And of course a couple of Moon Man…I couldn’t help myself.
Finally, with some weather in the mid 50 F's this past Saturday, we decided to get the old Weber out of winter storage and grill up a meal. With half of the yard no longer covered in snow, the sun out, clear blue skies, and mild temperatures, why not? It is almost springtime, after all.
The set up was pretty easy; first, lots of painting with Hattie in the kitchen. Then I snuck outside to get the lump charcoal going in the chimney. How I missed the smell of charcoal in the afternoon sun…
With the charcoals lit, I snuck in a beer and then Hattie and I explored our backyard with some plastic spoons. Ms. Mabel, of course, was on high alert for a) bratwursts, b) squirrels, and c) any random pedal bikers who biked by in our alley. Mabel is a rescue dog we brought home from Oklahoma a few years ago. Whatever happened to her in a previous life, we can’t attest to, but she is terrified of most things outside. Bikes, roller skates, buses, scooters, mopeds, the FedEx truck, the wind…you name it, and she is freaked out by it.
However, she is a very sweet (but highly misunderstood) and valued member of the family.
With the charcoal nicely aglow, I then threw them on the grill to warm the grill up. Then it was time get the brats out…again, a big thank you to a local meat CSA that we order from. Savanna raised pork is really quite delicious, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys pork. The background on the CSA is fascinating, and I’m hoping that we can get a farm visit in this summer that I can share with everyone who is part of the #engagetheweekend community at a later time.
With the grill properly heated up, it was then time to throw the brats on the grill. I prefer the indirect method of grilling them, wherein I put them on the "cold side" for 15 minutes or so, then transfer them to the hot side for a minute or two per side to char them up. It's probably not the most "foodie-approved" method (I'm sure my mother in law has a more complex way to grill these), but it works fine and it's delicious.
While the food was grilling away, Liza took Hattie and Mabel for a walk around the block, so I snuck in another beer. I wasn't planning on having a beer, but while running to the local store to grab some newspaper to start the grill, I drove by a ton of college kids having beer pong tourneys outside. Hey, it's Wisconsin, it's March; snow might be on the ground, a northern chill is still in the air, but it's basically summer at this point of the year. It's time to celebrate!
Now for the final product, grilled brats ready to go...and then my phone died. The picture party came to an abrupt halt. Liza and Hattie hurried home, brats were dished and taken inside, and then we dined. It was a nice, perfect, and easy Saturday afternoon.
Side note: while exploring the back yard yet again with Hattie, I wrote down some angles of various views of the sky. I created a bit of homework for myself, and planned to compare the views sketched out to some of the sky charts I now have (thanks to the previously shared Barnes and Noble adventure). I am thinking of investing a bit into the backyard in terms of stargazing equipment soon. As much as I like driving 30-40 minutes outside of town to work on Pixel star photos at night, I must say the idea of stepping out the back door at night to suddenly view the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula is very appealing to me. Very appealing...so stay tuned, I think some purchases are en route soon. You only live once, right? I'll be sharing the adventure with everyone too, hopefully sooner rather than later.
This was just a quick "adventure" to share with everyone; I do hope all that see this had a wonderful and happy weekend as well. With spring in the air in the Northern Hemisphere, and COVID stuff seemingly beginning to slow down, there is a definitely as sense of "newness" in this part of the world. I do hope everyone else is a similar situation!
Thanks, as always, for reading!