Grills.

There is a certain flavor, however nebulous, that is imparted in food when prepared on a grill. What is it – char? Smoke? Flames? Who really knows, but it is in many ways as wonderful as salt is in accentuating the flavor in a food. I really love it.

So, Debbie (my wife) and I started out ten years ago with a standard Weber charcoal kettle grill. We still have it and still use it occasionally. Yes, yes, I know that true aficionados of grilling, smoking and BBQing claim the high and holy ground that the only kind of grilling is with charcoal fires. I do agree, mostly, but often, getting said grill going properly takes 30-40 minutes or more (even with a chimney coal starter). Sometimes, that is really just a pain in the ass.

So, maybe five years ago, we bought a propane gas grill. Really nice…stainless steel, side burner, huge tracts of land to grill on…good stuff. It even came with a cover, which I unfortunately only rarely used. Why? Well, we have these outdoor stray cats that we take care of (and humanely trap, get fixed and shots, then release (or find homes for!)) and they LOVE to sleep on the grill cover (and shred it). I couldn’t bring myself to take the grill cover away from them, so the cover never went on the grill, so the grill, exposed more heavily to the elements, prematurely aged.

Well, the whole history to that grill is its own story. We bought the grill, but, when we unboxed everything, many of the parts were dented. Lowe’s, the place we got it, offered to bring us an already put together grill of the same model, but it was the floor sample. Pefecto! This after the whole home burglary experience where the pictures of the original beat up grill were on the camera that was stolen from our home that was in the red-hands of the punk who busted in to our house when the cops caught him. But I digress.

So, our prematurely aging grill never quiiiiiite worked right. The side burner failed after about two years. The porcelain enamel covered grill grates lost all of their coating over time and the cast iron underneath started to rust. And the burners…they never distributed the flames over the entire surface of the grilling area – it was all concentrated in the back third of the grill – making it really hard to prepare food correctly (or have enough room to cook enough at the same time). Couple that with the ‘flame distributors (or whatever you call them) that collapsed after too much corrosion in to the burners, further contorting the path of the flame to the grill surface. What a mess. But, still, it functioned.

So, my wife, for Father’s Day (from all the cats) and my birthday, got us a new gas grill. Not quite as big, and not pre-assembled (took both of us three and a half hours!) – but this grill is AWESOME. It’s a Kenmore grill bought from Sears. The instructions to assemble could be far, far better, that is true. But, now that it is up and running, it is awesome! It actually has flames under all of the cooking surface! And there’s a new (used all the time) grill cover. Yes, the grill grates are still that porcelain covered cast iron, but, if those head south some day, I figure it will either be time for a new grill or I can replace the grates with stainless steel grates.

Still toying with the idea of keeping the old grill around, but that feeling is fading now that I see how great the new grill performs. We baptized it this past weekend with some simply seasoned pork loins from Forest Fed Pork (aka Babes in the Woods) to be cut up and tossed in with some freshly made pesto and pasta. The pesto was from basil from our CSA and neighbor’s overabundance.

I am thinking ahead to the next things to try on the new grill. Tonight we’ll be grilling some pizza. Tomorrow night will likely entail Big Meat. Steaks, hopefully ribeyes.

I wonder if the Patio Cats will jump up on the new grill and sleep on it like the old one. June really loves to do that while Wills loves to see what I’m grilling, often looking for (and getting) a handout.

I love to grill.

Boiled Peanuts

Boiled Peanuts......are very strange looking, slimey and the thought of them made me want to shudder at first, but they actually taste pretty good -- like a salty garbanzo.

These are a Southern thing, according to my coworker (who ordered them from www.boiledpeanuts.com). They look kind of primordial, and let's face it, gross. When I heard 'boiled peanuts', I assumed they were shelled peanuts boiled for a time, but no no no. They are boiled in the shell. Hence primordiality. And slimey. And gross.

But as I said above...they taste pretty good.

Who on Earth ever thought to prepare them this way in the first place, though?

Patio Cats

There is a far longer back story here, but I head out now to set a Have-A-Heart trap to try to catch one or more of the stray cats I take care of on my patio. I have 6 presently that I care for -- June (fixed and with shots), Wilhelmina (fixed and with shots), Gracie (yet to be fixed, preggers currently), Georgia (possibly preggers again and not yet fixed), Cliff (youngster that is unfixed and needs a home), Vyvyan (also a youngster, he needs a home). Oh and Puss, the likely Tomcat that is everyone's father. Pluss a few other varmints.

Wish me luck! If successful, off to the vet I go in the morning!

Houses in Bethesda Cost A LOT!

I walk by the house everyday at lunch. I decided to look it up. It seems like a nice house from the outside, not too huge, decent landscaping and incredibly convenient to work. I thought 'How much can this cost?'

$1.2 million dollars apparently.

No freaking way!

Link to house listing

Walking Walking Walking

My doctor yelled at me for years to drop some weight. 'Just eat better and get a little exercise...walking is great!' he tells me.

So in 2008, I finally said OK. I started with a BMI of 32.1. Anything over 30 is considered obese. I was obese?! To put this in perspective, I’m 6 feet 4 inches tall and I weighed 264 at the time (back in Jan 2008). Did I need to get healthier and drop weight? Sure. But obese?! Lawdy be!

So, using Weight Watchers’s point system as a baseline to figure things out, I managed to drop 45 lbs. This mainly based on portion control, eating more healthfully and walking. That was my exercise – walking. I started with just a mile of walking twice a week and then slowly increased this to 4-5 times a week and eventually got up to 4 miles a go. I actually did feel better and generally had more energy. Nice!

But then I fell off the wagon for the end of 2008 and in to 2009. I slowly got back on the wagon in fits and starts, but it wasn’t really working. So, after having gained back 24 of those pounds, I recommitted to things in 2010 and have been able to peel off about 15 of those lbs again. Again, all due mainly to portion control and walking. I walk about 3.5-4 miles 4-5 days a week – even in the sweltering summer.

So, I’m about 227 now. My BMI is 27.6. I am still overweight! Not obese, just overweight. Well, that is an improvement, but WTF?! So it got me thinking about what was considered the ‘normal’ range of BMI. So I referred to the BMI widget I’d found and it seems the ‘normal’ range of BMI is 18.5 to 24.9. So, I played with the numbers to see what this meant for someone of my height and was rather shocked. The normal range is 152 to 204 lbs. This means I would have to lose another 23 lbs just to get in to the normal range. I’m sorry, that is pretty crazy. Maybe when I was 20, sure, but at 42 going on 43?! OY!

So, I am choosing to ignore BMI and any other real measure other than weight and how I feel going forward. I still don’t think I am in shape. Let’s face it, I am not building muscle anywhere except my legs and I am nowhere near being toned. I hate exercising. I could drop some more weight, but I figure that as long as I stay under 230, I am doing OK. Under 220 eventually…even better.

During all of this dieting, it has not been that hard. I let myself go on from Friday night to Sunday night, eating pretty much what I want and then I eat better during the rest of the week. I figure this is my way to deal with moderation. I get to eat some good stuff with some regularity. I go out to restaurants without thinking I can only eat a salad. I drink wine with dinners with some regularity. And it all seems to work itself out.

So, walking and eating a bit better really does seem to work. Who knew?

In The Beginning

I am not sure what this is or what it will become, but I am doing this as an experiment as a creative outlet. I have no blogging experience, but I've been involved in various food and wine forums over the years. Often, conversations devolved in to humor, links to pop culture, silliness, travel, my cats and more. Rather than try to maintain multiple blogs and fail miserably, I thought it best to just wing it and go with my own meanderings as is. People will be interested or not...I'm more interested in jotting my thoughts down and having a repository for them right now than making this something...more than that.

So, if you're reading, welcome and enjoy.