Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Too much, too much...

A BIG party today at A&R's, family persons from all over the bloody planet, New Zeeland no less! All beautiful people, all VERY alive except for A&R who are worn thin and pooped from the challenge of completing a large portion of their abode BEFORE the arrivals. To ease the load somewhat we asked to be allowed to "do something" towards the cause(s). So we fed them Saturday night a BBQ 1/2 chicken per person dinner w/ potato salad and grilled vegies and enough beer to float a boat. The chicken halves we imposing and hid the largess of the plates all smothered in my "secret BBQ sauce". A&R's BBQ grill is a wonderful HOT thing built by none other than Weber! Works in France too! Terrific tool, just terrific! Nice even high heat with narry a hot spot and adjustable via three burner controls, this is a Grill Extraordinaire and highly recommended. Cooked those chickens to a "T" for TENDER which they were. We brined the chickens for 24 hrs in Water, 1 cup Salt, 1/2 cup Sugar, bunch of Oregano, 3 Bay Leaves and some stems of crushed fresh Rosemary, just enough water to cover them in a large pot. Put into the refrigerator for a day. The chickens were moist throughout and tender as chicken can be. They were cooked til 165 inside temp, that's enough with an extra 10 miutes resting to allow the juices to recirculate. Try this method it's a sure bet for terrific grilled/BBQ'd chicken.
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Sunday came and went, dragged ourselves about the house a while picking up some of the unholy mess this place can find itself in. A pile of rocks hidden by mounds of crap, boxes, clothing, ladders, mouldings and a couple of cats perched here and there.
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Monday up at dawn, why? I dunno, it's how we react to being bone tired...we don't sleep right. Something about getting OLDE and MOULDY. Read the email, study the output of CNN and IHT (International Herald Tribune) to see if anything good is going on in the world, it isn't so downstairs for coffee and blank stares by the cats waiting for a properly mounded food bowl each. Good luck. Then the phone rings, it's A of A&R Inc. Can we go to TOURS to pick up kiddies (Daughter Ash and Petite Amie) from the airport there? OF COURSE DEAR ONE, ANYTHING...ANYTHING to help. (We said on Saturday we'd do this service so it was NOT a surprise at all.) It's only 2 hrs and 15 min (RT?!?), Hmmm I think, Hmmmm, I kinda remember some day in the long gone past when we went in that direction and it was a L-O-N-G journey thru the backwoods of central France. Now it's only 2:15 RT?! (Who said Round Trip I ask Kelly, er ah...I thought so...no one.) So out of the house after calling A&R so they could call arriving guests and tell them we will be LATE...maybe a 1/2 hour late getting to the airport! So at 10 til Noon we crank in the location into Bonnie our trusty Tom-Tom and away we go! Blasting down the A71 at 155 kph is fun...just under a hundred mph. Arrival at 1:50 according to Bonnie and sure enough at 1:49:59 we pulled up at a nice policeman who wanted to see our Passports just short of the Pick Up zone. No problem, out the come, a nod, a Merci! and we were there. Passengers loaded, bags inside the boot we were on our return trip. Much chatter ensued, a happy voices as we were hopelessly stuck in awful street traffic for almost 45 minutes right outside the airport...construction zone no less. So we instructed Bonnie to shorten the time and get us onto the A freeway as soon as possible and we flem home as fast as was safe...maybe.