{"id":5173,"date":"2011-03-21T12:06:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T17:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=5173"},"modified":"2011-03-21T12:06:08","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T17:06:08","slug":"happy-dance-for-bbq-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2011\/03\/21\/happy-dance-for-bbq-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy dance for BBQ season!"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>ear Ottawa friends,<\/p>\n

I’m so very sorry. That very rude awakening you had today, where winter totally barged right back in after allowing spring to take a toe-hold, and we got a nasty dump of two fresh inches of snow after 98% of the old snow had melted away?<\/p>\n

Totally my fault. Sorry about that.<\/p>\n

I got a little too excited about spring this week. I bought a new BBQ. And a picnic table. And oops, I might have gone right ’round the bend and also picked up an adorable (and totally affordable) little bistro set from Ikea that will be absolutely smashing for morning coffee on the porch.<\/p>\n

Oops. Sorry. After a whole winter of restlessly anticipating the outdoor season, I kinda forgot that the first taste of spring is not the one that stays.<\/p>\n

Speaking of tastes of spring, though, before it got all snowy and slushy and January again, I danced and pirouetted my way through the grocery store on the weekend. Whereas I usually find meal planning to be an onerous task, I was practically skipping through the aisles as I loaded up my cart this week. Why the gleeful shopping?<\/p>\n

It’s BBQ season, baby! *cue the heralds of chorusing angels*<\/p>\n

Our old barbeque did not survive the transition to the new house last October. I’d already replaced the burner once and it was starting to rust through again. The grills were looking sketchy, and the move knocked the handle off. I usually barbeque well into November or December each year, and with the early end to the season I was drooling with desire for our outdoor grilled faves by the end of January.<\/p>\n

As the snow piled high and then receded, I scrolled through pages of reviews of various barbeque configurations online, dreaming of hamburgers and grilled chicken fajitas and steak-and-veggie skewers. I think it was shortly after Christmas that I set up CanadianTire.ca’s sale alert feature on a few of the most promising models, hoping to score a good deal on one. With the milder weather this month, I was just starting to think about scrapping the sale alert and going ahead and buying one when I got the e-mail: the barbeque you’ve been watching<\/a> is going on sale this week. Yay!<\/p>\n

And that’s how I ended up with a dreamy smile on my face, dancing through the aisles of the grocery store, greeting seasonal favourites I hadn’t seen in six months like old friends. Hello hamburger buns, how I’ve missed you! Oh darling tzatziki and feta couscous salad, you’re looking delicious today! And ribs, sweet and succulent ribs, I’ve been salivating over the idea of you for months!<\/p>\n

\"175:365<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been in a terrible food rut the last little while. I’ve got maybe ten or a dozen meals that I’ve been cycling through, and while they’re good, I’m sick to death of them. Pasta and salad, chicken fingers and veggies, Tiki Masala shrimp with naan and rice, chili, tacos, meatloaf — all plenty yummy, but gah, I’m so bored with them.<\/p>\n

Given the chance, I’ll grill dinner five nights out of seven, so the return to BBQ season is a drastic difference for us. Do you find that your grocery shopping habits change with the season? <\/p>\n

As for me, I’ll be standing on the back patio tonight with my scarf and mitts and winter boots, grilling up some chicken breasts. It’s spring, dammit, and you can’t make me go back to winter food!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Ottawa friends, I’m so very sorry. That very rude awakening you had today, where winter totally barged right back in after allowing spring to take a toe-hold, and we got a nasty dump of two fresh inches of snow after 98% of the old snow had melted away? Totally my fault. Sorry about that. … Continue reading “Happy dance for BBQ season!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feed-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5173"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5182,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5173\/revisions\/5182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}