Well, we had a wonderful week of visiting with my sister and brother-in-law, and I was sad to see them go on Wednesday afternoon. Dad's apparently recuperating quite well at home, and everyone's doing well. So, what does Richard suggest after the houseguests have left? Let's have a barbecue! On Sunday! This Sunday! Since it was such short notice, we limited the guest list to the smaller company division. If all goes well, we'll have a bigger shindig on the 20th. Right now I'm still learning how to use the grill, and tomorrow I'll try out the smoker for the first time. I'm less concerned about the smoker since it's electric, and theoretically will control its own heat. But the grill has been an experience :) I did some jerk chicken on Sunday, and I didn't quite have the hang of making the charcoal hot... so we grilled the chicken at around 250 for about 3 hours. It turned out great, but obviously that's not going to work for more than 4 people. Today I built a bigger fire and got it up to 550 -- cooked some pork tenderloins, and they came out great. Tomorrow I'm going to cook some test chicken and we'll see how that goes.
It's always difficult to invite people from the city out here. To them, it really feels like Oregon Trail -- they need to stock up on wagon wheels, and the typhoid is rampant. We're 35 miles from downtown Chicago, and a lot of people don't have cars. But we try to make it worth the trip. Lots of good food, a relaxing atmosphere, and good times.
More tomorrow!
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