Steak-In-The-Rain

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If the clouds suddenly unleash a fury upon the BBQ grill—rain pelting the house like angry, dead crows shot from a cannon—grill that steak anyway. Gather the following supplies: Steaks, an umbrella, and Nate, and send them outside!

Nate is the most important thing on that list, though. The determination. The skill. The grit he demonstrated while grilling steaks in the rain made me fall in love with him all over again. While I stayed nice and toasty warm inside, sipping wine, I thought of the following song to sing Nate’s praise. I set it to the tune of the “Someone Left the Cake out in the Rain” prelude to the “MacArthur Park Suite” made famous by Donna Summer:

Someone grilled a steak out in the rain.

Smoke poured out the grill.

Nate told me to chill,

But that look on his face said he’d never

Do that again . . . Oh, no!

Seriously. It was a good steak. And, the reason for the smoke “pouring out the grill” was mesquite wood chips. Nate placed them on the bottom of the grill and cooked the steaks over them—and wow! Flavor. All. The. Way. Through.

My contribution? I made a sauce to go over the top—a chimichurri sauce. Recipes abound on the internet. Some call for ½ cup of olive oil. Others call for 1/3 cup. For the acid, some people prefer red wine vinegar; others prefer white wine vinegar. I ended up mixing the following things together: ½ “heaping” cup of finely chopped parsley; ½ cup of olive oil; 2-3 cloves of minced garlic; just shy of a teaspoon of dried oregano; 1 red chili pepper, chopped; ½ tsp of salt; 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar; and a generous smattering of freshly ground black pepper. In retrospect, I think that maybe I could substitute lime juice for the vinegar. Maybe next time. (There will be a next time.)

As an appetizer, I threw together the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks “official” guacamole recipe:

–Mash the flesh of two large, ripe avocadoes roughly with a fork. (Not a very smooth consistency. It’s kind of chunky. Mash longer if you wish.)

–Add fresh lemon juice to help with the mashing—maybe around 2-3 tablespoons?

–Throw in some sea salt to taste.

–Done.

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Results:

The smoke has not cleared. It’s in our hair, in our clothes, infused in the cat. We don’t care. It smells terrific, and we will need more steaks. However, rain is still in the forecast, and Nate has that special look in his eyes—the one that says, “I might mess around and light the grill.”

In Other News: I have a scary story up in Horla magazine: “Family Connections.” Feel free to check that out, if you wish.

Your Turn: What’s your favorite rainy-day activity and/or food?

 

 

Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

40 thoughts on “Steak-In-The-Rain”

    1. Thank you! They are wonderful! My dad used to use them all of the time while grilling. He would soak them for hours before putting them in the grill, but the package that we bought said not to soak them–just to place them in foil and put them on the bottom of the gas grill. Maybe things have changed since the ’80s? Who knew?

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      2. Back in the ’80s, in Ohio, we had to depend upon gift packages from relatives living in “cooler/hipper” places like Arizona and California, but over the weekend, Nate just found the wood chips in the grilling section of the grocery store. There are all kinds of “flavors.” Happy grilling!

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  4. I’d never thought of rain before in terms of being pelted with dead crows. I suppose crows, turkeys, even a chestnut-rumped heathwren (normally pretty good-natured) would be angry, if shot out of a cannon, although that does sound kind of exhilarating. I don’t think I’d shoot crows, period, they’re clever birds and I get a kick out of them. And once dead, I guess they’d channel all that anger into some sort of crow poltergeist visitation, and drop caterpillars or whatever in the guacamole, etc. But otherwise everything sounds delicious.

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    1. I also would not agree with weaponizing crows. They are vengeful creatures with an excellent memory. The steaks were great, though. Next rainstorm? Steaks.

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  5. My son, Aaron, and I once sat out a long rain delay at a Reds game when he was young by sitting under an overhang and eating concession foods while watching Bugs Bunny baseball cartoons on the jumbo screen. Best rainy day memory ever.

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    1. Hey, Jay! So good to see you here, on my blog! Don’t be a stranger! Stop back any time–also, that sounds like a fantastic memory. Oh, those younger years go by so fast!

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  9. If only more partners felt the love you have for Nate while he is cooking outside in the rain! If I’m in a place where the rain is warm, e.g., Darwin I want to be out in the rain. If I’m somewhere cold, e.g., Canberra, I prefer to be inside eating chocolate and watching something on TV.

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  15. Infused in the cat – LOL!
    Your guacamole recipe is a lot like mine, but I add a couple crushed garlic cloves if I have them. The steaks sound amazing. Not sure if the same flavor can be replicated here in dry and hot Arizona but I will have to suggest wood chips for the BBQ to Husband and see what happens.

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    1. Thanks for reading! Actually, back in the ’80s, my mom and dad learned about mesquite wood chips, but we lived in Ohio–they learned about them from cooler, hipper relatives living in Arizona and California. So, we had to rely on care packages from them in order to use the mesquite wood chips–so I’m pretty sure you should be able to find some in Arizona. We found ours in the grilling section of the grocery store. They’re everywhere now, I think. Happy grilling!

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