92 thoughts on “It’s Getting Hot, No?”

  1. Heating up? Where? Wish it was heating up in temps here. More snow on tap for tonight. I am enjoying this time of year by working hard to finish off the last few weeks of school, I graduate on May 10th and start my first job in my new career on May 13th.Report

        1. JustMe, North, Blaise & I (and I’m guessing a couple others) live within 100 mi of each other (Twin Cities or Eau Claire area). We really need to make LoOG Northern Drinking Division a thing. (I guess we could include those Further North, too…;))

          First, though, Chicago.

          But yeah, it ain’t heatin’ up any too much in this neighborhood. We’ve been 10-15 degrees off normal highs for like 10 days. It’s actually kind of amazing. Makes me fear what kind of compensation to preserve the mean we’ve got in store for July-August. Maybe we’ll have a below-average spring & summer when all is said & done, but with my luck, I’m not counting on it.Report

            1. Hit me up! I would happily try to rally the folks in the area for a meet-up (as is my transparent agenda as can bee plainly seen). I think you have my email, but in case: drew [dot] mike [at] gmail [dot] com.

              What’s the approximate timeframe on that? Was it August-ish? I can’t remember.Report

      2. Over the past Mon-Tue-Wed, about a foot of snow here in Denver’s western suburbs (still down on the flat rather than up in the foothills). I use the grill all year round, so shoveled enough of the deck that I can reach it (and my wife’s dog can reach her favorite queen-of-the-backyard perch). Long-term forecast has us getting another shot of snow next Monday.Report

    2. It’s been on the cold side out here in Arapaho, as well. Warm enough during the day to melt the previous night’s snows, though.

      Since our house doesn’t have AC, I am hoping that it stays this way for as long as possible.Report

    1. Do you smoke them? If so, do you have a dedicated smoker? If not, do you use one of those smoke-box contraptions on a regular grill? I’m considering adding one to the arsenal but am curious to hear from folks who’ve used ’em first.Report

          1. Yeah. And because it retains heat so well, in a pretty short period of time you can actually get in up to 800-900′, like they do with the equipment in the high-end steak houses.Report

              1. Yes. We have a stone for it for just that reason, but we haven’t gotten around to using it yet.

                We use it once or twice a week during the winter months, and almost every night (even if just for the veggies) during the summer.Report

            1. Hmmm… considering what we spent for our Weber, we could have landed the BGE. However, as much as I know charcoal lends a superior flavor, I couldn’t pass up the convenience of natural gas, especially since we were able to tap into the house line and go tankless. With just Zazzy and I, we’ll often fire up the grill just long enough to cook a couple chicken breasts or some burgers. I’d be less likely to do that if I had to go through all the rickamaroll of charcoal (though it appears the BGE cuts the time down, I imagine there is still a lot of waste if you fire it up for just 20-30 minutes). Long term, I’d love to get a separate charcoal grill for the big jobs… cookouts and the like… with the ideal plan being to build a brick one out in the yard.Report

              1. It’s not that inconvenient, because of the whole heat retention thing. It heats up in about 5-10 minutes, depending on the temp.

                We bought it when we moved into the house, but we also put in a gas line for our existing grill. Our thought was convenient gas grill on weekdays, BGE on the weekends when we had more time.

                We have used the gas grill a total of once, and that was for a party to do shrimp skewers while the BGE was doing multiple batches of BBQ chicken and ribs.Report

              6. Damn! Buncha rich folk around here!

                Well, at $300 maybe it’d be cheap enough to be a second grill. 😉 Plus you could see if you like that style, and if so upgrade to a BGE later.Report

            2. We looked at those last weekend when we bought our new grill, but decided against charcoal. We’ve always had a charcoal grill in the past. Too much work. We’re getting lazy in our old age. Plus we rarely eat meat anymore. My husband doesn’t eat it at all.Report

              1. By those I mean the Char-Grill version of the BGE. We settled on a lower-end gas Weber instead. There’s only two of us, so we don’t need anything huge to grill mostly vegetables and fish. I’ll probably throw on the occasional steak.Report

        1. I’m looking out the window and laughing right now, myself. But I don’t run across many other people laughing about it at this point. Seriously, though, I look out the window and chuckle.

          …Oop, just did it again. 😀Report

  4. And now we see why… all snarking on California accounted for… it’s still better to live here than not.

    I’ve used by grill about twenty times since Christmas.Report

    1. And I do believe Mrs. Likko and I owe you and the Mrs. some backyard grilling, Mr. Patrick. Why don’t you take a look at the schedule with the young’uns, and see when you can find some time.Report

      1. Oy. Between now and June, we have the centennial celebration for the kids’ school, which Kitty is managing, the BHNA home tour, Kitty’s birthday, Jack’s birthday, both my parents’ birthdays, my final paper in my last class, the BHNA disaster plan final draft, Jack & Hannah’s baseball seasons, and Mother’s Day.

        I honestly don’t think I get to take a dump between now and May 27th.

        June?Report

    2. I actually normally will grill in the winter, but because we were having trouble with the grill line (a small leak) and it was too cold to repair it, I pulled back. Of course, there is cooking meat and veggies on the grill and there is grilling… the latter can’t happen in the window no matter what shape the darn thing is in.Report

  5. To date in 2013, I have grilled:

    Salmon
    Tri-Tip
    Garlic pork sausages
    Duck
    Mahi-Mahi
    Chicken
    Apple-gouda chicken sausages
    Zucchini
    Yellow squash
    Portobello mushrooms
    Eggplant
    Ciabatta
    Denver omelettes with bacon and hash browns

    But no burgers or bratwurst. Yet. Looking forward to some turkey burgers this weekend.Report

        1. Before leaving yesterday, Zazzy’s mom made bacon in my cast iron skillet while I was out. She took off for the airport before cleaning it, leaving the bacon grease to congeal a quarter inch deep. The thing is, I had to pretend to be angry about this so I could lay into Zazzy a bit while I was actually secretly thrilled at the chance to give the seasoning a quick freshening. I didn’t give it the full treatment but it does have a bit of extra gleam today.

          I’m a bad man.Report

          1. This made me think of my dad. Bacon grease and onion sandwiches. What do you mean you are going to throw that away? Growing up we always had a coffee can that we poured the bacon grease in sitting on the stove.Report

            1. When Zazzy and I first moved in, I gave her a long talk about that container in the back of the fridge that looks gross?

              That is not gross, honey. You will come to love it.Report

  6. The air conditioner has been humming all day. A bumblebee hovers just outside the window. It might get cool enough to let the Gulf breeze in once the sun starts setting.Report

    1. This seems like a good spot to put an FYI post. I know a few on this site recently heard this information but everyone might as well be informed as well. BlaiseP and I are a couple, have been for a few years now. He is the reason I have been a lurker on this site for so long. For a long time I would threaten to post here. Okay, to be honest a long time ago he suggested I post and I was always to hesitant to do so. He is a pretty good writer, me not so much. I believe it was the gun debate that finally pushed me over the edge into making my first post. I couldn’t hold back any longer and I had to throw my two cents in.Report

            2. Burt, here’s the deal. Down here, things go one of three ways: termites, dry rot or hurricanes. New Orleans and I don’t get along, at all. I actually stay in Metairie.

              Two nights ago it was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock and I lost power repeatedly. Mercifully all my puter gear is on a UPS. The power here is nasty.

              Methinks in future I’m gonna get a really good motor home and spend some of the winter down here. As far as I’m concerned, I can deal with snow through New Year. But no more New Orleans. Baton Rouge, maybe. Lafayette, more likely. But New Orleans, never again.Report

              2. Yeah, yeah. The French Quarter is nothing but an adult Disneyland. Completely overrated. Fake as a three dollar bill. There’s lots of good music in this town but that’s true in pretty much any metro area these days.Report

              5. I’m hitting NO for a bachelor party this summer and can’t wait. It will be almost two years to the day since I had my own there. Easily my favorite city to visit in America (not sure I could live there). Even if you didn’t taste a lick of booze, the food, music, architecture, culture, and everything else still make it a fabulous place.

                But, oh, the booze…Report

              6. Huh. So if we did Leaguefest 2014 in the Big Easy (abundance of alcoholic beverages and hotels with a broad spectrum of pricing-versus-luxuriousness options) you’d say, “Meh, no thanks”?Report

              8. Any recs? We’ll be in the Quarter for the BP but plan to hit Frenchmen Street for a night. Any other recs you’d make for a bunch of late 20’s/early 30’s gentlemen?Report

            3. The Hurricane was concocted by the devil as a drink that would fool you into thinking you were much less drunk than you were. Mission accomplished, Devil. Mission accomplished.Report

              1. So JM and I drove across from Phoenix through to Louisiana. We went down to New Orleans. A/C died in my truck. JM’s walking through the Quarter. “Oh yeah, I remember this joint. See that horse head post? Think I rammed into that one when I was really drunk that one night.”Report

      4. Man, that’s a really nice surprise. Really nice. I feel like congratulations are in order, even tho it’s not quite appropriate. Fish it.

        Congratulations!Report

            1. My favourite James Carville quote:

              Back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we’d lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched.

              You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I’ll be damned if all those things didn’t come true! Report

            1. I think the best policy is knowing that disagreements about politics are not personal. We must be doing okay, made it through the mess that was Wisconsin politics this last year and through a presidential election.

              We have lived vastly different lives, it is understandable we would have some different beliefs.Report

      6. Calling Blaise a “pretty good writer” is like calling LeBron James a pretty good basketball player.
        Most of my garden has been planted and I have flowers on most of the plants. I lost the first batch I put in the ground because of a freak late season freeze and had to replant the little things. Mowed the yard today. It was about two weeks late but the ground was and is to wet to mow. It has been a very, very, very wet winter. For the first time ever my broccoli drowned.
        Have not thought about the AC, but I haven’t been in a northern winter in so long that anything below 85 is a good temperature. Have not thought about grilling, but have been eating a ton of crawfish and shrimp.Report

        2. Calling Blaise a “pretty good writer” is like calling LeBron James a pretty good basketball player.

          Perfect analogy. Even when BP isn’t completely on his game, he’s still getting a triple double.Report

  7. Ahem. I live in Maine. It snowed here last week.

    And I use the grill all winter.

    For fun? The woods are nearly snow free, at least at the lower elevations. The Spring Twitterpate is underway. The ephemeral streams are gushing and ephemeral blooms budding.

    Plus, I’ve designed a skirt, top, and two sweaters in the last week; an intense amount of work. Without meaning too, I’ve got an entire collection that uses related and unusual techniques (a rare thing in the fashion world). Now I’ve got to pull it together and find a publisher.Report

      1. Our’s was delicious. A nice rib eye; asparagus (nearly fresh, not too mushy), and baby potatoes roasted in the wood stove; still cold enough up here in the mountains to want the wood heat to take the chill off.

        I hope yours was equally delicious.Report

  8. Spring is finally here in Ottawa – almost all of the snow is gone (just clumps remaining where it was plowed into heaps all season) and the sky was blue and sunny today. I hope it keeps this up.Report

  9. I should make clear that we aren’t exactly bursting with spring here. Trees have only just begun to bud, but the past two weeks brought us our first days of consistently warm weather, though there are still cold spots mixed in. Still, any excuse to get out and grill…Report

  12. Huh. I’m guessing I should keep quiet about weather details down here in Puerto Rico. At least until high summer hits and y’all will be thanking your lucky stars* you’re not down here.

    *Lucky Stars = some combination of air conditioning and reliable electricity. Both have limited availability in PR.Report

  13. * Except for James K. But fish him and all his upside down friends.

    Mock us if you will, but our very upside-downedness shall be your undoing! When we invade your armies, raised on first-person shooters, will aim for our heads, cauning their bullets to pass harmlessly between our legs! Mwuahahahaha!!!Report

  14. Just grilled some steaks and asparagus. This is on tap soon:

    Grilled beef kebobs with sumac (spice) (marinated in olive oil, lime)
    Grilled veggies: portabellos, tomatoe, onion, etc.
    Tzaki sauce (greek yogurt, lime, salt, diced cuke, dill)
    South African Syrah

    Zomg!Report

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