Challenge: eating outside!

As you'll find throughout the life of this blog, I really enjoy my patio.  It's got everything you need: shade in the form of a gazebo, table with benches for group dining, lawn chairs for relaxing, a grill, a fire pit, raised beds for planting things, and a lovely new bar area.  Probably 65% of the reason I'm renewing the lease is that patio, and the other 35% is made up of my upstairs neighbors, my closet, and free laundry in the basement.

But enough about the patio and on to the grilling.  I'm pretty sure it's cool for a gal to enjoy grilling.  I certainly do but I think it's less a "taming raw meat" thing and more a "yay I'm outside" thing for me.  Anyway, a good friend is visiting from California and graced me with her presence this evening.  We settled on fresh corn on the cob, a tomato-basil salad, and sundried tomato and basil chicken sausages.

 

Only the sausage was grilled because I prefer boiled corn.  Sausage is pretty easy - throw it on the grill until it's cooked through.  Burgers are another favorite for grilling because they're hard to screw up.  I love the pre-made burgers from Trader Joe's but I am trying my hardest to only eat locally produced meat.  This has turned out to be a difficult thing to do and I'm sure it will be the theme of a blog post in the future.

For dessert I made a bread pudding with a very simple and easy recipe from Fannie Farmer that I adore.  I've tried several variations with success: adding lemon zest, adding cinnamon, sprinkling nutmeg on top, sprinkling brown sugar and broiling it for a few minutes.  I suggest you give one a try!

I think eating outdoors has a special feeling.  Maybe it's because winter takes away many months of every year.  You can ski, snowboard, snow shoe, or any number of outdoor activities but you really can't have dinner outside.  I love places that experience cold in the winter because everyone soaks up every moment of summer.  The weekends are filled with festivals, every weekday night one of my neighbors is grilling, it's such a nice feeling.  I still love being outside as much as possible even though I spend practically every waking moment outside.

So my challenge to you is simple: eat outside more often!

P.S. Don't worry, Flora didn't get to the corn...