A farewell BBQ in the heat

Yesterday we had a BBQ for a couple that are moving to Mexico. It was only fitting then that the day was one of the hottest of the year. Officially, it got up to 100 degrees, but there were times it felt much hotter during the day while setting things up.

The good news though is that by the early evening our backyard is bathed in shade, and sitting at tables on the lawn was fairly comfortable, especially with a frosty beverage and an occasional breeze.

I began cooking the meat before people started showing up. Note the stylish shirt (the same one I made at the treehouse place).

The main meat was a small turkey that I cut up like a chicken. I precooked the legs and wings by boiling them in seasoned water before grilling them. I take the thigh and breast meat and cut it up into strips that are marinated and then grilled. The fun bit though is to remove most of the skin and grill it up on its own.

There are two kinds of people - those who wrinkle their nose in disgust at the crunchy turkey skin (the vast minority) and those that nearly do a dance when they taste it.

This is all the grilled meat, just before people started in on it.

The gathering was a pot luck, and I'm not sure there is anything better. I love the variety of dishes that turn up, even the token salads. I never ate any of the grilled meat and instead focused on the other dishes, especially those with beans (long story).

Here is a partial view of the group sitting in the shady back yard. Idiot Dog Teddy loves these events since it always means there will be scraps and unwatched plates that need to be cleaned up. We ended up with around 40 people, and almost none of them walked away hungry.

This is a blueberry cream pie that Mrs Notthat made for the event. There were other wonderful desserts as well, but I was too full to think about them and this is the only dessert-related picture we have.

The Boy showed up a bit late since he had to work, but after eating he was pressed into service to enter a phone number into Ve's (not her real name) cell phone. Note his stylish new glasses. It's been almost a week and he still has them!

There weren't many little kids, but those that did make it loved playing with the grandkid's toys. Tears were shed when they saw the big swing but were not able to use due to all the tables and such in the way. Here, Nylecoj (not her real name of course) tries to work out how to pick the flowers without getting into trouble.

Mrs Notthat and I posed for a picture with the guests of honor, Egroeg and Annod, who have decided to move to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. The main reason is the reduced cost of living - it is tough for normal people to live in the Bay Area after retirement. Mrs Notthat and others are already planning trips to visit them down there.

Once it started to get dark, most of the people left and a core of us hung around a candle-lit table (it had really cooled off by this point, so the candles did not seem as out of place as they would have an hour earlier - the best things about our really hot days is that it always cools off very nicely once it gets dark).

This morning Mrs and I took down and put away all the tables and chairs and started rounding up the various things left behind. Like all these sunglasses.

The evening went very well in spite of the heat. Today is supposed to be nearly as hot, so my plan is to stay indoors and hunker down in front of a fan.

And do some grazing on the many left over dishes that are currently filling the fridge. In fact, right about now that chili sounds really good.

That's it - eat along...