Grilling

I'm rather fond of my husband. He's funny, smart, athletic, takes care of the dogs and the house and me (in that order), managed to kick cancer in its backside last year, and is just basically my favorite person to hang out with. (Of course, he has an evil sense of humor, so I should probably not say such nice things about him or it will go to his head and he'll find some way to torture me with it later.) Even if none of these things were true, if he was stupid, lazy, and boring, I might still have considered marrying him for his grilling abilities.

Grilling - or rather, sitting around while Greg grills and then eating what he produces - is my very favorite summer activity. Above and beyond every single other activity I have listed thus far and could even invent later on, this would be #1. There is no way to beat the healthy deliciousness he makes, and to top it off, I get to hang out with him and the dogs, read my Kindle, drink some summer-in-a-bottle, and just generally enjoy the warmth in a very laid-back way.

In no particular order, allow me to share some of this summer's highlights.

Catfish tacos. The catfish has been seasoned with a blend of a Wegmans marinade, some of his homegrown Kung Pao peppers, and magic. It is topped with a tomato/avacado/lettuce/lime/heaven blend. On the side we have white zucchini and homegrown green beans that he grilled in Adobo seasoning and some red spicy stuff.

 Grilled summer squash, grilled corn (he does it in the husk on the charcoal grill and I can't believe I ever thought that boiled corn was the best thing on earth after tasting this!!!), catfish (done cajun this time). Just so you can see it before it reaches the plate. :)

As usual, our summer squash blend and corn (grilled in the proper way), and that lovely tortilla contains buffalo chicken, tomatoes and lettuce from our garden, and light bleu cheese. Let me tell you about the sauce. That sauce is the product of about two years of Greg growing hot peppers obsessively. I don't know which ones are in there, but I know it contains some of the ones he dried and ground up last year and some of the ones he picked this year. Yum.

Another one of my favorites - this time the corn is accompanied by a quinoa/orzo/garbanzo bean/something else delicious blend made by Wegmans called Golden Jewel. It's amazing. There are so many different textures and I LOVE it. I had it first at my coworker's, when she and I ran together between school and dress rehearsal for The Music Man (which I vocal directed and her kids were in). YUM. The split chicken breast is marinated in Chiavetta's. If you haven't had this... I pity you.

 OK, so we're on a BIT of a catfish kick this summer. This time he did it in Wegmans Mojo sauce (he keeps correcting me when I pronounce it "moho" but it seems more fun that way!). The sauce is light and has some nice spices which I can't identify. If I could, I would be doing some of the grilling instead of Greg (in truth, he really doesn't even trust me with the vegetables. Rightly so. I forget about them). Obviously, we have my delicious Golden Jewel blend there again, some mixed vegetables, and the best part of this plate is the corn - we grew it in our back yard!

This is obviously just a FEW of the wonderful things we've eaten this summer... but you can see why I love it so. If I'm lucky, all the stars and planets line up correctly, and I keep my fingers and toes crossed properly, maybe winter will hold off long enough for us to grill for another couple of months. *fingers crossed*