Girl Grilling

I listened to Elizabeth Karmel from GirlsattheGrill.com interviewed on NPR as spring hit and the nice weather started and she challenged the notion that only men can grill.  She suggested that men were having all the fun out there with their beers laughing while women did the more grueling cooking indoors.  

I saw her point, but remained unconvinced.  I don't contest that women can grill, I just question why they'd want to.  I mean, I don't know if your husband is like mine, but I can count the number of meals he cooks in a year on one hand (or two at the most).  (In fairness, he can count in the same way the amount of times I do the pest removal or many other undesirable tasks I save for him--and, hey, I'm not complaining about our division of labor, it works for me.)  But nights when we grill are the only times that at least part of the meal is not my problem.  I'm usually in the kitchen prepping everything else, but part of the meal is taken care of with little or no involvement on my part.  

Then that last heat wave hit, and Owen and I decided to ride it out until the beautiful weather this week came (we were studying the 10 Day Forecasts like wannabe meteorologists) instead of installing air conditioners.  We did make it, but wow, it got really hot.  And the day it went up to 90-something outside and I chose to bake bread . . . let's just say I was literally icing myself down at the end of the day.  

Amazingly, I was not sufficiently inspired to grill that week.  I just went for meals that required as little cooking and as little effort as possible.  I was big into rice noodle dishes.  It's no wonder that those originate in hot Asian climates.  But once the house felt bearable again, I've found it even harder to use my stove or oven.  The house needs to recover, I need to recover.  I even begrudge the toaster the small amount of heat it produces in the kitchen, and I cannot understand why my husband is still boiling water for hot tea in the mornings.  Inconceivable!  :)

So tonight I bit the bullet and went for the grill.  My kids, amusingly enough, were alarmed.  "No, Mommy!  You'll burn yourself!"  I scoffed at that, and read the directions on the grill quickly.  (I have used the grill, but only a few times and not within the last year.)  I assured them that I was more than competent to handle the grill, it's no more dangerous than the stove, but turning the gas supply knob does make me a little nervous.  I did OK, except that I didn't light the correct side at first because I didn't read carefully enough.  So when I did get the right side lit it made a little bit of a gas poof, which Micah informed me does not happen when Daddy grills.

Dinner was great tonight, though, and completely foil-wrapped and made on the grill (except for a pasta salad made from leftover pasta):  

• asparagus and garlic with olive oil
• pre-seasoned Wild Turbot (fish) from Trader Joe's
• potatoes with deep grooves cut in, rubbed in salt and olive oil

I am very proud of my grilling prowess.  

Alright, ladies, who's grilling these days?