Steak, Barbecue, and Ice Tea

This was the perfect weekend. Darling hubby and I have been working very hard in cleaning out clutter, shifting possessions around between our houses, and all the other things needed to sell a house and move.

We arrived at Rancho Reeves Friday night with the last load of plants which I've found are like books -- you never know how many you have until you must move.

Mutual Decision To Do Nothing

We unloaded and collapsed. After a shower, we stayed up late catching up on our fave TV shows on the DVR. Then we sat outside on the porch and enjoyed glasses of Le Coin, a really good Bordeaux one of our sons gave us in a Christmas gift basket.

Excellent wine for a great evening with the southerly wind sending clouds scudding across the night sky and periodically hiding the quarter moon above.We sipped wine, talked, and just relaxed.

Saturday we slept late, and Larry cooked some amazing steaks on the grill. He's truly a master when it comes to grilling. His steaks are better than any I've had anywhere, and the drumsticks he barbecues are so good they'd make you declare you love chicken better than steak.

Tomorrow brings a return to home and work. Today though, I'm still staring out at our field of wildflowers and enjoying doing nothing.

Double Header

Naturally, today's quotation is a double header -- steak and barbecue -- however you may spell barbecue.

Tom Colicchio, restaurateur and Top Chef honcho, said: "I think steak is the ultimate comfort food, and if you're going out for one, that isn't the time to scrimp on calories or quality."

I'll lift a glass of Le Coin to that.

Essayist John Shelton Reed said: "Southern barbecue is the closest thing we have in the U.S. to Europe's wines or cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbecue changes."

So very true. In Louisiana where I grew up, barbecue is completely different from what my husband grew up eating in Texas. To that, I'll lift my glass of ice tea which is just as Southern as barbecue.

By the way, in the South when I grew up, it was ice tea, not iced tea. So I still refer to it that way. (I'm sure someone has probably written an essay on why it's ice tea, not iced tea.) Also, ice tea always had sugar added to it. The distinction between sweet tea and unsweetened tea is a latter day occurrence.

Takeaway Truth

It's the simple pleasures in life that mean so much.