Today's BBQ - It Was Hot and I Was One Hot & Svetee BBQ Chef

The family just gone done eating about 30 minutes ago. As I expected, we had a barbecue. My wife made a cucumber salad, out of cukes I picked this morning, and she also made curry spiced cooscoos (I know that is not how it is spelled) and asparagus and some really good baked appetizer out of sliced Japanese Eggplant  with cheese, tomato and basil atop it (the eggplant, tomato and basil from our garden - picked today). I grilled the lamb chops on the BBQ. Now, despite it being about 97 or more degrees when I fired up the grill, I did not mind the heat much. I did not even much mind the hair on my knuckles burning off regardless of the fact I was using a very long BBQ fork to turn the chops. Nor did I mind my face broiling. I was happy to anticipate such a good meal and was more than willing to cook it. I was even looking forward to the single Habanero and 3 Jalapeno peppers I placed on the upper grill shelf. No, it was not at all cool and I was ever mindful of the heat but not bothered by any of it as I blissfully grilled away. Even the fact that a large bottle of Ommegang Abbey Style Ale (Dubel Ale) was not keeping me all that cool did not matter. Even though it was icy cold, and I do mean icy, when I popped the cork on it and still was not doing the job - I did not care. The fact that it is 9 or 9.5% alcohol yet had almost no effect on the rate at which I was perspiring was okay; in fact maybe it had an effect on my attitude and made me not mind the sweltering furnace in which I was standing while BBQing. As it was, I figured that quickly enough, I soon would be in the dining room, with my wife, daughter and son, right in the swoosh of the flow of the air conditioner - chilling and enjoying a fine meal.

Then my son came outside with paper towels and Windex and said he was going to clean the table top, on the patio set, so we could eat outside. I asked why we were not going to eat inside and he said 'mom wants to eat outside'. She who must be obeyed adored had spoken! I grumbled, cursed under my breath and said someone was crazy but I cleaned off the table and had him bring some things into the house that I wound up not needing. About 5 minutes after the table was clean, most of the chops were done, and for once everything and everyone was already set up at the table ready to go. The 3 others were seated minutes before me. They were already staring on the chops, the ones that were done by the time as I sweltered at the grill. After a few more minutes of getting seared, I sat down. I said to my wife that I would not have believed, in a million years, that we would eat outside today. She said something like, 'oh it's pretty cold inside from the AC'!

Well, darn it, isn't that why I pay the summertime electric bills - for some chillin' inside when it is hot as hell outside. I said okay, we can eat out here; I had pretty much figured that was what I had to say before saying it but still I had to say something about not eating inside in the coolness of the AC.

A little while later my daughter said something about how hot it was. I think that was right after I bit into about 1/3 of a Habanero Pepper and started to verbally howl because it was a might bit hotter than the first one I had gotten out of the garden 2 weeks ago. Wow was it hot! My son ragged me for eating it after I had just finished complaining about the heat. Right about then, my wife just said she figured it was about 85 degrees or so.  I was hot and it wasn't just from the pepper. So, I said I figured it had to be about 95 to 99 degrees at that moment and also mentioned I was pretty svetee. I showed her the front of my shirt, it was pretty damp. She agreed that the next time we had a BBQ on such a hot day, maybe we would eat inside. I just gave each of the dogs a lamb bone. That was over an hour or more ago.

When dinner was over, and we were cleaning up, about 30 minutes ago, I happened to notice the seat back of the chair in which I had been sitting. It was soaked where my back had leaned on it. Not one of the 3 other chairs even showed a hit of moisture on them. I showed it too my wife and kids who had ribbed me for saying it was so hot. They always think I exaggerate, but saw it was not so this time. The wife agreed, no maybes, next time it is this hot, we eat inside, where it is cold!

Now, when I just sat down and went online, I checked the weather. The temperature, here where we live, was shown as 95.9 degree Fahrenheit at 1815 (6:15PM). It was probably a degree or two hotter than that when I had complained about being hot and when my wife figured it was 85! We really do have a good AC. I guess she still had not thawed out when she thought that the temp was 85, no wonder she thought it was fairly cool out. Next time I decide to BBQ in heat like that, I will need to have at least a very tall and icy cold Vodka and lemonade (on the medium to weak side) inside of me before I even start and another at hand for while I cook. The beer just did not cut it today, maybe because an Ommegang Ale is almost a meal onto itself and is a beer  much prefer in the fall or wintertime than on a really hot day in the summer. Still though, it had to have helped, I probably would have quit half way through grilling the chops if I had not had an icy cold alcoholic beverage (not really by I like acting a bit like Dean Martin in that respect although I really do drink when I say I do, he just acted.

Well, anyway, we had a nice meal and a really nice time together. We don't do family things often, maybe we eat together once or twice per week, and when it is nice all I can say it is hard to beat. Another thing that is hard to beat is this recent heatwave here in the greater NYC area. Yeah, I know, plenty of places get hotter and it lasts longer, heck I lived in Calexico, CA for 4 years believe me I know, but it is just radical up here for it to be as hot as it has been the last few days, especially as hot as it was yesterday at 106 degrees, only 2 degrees off of the area's all time high, and Newark, NJ had its all time high of 108. Hotter than Hades and it is not a dry heat at that. The heat index had it at 115 yesterday! That is all okay, I am in the man-cave now, with the AC set at an almost sultry 72 degrees and I am almost chilly. All in all, it has been a good day, it does not get much better than this and now I am going to have that lemonade with just a wee bit of vodka in it; I need to chill.

All the best,
GB