Summer Grilling and More

Since getting the Ninja Woodfire Grill earlier this summer I’ve had a chance to cook almost everything except for brisket and salmon (those are coming soon). I say this without exaggeration, everything I’ve made on this grill is a personal best for me, and I’ve been grilling for over twenty years. The built-in digital thermometer and smoke box, which holds wood pellets, makes grilling and smoking nearly idiot proof—which is imperative in my case.

The thing that’s impressed me the most, so far, is something I never expected—pizza. This was a veggie, pepperoni, and fresh mozerrella cheese, with copious amounts of garlic. Instead of using a standard tomato sauce base I brushed a generous layer of extra virgin olive oil on the crust before topping it. It was grilled for a total of 8 minutes on HIGH with the cherry wood smoke feature turned on. The subtle hint of smoke permeated the entire pizza elevating it more than I could’ve imagined. I don’t want to make pizza any other way now.

After and Before

We’re knee-deep in home renovations at the moment and I'm feeling a little like a general contractor. Most of our flooring is being replaced as are the kitchen countertops, and the cabinets are being refaced. Coordination and timing is proving itself to be fairly complicated. The work will culminate this autumn when we have the master bathroom gutted and redesigned.

After looking at what seems like an endless amount of examples online the photo above most closely matches my vision. The bathroom isn’t horrible now but reminds me of something I would have seen in a Golden Girls television episode from the 1980s. I could handle something a little less “vintage”.

This photo of the more modern bathroom reminds me of the one we had in an Airbnb we stayed at in England in 2019.

Speaking of England…

When I got my first tattoo in 2016 I never imagined that it would become such an obsession. Well, the urge is striking me again. I had Grok design me this one the other day.

This tattoo design is a nod to three things—my love of tea, adventure, and my British heritage. I think it’ll go on the right side of my chest. I’m still playing around with the final version of the design but this is a general idea of what it’ll look like. Here we go again!

All for now. Thanks for reading.