. We've named them Sonny and Cher - Cher is the rosemary, naturally. I watered them this morning, misted their leaves (didn't last long with the sun beating down around 80 degrees by noon, but I think it's the thought that counts) and hoped that they were perky and happy.

All weekends should be like this one: warm, leisurely, full of piping hot food fresh off of the grill so that we can walk back into a cool, dark apartment afterward. It just feels so good to be outside. The air is fresh and the sun hasn't quite roasted us yet (although we're supposed to feel the heat this week, that's for sure). Combined with today being a holiday, I think I'm going to carry the refreshment from this weekend right on into the week.