Ready for a Change in the Weather/Menu

"I feel really manly. It's about 25 degrees F outside and snowing, and I just came in from the cold with a platter of grilled meat in my hand. Anybody can grill when it's sunny and 80 degrees F in the shade, but it takes a real man to brave the elements to heed the yearning for my favorite steak. When the muse beckons, I must heed her call. I must grill."

(Al Roker, Foreword, Weber's Big Book of Grilling, Jamie Purviance and Sandra MacRae, p. 7)

I agree 100% Al! That is, I used to. Or rather, I still do in principle at least. In our previous home, our house was situated in such a way that I really could (and did) grill all year long, no matter how cold the weather. In our present location, my grill is subject to the chronic winds always blowing in from the same direction and which, in the winter, rob my grill of every precious BTU often making it nearly impossible to apply adequate heat to my grillable edibles of choice.

But no more! Well, at least not until next winter. Our grilling season officially began today. With the warmest temperatures we've seen to date this year, daylight savings time, two large tanks of liquid propane and an appetite for something with grill marks, we said goodbye to winter and hello to the sunshine and the savor of grilled food.
 
Now don't get me wrong, I love the variety that comes with the ebb and flow of the seasons. I love good soup but can't bring myself to eat it in the middle of July. Soup belongs on a cold weather menu (the exception being gazpacho!). And so do certain bread and dessert items and so forth. Similarly, I don't crave ice cream in the chill of December (unless it is sitting on top of a piece of HOT apple pie).

It's been a long winter, and so I say, Sayonara snow! E haere rā cold weather! Hasta la vista invierno! And hello to warmer weather, which brings with it a gustatory change of scenery.