It is a beautiful day outside today. I woke up to a cool 58° F – what a welcomed change. With the forecast I saw, I think for the most part we are past the equatorial rainforest weather for the year. We are almost into September after all.

I have spent most of the day outdoors, starting with opening up the garage and letting it air out. While getting some cool air inside. I got the blower out and blew a bunch of dog hair/dander out. I did this not long ago and cannot believe how much more accumulated in a short amount of time.

Since I saw the forecast a few days ago I have been planning on some cooking outdoors on the grill so I was prepared with a few things to cook. It certainly feels good to cook again – haven’t been able to with the heat, and I haven’t really been in the mood to cook for various reasons.

I got the pellet smoker/grill out and fired it up. First on the list was smoked almonds. I have a two pound bag of almonds that I wanted to do something with. I am really not a big fan of raw almonds; I think they are boring & tasteless and I don’t really like the texture. I found a recipe for some smoked almonds and got a pound of them on the smoker after mixing with the seasonings. I have a pellet smoker and the directions were made for a regular smoker with wood chips. After trying the recipe, I detected very little smoke, but mostly spice and the paprika was most prevalent. They are edible but not what I was hoping for so I will be looking for another recipe.

Next I grilled some burgers. I got some good-quality 85/15 ground beef. It is a bit fatty for a flattop or frying pan, but cooking the patties on the grill the pros recommend 85/15 because the fire dries out the patties. The fat will render and drip off anyhoo so it will still be somewhat healthier in the end. I cooked those with some Kinder Smoked Onion seasoning and ended up with four burgers for the freezer. I was looking at spices at the store and a really nice lady came up and said that was the stuff to get. I thought maybe she was hitting on me but the big diamond said otherwise (or did it?). I still appreciated the tip.

Next up was some thin-sliced chicken breast on the grill after marinating in some good Italian olive oil and Trader Joe’s Italian Soffrito seasoning for a few hours before hitting the grill. I use this to make my chicken caprese ciabatta sandwiches. I have enough for probably 5-6 servings. This was my late lunch and it was pretty delicious.

Several years ago I was at a restaurant in southern suburbs of Denver and ordered a burger. Instead of a bun it came out on a ciabatta – my first taste of that delicious, chewy carb and it is now one of my favorite breads. That airy, chewy, crispy deliciousness is good for so many sandwiches. I even use it for a breakfast sandwich with some Gouda, a single slice of crispy fried prosciutto, and a farm fresh egg. I always try to toast or broil my ciabattas for that crunch; with the caprese sandwich I drizzle sun-dried tomato olive oil on it before it goes on the grill or under the broiler to give it a little crunch and taste. If I am making garlic bread with a ciabatta I drizzle a little garlic olive oil on there. Anything else it is either plain olive oil or some canola oil.

It has been a good day and it has been nice to be outside in some comfy weather. The dogs have all enjoyed it as well.

🦩

My birdbath had a back film of algae on the bottom of it. No matter how well I sprayed it out the algae would always come back when the water sat in the warm weather for a few days.

I stumbled across a hack to fix this problem a while back. It sounded far-fetched and I was pretty skeptical but then again it made sense. There are certain years of pennies and dimes that have a certain metal composition. The hack is to add one of these to the birdbath water and it will take care of the problem.

I thought what the heck I will try it. I added both a penny and a dime since I did not remember the year of coins to use. After a little time…

Wow! The dime and penny are on the right side

That is amazing. Though I was skeptical, I didn’t completely doubt it would work. My experiences working with zinc blocks on boats and zinc rods in my trailer water heaters showed me that zinc attracts corrosion of sea water to protect even aluminum boats and keeps corrosion out of my trailer water system. Who would have thought science was real?

If you are having the same problem it does work so give it a try!

That is all for this post. See ya next time!

Shawn