I found a way to beat the heat recently … by being out in the heat.
On the hottest weekend of the summer so far, I spent a good portion of that time outside. Admittedly, most of that was spent in the shade and in a nice breeze. Otherwise, that would have been a form of hell.
The humidex pushed 33C temperatures to feeling more like 40C on the days in question. And I have to say I am spoiled in the fact I could retreat into air conditioning as needed. I feel very bad for folks who don’t have A/C here in C-K.
The Saturday began with a trip to a great local breakfast spot, Teena Restaurant. Great food, great staff, friendly faces.
We returned to the house and I should have ventured into the backyard at that time. It wasn’t too hot yet. But the humidity pushed me indoors until later in the day.
I went back out, puttered a bit and barbecued.
Sunday, however, was a different story. I broke out the weed torch and attacked clumps of weeds on one of our patios that I had let get a bit out of control. Combined with a leaf blower, the work tidied up the patio nicely.
And the breeze and shade kept me from overheating. Same with consuming copious amounts of liquids.
My wife, Mary Beth, ventured out to help move our patio table to where we thought the shade was going to be when our daughter, Brenna, was having folks over to conduct their own Hot Ones competition where they planned on trying different degrees of hot sauce on chicken wings.
I was tasked with cooking those wings. Outside. In the heat.
But I was the lucky one. I was not consuming said wings. With hot sauce. In the heat.
Nope, that is now for the younger folks.
I seasoned those wings about an hour prior to putting them on the Big Green Egg. Normally I use a spicy seasoning, but the “kids” (20-somethings) wanted neutral territory to let the sauces do the damage…um, I mean provide the flavour.
On went the wings for about 20 minutes, and the fun began. Brenna had a pitcher of water, other beverages, veggies and dip, and bread as they put on a great spread of food for the event.
All went fine until the second to last of about 10 hot sauces. Some were great flavours, some were just pure pepper, and then there was The Last Dab, a sauce prepared by Hot Ones, the YouTubers that put celebrities through a similar test.
The term “a little dab will do ya” certainly applied here. In all honesty, it should have been “a little dab could do ya in” for Brenna and her crew. Her boyfriend suffered the worst, as he went for the water repeatedly, teared up, had the “eye sweats” and said his lips and tongue were on fire.
Brenna said she felt the heat long after they were finished eating.
I like hot food, though I don’t go to the extremes I used to when I was younger. I steered way clear of that sauce.
It was, however, great to be a spectator for it.
Another successful Egg-venture.
