Saturday's Story

I woke up at 5:30 AM on Saturday, but didn't want to get up. So, I didn't...
for a while. Then, I made myself get up. I started a pot of coffee and a load of laundry.

It's supposed to be a beautiful day in Michigan, today. Jake and Carla are coming over this afternoon to grill, so I've got to do some cleaning and grocery shopping this morning.

Now, I normally fill in parts of this Blog as I go (it's the only way I can recall everything) but a weird thing happened. My mouse died! So, my computer was dead in the water. I pulled out the box of spare computer "stuff" but there was no mouse in there. I called up Jake and asked him to pick me up one on his way over, as all the big box computer stores are on his side of town. Gee, first the monitor, then the mouse... I hope my CPU doesn't crap out!

I shut off the furnace and opened a bunch of windows. Then I grabbed my shovel and went out to dig up the horseshoe pits (in case we get ambitious this afternoon).

Back inside, I shaved and showered and then hit the road. I'm not doing my two-week grocery shopping today, just getting what I need for grilling. So, I just went to Westborn Market. It was funny as a guy with two kids and I kept getting in each other's way. We kept apologizing and finally I said, "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to find some fresh beer bratwurst." He laughed and said, "So am I!" But, all they had was cheese bratwurst. So, he passed but I bought a package.

I bought a rack of lamb chops and some fresh mozzarella balls. Then I picked up a variety of heirloom tomatoes and a loaf of that rustic Italian bread. I paid for my purchases and headed back home.

Once home, I cut the tomatoes up, the big ones into slices, the medium ones into uneven chunks and the grape ones just in half. I layered them into a colander and salted the hell out of each layer (The salt is not drawn into the tomatoes, BTW; instead it draws out the moisture, concentrating all the lovely flavors). I put the colander into my big aluminum bowl and went to take a nap.

I slept for about an hour and got up around 2:00 PM. I cut up about three pounds of redskin potatoes, drizzled them with olive oil and put them in the oven to roast. I am really crippled without having my computer to check out what I have done in the past for roasted potato salad, BTW. But, I made up a dressing with good mayonnaise, yellow mustard, a little buttermilk, salt and pepper, fresh parsley and snipped chives. I took the warm potatoes, added a good amount of sliced celery, six hard-boiled eggs, cut into big chunks and a red onion diced small and then put on the dressing. As Carla likes to reiterate, you need to dress potato salad while the potatoes are warm!

Then, I made a dressing for the tomatoes using one part vinegar (I left my red wine vinegar at my Mother's house, so I used tarragon infused vinegar) to three parts extra virgin olive oil and added in a grated clove of garlic and some red chili flakes. I drizzled the tomatoes with enough dressing to coat everything nicely.

It was almost 3:00 PM, so I went and started the charcoal lighter (I am now officially out of charcoal, BTW). I went back inside and was watching the rest of a Sherlock Holmes mystery when Jake and Carla showed up.

He immediately went in to work on my mouse problem while Carla started making a sauce for the lamb chops. I had bought mint jelly (my Mother's preferred way of eating lamb) but she made a chimmy churri sauce with basil, parsley, oregano, garlic, lemon juice, some kind of wine vinegar, red pepper flakes and olive oil in the food processor.

She brought some hummus and blue corn chips for an appetizer, so we all sampled that...

Jake's cell phone kept ringing as it is our monthly maintenance weekend at work and various WAN and LAN people kept calling for his help. So, I started my grilling. First, I juiced three lemons and dipped my chicken thighs in the juice. Then I sprinkled a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, fresh ground pepper, seasoned salt and two teaspoons of dried parsley on them. I put them skin side down on the hot part of the grille, to get a nice sear, and then moved them to the low side to finish. (It's about 10-15 minutes per side, BTW.) Then I threw the cheese bratwurst on the hot side to cook. Note, when I thought they were done, Jake disagreed. So, I used my digital thermometer and, he was right. I needed 180 degrees F. and they were only 150 degrees. So, I let them cook a few minutes more until we hit the magic number.

I asked Carla to cut the rack of lamb into individual chops, which she did. Then we brushed them with olive oil and seasoned both sides with salt and pepper. Finally we pressed in herbes de Provence (thanks again to my Brother Joe and Kathy) so they would adhere. I put them on the grill for about 2-3 minutes a side until slightly charred and done to medium rare.

I took a platter and put the big slices of red and yellow tomato on the bottom, put the rough chunks of tomatoes next and then the little grape tomatoes on top. I added two fresh mozzarella balls to the platter.

And, then we dug in. Personally, I was all about the lamb chops. I don't think anybody ate the chicken or the brats, (I know I didn't). The lamb was excellent! The potato salad was a bit more "crispy" than I would have liked, but it tasted good. Carla's sauce was excellent for the lamb chops (now I will have to figure out what to do with a whole container of mint jelly).

We went out and sat on the patio after eating. I was going on about the squirrels eating the suet and dumping the seed out of the feeder when Jake slipped inside. He came back with a bowl of Crisco, mixed with cayenne pepper and smeared it over both poles with a paper towel.

Take that, squirrels!

Jake and Carla took their leave, but not any leftovers! Oh well, now I have dinners for the next week or so. I puttered around, straightening up for a while. Then I went and watched the Maltese Falcon. When it was finished, so was I and I went to bed.