Afternoon Delight

Good morning, my friends. We're expecting a hot day today. If I'm going to pick a bucket o' weeds, I'll have to get outside early. After picking yesterday's bucket, I estimate I'm about halfway around the house. A few more days should get the job done.

We had a delightful afternoon yesterday. Erik and Mae invited us over for a backyard barbecue. We also got a tour of Erik's Weber barbecue collection. You might remember when we toured his barbecues back in May. Over the summer, he added a few more and made some modifications to some he already had. Yesterday's dinner was cooked on the barbecue with a wok insert.

He was making Pad Thai with shrimp and tofu.

When it was served up, it looked like this, and it was absolutely delicious.

My contributions were this Asian Coleslaw. I've linked to the recipe there, but I'm only using the recipe for the dressing. The slaw is just a bag of tri-color coleslaw from the grocery store.

Also, this Snow Pea Salad.

The recipe for the Snow Pea Salad was from Cooking Light originally. It's gone from the internet now...at least, I couldn't find it. I'm giving you a snip from my recipe database.

Matthew provided dessert in the form of some delicious ice cream from Salt & Straw. If you ever come to Portland, you simply must visit Salt & Straw for some of their wonderful ice cream flavor combinations.

Matthew hadn't been given the tour of the barbecues before, and so we got the rundown on the whole collection. I linked to our tour from Mother's Day earlier, but these are the new ones he's added since then. The one on the left below is one he modified to take along to tailgate parties for games at Oregon State. (Go Beavs!) The other one is for the same purpose. He has a table that allows the legs to be latched down to stabilize them.

Each barbecue has a purpose. The next one can have the center grate removed. He likes this for, say, chicken thighs. It allows him to add coals while cooking.

This one is for an Argentinian technique I don't completely understand. 

The grate can be raised or lowered, depending on what he wants.

This one has a cast-iron grate. He likes to make breakfast foods here.

This one...I forget, but that grated is cast iron.

This one has a rotisserie function. He can also use the basket for french fries or for roasting vegetables.

This one is for cooking low and slow.

So that was fun. It was good to see the family. We hadn't seen any of them since before we left on our trip to Alaska.

It was a busy day, but I had a little time in the sewing room. Smitty was my helper cat.

I did a little work on my "Sashiko" piece. I decided to trace it onto a transparency, and I can use that to trace it onto the fabric. For this, I'll use a FriXion pen. Since all the stitches are running stitches, I don't want those marks showing in the spaces between the stitches. If you don't know, the FriXion pen ink will disappear when it's ironed. And, yes, I know it will reappear with cold, but I'm not planning to put this piece in the refrigerator. So, no worries. Here's your peek.

Also, I cut the pieces for July's Kitten in a Cup.

And that's pretty much all I had time for yesterday. Today, I'll get to work sewing the kitten together. Also, I need to get out early to pick my bucket o' weeds.

When we got up this morning, we looked out the window to see an owl perched at the top of one of our fir trees. It was too dark for anything but a silhouette against the brightening sky. So, I can't tell you what kind of an owl this is, but I wanted you to see what we saw. Just after I took this picture, he flew off.

Mike has been hard at work mowing down our knee-high grass. He wants to get an early start too. I guess I need to get busy with the Sunday morning pancakes. Enjoy what remains of the weekend, Everybody, and try to stay cool.