Summertime, and the Living is Sweaty

The first salvo of summertime temperatures has been fired here in Hoboken.  In order to retaliate, I got up extra early on Saturday morning to get the grill ready for the upcoming season.  An hour and lots of elbow grease expended, the Weber is ready for a summertime of flame kissed goodness.

The first order of business was to procure a good steak and some wonderful asparagus.  A nice ribeye was seasoned with a barbeque rub and cooked to medium rare.  The asparagus was hit with salt, pepper and some good olive oil and quickly grilled.  The meal was simple, tasty, and served as the perfect opening to the summer grilling season.

Sunday was the semi-annual Hoboken Art and Music Festival.  Sunday also saw temperatures in the mid to upper 80's.  If this was July, I would have thought nothing of it  But since this was only May 2nd, the body and mind was not ready for it.  I did stay to catch some fun sets by The Doughboys and Purple Knif.  The Doughboys cranked out some blues based originals as well as some classic rock classics.  Purple Knif performed garage and surf rock instrumentals, some of my favorite types of music.  The heat just proved too much for me and I did not stay for Fountains of Wayne.  Yes, the Fountains of Wayne, the festival always gets some fairly big name act to perform.  For free.  Yes, I am lucky to live here.

I arrived home to some welcome air conditioning.  Sam the Cat seems to be happiest sprawled out on the coolest surface he can find.  I marinaded some chicken thighs in lemon juice, olive oil, thyme, bay leaf and garlic.  By the time I grilled these, the outside temperature had dropped to the 70's. so it was quite pleasant outside.  These ribs just hit the spot.  All the flavors from the marinade matched perfectly with the grilling flavors to make a quite toothsome dish.  Can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store.