It was a beautiful day and Dad offered to take over dinner. He found a manly recipe for Mustard & Bourbon Glazed Pork Chops and made a plan.

At our house, we L-O-V-E grilling. Since we live in a townhome, our grill happily lives in our garage. That means that all it takes to make a meal is to wheel the grill out a few feet and light it up. How convenient!

I live in the Midwest – meat-and-potatoes land. But this time of year – near Mardi Gras – is when I hear the most talk about Cajun food.

Alas, it’s true, for most of us in Minnesota we just can’t grill year round. My husband claims it’s possible, but somehow we never get around to shoveling a path through the snow to the grill. It’s just too cozy inside by the stove. So, to celebrate our final grilling weekend, we invited a few friends over and made a Brined Chipotle Orange Turkey Breast.

For us - and many of our friends - weeknight dinners are a toughie. Both spouses are working all day, and we are still terrible at planning ahead, so it's rare to have meat defrosted and a meal ready to start when we get home. We are working on that, but in the meantime, this dilemma usually leaves us rummaging for an appetizer to tide us over while we set to work on the main course.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my dad has quite the garden.  Growing vegetables is one of his favorite hobbies.  He loves to garden so much not only does he manage to care for his own very large garden he also helps me plant and tend to my little vegetable garden.

Summer is my favorite season for three reasons- 1) no more school, and the girls can sleep in, 2) the sunny weather, and 3) we use the grill for dinner almost everyday.  Life doesn't get better than that!  Speaking of using the grill, the other day Jeremy and I were invited to a cul-de-sac cookout with a few friends, and it was one of the coolest parties ever!  Everyone (like 6 houses) had tables set up in their driveways, and you could go from house to house sampling food and drinks.  Talk about fun!!!  People were grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, steak, etc.  It was unlike any get-together I'd ever been to.  Makes me wonder whether we should have moved into a cul-de-sac...Oh well! 

  Nothing says summer like fresh corn-on-the-cob.  My dad is a city farmer.  He has a very large garden in his backyard.  One of our favorite “crops” he grows is corn.  My dad’s corn is the sweetest, most tender corn I have ever eaten.