A Memorial Day BBQ Delight, and My IMBC Future More Defined

- So we had our Memorial Day BBQ a couple days early, and I am stuffed from all the food. I'm also a bit tipsy from the red wine *hic*.

New York Strip steaks, coated with a bit of oil, with black pepper and kosher salt; italian squash, seasoned the same way; pork spare ribs and chicken wings, marinated in soy sauce and garlic; roasted corn; and potato salad! Ugh...and after that, we went out to get some ice cream!

- Speaking of my New York Strip, I bought myself four thick, juicy New York Strip steaks from my local supermarket on Wednesday, and was planning on freezing them overnight--yeah, I know, that's a sin in itself. On Thursday, I pulled the steaks out of the freezer, to find one steak intact, in a zip lock bag!

I asked my mom (who's up here, visiting for the week) about the steaks, and she said that she had "prepared" them for me. By prepared, I found out that three of the steaks were cut up, fileted (sp?), and frozen. Some of them were even already marinated! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

(Fortunately, I had a couple extra steaks, but they were in the freezer for a while. They still came out OK, though.)

Also, I had purchased a rack of pork spare ribs, which I planned on slow-cooking (a la baby back ribs). I had also found those cut up and marinated.

- My mom, stubborn as she is, kept insisting that the best way to cook with a charcoal grill is to cook with the lid off.

For the record, I have this Weber grill; I'm pretty sure the lid is included for a reason :P.

After scorching the first batch of food that she was in charge of--I was responsible for the steaks, and boy, did my piece turn out excellent--and subsequently blaming me for putting too much charcoal in the BBQ, I insisted that she needed to cook the food with the lid on. She claimed that I was insulting her intelligence, and proceeded to scorch another batch of food, shouting once again, "you put too much charcoal in the grill!"

A few minutes later, after cooking the third batch of food--I told you we had a lot of food, didn't I?--she walked back into the house with a slight grin on her face. She told me, "if you put the lid on the grill, it cooks better!"

(me bangs head on wall)

Yes, being the childish person that I am, I enjoyed my moral victory over my mother for the remainder of the day. And yes, that third batch of food was quite tasty.

- A little non-BBQ related item: it appears that I will be going out on a trip up to NorCal starting Tuesday. Whether or not I'll be able to blog every day during my trip remains to be seen. If I can't do it, I've enjoyed my run!

Food coma's kicking in...zzzzz...