March 12, 2008

Grilling Through


*Update below.

There are certain activities in life that comfort each of us and just seem to take the edge off of any stressful or busy events that may be occurring in our lives. For some it's yoga, others shop, and still others may pray, exercise, cry, scream (I found this one useful while teaching middle school math), or rush to the nearest spa for an afternoon treatment. For us the activity is cooking, and more specifically grilling. We tend to grill our way through things and in more cases than not it seems to do the trick. Right now we're grilling our way through a couple of things.

We're grilling through winter and into spring. I realize it's early March and the temperature hasn't reached 40 degrees for months, but tonight we're going to grill our dinner. I don't care that there is still ample snow on the ground and our porch steps are still lethally slick from the last ice storm. Tonight I will arm myself with grill tongs and a special sage & lemon sauce and grill us some chicken for dinner. Spring is a mere 9 days away, I hope we have enough propane...

We're grilling our way through the babywait. I hate complaining about waiting but let's get real, it stinks. We started this process (and even had most of our dossier docs ready) way back when the wait times averaged 0-3 months. So of course when we announced to our family, friends, and colleagues that we were "expecting from Ethiopia" that was the time frame we told them all. So naturally, now more than 3 months since completing our dossier, the frequency of the question "any news yet?" is growing exponentially. I don't mind them asking, in fact sometimes it helps keep my mind on the thought that it might actually happen sometime soon. But still, I kind of feel like I'm in my 9th month of pregnancy but instead of being bombarded with questions about what day in the next 2-3 weeks I'm going to give birth I'm faced with the very real possibility that I might be in my 9th month of pregnancy for another 6-9 months... Deep breath. And another, and another...

OK, we may need some more chicken and a few new recipes to grill our way through these. Any fabulous grilling recipes or ideas you'd be willing to share? Let's think of the comments to this post as "A Griller's Guide to Spring and Babywait" cookbook of sorts. Please share!

*Update
Thank you Amanda and Andrew for sharing your (what sounds to be delicious and will definitely be tried in the near future) grilling recipe!

7 comments:

Brooke said...

Grilling, hmm, that's a new one for ways to pass time. But, I like it! We too live in the North (way on the other side of you, were west coast) So, it's cold but we still grill.

Just try to keep in mind that the longest wait has only been 5 1/2 months, and that was for siblings. It seems that infants have been placed between 3 1/2 - 4 months. So, in all realty, you should be getting the call any day now. I'm sure everyone tells you that. But, it's so true. Any day now my friend. Any day. :)

PC said...

Although this won't help the wait, the parallels between adopting and actually giving birth are right on! If I had a dollar for everytime my ob/gyn told me "When the time is right it will happen" I could have bought something very nice. (Remember this was 1978...)

It will happen soon.... now I
I'm hankering for steak on the grill. Will do that this weekend at the cabin.l Mom C

Gamma! said...

Keep the song alive . . . "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry!" Also remember Habakkuk 2:3 - "it will not be late by a single day!" All that said, we can't wait for the call that announces your long awaited news. It will be worth it all!

Courtney Rose said...

GREAT write-up....

Before I became a vegetarian, grilling was the only way we cooked. Now the poor grill is basically worthless- I am desperate for grilling recipes that don't feature the words "portobello mushroom" or "squash."

As for the wait. Yuck. It stinks. It makes me worried about how long we'll be waiting once our paperwork makes its way to Ethiopia. It "amuses" me to think at one time I was sure we would have our little one by this coming autumn.

I can't wait until your wait is over!!

LISA said...

'tis the season to grill!
Tip:If ya switch to the charcoal grill,you can use all of your impatience on it!I never can get it to start very well!

Amanda said...

Ok-Why am I thinking that one of you is a vegetarian? That may be completely off. If you are looking for veggie cooking, no need to read further.

That said:

brown sugar and apple pork chops-yum.

It's simple:

piece of foil, lay a pork chop in the center, add a wee (tiny) bit of butter or water and then some brown sugar and savory spice and a few slices of an apple. Then wrap the foil up and grill it for about 15ish minutes (depending on the heat, obviously).

So simple, but so delicious. It's great with rice pilaf and grilled asparagus-in my opinion.

And, I've been holding my breath for you guys!! Honestly.

We're not even close to getting our referral, but I feel like waiting with you guys (those that are closer and officially "waiting") is just as anxiety-inducing.

Cook away!

Stacie said...

Mmmm... grilling. I love it. (I don't grill - Kevin does - but I love it.) Here is one of our favs - and it helps remind you of summer days. Goes well with a light white wine:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23712,00.html

(If the link doesn't work - go to foodtv.com and search for Halibut fish tacos. If you don't like fish, then ummm, nevermind :)