Summer BBQ How-To

Want to know my secret for BBQ-ing success? Prepare as much as possible in advance. (In other words, think Boy Scouts!)

I suppose that is really my not very original tip for hosting any kind of dinner/gathering involving food. When I get my prep out of the way in the afternoon, I am much more calm before people come over, I'm much more considerate to my husband, and I have time to do last minute cleaning jobs (ex. vacuuming the kitchen floor after what seems like several pounds of dill fragments, chopped celery, bell pepper seeds, spices, and the like have fallen onto it over the course of cooking), clear the sink, change into something nice, and run a cool washcloth over my face.

So for a BBQ such as the one we hosted last night, get that meat marinating the night before (or morning of, if like me you only remembered about the meat after climbing into bed). Chop veggies and soak wooden skewers (if using) in the afternoon, start your water simmering early so when you need it to boil you'll only wait a minute or two, throw utensils and other little items (paper towels, tin foil, etc.) into a canvas bag*, put your drinks, glasses and plates on a large tray**, and then relax while your husband gets an early start on grilling the veggies. When your guests arrive, grab your tray and escort them to the terrace, where you can chat and drink refreshing Luscious Watermelon iced tea while the meat starts sizzling behind you.

 

East Meets West Summer BBQ Menu

✦1 pitcher homemade watermelon iced tea, lightly sweetened with agave
✦Creamy dill pasta salad
✦Corn on the cob (with butter, salt, and pepper)
✦Veggie kebabs (green and yellow zucchini, grape tomatoes, rainbow bell peppers, red onion)
✦Marinated kalbi (beef short ribs)
✦Soya garlic chicken wings
✦Italian sausage
✦Homemade apple crumble (deliciously supplied by our guests!)

We usually opt for veggie skewers these days, as they're fun (and look impressive nice too :p) and are easier to maneuver on the grill than individual slices of peppers, zucchini, etc. We also tend to BBQ a lot of food at one time, especially if we're having friends over. To make sure we have enough time to cook everything and not end up eating at 9 pm or later (!!!), Wilson goes out to the BBQ about 20-30 minutes before our guests arrive to start cooking the veggies (which taste just fine if they're not piping hot). Once we're all together, it doesn't take too long for some meat to make an appearance and we can all get started with a well-rounded meal while any remaining meat (in Wilson's case, completely unnecessary yet crowd-pleasing Italian sausages) get their turn on the grill.
 

Then all that's left is to sit back, savour your meal (It does help if you don't get so carried away with the conversation that you forget to eat! Ahem, yes. No comment.), and enjoy the sun highlighting the clouds in princessy-pink as it sets behind you. Nothing beats a BBQ with great friends on a cool summer evening!

*Our condo life does not include a balcony or personal BBQ, but we're fortunate to have a lovely fourth-floor terrace that overlooks our neighbourhood (yes, massive construction site and all) and has plenty of shared BBQs and patio tables for our summer enjoyment.
**If, like us, you get a bonus rain shower towards the end of your dinner, the tray will make it so much easier to stack and pack everything quickly and make a beeline back to your apartment! :)

Getting Stuff Done

Lately, it feels like I've been making my home in a rut. A deep rut, one that has been hard to get out of. People keep asking me how my vacation/summer is going and I keep saying, "Good. Quiet! Which is great!" and that's true and all, but I feel like it's somehow sub-par. Shouldn't I be doing things? Going places? Excited about life?

Maybe it's our braggy Facebook culture, maybe it's just a mash-up of others' and my own expectations being idealistic and/or unrealistic. Bah, I don't know! Maybe I'm just temporarily mired in melancholy... Is there such a thing as summer SAD?

In any case, I've been trying to shake off these summer blues by spending more time outside the house and less time in front of a screen (blog posts not withstanding!). Homebody that I am, I do make it a point to fight my hermit-like tendencies by venturing outside at least once a day most of the time, but lately a brief 10-minute foray into the world beyond our own 700 square feet just hasn't been cutting it. So! More time outside, walking as much as possible, drinking more tea (because it makes me feel more connected to my English roots, and thus, happy), and crossing as much stuff as possible off my to-do list.

Today was a triumphant Getting Stuff Done day, with multiple loads of laundry tumbled dry, a menu planned for tomorrow's BBQ dinner, a fridge full of fresh produce, a package mailed, new library books sitting in a pleasing stack on our coffee table, and an email sent to follow up on a tutoring lead.

Here's to high-tailing it out of that rut!

xx,
K

WSJ article found via Tim Challies' always entertaining A La Carte.

Reunion

Hmm, left you on that cliff a bit long, didn't I? Oops! Sorry about that.

As you can well imagine, by this point Dynamics of Biblical Change is over (I'm still waiting on my final mark, but I do know that I passed, which is always a nice feeling) and I'm enjoying a shockingly non-jam packed summer schedule with plenty of time to rest, work out, and take in the excitement of the XXX Olympic Games. Sweet deal!

In the meantime, Eugene (my beloved laptop) has been having some health and wellness issues. That was a lot of fun to manage during an online course with frequent assignment deadlines. Thankfully I have a friend who was able to loan me a netbook for the duration of the course so I was able to stay on top of things. (Well, on top-ish. Am I not the Queen of Procrastination?)

Dynamics wrapped up at the beginning of the month, I started my "vacation"/staycation the second week of July and promptly became unable to sleep properly for a week and a half, and Eugene and I were reunited on Sunday (thank goodness for extended warranties!). So here we are. Happily, I can report that I'm regularly sleeping through the night again, as opposed to staying awake all night and falling asleep between 7 and 8 am. Blegch.* There's nothing like out-of-whack sleeping patterns to play havoc with your workout schedule, believe me.

For now, though, I've settled into a nice rhythm of working out 3-4 days per week, which I'm hoping to bump up to 5-6 days by the end of August. Working out, eating well, and sleeping regularly will be my focus for the next few months. And, I hope, blogging! But one never knows... so no promises. Just hope that springs eternal. ;)

*(Go ahead, say it out loud!)

Mid-March Update

Hi friends, did you forget all about me? If so I wouldn't blame you, seeing as I've been all quiet-like for the past month or so. I have to admit that every time I "return" to blogging, I secretly think to myself, This will be IT, the time I will really stick with it and blog several times a week without stopping, to infinity and beyond! And then, life intervenes, and reality smacks me upside the head and reminds me not to be so foolish. You know those women who can balance family, career, home life, leisure activities, volunteering, stuff they're passionate about, and just life in general with apparent ease? Yeah, no surprise here, but I am soooo not one of those women.

But enough hand-wringing over my blogging delinquency. To dive right back in, I present to you an update in the form of the following very boringly-titled list:

Stuff I've Been Up To Since February 10th
-Normal weekly events: workouts with my friend V, household chores, meal-planning and cooking, ministry meetings, church activities, shifts at work, etc.
-I implemented anti-insomnia measures (no caffeine after 3 pm, dedicated time for light reading to unwind before sleeping, dark room with curtains drawn, more consistent bedtime) that have so far been successful. Huzzah!
-Wilson and I celebrated Valentine's Day with our annual trip to the "Fondue Feastivül" at Biermarkt. Delicious! ♥
-Uh, so, February ended. I don't really recall what else happened, but I'm sure it was busy. And fun? Yeah, probably also fun.
-Oh right! I got sick in February - at the end of February, to be somewhat more precise. And now, less than a month later, I'm sick again. Fun times! (Actually I can't complain - both of these colds have been pretty minor and have taken me down for less than a week, which is less recovery time than normal).
-We helped our friends (who have also been downstairs neighbours since we moved in 4 years ago) prepare their condo for sale and move in to a house in mid-town. While I'm happy that they now have more space for their growing family, I'm sad to see them go and to lose some of the sense of community I've experienced here. :(
-After much research, I decided on an awesome coffee-maker to buy with a gift card we were given last Christmas. It is such a luxury to set the automatic function the night before and wake up to freshly-brewed coffee the next morning. Now if only I could get the water-to-coffee ratio nailed down! (Seriously, I put in 4 cups of water and somehow it makes 8 cups. How is this possible?!)
-We busted out the air conditioners and they have saved me from many a sleepless night in these record-breakingly high temperatures. During which time the heat is still on in our building, I might add. Yes, I realize it is still March, but it was almost 30 degrees with the humidex today, people! Hello!
-I wrote down a "weekly schedule" to outline which tasks I want to accomplish on any given day of the week. (Mondays are my only official "day off," Tuesdays are for workouts, cleaning, prep for ministry-related stuff like Bible studies, and date night ♥, Wednesdays are for workouts and cleaning the house, etc.) Then I tried not to freak out at how much I want to fit in to every week.
-In light of the above, I bought a daily planner which is broken down by hours and started recording everything I do during each day. Hopefully after a few weeks of this, I'll find I'm wasting less time and getting closer to accomplishing everything on my weekly schedule. Or maybe I will realize the schedule is unrealistic and needs to be re-vamped...
-My old runners had been worn into the ground, so I finally went to the New Balance store and scored a new pair of running shoes and a pair of cross-trainers for the gym. As an unexpected result, I am now the proud (?) new owner of The Squeakiest Shoes of All Time, which henceforth will render any stealth operations/sneak attacks completely impossible. I'm not kidding - I was getting stared at while walking around in the drugstore this afternoon. These shoes should have come with a warning label. Or maybe earplugs.
-The lovely Kat invited me to an exhibit about the Game of Thrones series, which was lots of fun. We met at the Tiff Bell Lightbox theatre (I'm sorry, am I the only one who finds "Tiff Bell Lightbox" the most annoying and pretentious theatre name ever?) and pretended to be cultured enough to know what we were doing and how to get into said exhibit. (Hilarious FAIL at that!) We thoroughly enjoyed the tiny but well-executed display of props, photos, and behind-the-scenes video clips, and then had a catch-up session over tea and brownies at a nearby coffee shop. Simply lovely!
-I read Incarceron (a futuristic dystopic YA novel - seem to be reading a lot of those lately!) by Catherine Fisher.
-My dear friend, Jo, treated me to lunch on the Danforth at her favourite Greek restaurant, and afterwards we had gelato at Dolce. It was a perfect summer day; it just happened to be in March. :)

And the most important update (which deserves its own paragraph and shouldn't be stuck in a boring old list)? Are you ready? Can you feel the excitement?

I'm going back to school!!!

Wellll.....not exactly "back to school." That's a bit of a stretch. But didn't that sound dramatic?!

The truth is, I've signed up for an online course, which begins next month. I am soooooo x infinity excited for this class! You have no idea. Like, I wouldn't shut up about it for at least a week or two after signing up for the course. Poor Wilson had to endure many random "Hee!! I'm going to be a student again!!" comments during opportune (and inopportune) moments at any time of the day or night, often accompanied with goofy grin and spastic hand clapping. But since he's such a sweetie, he's still very happy for me and completely supportive of my decision.

Oh man, I can't wait to tell you more about this course! But since it's almost midnight, it will have to wait for another post. All I can tell you is that I ordered my textbooks today... and on that cliff-hanging note, I bid you all goodnight and sweet dreams. xoxo