Sizzling

The temperatures were, again, sizzling in the 30s. It was a cracking day. We had a BBQ planned so that Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit could join us to celebrate Urban-Cub's birthday (a day early).

The Gorse Fox started by preparing a marinade for some pork steaks and then squirrelling them away in the fridge while he invented another marinade for the chicken, Again the chicken was set aside in the fridge to pick up the marinade. Then he started to retrieve the sausages, the burgers, the bacon, and the salmon ready for pre-cooking. (The Gorse Fox always starts the food in the oven before finishing it in the BBQ). Next on the agenda was a huge bowl of fresh salad and then the Gorse Fox went and plugged in Metal Mickey.

Metal Mickey is a George Forman electric BBQ. Once plugged in in rapidly acquires the required temperature and then we just transfer the almost cooked meat to be finished on the BBQ. This started well. The chicken and sausages sat and sizzled. The meat probe confirmed that we had fully cooked everything and the first batch of food hit the table. Metal Mickey was loaded up again. It was soon after this that the Gorse Fox noted that MM was not coming back up to temperature. All was not well. Our normal George Foreman grill was retrieved from the drawer and plugged in. A few minutes later, the first batch of burgers were done. The feast continued and almost everything got cooked. Everyone ate their fill and we cleared away quickly to avoid inquisitive flies.

The afternoon was spent sitting and chatting in the garden and playing with the paddling pool. Ellie came back from Pistol Pete mid-afternoon and took control of the pool festivities. It really was a lovely start to Urban-Cub's birthday celebrations.