It was well past time for the grille to come out of its over two-year hibernation with a bit of tidying up of its innards, the grille was ready to be fired up for a right huge feast!
Chicken kebabs, shrimp on the barbie, chorizo, Italian sausages, individual veggie packets inspired by the last grilling at Julia’s place, and finished off by grilled pineapple with cinnamon and sugar were consigned to the flames for that char-grilled goodness we all love.
Poor Mistletoe was wandering all round the kitchen with her ‘niffer working overtime and occasionally getting a surreptitious reward.
Mind you, she turned out to be a right treacherous little b*#@* when she was enjoying a little time off-leash in what passes for my backyard and went into the woods to find the skewer I’d tossed out there with the intention of getting rid of the evidence of having doing some quality assurance on one of the shrimp skewers.
The look on that dog’s face was priceless where it was clear she was enjoying her part in gathering the damning evidence. I’d love to say I held a grudge and she didn’t get any belly rubs later on in the evening but you’d know that for the lie it is and I won’t bother with that.
I hadn’t appreciated just how much I missed the grille but with all of the shortages during the lockdowns and then just the general malaise afterward, I just didn’t have the heart to bother with all of the hassle of getting the grille going when it would often be just me and Nicholas. And on many nights, not even him after he’d come in from Wake Tech and working at the garage and that’d be the last I see of him until the next day.
But far more important than the resurrection of the grille and the food was the camaraderie that came from family coming together to pitch in and make the meal that much more special.
A very happy bonus was having my favourite people in this whole neighbourhood round who were at loose ends for what they were having that night for dinner which ended up being a problem that was solved with ease. I didn’t think being able to repay their kind hospitality of the night before when I was over there for celebrating their oldest son’s birthday and being introduced to Boston-style pizza would come so quickly but it’s remarkable sometimes how the universe works things out in its own way and time. 🙂
I can’t imagine anyone walked away from that feast hungry. If they did, it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying to fill them on our part… 😉
