Just living.

Tequila did not lead me astray. That has to be a first and probably last. Remember when I was worried about planting my plants too early? Well…. I have 5 teeny, tiny, little tomatoes growing already. I also have blooms on my strawberry plants and on my squash plants. And we are now past the risk of frost. First time I have ever succeeded in getting them in the ground early without getting hit with frost. Green thumb point for me!

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I decided to try my hand at smoking meat again. I wasn’t thrilled with the first one. It was good and definitely worth it but not the melt in your mouth level of quality I was hoping for. So, round two. I have 3 briskets in total, so you are going to have to go through this with me one more time before summer is out.

This time, I got up at 5am to start the fire and get the smoker ready. The Monkey got up with me. It was 3C when we started, BUT, it was going all the way up to 27C! So pumped to sit outside and man the meat. That somehow doesn’t sound right does it?

We started the brisket a few hours early and then threw the ribs on – again. The difference this time was that the neighbour bought a new toy. A double thermometer. It reads the grill temp and the meat temp. How could we fail?

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Well, I got the cooking time down to 10hours this time but I am still not happy with the quality. I have one brisket left to try my hand at. However, I need a break from all this smoke and meat. Meat sweats is fast becoming a problem. If this keeps up, I am going to need a defibrillator.

Of course, the food doesn’t end there. We made a few fun things indoors as well.

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In Canada, you can get money back for your empty milk jugs, bottles and cans. Once we have a good stash squirrelled away, we take them to the bottle depot to collect $$. We hadn’t taken the bottles back before we left for our NZ trip, which meant we already had a sizeable pile happening. Then Covid-19 showed up and closed the world down so we couldn’t take our loot to the depot yet. Of course, while we waited for places to reopen, we added to the pile. It’s a great way for me to justify my booze intact. The way I see it, I get paid to drink them bottles empty. The hubby has a slightly different take on the matter though. I think my take is better.

We spent every possible minute outside this week. We went bike riding, picnicking, walking, backyard games, napping… etc…

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And since the days are warming up, so are the nights. We got a ton of rain the week before which meant they could finally lift the fire ban here in town. We definitely took advantage of that and sat around the fire a few nights eating s’mores. It’s what inspired me for this week’s cocktail – the Boulevardier. Nothing like sipping on a bourbon cocktail in front of the fire and eating s’mores. Nothing but class.