Category Archives: Education

Jim’s mother has the largest pear tree I’ve ever seen, so tall that I don’t know how she and Joe pick the ones up top without bringing in a small crane!

Every year they pick the tree clean and Margie goes into canning mode. In the six years I’ve known her I’ve never been without a jar or ten of her preserves. I’ve not been able to join in one of these marathon sessions but should make the time to do so. I’ve always been a bit freaked out by canning. And since I can’t grow anything here besides windowsill herbs, I’d have to go out and BUY a boatload of whatever I wanted to can, thus going against nature’s bounty and immutable laws.

Generally there are two varieties of preserves: pear butter (Jim is working his way through a quart jar of that); and chunky pears with lots of cinnamon. The chunks are great on top of vanilla ice cream or mixed into yogurt.

We thank Margie for being a frugal country wife, mother and grandmother. She just bought seven goats to mow the pasture. A couple of weeks ago I came back from a visit with pickling cucumbers and baby onions. I hear that next to the term “frugal” in the dictionary is her photo. She actually figured out (she’s from a line of math geniuses that may actually include Alexander Graham Bell, and her son and my husband does calculus in his head but doesn’t have a clue about his shirt size) that every six years the days remain the same so she could re-use paper wall calendars! All she had to do was move Easter and Thanksgiving. We should start buying her pretty calendars every Fall so she’s not tempted to go back to the old John Deere.

A few months ago a fellow nurse friend of Margie’s asked her and Joe to help themselves to all the pecans that had fallen to the ground from their tree. It took Joe 45 minutes to use the special shell-cracking mechanism for pecans, and Margie the same amount of time (they work together like a well-oiled machine) to shell and pick them. The result was a stuffed quart bag of pristine, fresh pecans that are ours and I take them out of the freezer bit by bit, toast them in the oven and use in chicken salad or on top of an ice cream sundae. You should have seen my quart bag. What a mess, but then I’d never picked pecans before. It’s always good to learn new things from the experts.

I’m changing the tone here, dear readers. Let’s talk about grills. Sure I’d love one of those huge Ducane built-ins right off the kitchen on the patio, with built-in frig and wine frig. But I live in an urban environment where it’s illegal to grill anything on site, except down in the fireplace area where there are two grills for use by us “lofties.”

Let’s see, main criteria are: ease of use; portability; and easy to clean.

For years I had a full-sized (in terms of grilling space, not height) Smoky Joe that I loved. Still can’t believe I gave it away five years ago when we moved to Texas. The handle held the top on and it was easy to toss in the back of the Jeep with hardwood charcoal, chimney and newspaper, food, tools and go to the beach for a cookout. Even better, if I placed the top on and closed the vents, it was cold 20 minutes after cooking and ready to transport home. The only downside to this incredibly affordable Weber is that the grate position cannot be changed and you really need to open all the vents and use the cover to finish cooking food like steaks or chicken, making it more like an oven. This was the grill we used to feed 20-30 people at our local park every July 4th and it brings back wonderful memories.

A couple of years ago we bought a Coleman Road Trip grill for about $100. It uses small propane tanks and folds up like traveling luggage with wheels so it can be toted anywhere. The cooking plates are easy to clean especially if you have a deep or wide sink so they can be soaked before scrubbing. The plates are mostly solid, however, so sometimes food tends to steam rather than grill. It works well for our lifestyle, however.

When living in California, we had a large deck so splurged and got a Uniflame gas grill with four burners and a side burner. It had cast iron grill plates and we used it nearly every night. One winter evening we burned a whole canister of propane using it as a heater to keep us and our dinner guests warm! But with living in 1,000 sf in the big city, we chose to give it to cousin Val the Vet (Zoe’s surgeon). It was a $300 grill and I would buy one again in a heartbeat if we had the big yard and patio and an environment that wasn’t 100 degrees and 98% humidity for the six “normal” grilling months per year.

I bought the Smoky Joe pre-Jim, and didn’t do any serious research but lucked out. For the Uniflame and Coleman, Jim, who could be a professional internet shopper, checked out Consumer Reports and priced it online and at every store in the area. Yes, he can spend six hours researching a $100 purchase which is part of why I love him but sometimes he drives me crazy! So these were informed purchases that hopefully you might consider for your needs. But not if you have the Ducane setup out back…. Happy grilling! Dee