Backyards and Barbecues

Laptops are a wonderful thing.  I am currently typing from my lanai.  (That's patio in English.  We have multiple sites on our property that can all be called by the same name, so have named them in various languages to save confusion.  It doesn't work.  We forget which is which, but one can hope.)  Anyway, I am sitting outside because I am lighting the barbecue, and one should never leave a flame unsupervised- scouts 101.  I am also sitting outside because it is beautiful.  The yard faces north, so is generally shaded at this time, although there is some sun on the mirpeset, aka the deck.  (There's also an enclosed porch, which we generally call, "the porch.")  A breeze is blowing, and I can hear the wind chimes tinkling.

There are wonderful sites out here.  Gandalf, our cat is cavorting.  He is overweight, and comes into the yard for exercise.  He likes to chase the butterflies.  He's not very good at catching them, but it is amusing for all to watch.  (Nora, our other cat, cannot come outside without a close chaperone.  Unlike Gandalf, who is too large to jump very high, Nora is amazingly agile.  She has leapt the six foot fence more than once, and so her yard hours are very limited.)

Currently, I am admiring my garden.  I learned to garden from my father.  He is a true gardener.  If there is soil it will be filled with a beautiful garden.  None of the normal things.  Dad likes rock gardening (No, not the Japanese way), and fills his gardens with interesting alpines and other plants from nurseries.  I am not a true gardener.  In fact, I don't really like it.  What I do love, though, is the harvest.  Currently I have growing english cucumbers and hairy cucumbers, broccoli, asparagus, and leeks in the first bed.  There are eight beds.
Bed 2- coriander, flat leaf parsley, Italian sweet peppers, green bell peppers, red peppers, buttercup squash.  Actually, I planted the squash in bed three, but a squirrel or other animal decided two plants belonged here.  Sean & I call that accidental gardening.
Bed 3- scallions, thyme, another herb I forgot  the name of and the squash I planted
Bed 4- lettuce, bush beans
Bed 5- yellow cherry tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes
Bed 6- marigolds, carrots (small round ones good for growing in clay-like soil
Bed 7- Nasturtium, 3 kinds of basil, more lettuce to be ready at summer's end, and garlic
Bed 8- parsley and pumpkin

The pumpkin is taking over part of the yard, but I have an ACTUAL PUMPKIN and lots of flowers too.  The squash has grown into the beans and tomatoes, and the tomatoes have grown into the beans.  It's beautiful and yummy.

It's also an opportunity to visit the neighbors.  We have more produce than we can possibly eat.  Some went around the block last Shabbat.  More will go to the neighbors this week, especially to a new family who moved in down the block.

On to barbecues...
Barbecues are summer's bonus.  This year our barbecue died.  It lived a good life, but it's past its usefulness.  We haven't replaced it yet.  We have a fire pit.  My brother bought it for my birthday one year.  We've returned to charcoal, and use the pit.  It works.  It's also better for toasting marshmallows.  One Shabbat we had barbecue chicken and smores for dessert.  We made them prior to Shabbat.  Wrapped in foil, we left them banked on the edge of the pit, staying warm from the ash that was left.  It was a lot of fun.

Another wonderful thing about barbecues is the heat stays outside where it should.  There's no heating up of the kitchen, nor steaming of the windows.

Barbecue is also a team effort.  There's no saying "too many cooks spoil the barbecue."  It's the perfect thing to stand around the barbecue in a clump of people.

Barbecue can also span the range from the crudest to the most refined.

At the bottom level is the Israeli barbecue- take a reshet (a screen, sometimes a real screen, sometimes a grill) to your site.  Sometimes people bring a hibachi, sometimes there's just a hole in the ground, and you hope the fire won't spread.  Next you pour kerosene over your fuel (sometimes charcoal, sometimes gathered wood); toss a match, and pray (We Jews are a religious people.).  Food is usually chicken- pieces, drumsticks, or wings.  Actually, tonight we had Israeli Chicken.  The chicken is frozen whole, then cut into slices with a band saw.  It's cooked frozen so the pieces stay together.  YUM!

At it's most cultured, barbecues are used at fancy catering events.  I once slow-roasted a turkey breast on our grill.  It took four hours, but was juicy and delicious.

God bless summer.  God bless the backyard, and God bless the barbecue.