Simple Grilled Chicken Breasts; love / hate summer

Way back in the beginning of time boneless chicken breasts were considered something of a gourmet specialty. One could not just buy them in a package at the supermarket.

At least, I couldn’t….

They were likely available in the bigger cities, maybe on either coast, but where we lived in Minnesota if I wanted a ‘boneless chicken breast’ I bought skin on, bone-in chicken breasts, got out my sharp boning knife and did it myself.

I had recipes for boneless chicken breasts so the idea, if not the ready-made product, existed somewhere. Naturally, if I found a recipe I liked, I had to try it.

I boned a lot of chicken breasts when I first started cooking.

I also made a lot of marinades.This was one of my first and I still make it often. It’s a simple marinade made with ingredients found in most pantries.  The chicken is great as is, but is also good tossed with salad or pasta.

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I have a love / hate relationship with summer.

I love spring. I’m absolutely crazy about fall. I like the first half of winter and tolerate the second, but summer…. I’m never quite sure about summer.

We started out the week at 93F (34C), then each day got a bit warmer: 95F (35C), 97F (36C), 99F (38C).

We live in a big old stone house that starts out the summer being cool but slowly heats up. In this kind of hot weather we open the house in the morning to cool it down and close the windows and shutters in the afternoon to keep the heat out.

So we spend the afternoons inside, in the dark with small fans blowing.

It’s too hot to be outside in the sun working.

It’s too hot for the dogs, who spend the days inside, going from cool tile floor spot to a different cool tile floor spot.

I go out early in the morning to tend the gardens and do the watering. The gardens need a lot of water in the heat. It’s already hot in the early morning.

This morning the heat-wave broke. I woke up to cool drizzle. The dogs and I went for a walk in the damp morning air and thoroughly enjoyed being a bit chilled for the first time all week.

Unfortunately, it didn’t actually rain enough to do any good, just enough to be damp.

Tomorrow morning, it’s supposed to be warm again (but not hot) so I have to do the watering, followed by the spraying to ward of the mildew that follows the damp.

I hate spraying. I have to cover up and wear goggles and mix it, spray it then wash all the equipment.

At the moment I hate summer.

Next week is supposed to be sunny and dry and 82F (28C) all week.

The dogs can be outside, the doors and windows can be open, I can sit outside on the bench in the shade, we can go for a bike ride and have a picnic by the canal.

Next week I will absolutely love summer.