Perfect Sunday!

Woke up at 5:30 AM, but made myself lay in bad reading until 6:30. 5:30 is too early to get up on a weekend!

I had five trips of bacon left from yesterday's meatloaf, so made them with eggs over easy and 12-grain toast. Shaved and showered and I'm off to Home Depot and then grocery shopping. I picked up some Roundup Grass Killer for my driveway, six bags of cedar mulch (the first of many bags...) and a forsythia bush for the front of the house. You might remember I tried Lu's trick last year of cutting forsythia branches and just sticking them in the dirt where I wanted a bush to grow. Hers grew, mine didn't.

It's supposed to be over 80 degrees F. today (over 25 degrees C. for my foreign friends)! So, first thing was to turn the furnace off and open every window in the house. And of course, later, grilling will definitely be in order. I took out a small rib eye steak to thaw first thing this morning. At Westborn, I was pleased to see the first Vidalia onions of the year, so picked up two of them, and then grabbed some asparagus and some radicchio to grill.

At Farmer Jack's, my man in produce came over and said, "It's not out yet, but I just got some Florida sweet corn in and it looks great!" So, I sent him back to get me six nice ears of corn (also for grilling today).

Got home, put away the groceries, put the corn in the galvanized wash tub covered with water and went out to plant the forsythia. I planted it at the very front of the tiger lily row that separates my yard from my neighbor. Noticed a LOT of volunteer tiger lilies were growing in the mulch and/or in the grass. So, got out the weedwacker and trimmed them down. Then, used the mulch I'd bought for the back yard along the sides of the row (see, I told you - many, many bags of mulch). I took a picture and posted it, BTW.

Next, mixed up the Roundup and sprayed the driveway grass. Not supposed to rain until after 2:00 AM, so it will have plenty of time to work. Well, that cinches it! I have totally blown out my back. I have GOT to figure out a way to extend the wand on the sprayer so I don't have to crouch over (my back does NOT like that!) So, decided at 2:00 PM to do a load of laundry and lay down for a bit to try and get right.

Got up at about 4:00 PM, feeling a little better. I put the unidentified rub Jake gave me on the steak and it's getting happy. Then, I made a marinade of 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and two splashes of Worcestershire sauce for the radicchio. I quartered it and keep turning it around in the mixture. This will be the first time I tried grilling this, BTW.

I minced up five cloves of garlic and added them with olive oil, salt and pepper to the trimmed asparagus spears.

Meanwhile I had two phone calls from B___, who has used this gorgeous weekend to cripple himself even worse than me. I was just working around the house, but he is getting his boat ready for launching, so its carrying 60 pound batteries (four or five of them, I think) up a ladder and into place, waxing the sides with an electric buffer (up again on a stepladder, holding it over your head) and so on. he told me in a hilarious story how he, too, is grilling today. I laughed until I cried, then we hung up. Back to work...

Put the clothes in the dryer and dragged the grill outside. I was lighting the charcoal when a familiar sound was heard for the first time this year in my neighborhood: The ice cream truck! The couple and their daughter I have become friends with walked over to the road to get something and the wife (I'm sorry, but I forget her name - some friend I am, right?) yelled out, "What's for dinner?" I yelled back, "Steak" and she gave me a thumbs up.

While the charcoal was getting ready, I used the time to reseed the front lawn. Then, when the coals were right, I put the corn on first, then the steak, took them all off and put on the radicchio and the asparagus.

Results? Well, the sweet corn was great! The asparagus was good, too (if you never grilled asparagus, you should try it. Totally different taste and texture). I cooked the steak a bit too long, so it was more medium than the medium-rare I prefer, but it still tasted good. However, the radicchio was ridiculous! (It really wasn't, but I just liked the alliteration). It just tasted a lot like warm, bitter lettuce. I was not impressed.

Went and watched my usual Sunday shows and then went to bed, very satisfied with my Sunday.