Doctor Domestic

Let the Summer fun begin!!

The weather was beautiful, 70 and sunny this past weekend, plus, we were trying at all costs to not leave the house in order to avoid the college town graduation weekend mayhem.  It was the perfect time to pull the grill out from its Winter slumber.  And this time, I was determined to learn to use this myself.  No longer will our grill be the strict domain of those possessing Y chromosomes.  Its just another cooktop, thus, it is my domain!  I think Greg was a bit relieved.  He felt quite a lot of pressure being the man-who-must-control-the-flames even though he really doesn’t feel comfortable at all cooking.

And while outside we get to enjoy our deck and all of our lovely herbs.

We started off grilling season with an absolutely classic Summer meal.  Rib-eye steaks, fresh corn on the cob, and fresh from the Farmer’s Market asparagus.  The steak and asparagus was done on the grill, the corn I did inside.  I know, I know…you can grill corn and its yummy, but I just didn’t want to deal with 3 things on the grill that all cook at different temperatures.  Can you blame me?

We preheated the grill to a ripping hot 450 degrees, then Greg scrubbed down the grates with a steel brush.  That’s how you clean a grill, and it was gleaming and ready for the food.

I put the steaks (seasoned only with a LOT of salt and pepper) on the hot open flames while I put the asparagus (tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper) over hot flames, but atop a finer grilling grate that we bought for cooking vegetables.

While the steak and asparagus were cooking (I allowed the 3 minutes on the first side), I started the corn boiling.  I used the following method for the corn:  Cook in boiling, salted water for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and allow the corn to sit in the hot water with the lid ON for 5 more minutes.  And let me just say, the corn was perfectly cooked.  Too bad I can’t say that about the rest of the meal.

Turns out I had the heat set way too high, the steaks got a bit overdone, but not ruined.  Some of the asparagus was a bit, um, charred.  I only had to discard a few pieces.  However, even though the asparagus was more than done on the outside, some of the thicker pieces were underdone on the inside.  Oh well, live and learn, right?

I’d say for my first go around, the meal turned out well, and it really was quite delicious.  Now all we need is a set of deck furniture so we can actually enjoy our grilled food where it was meant to be enjoyed.  Outside, under the warm sunshine.  Happy Summer Grilling!!

Tags: Food, Grilling