Welcome to Lake Flamingo (as we call it affectionately)! Otherwise known as the bottom of my driveway. Until yesterday, we’ve had 26 straight days of rain. Not all day, mind you, but generally beginning around 11:00 in the morning and then on and off till the wee hours of the next morning. And then the sun would come out, turn the place into a sauna, cloud up, and start all over again. We’re supposed to have 2 days in a row without rain, and of course, the temperatures will be over 90 degrees.

I have mushrooms in my lawn.

In the backyard, I also had some that looked like giant enoki mushrooms, but when I went to photograph them, I couldn’t find them again.

I shouldn’t complain. Lake Okeechobee, which is about 2 hours north of here and is the main source of South Florida’s drinking water, is still about 1-1/2 feet below normal, and we are still under mandatory water restrictions.

Well, I’m pretty much all packed for a long weekend of doing nothing in Sarasota. Wheee! Except, not so much “wheee”. You’ll notice I said “I’m pretty much all packed”.

That would be because we discovered another roof leak recently and the guy came out with his trusty band of roof elves Friday morning and fixed it. Sort of. Well, yeah, they fixed that one. And with the afternoon’s deluge, suddenly another one sprang up. Coincidentally. So, the guy’s supposed to come out again sometime Saturday, and now MJ doesn’t trust that the entire freaking roof won’t cave in while we’re gone, so he’s staying behind to babysit. The roof.

So, in order not to waste this lovely one-bedroom “suite” and lose the deposit and all, I’m going solo. On the one hand, it will probably be fun not having to think about when to eat, sleep, etc., coordinating with him and what he feels like doing (and no, dammit, I’m not going sightseeing!). On the other hand, though, it just never really feels right to travel without him. And who’s going to make my Cosmos? (Insert appropriate epithet here)

Anyway, I just have to figure out what I’m going to do for alcohol, pack some snack-type somethings, my coffee and trusty grinder, and of course, this laptop, and I should be good to go. Oh, yeah – I have to figure out a dial-up connection again. That should be fun. So if you don’t hear from me for a few days, you’ll know what happened – lost in the slow lane….

So help me – it had better not rain while I’m awake until Wednesday. I’m just sayin’.

While I’m gone, don’t forget your Daily Click! There’s still a third of the way to go to reach goal and only a third of the time!

Ciao, kids — see ya on the flip side!

Yesterday was Memorial Day here in the U.S. A day during which we remember all the servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives to preserve our freedom. Political considerations aside, how many of us would volunteer to put ourselves in harm’s way, to go wherever and whenever we’re ordered? I say right up front that I do not support our military’s presence in Iraq (Afghanistan is another thing altogether, and those poor bastards have gotten screwed miserably since Bush decided to use 9/11 to as an excuse to finish what his daddy couldn’t. And I do use the term “finish”, loosely). And how do we celebrate our heroes? Why, barbecue, of course!

Anyhoo, while Summer doesn’t technically begin until June, Memorial Day is sort of the de facto unofficial start of Summer. And even though it ALWAYS rains on Memorial Day – and yesterday was no exception – we are as American as the rest of the country when it comes to Summer holidays, no matter what, we grill. Even though here in South Florida we generally do our barbecuing in the winter, when we have our best weather. Shoot – it’s already broken 90 degrees about a dozen times already, down here. But I digress.

I took a package of chicken breasts (on the bone) out of the freezer to thaw and thought about what I wanted to do. I must have watched four straight hours of Food Network’s grilling marathon, looking for inspiration.

I went into the kitchen, grabbed a ziploc bag and just started throwing in stuff that, to my warped and confused brain, seemed like maybe it should, oughta go together. Maybe. Well, as things turned out, MJ really, really, really loved it. To the point where he insisted that I drop my cob and write down what I did, before I forgot and he’d never see it again (a frequent occurrence around here over the years when I just start throwing things into a pot or a pan because I need to use something up). So I did. And then I thought I’d share it with you. I take no responsibility if it doesn’t turn out for you. I have no guaranty that it will turn out again for me. But what the hell. Think about it as an exercise in thinking way out of the box – or the bottle, for that matter.

RJ’s BBQ Chicken – May ’08

Kraft Char Grill BBQ Sauce approx 1/2 cup (I think any plain, pedestrian bbq sauce would do)
Kosher Salt — a heavy pinch
Tabasco Chipotle Sauce — 6 or 7 good shakes (because I love Tabasco Chipotle Sauce and use it in a gazillion things)
Worcestershire sauce – 4 or 5 good shakes
Hot Madras Curry Powder – approx. heaping tblsp (ok, you might need to visit the Indian grocery for this and the next ingredient)
Meat Masala Curry Powder – approx. heaping tblsp
Garlic Powder – approx. teaspoon
Black Pepper – approx. 1/2 teaspoon
Approx. 3 lbs. chicken breasts on the bone (this actually turned out to be 3 ginormous pieces), but you could use thighs, I would think, too.

Mix together in a ziploc bag, add chicken, zip bag and massage into chicken. Let sit while heating the grill and prepping everything else. Put on greased, hot grill, skin-side up, close top and turn grill down to medium. Grill approximately 35-40 minutes (depending on the thickness of the chicken pieces) without turning.
Even with all that spicing, it really wasn’t spicy at all. Seriously. Maybe just the tiniest tingle, but not hot at all.

Best advice? Do something weird every once in awhile. When your heart’s in it, you’d be surprised what works.

Additional (or should I say, Accidental) flavor notes: I haven’t had the chance to try one of the after-market “smoking” options available for grills like mine (small, round, no bells and whistles), yet, but I did lay several ears of corn (sans silk, husks intact) on the grill, as well as a foil pouch of fingerling potatoes, seasoned with a little kosher salt, black pepper, rosemary, and drizzled with grapeseed oil. Interestingly, I found that every element picked up some flavoring from the others: the chicken picked up some smoky sweetness from the charring corn husks, with the tiniest hint of rosemary; the corn picked up a rumor of rosemary; and the potatoes got some of the corn husk smoke. It was really cool the way everything complimented each other.

P.S. — No sooner did I get everything on the grill and closed the lid, than it began to rain.