Adventures in Cooking

The last two days have brought new and interesting experiences to our family. One involves unusual agricultural phenomenon and the other found us joining a new social class: The Homeowner With BBQ's class. My parents gave us our first-ever BBQ grill last November as our family Christmas present. I had been looking at them dreamily every Sunday during the summertime in the sales ads and mentally drooling over what I could cook and how nice it would be to not heat up the kitchen on blazing August afternoons. Well, anyone who knows me well knows that sometimes I take a while to complete a project. I eventually finish, but sometimes I'm a little slow, especially when it comes to parts of the project I feel a little intimidated about. I got most of this grill put together in December, assembling it in my living room since I avoid cold temperatures as much as possible (fuzzy blue bathrobe and sheepskin slippers anyone?). Well, there the grill sat ... in my living room for awhile. When I realized we needed to fit the Christmas tree in there, the grill moved to the kitchen to take up residence. The part I was scared about on assembly was anything to do with the gas lines. So I put off hooking up the side burner and the main tank. Until Saturday. I finally got the side burner put on and the grill came out to live on the porch. Yesterday my neighbors, who already belong to the Homeowners With BBQ's Class, helped me put on the propane tank in about 30 seconds flat. They flipped the knobs on the front. "Let There Be Fire!" they said. And there was! Of course, I had to turn the burners off as soon as I realized I hadn't sprayed the grill with the special Pam For BBQ's I had found at WalMart two months ago. But we enjoyed our first hamburgers and hotdogs last night:




Notice I don't really have a long-handled spatula for the job. I had to scrounge around in our camping box to find a spatula that was metal instead of plastic or silicone. Guess we're going to be going to the store for that one! And here's the lovely results: Mmmmmmmm. We like our hotdogs on the toasted side here!

Our next adventure actually occurred on Sunday as we were preparing tuna noodle casserole. I had a tomato I needed to use that had been sitting on the counter for several days. Tomatoes are supposed to sit on the counter right? Well, as Pengbo sliced into this one she found an unusual surprise:

The seeds had begun germinating. Now, I confess to being relatively new to seed-starting (last year's kitchen nursery was my first dedicated attempt), but I have to admit that in reading all my garden books and the research I have done online has never suggested leaving ripened tomatoes on one's kitchen counter as a method for beginning the next year's crop!