When I Take Over My World: Crisis Averted

The October weather has been beyond beautiful here. It has been cooling down in the evening, but still sunny and mid-80’s during the day. Since an Indian Summer is nice, warm weather after the first frost, what we are having here is summer blurring the lines into fall. I know that this weather won’t last, so I almost hate to waste it being inside. Randy laughs and shakes his head at me trundling outside with my bag full of electronics and lip gloss.

The lack of Texas wind blowing dust all over has allowed Randy to spend more time cooking outdoors. Randy loves to barbecue and use his smoker. He is his own worst critic, but in my opinion, he cooks divinely. And the best part? He is way more organized than I am in the kitchen and he cleans up as he cooks.

That is one amazing man that I am married to.

We all know how horrible, but tasty, fried food is for us. Randy, the great researcher, found an interesting device made by Char-Broil called The Big Easy. It is an infrared cooker that runs on propane and cooks food with no oil whatsoever, but it turns out as crispy as if it came right out of a deep-fryer. Char-Broil sells it as a turkey fryer, but you can cook anything in it that you can get to fit on the racks.

We’ve cooked tilapia, whole chickens and this past week Randy cooked chicken wings.

Now, I am kind of a picky eater. Not too picky, maybe mildly picky. Chicken wings have never, ever been on the list of foods that I would even consider eating.

Oh my. Never again will Randy be able to enjoy all the chicken wings for himself. These were deliciously salty, crispy and delicious.

That was no accident. The wings are worthy of using the word delicious twice in the same sentence.

I have convinced Randy that he needs to cook more wings in the next couple of days on the premise that I neglected to take pictures of the first batch. I didn't have to do much convincing.

Last night, I sliced and breaded a zucchini that I had bought at the berry farm. Randy cooked it for about twenty minutes in the cooker and it turned out every bit as good as if it had been deep fried in nasty animal fat.

It was so nice outside, that as we were sitting on the deck enjoying the fall evening, all while keeping one eye on Roxy so she doesn’t chew off her bandages, Randy thought he may like to enjoy an ice cold (root) beer.

Disappointment rang sadly through the forest when Randy discovered that the (root) beer he’d bought a couple of days ago was still in the truck.

Warm (root) beer will never do.

It is a rare occasion when I come up with a workable solution before Randy. I put some ice in the bottom of a measuring cup, placed the can on top of the ice and then packed ice all around the sides of the can. Then I filled the measuring cup with cold water. In 20 minutes, and with the help of a frosty mug, Randy was able to enjoy his cold (root) beer while he watched the chicken cook.

I gotta keep the cook happy!