My Aunt Linda and I decided to throw a 4th of July bash for the family. The only day that worked was on Saturday so we decided to go for it. We took the kids shopping and picked up everything we needed from Smart & Final, then we went to my aunt’s house to pick up some things.
My aunt led me to her shed which was crazy. It was like she was watching the Home Shopping Network and caught a sale on the essentials for a summer bbq. I was handing her the still in their shipping boxes - - snow cone machine, ice cream maker, and what every bbq needs, old fashioned popcorn maker. I just laughed to myself. Even her grill still had the price tag on it, literally.
The kids, Oma, and I went over to Aunt Lavonia’s early to set up. We had decided to keep the bbq simple, grilled meat, baked beans, corn, and potato salad. For dessert, you had your choice of ice cream, snowcone, or popcorn. Mort was suppose to come over early to grill, but I thought why wait for him we could do this on our own.
Uncle Bobby fired up the grill and admitted that he wasn’t a griller. Could it really be that difficult? Wasn’t it just putting the meat on the grill and flipping it over? The handy temperature gauge on the outside of the grill said it was time to put the meat on, so I did. I figured I could leave it alone while I went and put the baked beans on.
While I was running back and forth between the kitchen and the grill, my mom said, “Where’s the appetizers?”
What?! Is she serious? The bbq started at 1PM that’s a normal lunch time. She should have eaten breakfast. I simply told there were none and went back to what I was doing, while she watched TTT, along with her sisters, play in the water.
Grilling, I discovered is smoky. The smoke gets in your eyes as you try to step back as much as you can while still opening the top. It’s like you need a little fan to keep you cool while you checking the meat. My aunt decided the meat was cooking too fast, and kept pouring water on the coals.
Okay, so grilling I discovered was not really my thing, but I persevered as my kids happily splashed about in the pool. Two hours after the bbqing started, Mort called to say he was only fifteen minutes away. That’s great seeing as I was on my third batch of meat cooking, but I would happily turn the job over to him.
Leaving the meat again, I went to read up on how to get the ice cream maker going only to read that the container part needed to be refrigerated overnight. Ice cream maker seemed to be out, until my Aunt Lavonia remembered she had a ice cream combining thing in the basement. Basically you put a cookie or candy in the machine with the ice cream and the machine mixes them together. It proved to be the hit of the day, so much so that the snow cone maker was never put to use. I started up the popcorn maker which didn’t make steaming hot popcorn just vaguely warm popcorn, not quite sure why that was, but no one seemed to mind or care except me.
Finally Mort arrived and taught me that all the coals need to be white before you put the meat on the grill so that way everything can cook evenly. Good to know for the next time I grill. I happily handed everything over to him and went to help with the ice cream. Shaheed and I spent the next hour adding cookies, candy, and ice cream for everyone.
TTT literally spent the whole day in the pool. Note to self, sunscreen does need to be reapplied periodically. The one thing that got tossed to the wayside.
A good time was had by all, but it made me miss Mona more than ever. I missed bugging her in the kitchen while she cooked, she says she likes being in the kitchen by herself. I missed my boys and Kayla being out and playing in the pool with TTT. She was missed all around.
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