Happy Memorial Day*; happy beginning of summer! I hope everyone is having a great time, and spending some time with family and outdoors. We’ve been having lovely weather here, perfect for a holiday weekend grill-out with my beloved Shannon of the green chest.

After coaxing the recalcitrant coals with a hair dryer (a handy technique), we got down to business.

To start, we had a bottle of chianti and lovely roasted feta with fresh thyme. Shannon let me in on the simple process of making this wonderful appetizer:

Simply take a lovely block of feta and place it in a foil packet with fresh thyme, drizzled olive oil, and a little fresh-squeeze lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Then place in the oven or on grill to heat. Add extra oil or lemon as desired, and eat on grill-warmed pita, or whatever other feta-delivery device suits your fancy.

For our main meal, we had chimichurri chicken – pieces of chicken were marinated in straight-from-the-bottle chimichurri sauce – with oven-roasted parmesan zucchini, and grilled squash, poblanos, and onions.

The meal, the company, and the setting all created an enchanting – stimulating conversation over a delicious candlelit dinner on a lovely tree stump, complete with helpful fungi to hold my adult beverage. Oh, summer. I’ve been waiting for you to arrive!

I hope you all have an equally enchanting holiday weekend!

*Thanks to all who have served to make this a pleasant three-day weekend for grilling out for the rest of us. We appreciate it.