Ham, Cinnamon and Letters

It has been a fun summer, and I have had opportunity to try new things (for me) on my grill. We have purchased, at various times, brisket, pork roast, and hams. In order to keep the heat out of the kitchen, and to play with my grill, I have cooked these items on the grill. It has been a lot of fun, and a nice diversion from the norm. The outcome is unbelieveable. I cooked them on indirect heat, like an oven, and put some hickory chips in the fire for smoking, plus a special dry rub on the brisket and pork roast, and a "mop" (liquid) on the hams (cooked 2 10# hams - different times). Here I am cooking the second ham.

Back in July, we got to keep Jeff and Stephie's children overnight while they attended a high school reunion in Tulsa. Of course, it was absolutely heavenly. They are the sweetest kids. Brent, about 10 months, was all smiles and fun. Caitlyn wanted to "whing" all the time. She does love that. So does Brent. But the thing I keep remembering is the breakfast I cooked on Saturday morning. I made cinnamon toast to go with the meal. We ate outside, and Caitlyn (3 yrs old) ate very well, but wouldn't touch the toast (guess it looked bad to her). So I said, "Caitlyn, take one bite with me (holding mine up to my mouth)." She did, and before I knew it, she had scarffed the entire piece of toast down. I wished I could have captured the moment on film. It is a great memory.

This is a picture of the letter that Ava sent to me (Kari's youngest, 3 yrs old). She saw a program on the kids channel about sending letters, and she was all about sending a letter to Papa and Mimi. So Kari obliged. Ava "wrote" a letter, they put it in an envelope with a stamp and drove to the post office to mail it. When she got home, she had to call me and say that she had mailed me a letter. It came yesterday, so now I need to write her back.

This Papa stuff (granddad) is pretty cool, and just gets better.