Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Pay It Forward

Our friends, Irene and Guy, after having been exclusive for the 25 years since they met in law school, are getting married!  All their friends were surprised, not because we don't know they are nuts about each other, but because they had been happily together just as they were.

They like to blame it on health insurance and survivor benefits and such, but anyone who has seen them together knows that's BS of the first water - benefits just give them a good excuse. So, late in May, we will all foregather down near Pescadero and celebrate the heck out of these two marvelous people.

Because they have been together for a long time, they don't need wedding presents. Instead, they asked their friends for the best presents of all - good deeds. They have asked us all to do random acts of kindness and to record what we have done so we can tell them about it at the wedding. Kind of like paying it forward. Isn't that a great idea?

My Beloved and I have been picking up a lot of trash on their behalf, and I've been giving a free swim to the next stranger who comes after me at the pool each time I go. Every time I give money to a homeless person, I think of Guy and Irene. Each time I put another piece of trash into a waste bin, I think of them. Every time the lifeguard clicks my swim card twice, I feel good thanks to Shin and Stilson. This has been more of gift to us than it really is to them.

So, what has that got to do with barbecuing?  Nothing, really, except that I was sort of paying it forward when I used the same coals to roast my chicken and asparagus for tonight's dinner while planking my salmon for tomorrow's. 

The chicken got a light sprinkle of salt and pepper and a half a lemon, two sprigs of rosemary, and a little bundle of thyme twigs in the cavity before I put it on folded foil to roast for an hour on indirect heat under the closed lid of my trusty Weber. 

The salmon got nothing but a plank set directly over the hot coals for 15 minutes. 

The asparagus were spritzed with just a little oil, salted, then roasted once the salmon came off and made room on the grill. 

All three were letter perfect, smoky and delicious, with little blistered parts on the asparagus, crisp crackling skin on a chicken that ran with juice, and tender salmon ready for inclusion in tomorrow's Salade Niçoise.

All in less than an hour - and no cooking at all tomorrow. Pay it forward all spring and summer long.

2 Comments:

Blogger Diane said...

You are making me hungry with all that goodness on the grill. And the wedding gifting is inspired! Truly good people, you and your friends.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Diane, yes, I'm lucky with my friends - and my grill! :-)

Thursday, March 20, 2014  

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