Yesterday, Brian’s good friend and co-worker, Steve, came over for a cookout. If anything could’ve gone wrong with the preparation, it did.
First of all, the previous weekend, I looked for a small leg of lamb roast while we were grocery shopping. The store didn’t have one. I figured maybe they’d get some in by the next week. No such luck. So, I sent Brian on a mission to two more grocery stores Friday night, with a contingency plan to buy a defrosted turkey breast with a bone in it if his mission should fail. So, he comes home with boneless turkey tenderloins, of course. I was concerned that these might dry out on the grill, so I didn’t want to make them for company. He did say that the one store had a boneless leg of lamb that was larger than I wanted, so I decided to go with that. (I just cut it in two pieces and froze the extra part for another meal).
With that done, Friday night, I was making the dessert. I turned the stove on and it took 30 minutes to preheat (it usually takes 7). I’m not sure if the dessert came out right or not (as it was the first time I tried this particular recipe), but it seemed to be ok. Then I was making bread yesterday. This time the stove took 45 minutes to preheat and it wouldn’t heat to the required temperature. Due to the lower temperature, the bread didn’t brown properly, but it still tasted quite good. I guess I’ll be calling someone tomorrow to service my stove. Just what I need–another expense. Good thing it is the summer and I don’t rely on it much for cooking.
The weather was thundery all afternoon, but it only ended up raining for a few minutes so we were still able to have dinner outside. Brian and I figured the storm had to be pounding someone somewhere. Evidently, that ‘somewhere’ was Richland.
Steve is a big gardener. So, when Brian started band practice, that gave us a chance to swap gardening tips for a bit. I don’t know many people who are into gardening even more than I am, so it’s always nice to have someone like that to talk to.
In the end, everything turned out ok, so I guess that’s all that matters. All in all, a very enjoyable evening.