Last Sunday I pulled my spreadsheet out to review the tasks I still needed to get done before we leave town. To my surprise, and thanks to Marco, I learned that I mislabeled the weeks we were out of town. Instead of having one more recipe to work on, I was actually done. I completed everything I needed to do plus an extra week of work without realizing it. So this week ended up being something I call a prevacation vacation. Instead of frantically prepping I was able to enjoy this week and get excited.
The first thing I did was pack my clothes. I did this on Monday which was a full nine days before we even leave. This sounds insane, I know, but there is a method to my madness. I am the overprepared person that has everything you could ever need for any occasion and this leads me to always overpack. By packing on Monday, I was able to be honest with myself about the items I packed. Tuesday I filtered through and removed a few things. On Wednesday, I repacked with the appropriate amount of clothes and labeled all the packing cubes for easy identification (also crazy). Now I am relaxed and ready to go and all Marco has to do is slip in his two pairs of jeans and five shirts. See, it works.
Aside from packing I spent the week cooking. Not the meticulous cooking I do for recipe testing but the fun I’m going to throw this together and see what happens cooking. We had full on “fake spring” warm weather and I was able to grill all...week…long. And you know what? I loved every bird-chirping-warm-breeze-smoky-haired minute of it.
The first day I grilled a rack of lamb and ran into something interesting. The frenched rack of lamb I defrosted had a bone running across the bottom, meaning I couldn’t cut lamb “lollipops” from it. I had never seen this before. After confirming that I ordered the right cut of meat, I then spent about an hour online watching videos of how to butcher a lamb. This didn’t give me any answers to what, why, and how I ended up with this piece of meat. I ended up grilling the whole rack with no problems and was able to cut the meat fine after cooking. This was a prime example of something I mentioned last week – when ordering directly from a farm you get what you get based on how they butcher it.
Along with the lamb, I grilled eggplants until they were spoonable and pudding-like. Well, that was my plan but I actually pulled them a little too soon. I threw on a whole cauliflower, onions, and whole lemon slices! Super-thin slices of lemons charred and slightly caramelized are so yummy I was eating them like candy.
Another day I ended up cleaning my whole Big Green Egg after I moved the fire gate on the bottom and charcoal filled the bottom chamber. I needed to do this anyway but was putting it off as long as possible. Later peppers were grilled until soft and jammy. Back inside I covered them with vinegar, herbs, and burrata. This dish was the clear winner of the week because we both couldn’t stop talking about it days after we ate it.
More items that ended up on the grill were quartered cabbage, zucchini, and HALF CHICKENS! I never cook half chickens simply because we don’t mind leftovers but I’m loving a half chicken situation right now. If you are cooking for two and like both light and dark meat, a half chicken is your answer. It’s smaller, easier, and cooks faster than a whole chicken. What is not to love!!? Even if I were to grill a whole chicken in the future I might cut it in half to make things easier.
By now I’m sure you can guess what I’m working on…Easy Summer Grilling 2.0 is coming in June! All through the 20º weather, I have been brainstorming ideas and now that it is warm out I am ready to go on testing. As much as I love grilling meat, I am most excited about the vegetables! The majority of my ideas are vegetable recipes because you can transform veggies into so many things with a grill.
My week wrapped up with the delivery of an outdoor dining table. I pulled out a few extra folding chairs so we could give it a test run Friday night. The permanent outdoor dining chairs will arrive next week and when we return we will be able to eat dinner outside whenever we please (aka every night). This is something I have waited three years for!
This is what you can expect in the next few weeks: The Kitchen Club will stay the same and subscribers will receive their normal recipe on Wednesdays. The next two Weekly Recaps will be mini Paris updates and the week (or two) after we return will be a full Paris restaurant review. Lots of exciting things coming your way!
The Indoor/Outdoor Magic of the Geodome 4 *A tent from North Face that I would kill for
This week’s Kitchen Club recipe was Ginger Coconut Clams & Udon. I found this video while doing some research. I don’t know if it will make you hungry for clams but it sure is cool!
I have shared these packing cubes before but I am sharing them again. Gone are the days of digging through your messy suitcase looking for a specific shirt. Nothing is better than pulling out a little packing cube and knowing exactly what is inside. Plus you can place them directly on a shelf or in a drawer when you get to your destination. They are essential and make life 1000x more organized and easier.
Thanks for reading! I’m excited to share more details of our travels next week.
Talk to you then! M