If You Don't Like The Weather, Wait 10 Minutes

Barbecuing in a downpour

There is an old saying here in western Washington State that if you don’t like the weather, just wait for ten minutes. We are certainly famous for our drizzle, but it is true that the weather can and often does change rapidly.

The other day was just such a day.

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

I was with clients in the morning, but they wanted to make the drive back to their homes from our State Capitol before the traffic got bad, so by 11:00 AM I was finished for the day and on my way home.

It was a truly spectacular spring day. The sun was shining, everything was dry, the cherry trees and daffodils had started to bloom, and it was gloriously warm. Perfectly wonderful following a long, dark, and wet winter.

I hopped in my old pickup, cranked the tunes, hit the air-conditioner for the first time in months, and decided that great steak would make a fitting end to a superb day.

On the way home I stopped at a local meat shop for two New Yorks and a Rib Eye. Then the hardware store for some lump charcoal, and a small local grocery for some fine looking asparagus, bacon, and large russet potatoes.

The feast was all planned in my mind.

• Baked potatoes cooked on the smoker, on a rack under the bacon and asparagus to catch all the bacon drippings while everything cooked.

• Asparagus also on the smoker, cooking while sitting on a bed of bacon which would eventually become bacon bits.

• Steaks reverse seared, first brought close to final temperature, slowly in the smoker, then seared to perfection on the hottest grill I could create.

Enjoying the sun, I spent some time cleaning the smoker and grill. I chatted with a couple of neighbors as they walked by. I got everything I would need for the cook, out and ready on a steel table in my barbecue area.

I fired up the smoker with lump charcoal using the Minion Method, then wandered inside to scrub the bakers, intending them to go on two hours before anything else.

The spuds scrubbed, I seasoned them and hit them with a bit of butter to keep the skins moist. Potatoes in hand, I turned towards the open kitchen door, and then it happened.

The downpour began.

Not a nice gentle rain like we seemingly constantly have here, but a genuine downpour.

I hurry out, get the potatoes on the smoker, then rush around like a lunatic getting the charcoal, lighter tabs, matches, digital thermometer, gloves, and all the rest out of the rain into the protection of the garage.

The great weather day only lasted for three-quarters of a day, but it was a superb meal anyway. Just a lot less fun cooking it!

Usually my wife and I hang out in lawn chairs next to the smoker and grill while cooking. She with a glass of wine, me with a bourbon. Not so on that recent evening. Rather it was rain hat and near drowning while cooking, no lawn chair in sight.

I did manage to get the charcoal grill lit and hot as hell despite the rain.

The asparagus went on the smoker in a bacon lined vegetable grilling basket a few minutes before the steaks.

The steaks were brought close to temp under low, indirect heat on the smoker, and then finished while searing on the blazing hot charcoal grill.

Done perfectly, they went into the kitchen to rest as I pulled the asparagus off and onto a tray, then crisped the bacon almost instantly after moving it from smoker to grill. It became bacon bits for the asparagus and bakers. those were removed last. Dinner was plated, and as always was so good that it made standing in the rain well worth it!

I find that Freemasonry is often like that. The time for our Stated Meeting rolls around, and I just don’t feel like going. I’ve got too much stuff to do. Or I’d rather have a quiet evening at home. Or I haven’t been able to watch Real Time on HBO yet.

But, I always put the excuses away, and I make it to the meeting.

And the second I arrive, I find myself glad I did. That first handshake and smile of the night makes it all worth it.