A Summer Place

A familiar soundtrack...used in Animal House when a young pledge has a moral quandry with a passed out Townie girl. The movie is what the boys are watching in Diner when Mickey Rourke's character has bet that he can get Carol Heathrow to touch his wood. He employs a popcorn box machination to accomplish his goal.

One Summer when I was hanging out at the Bridge Avenue House in Bay Head, I found on the bookshelf the book upon which the movie is based. It was a fun beach read and occupied the weekday slow time until the Lehigh boys came back down to tear it up on the weekend.

Presently, my Summer place is the back patio at my house. One of my favorite things about Summer is a Saturday or Sunday evening drinking a few Meyers's Rum and tonics while I wait for the coals to light. If I am cooking chicken there is ample time to enjoy a few more drinks and perhaps some guacamole or smoked trout mousse in between periodic openings of the grill, flipping of bird, and application of sauce. If it is Sunday evening and we do not have guests,this is the time I can devour the Sunday NY Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cooking steak or fish is more time sensitive and precise so the liesure is restricted.

I only cook with charcoal. My Dad was a charcoal adherent and used a plug in electric loop device to light the fire. He was a biochemist and eschewed the use of lighter fluid. To hear him tell it, the residual petroleum toxins imparted to the food would hammer your liver or make your scrotum shrivel or something in between....suffice it to say, being raised with this repeated warning was enough to keep Kingsford liquid from appearing in my barbecue regimen. He used a Weber; I have graduated to a bigger cast iron grill with removable porcelain grates which affords better tempature control on a larger cooking surface and more smoking options. Pictured is the patio....and the grill....you can almost hear the theme in your head.