Why Does Every Disagreement Have to Be a War? Apples and Oranges

I'm sure y'all have heard about the war on women, and the war on men, and the battle between the sexes. 

Now, via Instapundit.com I see there are the grill wars. 

It’s a beautiful day. The family’s in attendance, side dishes and beer in tow. Your sister-in-law brought a trunk full of Super Soakers. It’s BBQ time. Time to kick back in the yard and fire up the … stove?

Hmm, that doesn’t sound terribly exciting, does it? But that’s basically what you’re doing when you cook out on a gas grill, which is powered by the same largely flavorless fuel as your kitchen stove.

True fact: Cooking on a gas grill is more convenient than cooking with charcoal.
It’s also a lot less special. And, scientifically speaking, it creates less flavorful food.

As it happens, it is a beautiful day here on the Farm and Mr. Big Food has fired up one of his large oil drum grills.

Charcoal, mesquite and apple wood

Leaks, celery, onion and oranges in the water pan

Look at that flavorful smoke!

You can't do apple wood and oranges on a gas grill.

That said, Mr. Big Food knows there's a time and a place for gas.

(If you'd prefer to not see a photo of Mr. Big Food and a whole pig on a pig cooker, please do not click to read more.)

I Spy...

a Rocky!

a Missy!

a posy!

a birdie!

a four-leaf clover!

I feel so isolated out here on the Farm

where it's raining like crazy.

I swear, they just make this stuff up as they go along. None of the four weather forecasting sites I look at-- for fun more than forecast-- were predicting rain today. Some still aren't! Barring something utterly predictable, what they ought to forecast for Mississippi in early August is, 

Hot. Chance of isolated morning/afternoon/evening/overnight rain/thunderstorms. High humidity.

They'd get it 100% right 100% of the time!

Fewer than 20 minutes

Must have been something interesting!

They are slowing down a lot faster than they were when it didn't feel like 94° at 8:30am.

Important Stuff

Rocky

Missy

And now... doggy nap time.

Brined Chicken: Continually Updated

I was wrong. It's not brined BBQed chicken, it's brined smoked chicken. "Stephen Pyles' Smoked Chicken" to be exact. From a bon Appetite (sp?) feature on Stephen Pyles as he was first becoming famous at the Routh Street Cafe, before Star Canyon. 

I'm waiting for supper to finish-- the chicken has come off the grill-turned-smoker and will be going into a cooking bag to heat up those last 20 degrees. 

Mr. Big Food's Dad and Mr. Big Food's Mom treated us to a dinner at Star Canyon once. It was delightful. Kat was with us. None of the four grownups-- then or now-- likes to waste money, but we all do like to enjoy ourselves when given the opportunity. You should have seen Mr. Big Food's Dad's eyes when Kat ordered

Recipes on the Grill / I Saw It Happen

"Georgia Boy Sausages" slathered in chili sauce. Baby Round Zucchini brushed with honey butter while it was grilling.

And Ranch Style Beans heated on the grill.

big food. (That's a joke. Ranch Style Beans is a ConAg product.)

See. If all you'd grown this year was one measly Baby Round Zucchini plant, and one night on your way out of Starkvegas you decided to skip going to the Hog, but you still needed a veggie to grill, and you 'mentally' scanned the garden, and you cut the Baby Round Zucchini that had accumulated in the crisper into thick slices... and brushed them with honey butter ... . You would have enjoyed The Best Vegetable Ever. 

~~

While grilling, Mr. Big Food reported that the fire was really hot although he'd not built a particularly hot fire. It was fairly warm at 8pm. The termo-meter on the wall read about 99 but it had been sitting in the sun for a few hours. 

During the day it was much warmer. The thermo-meter in the truck jumped at least five degrees from the Farm to Starkvegas. The place right before Rick's Furniture on Stark Rd. has a time/temp/ad thing. It read 107.

So I was headed to Starkvegas and was passing a small van on the 4-lane and what do you know? 

The Puddle Formerly Known as the Pond

Taken with my Droid this morning

You may remember way back when (3/2) when Rocky drug the raft to shore.

More than one month later

She doesn't know it yet, but she could walk across this puddle.

See?

Stay cool, y'all!

Squash Night: Also Known as Veggie Night

Zucchini Rounds

fried in butter.

Recipe tomorrow. 

We also made Ed's Hot Squash (it's not that hot) and baked a loaf of zucchini bread from a recipe we hadn't tried before. It has sesame seeds on the top. 

Speaking of hot... 

"Oh the humanity." UPDATED with link.

In a reckless example of the latest uber-dangerous summer fad, four lawless yoots drove past an innocent girl and her younger brother standing on a street corner, dousing the two with a searing stream of chlorinated dihydrogen monoxide. Or, as thesmokinggun.com details, “Four Pennsylvanians who fired water guns loaded with chlorinated water on a teen and her younger brother from a moving car now face misdemeanor disorderly conduct and harassment charges.” You may know the noxious substance used in the brutal attack as pool water . . .

Just making sure you're up to speed on what's going on beyond the Sovereign State of Mississippi where it's a bit on the warm side today.

Read the rest here. Scary stuff.