Summer solstice started on June 21 this year and it's not summer if there's no grilling! We had our first summer grill during the 4-day Independence Weekend. We actually had our first grill on the 3rd. I had hoped for an earlier start of the grilling season but it had been too hot for the week before. It was super hot for days!! In fact, there was a heat wave that resulted in the most record-breaking highest temperature Oregon (pretty much the entire West Coast) had since historical records began in 1940. Portland saw a high of 116° F (46.7° C). Beaverton had a high of 115° F (46.1° C), not much difference there. There was news on people cooking eggs on cast iron placed on the ground on the hottest day during the heat wave (and yes those eggs were cooked)! For about a week leading up to the Independence Weekend, we didn't walk Duke in the neighborhood because it was just too hot. We walked him only
after the sun had gone down. Many of my flowers in the yard died before the heat wave was over. Oh and our grass too. Yeah, the yard looked very sad. We also put a pause on our self-imposed "trail challenge" (the challenge is to hit 25 trails that we've never been on by the end of the year).
Anywhos, so we took the grill out when the heat wave was over. There was a little hiccup where there was..um...rust?! It had been a while since we last used the grill so W spent an evening cleaning then soaked the rack in a vinegar-filled container overnight. Luckily, everything came off!
I marinated all meats overnight and prepared some vegetables the night before. W was in charge of grilling. They turned out perfect!
We had sirloin steaks (no sauce, seasoned with Himalayan salt just before serving), ribs (sweet & tangy), pork loin (teriyaki), and chicken sausages (filled with bits of apples). For the vegetables, there were mushrooms, mini peppers, onions, and zucchinis. It was glorious! We had leftover for the next day and the day after. 😎
This summer started off hot (literally), and I can't wait for our trip to the land of fire and ice. Also, very grateful for the invention of air conditioning. Our AC is great (according to the inspector that came just this May), but the cooling effect could only do so much. While it was over 110° outside
in the evening, the house stayed in the low 80s. I even took the good old tower fan out of the box (it's been inside its original box since I moved out of Utah) out of a closet we rarely touched. During day time, I had the fan on to help with cooling and Duke and Beibei seemed to appreciate the breeze because they liked to nap near it when it was on. Also, I was surprised to learn that so many people, including people we know, didn't have air conditioning at home. I can't remember the number I heard on the radio, but it was a large number of people. Some of W's coworkers moved into a hotel that week because they didn't have air conditioning at home. Now the heat wave is gone, but the wildfire season has just started. Hopefully, this year's wildfire season won't get as bad as last year's.
💗 CM
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